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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “preview”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “preview”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 of the top 20. 2 plugins are pushed down for signals wp.org ignores: errors, a host-installed base, or removal risk.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

WP Social Preview shows at wp.org #5 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 800+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.5★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 1657 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Public Post Preview 100K+ · 4.5★ (80) wp.org #1 2 Social Preview and Open Graph Tags 50K+ · 4.6★ (122) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Visual Link Preview 10K+ · 4.5★ (36) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27819) wp.org #8 ↓1 4 too low 5 SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph 300K+ · 4.8★ (46) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Wikipedia Preview 1K+ · 4.8★ (37) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 Preview E-mails for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.9★ (84) wp.org #11 ↓2 4 too low 8 WPVibe – WordPress MCP Server. Connect Claude, ChatGPT & Any AI Agent via MCP 40K+ · 5.0★ (68) wp.org #14 ↑2 6 too low 9 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5209) wp.org #16 ↓3 7 too low 10 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1657) wp.org #23 ↓1 13 too low 11 File Manager 1M+ · 4.6★ (1489) wp.org #19 ↑4 8 too low 12 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2612) wp.org #24 12 too low 13 FooGallery Photo Gallery : Image, Video & Masonry Galleries 100K+ · 4.8★ (988) wp.org #22 ↓2 9 too low 14 L Live CSS Preview 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too high 15 Activity Link Preview For BuddyPress 100+ · 4.0★ (5) wp.org #15 ↓1 16 Flexible Layout Preview Image for ACF 700+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 ↓1 9 too high 17 WP Social Preview 800+ · 3.5★ (2) wp.org #5 12 too high 18 muv – Hide Preview 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 ↓2 3 too low 19 Public Preview URL Manager 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↓1 7 too high 20 ICWT Responsive Device Preview 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↓1 7 too high 21 Users Bulk Delete With Preview 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 11 too high 22 Product Preview for WooCommerce 60+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too high 23 Virtual Try-On for WooCommerce – Preview AI 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 Advance Custom HTML – Show Off Code Snippets with Live Preview 10K+ · 2.5★ (4) wp.org #18 ↓1 6 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.