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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “primary key”

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 “primary key”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Payment Gateway for MTN MoMo on WooCommerce shows at wp.org #7 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.6★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 1146 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #1 2 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #4 ↑2 2 too low 3 Native PHP Sessions 10K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Product Feed PRO for WooCommerce by AdTribes – Product Feeds for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.7★ (1071) wp.org #6 ↑2 2 too low 5 Integration for WooCommerce and QuickBooks 1K+ · 4.9★ (15) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Two Factor 100K+ · 4.7★ (209) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 Integration for WooCommerce and Zoho CRM, Books, Invoice, Inventory, Bigin 1K+ · 5.0★ (84) wp.org #8 ↓1 9 WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect 50K+ · 4.9★ (1146) wp.org #18 ↑1 9 too low 10 Permalink Manager Lite 100K+ · 4.8★ (176) wp.org #19 ↑1 9 too low 11 Nested Pages 90K+ · 4.7★ (126) wp.org #17 6 too low 12 Integration for WooCommerce and Salesforce 100+ · 4.9★ (45) wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too low 13 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #24 ↓6 11 too low 14 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #22 ↑1 8 too low 15 Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25) wp.org #9 ↑3 6 too high 16 SureMail – SMTP and Email Logs Plugin with Amazon SES, Postmark, and Other Providers 200K+ · 4.7★ (25) wp.org #14 ↑1 2 too high 17 Integration for Gravity Forms and Pipedrive 200+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #11 ↓2 6 too high 18 Payment Gateway for MTN MoMo on WooCommerce 200+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #7 ↓3 11 too high 19 WP Gravity Forms FreshDesk Plugin 100+ · 4.9★ (19) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 AI 60K+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #15 5 too high 21 Pure Metafields 10K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #20 1 too high 22 Integration for HubSpot and WooCommerce 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #23 ↓1 1 too low 23 WP Consent API 200K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↑1 11 too high 24 P Primary Redirect 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 3 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.