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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “private area”

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 “private area”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

Customize Private & Protected: Password Form & Prefix shows at wp.org #5 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 4699 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Customer Area 10K+ · 4.0★ (89) wp.org #1 2 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #6 4 too low 3 P Private groups 1K+ · 4.9★ (49) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 My Private Site – Make Your Whole Site Private, Force Login & Block Registration Spam 10K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #10 ↓1 5 too low 6 User Private Files – Secure File Sharing and Client Portal Plugin 1K+ · 4.4★ (57) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1915) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #15 ↓2 6 too low 10 LifterLMS – WP LMS for eLearning, Online Courses, & Quizzes 10K+ · 4.8★ (393) wp.org #13 ↓1 3 too low 11 Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #12 ↓1 1 too low 12 Popups for Divi 100K+ · 4.8★ (442) wp.org #14 ↑7 2 too low 13 Password Protected 300K+ · 4.4★ (142) wp.org #11 ↓1 2 too high 14 MainWP Dashboard: Self-hosted WordPress Management for Agencies 20K+ · 4.9★ (2354) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Front End PM 4K+ · 4.8★ (220) wp.org #17 ↓3 2 too low 16 wpDataTables – WordPress Data Table, Dynamic Tables & Table Charts Plugin 60K+ · 4.5★ (449) wp.org #20 ↓2 4 too low 17 Intranet & Private Site – All-In-One Intranet 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #7 ↓1 10 too high 18 ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities 5K+ · 4.6★ (236) wp.org #18 ↓2 19 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too high 20 Customize Private & Protected: Password Form & Prefix 400+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #5 15 too high 21 Wbcom Designs – Private Community for BuddyPress 300+ · 4.9★ (25) wp.org #21 ↓2 22 EU Withdrawal and Legal Guarantee Compliance 1K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 AyeCode Connect 10K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 ↓2 4 too high 24 QODE Wishlist for WooCommerce 10K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.