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

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 comment”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20.

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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Private Website – Login Required shows at wp.org #8 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 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 #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 4699 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 Comments – wpDiscuz 60K+ · 4.7★ (581) wp.org #1 2 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #2 3 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #7 ↓1 4 too low 4 User Private Files – Secure File Sharing and Client Portal Plugin 1K+ · 4.4★ (57) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 My Private Site – Make Your Whole Site Private, Force Login & Block Registration Spam 10K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #11 ↑1 5 too low 7 Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools 8K+ · 4.1★ (15) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #15 6 too low 10 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #19 ↓2 9 too low 11 Disqus Comment System 30K+ · 2.7★ (219) wp.org #6 ↑1 5 too high 12 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #23 11 too low 13 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1916) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #17 ↓1 3 too low 15 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #21 ↑3 6 too low 16 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #22 6 too low 17 bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343) wp.org #20 3 too low 18 Antispam Bee 700K+ · 4.8★ (226) wp.org #24 ↓1 6 too low 19 Intranet & Private Site – All-In-One Intranet 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #10 9 too high 20 ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments 10K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #14 ↑1 6 too high 21 Client Portal – Private user pages and login 3K+ · 4.3★ (23) wp.org #16 ↓2 5 too high 22 S Subscribe to Comments 10K+ · 3.9★ (14) wp.org #13 9 too high 23 Private Website – Login Required 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 15 too high 24 Private Comment 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↓1 12 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.