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← Rankings

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

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 comments”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20. 4 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

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 #11 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 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Comments – wpDiscuz 60K+ · 4.7★ (581) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 User Private Files – Secure File Sharing and Client Portal Plugin 1K+ · 4.4★ (57) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #7 ↓1 3 too low 5 My Private Site – Make Your Whole Site Private, Force Login & Block Registration Spam 10K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #12 6 too low 7 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #13 5 too low 9 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #19 ↓1 10 too low 10 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1915) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #23 12 too low 12 ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments 10K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #6 ↑2 6 too high 13 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #21 8 too low 14 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #18 ↓3 4 too low 15 bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343) wp.org #20 ↓1 5 too low 16 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #22 6 too low 17 Antispam Bee 700K+ · 4.8★ (226) wp.org #24 ↓2 7 too low 18 S Subscribe to Comments 10K+ · 3.9★ (14) wp.org #5 13 too high 19 Intranet & Private Site – All-In-One Intranet 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #11 8 too high 20 Client Portal – Private user pages and login 3K+ · 4.3★ (23) wp.org #14 ↓1 6 too high 21 Disqus Comment System 30K+ · 2.7★ (219) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too high 22 Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools 8K+ · 4.1★ (15) wp.org #10 12 too high 23 Private Website – Login Required 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 ↓1 15 too high 24 Private Comment 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 8 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.