wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “private profile”
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 profile”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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
Profile & Dashboard fields [Modify/Disable/Remove] shows at wp.org #14 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #1 2 
Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445)
wp.org #2 3 
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520)
wp.org #6 3 too low 4 P Private groups 1K+ · 4.9★ (49)
wp.org #3 1 too high 5 
Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142)
wp.org #5 6 
My Private Site – Make Your Whole Site Private, Force Login & Block Registration Spam 10K+ · 4.5★ (82)
wp.org #4 2 too high 7 
Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221)
wp.org #10 3 too low 8 
ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities 5K+ · 4.6★ (236)
wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too high 9 
User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832)
wp.org #11 2 too low 10 
UsersWP – Front-end login form, User Registration, User Profile & Members Directory plugin for WP 20K+ · 4.7★ (183)
wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too high 11 
BuddyPress 90K+ · 4.1★ (375)
wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too high 12 
WP User Manager – Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile Builder & Member Directory 10K+ · 4.7★ (350)
wp.org #12 13 
User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537)
wp.org #13 ↑4 14 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281)
wp.org #19 ↓3 5 too low 15 
WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1917)
wp.org #17 ↓3 2 too low 16 
Post to Google My Business (Google Business Profile) 10K+ · 4.9★ (159)
wp.org #15 1 too high 17 
Youzify – BuddyPress Community, User Profile, Social Network & Membership Plugin for WordPress 5K+ · 4.8★ (194)
wp.org #18 ↓3 1 too low 18 
Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270)
wp.org #21 ↓1 3 too low 19 
Masteriyo LMS – LMS Course Builder, Quizzes & Certificates 6K+ · 4.8★ (184)
wp.org #22 ↑2 3 too low 20 
Client Portal – Private user pages and login 3K+ · 4.3★ (23) thin reviews
wp.org #16 ↓3 4 too high 21 
Bulk Edit and Create User Profiles – WP Sheet Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (19) thin reviews
wp.org #24 ↓2 3 too low 22 
BuddyPress & BuddyBoss Member Profile Forms 300+ · 3.9★ (21) thin reviews
wp.org #23 ↓2 1 too low 23 Profile & Dashboard fields [Modify/Disable/Remove] 200+ · 5.0★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #14 9 too high 24 
Memberships and User Profiles for WooCommerce – ProfileGrid WooCommerce Integration 300+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↓1 4 too high Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (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.