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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “protect content”

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 “protect content”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

WP Protect Content shows at wp.org #7 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 16 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin places #6 on merit, 4.4★ from 1445 reviews, but shows at wp.org #10. 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 #1 2 Jetpack Protect 100K+ · 4.6★ (123) wp.org #2 3 PPWP – Password Protect Pages 30K+ · 4.7★ (271) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 Content Control – The Ultimate Content Restriction Solution! Restrict Content, Create Conditional Blocks & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (575) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #12 ↑10 4 too low 9 Passster – Password Protect Pages and Content 10K+ · 4.2★ (60) wp.org #3 6 too high 10 Protect Uploads 30K+ · 4.8★ (12) wp.org #4 6 too high 11 Secure Copy Content Protection and Content Locking 20K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #9 2 too high 12 Disabled Source, Disabled Right Click and Content Protection 10K+ · 4.9★ (103) wp.org #13 ↑3 1 too low 13 Email Encoder – Protect Email Addresses and Phone Numbers 90K+ · 4.9★ (94) wp.org #14 1 too low 14 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #23 9 too low 15 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #18 ↓7 3 too low 16 WP Protect Content 1K+ · 4.0★ (16) wp.org #7 9 too high 17 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #20 ↓8 3 too low 18 Protect the Children! 1K+ · 4.9★ (15) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 WP Content Copy Protection with Color Design 5K+ · 4.5★ (25) wp.org #21 ↓3 2 too low 20 Restrict – membership, site, content and user access restrictions for WordPress 2K+ · 4.2★ (25) wp.org #22 ↓2 2 too low 21 Protect Admin 2K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 Protect Login 700+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 7 too high 23 AI Scrape Protect 400+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Simple Password Protect 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.