Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 rss”, 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

Password Protect – Temporary Login Without Password & Password Protect Entire Site shows at wp.org #7 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

All-in-one Sticky Floating Contact Form, Call, Click to Chat, and 50+ Social Icon Tabs – My Sticky Elements places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 542 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. 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★ (3221) wp.org #1 2 PPWP – Password Protect Pages 30K+ · 4.7★ (271) wp.org #2 3 Email Encoder – Protect Email Addresses and Phone Numbers 90K+ · 4.9★ (94) wp.org #3 4 Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & More 20K+ · 4.3★ (113) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #10 ↑2 4 too low 7 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #5 ↑1 3 too high 9 Password Protected 300K+ · 4.4★ (142) wp.org #8 ↓4 1 too high 10 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 AI-Powered Carousel, Slider, Video & Photo Gallery Blocks by WP Carousel 60K+ · 4.7★ (434) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 All-in-one Sticky Floating Contact Form, Call, Click to Chat, and 50+ Social Icon Tabs – My Sticky Elements 40K+ · 4.9★ (542) wp.org #19 7 too low 13 User Access Manager 10K+ · 4.4★ (112) wp.org #14 1 too low 14 SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph 300K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #15 1 too low 15 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #12 ↓1 3 too high 16 Shariff Wrapper 30K+ · 4.9★ (101) wp.org #23 7 too low 17 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #21 4 too low 18 WP Hide & Security Enhancer 50K+ · 4.3★ (275) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 WP Coder – Insert & Manage Code Snippets 10K+ · 4.9★ (32) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 CryptX 10K+ · 4.5★ (20) wp.org #11 ↓1 9 too high 21 F FeedWordPress 8K+ · 4.2★ (61) wp.org #22 1 too low 22 Zoho Flow – No-Code Workflow Automation 5K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 Password Protect – Temporary Login Without Password & Password Protect Entire Site 100+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #7 ↑1 16 too high 24 WP Ultimate Review 60K+ · 3.4★ (17) wp.org #18 6 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.