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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “protect your wordpress site”

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 your wordpress site”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 3 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

Protect Uploads shows at wp.org #6 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 30K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.8★ average from 12 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 8869 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★ (3220) wp.org #1 2 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #2 3 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Jetpack Protect 100K+ · 4.6★ (123) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too high 5 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #5 ↑15 6 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5038) wp.org #7 ↓1 8 Hustle – Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Optins, Popups 80K+ · 4.4★ (859) wp.org #9 ↑1 1 too low 9 PPWP – Password Protect Pages 30K+ · 4.7★ (271) wp.org #11 ↓4 2 too low 10 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #16 6 too low 11 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #10 ↓1 1 too high 12 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #19 7 too low 13 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #12 1 too high 14 Email Encoder – Protect Email Addresses and Phone Numbers 90K+ · 4.9★ (94) wp.org #15 1 too low 15 Protect Uploads 30K+ · 4.8★ (12) wp.org #6 ↓1 9 too high 16 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #20 ↑1 4 too low 17 WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184) wp.org #17 18 Password Protected 300K+ · 4.4★ (142) wp.org #14 ↓6 4 too high 19 Advanced Google reCAPTCHA 200K+ · 4.8★ (430) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files 10K+ · 4.6★ (297) wp.org #22 ↓3 2 too low 21 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #13 ↓2 8 too high 22 My Private Site – Make Your Whole Site Private, Force Login & Block Registration Spam 10K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #21 ↓4 1 too high 23 Protect Admin 2K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #24 ↓2 1 too low 24 Protect Login 700+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↓2 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.