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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “provenance”

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

Sri Lankan Cities for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #5 but places #10 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 80+ 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Updates Notifier 20K+ · 4.2★ (35) wp.org #1 2 FAZ Cookie Manager 3K+ · 5.0★ (30) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 WP Inventory Manager 1K+ · 4.6★ (32) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 HTML Social Share Buttons 50+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #8 ↓2 4 too low 5 Enfants IMG Performer 40+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too low 6 SEO’n’AI – AI Image check&mark 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #4 ↓1 2 too high 7 PressedMail – Email Client, Inbox & Webmail 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too low 8 Opace AI Scribe: SEO Content Creator & Humanizer for OpenAI, Anthropic & Gemini 100+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #14 ↓1 6 too low 9 WCP Blockchain Authenticity Certificates — · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #18 ↓2 9 too low 10 Sri Lankan Cities for WooCommerce 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 ↓1 5 too high 11 IA SEO Generator 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↓1 5 too high 12 S Slick Google Map 50+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #20 ↓3 8 too low 13 JAZ-X Media Provenance Inspector — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↓2 4 too high 14 QRAuth – Passwordless & Social Login 40+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #16 ↓2 2 too low 15 AIM Transparency – AI Disclosure for EU AI Act 90+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↓1 4 too high 16 SVMPForge Product Feed for WooCommerce 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↑10 4 too high 17 Smart Content Blocks With Analytics 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↓2 4 too high 18 AI Image & Video Disclosure Labels 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓2 1 too high 19 Tebaro – Currency Conversion for WooCommerce 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓1 20 ImageSnippets Gallery Block 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓3 5 too high 21 Schnieders AI Media Labels 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too low 22 RankManager 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓4 1 too low 23 AI Image Disclosure – AIDisclara 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Ravanix – Smart Psychological Assessment 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓1 3 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.