Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “publish”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 4 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

Publish Post Email Notification shows at wp.org #10 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 600+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation places #8 on merit, 4.7★ from 1667 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP2Social Auto Publish 9K+ · 4.8★ (640) wp.org #2 ↓1 1 too low 2 WP LinkedIn Auto Publish 8K+ · 4.8★ (106) wp.org #1 ↑2 1 too high 3 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1668) wp.org #3 ↓4 4 WP Twitter Auto Publish 3K+ · 4.9★ (206) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #8 ↑1 3 too low 6 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #11 ↑3 5 too low 7 Social Media Auto Publish 5K+ · 4.7★ (345) wp.org #5 ↑1 2 too high 8 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #14 ↓2 6 too low 9 WP to LinkedIn Auto Publish 900+ · 4.7★ (59) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too high 10 Social Media Auto Poster – Schedule & Publish to Buffer 7K+ · 4.5★ (125) wp.org #9 ↓2 1 too high 11 SchedulePress – Auto Post & Publish, Auto Social Share, Schedule Posts with Editorial Calendar & Missed Schedule Post Publisher 10K+ · 4.6★ (201) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (195) wp.org #15 ↑1 3 too low 13 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 Publish To Apple News 4K+ · 3.8★ (25) wp.org #6 ↑1 8 too high 15 PublishPress Planner – Editorial Calendar, Marketing Content, Kanban Board 6K+ · 4.9★ (178) wp.org #21 6 too low 16 PublishPress Capabilities: User Role Access Control, Admin Area Permissions 90K+ · 4.7★ (143) wp.org #22 ↓3 6 too low 17 My Calendar – Accessible Event Manager 20K+ · 4.7★ (159) wp.org #24 ↓4 7 too low 18 Yoast Duplicate Post 3M+ · 4.7★ (538) wp.org #23 5 too low 19 Auto Publish for Google My Business 9K+ · 4.9★ (38) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Pre-Publish Checklist 1K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #16 ↑1 4 too high 21 Publish to Schedule 3K+ · 4.3★ (23) wp.org #12 ↓1 9 too high 22 Publish Post Email Notification 600+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #10 12 too high 23 WP Tumblr Auto Publish 60+ · 3.2★ (9) wp.org #20 ↑2 3 too high 24 Post Publish Email Notifier 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↑4 7 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.