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

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 “publishpress”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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

PublishPress Statuses – Custom Post Status and Workflow shows at wp.org #10 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider places #10 on merit, 4.6★ from 742 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors 20K+ · 4.9★ (114) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #1 2

PublishPress Planner – Editorial Calendar, Marketing Content, Kanban Board 6K+ · 4.9★ (178) wp.org #2 3

Schedule Post Changes With PublishPress Future: Unpublish, Delete, Change Status, Trash, Change Categories 100K+ · 4.5★ (172) wp.org #3 4

PublishPress Capabilities: User Role Access Control, Admin Area Permissions 90K+ · 4.7★ (143) wp.org #4 5

PublishPress Blocks – Block Controls, Block Visibility, Block Permissions 20K+ · 4.7★ (204) wp.org #5 6

PublishPress Taxonomies – Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger Automatically Add Terms 40K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too low 7

PublishPress Revisions: Duplicate Posts, Submit, Approve and Schedule Content Changes 10K+ · 4.6★ (66) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8

PublishPress Checklists: Pre-Publishing Approval Checklist – Validate Post Requirements 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) thin reviews wp.org #6 2 too high 9

PublishPress Permissions: Access Control, Content Permissions, User Access 10K+ · 4.3★ (66) wp.org #9 ↑2 10

Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (742) wp.org #16 ↑1 6 too low 11

PublishPress Tag Groups: Stylish Displays For Your Tags and Categories 3K+ · 4.8★ (57) wp.org #11 ↓1 12

Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (158) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too low 13

GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #13 14

WPSSO Core – Complete Schema Markup and Meta Tags 4K+ · 4.6★ (306) wp.org #20 6 too low 15

Issues and Series for Newspapers, Magazines, Publishers, Writers 2K+ · 4.5★ (73) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #12 3 too high 16

GN Publisher: Google News Compatible RSS Feeds 20K+ · 4.9★ (29) wp.org #18 2 too low 17

WP Multilang – Translation and Multilingual Plugin 10K+ · 4.3★ (100) wp.org #23 6 too low 18

Zoho Flow – No-Code Workflow Automation 5K+ · 5.0★ (13) thin reviews wp.org #21 3 too low 19

WP Document Revisions 2K+ · 3.7★ (23) thin reviews wp.org #19 20

MetaSlider Gallery – Image Gallery, Lightbox Galleries, Video Galleries 10K+ · 4.4★ (9) thin reviews wp.org #22 2 too low 21

PublishPress Statuses – Custom Post Status and Workflow 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #10 ↓1 11 too high 22

Dynamic Tags for Elementor 700+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews wp.org #15 ↑1 7 too high 23

PublishPress Shortlinks – The Link Manager for WordPress 200+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #14 9 too high 24

PublishPress Cart – eCommerce for Digital Products — · 0.0★ (0) thin reviews 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.