Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “purge cache”

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 “purge cache”, we agree with wp.org 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

Aruba HiSpeed Cache shows at wp.org #9 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 100K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 10 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #1 2 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #2 ↑3 3 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #3 4 Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #4 ↓2 5 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 Breeze Cache 300K+ · 3.6★ (133) wp.org #6 ↑2 7 C Clear Cache for Me 40K+ · 4.8★ (29) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #11 ↓2 3 too low 9 Cache Enabler 100K+ · 4.3★ (139) wp.org #12 ↑1 3 too low 10 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #5 ↓1 5 too high 11 Powered Cache – Caching and Optimization for WordPress – Easily Improve PageSpeed & Web Vitals Score 3K+ · 4.8★ (58) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 Nginx Cache 8K+ · 4.6★ (24) wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too low 13 Purge Varnish Cache 1K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too high 14 Hestia Nginx Cache 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #19 5 too low 15 SpeedyCache – Cache, Optimization, Performance 500K+ · 4.4★ (30) wp.org #21 ↓1 6 too low 16 CLP Varnish Cache 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #23 ↓2 7 too low 17 Nginx Cache Purge Preload 200+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #16 1 too high 18 Aruba HiSpeed Cache 100K+ · 3.0★ (10) wp.org #9 ↑2 9 too high 19 The Cache Purger 1K+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #13 6 too high 20 S Server-Side Cache AutoPurge 10K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #18 2 too high 21 WPGraphQL Smart Cache 5K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #24 3 too low 22 A Automatic Cache Flusher for W3 Total Cache 4K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too high 23 Clear Cache Everywhere 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓3 3 too high 24 Ergonet Cache 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↑1 2 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.