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

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 “purity”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 2 of the top 17. 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.

Buried gem

WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments places #3 on merit, 3.4★ from 177 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Gold Price Based on Weight 300+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #1 2 MetalpriceAPI 500+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #2 3 WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments 800K+ · 3.4★ (177) wp.org #13 10 too low 4 Gold Price Live – Gold & Silver Prices, Charts, Widgets, Melt Value Calculator 200+ · 2.5★ (8) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Dynamic Metal Price Calculator 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 R Rice Purity Test — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Vyntic Metal Sync – Live Metal Rates for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 ↑1 8 Autuskey Jewelry Manager 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 Live Gold and Silver Price Sync for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 10 Juniustech Gold Price Calculator — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 11 Rameshc Metal Price Manager for WooCommerce — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too high 12 Veyondtech Metal Rate Charts — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 1 too high 13 A Aureliquo – Quotazioni Oro e Argento — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 1 too high 14 Hidden Word Bible Lessons — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 15 Npcink Abilities Toolkit — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 16 J J-Flickr — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 1 too low 17 Malca-Amit Shipping Services 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 1 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.