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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “r2”

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 “r2”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

WP Associate Post R2 shows at wp.org #6 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

FluentCommunity – Ultra-Fast High-Performance Social Network, Community, LMS & Online Courses places #6 on merit, 4.8★ from 96 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #1 2 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #2 3 File Manager 1M+ · 4.6★ (1492) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too low 4 Backuply – Backup, Restore, Migrate and Clone 600K+ · 4.5★ (135) wp.org #4 ↑3 5 Advanced File Manager – Ultimate File Manager for WordPress And Document Library Solution 100K+ · 4.8★ (442) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 FluentCommunity – Ultra-Fast High-Performance Social Network, Community, LMS & Online Courses 8K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #18 ↑1 12 too low 7 Media Cloud Sync 1K+ · 4.9★ (13) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Offload Media – Cloud Storage 1K+ · 4.4★ (18) wp.org #10 ↑3 2 too low 9 FluentCart A New Era of eCommerce – Faster, Lighter, and Simpler 9K+ · 4.5★ (46) wp.org #15 ↑1 6 too low 10 App for Cloudflare® 1K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 CPW Media Offload for Cloudflare R2 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 8 too high 12 Cloud Storage Manager for Fluent Forms – Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, S3 Uploads 400+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #13 ↓3 1 too low 13 Yctvn Media Offload for Cloudflare R2 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #8 5 too high 14 Infinite Uploads – Offload, Optimize & Organize Your Media Library 800+ · 4.4★ (20) wp.org #24 ↓2 10 too low 15 Mine CloudVod 70+ · 4.6★ (10) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 External files in Media Library 500+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #14 2 too high 17 WP Associate Post R2 2K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 ↓1 11 too high 18 Storage for Woo via S3-Compatible 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #16 ↑1 2 too high 19 R R2 Cloud Storage 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 7 too high 20 R2 Storage Manager for Cloudflare 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too high 21 CloudSync Master – Offload Media to S3, Cloudflare R2 & Google Cloud 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↓2 4 too high 22 SmartSync Lite 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 A Alios Media Offload 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 2 too high 24 Codirun R2 Media & Static CDN 10+ · 1.0★ (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.