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

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 “rain”, 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

Festival Snow Effect shows at wp.org #7 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 60+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Weather Effect 4K+ · 4.5★ (30) wp.org #1 2 Slider Hero with Video Background, Animation 3K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too low 3 Location Weather – WordPress Weather Forecast, Air Quality & Weather Widget 10K+ · 4.5★ (103) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Weather Widget Pro 1K+ · 3.9★ (8) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Ventus – Weather Map Widget & Shortcode 3K+ · 4.9★ (13) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 Simple Location 300+ · 4.6★ (8) wp.org #6 7 Next-Cart Store to WooCommerce Migration 100+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too low 8 Blockenberg — 645 Advanced Gutenberg Blocks, 683 Templates and AI Agent for WordPress Block Editor 1K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #12 ↓1 4 too low 9 Init FX Engine – Interactive, Event-Driven, Lightweight 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 too high 10 XTX Integration for Netatmo 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too high 11 Under The Weather 60+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 LMSCrafter Gradient Text for Elementor 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too high 13 MotionKit – Visual GSAP Animation Builder for Elementor, Divi, Bricks & More 40+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↓1 14 Seasonal Effects & Notice Bar (formerly Halloween Animations) 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↑1 15 Festival Snow Effect 60+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #7 ↓1 8 too high 16 Tada Confetti – Celebration Effects 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓3 1 too low 17 StoreDisplay – Product Display Layouts for WooCommerce 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↑2 2 too high 18 TheAVCoach Weather Station for WeatherLink 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too low 19 Season Spark 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓1 2 too low 20 Altonet Animated BG 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 WS40 – Live Weather 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↓5 3 too high 22 Fast Post Lists 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too high 23 Paragraph Typewriter Effect — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↓2 24 Addifect — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.