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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “raw image”

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 “raw image”, 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 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

Admin Columns for ACF Fields shows at wp.org #12 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 8K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.9★ average from 20 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 2433 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #1 2 Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) 10K+ · 4.7★ (250) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Image Regenerate & Select Crop 7K+ · 4.7★ (58) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #4 5 Kraken.io Image Optimizer – Compress, Convert to WebP & AVIF, Resize & Bulk Optimize 10K+ · 4.5★ (119) wp.org #5 6 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too low 7 Media Cleaner: Delete Unused Images & Clean Your Media Library 90K+ · 4.6★ (779) wp.org #10 ↓3 3 too low 8 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #11 ↑1 3 too low 9 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #17 ↑4 8 too low 10 Cloudinary – Deliver Images and Videos at Scale 5K+ · 4.0★ (64) wp.org #6 4 too high 11 Instant Images – One-click Image Uploads from Unsplash, Openverse, Pixabay, Pexels, and Giphy 100K+ · 4.8★ (59) wp.org #9 ↑2 2 too high 12 R Raw HTML 10K+ · 4.3★ (33) wp.org #8 ↑1 4 too high 13 ECS – Ele Custom Skin for Elementor 100K+ · 4.6★ (117) wp.org #13 ↑1 14 AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #24 ↓1 10 too low 15 Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & More 20K+ · 4.3★ (113) wp.org #15 16 Colibri Page Builder 80K+ · 4.4★ (80) wp.org #14 ↓4 2 too high 17 Admin Columns for ACF Fields 8K+ · 4.9★ (20) wp.org #12 ↑1 5 too high 18 Redux Framework 900K+ · 4.4★ (273) wp.org #20 ↓2 2 too low 19 WP Header Images 4K+ · 4.4★ (35) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 Smart Variations Images & Swatches for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.7★ (142) wp.org #23 ↓3 3 too low 21 Squeeze – Browser-Based Image Compression & WebP Converter (No API, No Limits) 3K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #19 ↓2 2 too high 22 SEO’n’AI – AI Image check&mark 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 ↓2 4 too high 23 APG Google Image Sitemap Feed 500+ · 3.6★ (5) wp.org #22 ↓3 1 too high 24 AltGenix AI Image SEO 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↑1 3 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.