wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “read also”

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 “read also”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

WooCommerce PayPal Payments shows at wp.org #10 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 800K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.9★ average from 583 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini places #5 on merit, 4.9★ from 874 reviews, but shows at wp.org #11. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Worth The Read 3K+ · 4.3★ (27) wp.org #1 2

WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #4 2 too low 3

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #5 ↑1 2 too low 4

The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #6 ↓1 2 too low 5

AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #11 6 too low 6

Document Embedder – let visitors read files without downloading 9K+ · 4.9★ (120) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too low 7

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #9 ↓2 1 too low 9

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #8 ↑16 1 too high 10

Relevanssi – A Better Search 100K+ · 4.8★ (406) wp.org #14 ↑1 4 too low 11

LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #15 ↓3 4 too low 12

Most And Least Read Posts Widget 900+ · 5.0★ (6) thin reviews wp.org #3 9 too high 13

Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #18 ↑1 5 too low 14

PDF Poster – Let visitors read PDF’s without leaving the page 20K+ · 4.5★ (149) wp.org #13 ↓4 1 too high 15

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #23 8 too low 16

MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #17 1 too low 17

Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #20 ↓2 3 too low 18

Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (743) wp.org #19 ↓3 1 too low 19

All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #24 ↓4 5 too low 20

Jetpack Boost – Website Speed, Performance and Critical CSS 200K+ · 4.7★ (612) wp.org #22 ↓5 2 too low 21

WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583) wp.org #10 ↑4 11 too high 22

Event Tickets and Registration 90K+ · 3.5★ (236) wp.org #16 ↓5 6 too high 23

Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) thin reviews wp.org #12 ↓2 11 too high 24

Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) thin reviews wp.org #21 ↓8 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.