Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “readable”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 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.

Ranked above its merit

WP Sitemap Pages and Posts shows at wp.org #7 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Mail logging & Catcher places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 108 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #1 2 Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Cyrlitera – Transliteration of Links and File Names 40K+ · 4.6★ (62) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #6 ↑2 2 too low 5 Cyr-To-Lat 300K+ · 4.7★ (98) wp.org #5 6 CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (Easy to setup GDPR/CCPA Compliant Cookie Notice) 1M+ · 4.8★ (3236) wp.org #9 ↑1 3 too low 7 Cyr to Lat Reloaded – Transliteration of Links and File Names 30K+ · 4.5★ (15) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #16 ↑1 8 too low 9 Disk Usage Sunburst 9K+ · 4.8★ (36) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too low 10 Cyr to Lat Enhanced 80K+ · 4.6★ (51) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 When Last Login 40K+ · 4.7★ (37) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 Fourteen Colors 8K+ · 4.8★ (48) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Transliterator – Multilingual and Multi-script Text Conversion 3K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #20 ↑1 7 too low 14 Everest Backup – WordPress Cloud Backup, Migration, Restore & Cloning Plugin 3K+ · 4.4★ (45) wp.org #14 15 Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281) wp.org #21 ↑1 6 too low 16 CryptX 10K+ · 4.5★ (20) wp.org #8 ↓1 8 too high 17 WP Swiper 5K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 Kwayy HTML Sitemap 6K+ · 4.7★ (18) wp.org #17 ↓1 1 too high 19 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Booter – Bots & Crawlers Manager 7K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #22 ↑1 2 too low 21 Open Accessibility 50+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 ↓2 10 too high 22 Pretty Search Permalinks 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 WP Sitemap Pages and Posts 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 ↓1 16 too high 24 Llmify – AI Readable 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↑1 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.