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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “ready player”

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 “ready player”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

Media Player Addons for Elementor – Audio and Video Widgets for Elementor shows at wp.org #11 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 4132 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 Podcast Player – Your Podcasting Companion 10K+ · 4.8★ (113) wp.org #1 2 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #2 3 Music Player for Elementor – Audio Player & Podcast Player 10K+ · 4.7★ (123) wp.org #3 4 MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar 20K+ · 4.8★ (302) wp.org #4 5 CP Media Player – Audio Player and Video Player 3K+ · 4.4★ (46) wp.org #5 6 All-in-One Video Gallery – Video Player & Galleries for YouTube, Vimeo & Self-Hosted Videos 20K+ · 4.8★ (136) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 Element Pack Addons for Elementor – MCP & AI-Ready Elementor Widgets, Elementor Templates, Elementor Addons 100K+ · 4.7★ (284) wp.org #13 6 too low 8 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #18 10 too low 9 FV Flowplayer Video Player 10K+ · 4.4★ (90) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle 400K+ · 4.9★ (134) wp.org #14 ↑1 4 too low 11 FluentPlayer – Video Player With Forms & Lead Capture 2K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #20 ↑1 8 too low 13 PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry 20K+ · 4.6★ (231) wp.org #24 11 too low 14 Video Player Block – play videos beautifully on any device 2K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 JW Player for WordPress 1K+ · 3.8★ (29) wp.org #9 6 too high 16 Automatic YouTube Gallery – Embed Auto-Updating YouTube Video Galleries, Feeds, Playlists & Channels 9K+ · 4.8★ (31) wp.org #23 7 too low 17 Lean Player – Video and Audio Player with Playlist for WordPress, Elementor and Gutenberg 2K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #8 9 too high 18 SmartVideo – Video Player and CDN 1K+ · 4.1★ (19) wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too high 19 VdoCipher: Secure Video Player and Hosting 2K+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 Detailed Player Stats for SportsPress 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #17 3 too high 21 RTMKit for Elementor – Modular Addons, Widgets, Templates, Icon Library, GSAP Animations, MCP & Store Ready 40K+ · 2.7★ (16) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Media Player Addons for Elementor – Audio and Video Widgets for Elementor 1K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #11 11 too high 23 GreetPlayer – Video Player, Video Bubble, Audio Player & Lead Capture 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #22 1 too high 24 Section Collection – Add Ready-made Sections to Design Modern Websites 400+ · 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.