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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “record store”

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 “record store”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 of the top 20. 7 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

Crawler Record shows at wp.org #2 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 21 places. Its 100+ 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

Cookie Compliance for WordPress – Cookie Consent, GDPR & CCPA places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 3026 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1668) wp.org #5 4 too low 2 Ebook Store 700+ · 4.4★ (60) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #6 3 too low 4 Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (591) wp.org #9 5 too low 5 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 #10 5 too low 6 Record of Consent Extension for Complianz 700+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #1 5 too high 7 Music Store – WordPress eCommerce 200+ · 4.1★ (52) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 WP EasyCart: Shopping Cart and eCommerce Store 3K+ · 4.5★ (206) wp.org #8 9 Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #16 7 too low 10 Cookie Compliance for WordPress – Cookie Consent, GDPR & CCPA 800K+ · 4.8★ (3026) wp.org #20 10 too low 11 WP Maps – Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Mapbox, Store Locator with Search, Filters & Listings 60K+ · 4.3★ (122) wp.org #7 4 too high 12 WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #18 6 too low 13 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 GPTranslate – Multilingual AI Translation Agent for WordPress: Translate Your Site with AI 500+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #13 2 too high 16 Print Invoice & Delivery Notes for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.4★ (140) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (625) wp.org #22 5 too low 18 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Locatoraid Store Locator 1K+ · 4.5★ (17) wp.org #11 9 too high 21 CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #21 22 WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments 800K+ · 3.4★ (177) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 Crawler Record 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 21 too high 24 Store credit / Gift cards for woocommerce 100+ · 4.1★ (10) wp.org #12 12 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.