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

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 “records”, 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

Crawler Record shows at wp.org #5 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 18 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

CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (Easy to setup GDPR/CCPA Compliant Cookie Notice) places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 3236 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) 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★ (5210) wp.org #3 1 too low 3

Cookie Compliance for WordPress – Cookie Consent, GDPR & CCPA 800K+ · 4.8★ (3026) wp.org #6 ↓2 3 too low 4

Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #7 ↑1 3 too low 5

Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #9 ↓3 4 too low 6

WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #10 ↓4 4 too low 7

Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) thin reviews wp.org #4 ↑3 3 too high 8

CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (Easy to setup GDPR/CCPA Compliant Cookie Notice) 1M+ · 4.8★ (3236) wp.org #13 ↑3 5 too low 9

Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #12 3 too low 10

Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74) wp.org #8 ↑7 2 too high 11

Record of Consent Extension for Complianz 700+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews wp.org #2 9 too high 12

WP Fusion Lite – Marketing Automation and CRM Integration for WordPress 4K+ · 5.0★ (69) wp.org #14 2 too low 13

iubenda | All-in-one Compliance for GDPR / CCPA Cookie Consent + more 200K+ · 4.7★ (397) wp.org #21 8 too low 14

WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #24 10 too low 15

Print Invoice & Delivery Notes for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.4★ (140) wp.org #18 ↓5 3 too low 16

Schedule Post Changes With PublishPress Future: Unpublish, Delete, Change Status, Trash, Change Categories 100K+ · 4.5★ (172) wp.org #20 ↓2 4 too low 17

Stream – Activity Log & Audit Trail 70K+ · 4.3★ (76) wp.org #16 ↑1 1 too high 18

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #23 5 too low 19

WPConsent – Cookie Banner & Cookie Consent for Privacy Compliance (GDPR / CCPA / EU Compliance Cookie Notice) 200K+ · 4.8★ (85) wp.org #19 20

CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #15 ↑5 5 too high 21

WooCommerce Square 80K+ · 2.1★ (121) wp.org #22 23

Crawler Record 100+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews wp.org #5 ↑1 18 too high 24

When Last Login – Export User Records 500+ · 0.0★ (0) thin reviews wp.org #11 13 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.