wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “recovery”
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 “recovery”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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
Auto Block Recovery shows at wp.org #6 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 600+ 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
Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 1039 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (626)
wp.org #1 2 
Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940)
wp.org #3 1 too low 3 
BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55)
wp.org #2 1 too high 4 
BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323)
wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too low 5 
WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470)
wp.org #13 ↓1 8 too low 6 
Recarto – Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce 3K+ · 4.5★ (28)
wp.org #4 2 too high 7 
Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510)
wp.org #8 1 too low 8 
Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (592)
wp.org #16 ↑3 8 too low 9 
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #18 ↑5 9 too low 10 
WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184)
wp.org #15 5 too low 11 
BlogVault Backup & Staging 80K+ · 4.6★ (332)
wp.org #17 6 too low 12 Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning 30K+ · 4.8★ (1039)
wp.org #24 12 too low 13 
Pixel Manager for WooCommerce – Conversion Tracking, Google Ads, GA4, TikTok, Dynamic Remarketing 40K+ · 4.9★ (399)
wp.org #23 10 too low 14 
SMS Alert – SMS Notifications & OTP Login, COD Verification, Abandoned Cart Recovery 3K+ · 4.6★ (35)
wp.org #10 ↑1 4 too high 15 
CartBounty – Save and recover abandoned carts for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.8★ (84)
wp.org #19 ↓2 4 too low 16 
Brevo – Email, SMS, Web Push, Chat, and more. 100K+ · 4.1★ (284)
wp.org #21 5 too low 17 
SMS Abandoned Cart Recovery – CartBoss 400+ · 4.9★ (29)
wp.org #14 ↓1 3 too high 18 
Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.1★ (84)
wp.org #22 ↓7 4 too low 19 
Cart recovery for WordPress 100+ · 5.0★ (6) thin reviews
wp.org #9 ↓1 10 too high 20 
ShopMagic Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #7 13 too high 21 
Modern Cart – WooCommerce Side Cart & Popup Cart 60K+ · 4.9★ (16) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↓1 1 too high 22 
Cart Lift – Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce and EDD 900+ · 4.8★ (9) thin reviews
wp.org #12 ↓3 10 too high 23 Auto Block Recovery 600+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #6 ↓1 17 too high 24 
Custom Recovery Mode Email 100+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #11 ↓1 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.