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← Rankings

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

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 “reels”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

ReelsHive shows at wp.org #9 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 70+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Gallery by Visual Portfolio places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 340 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Social Feed Gallery 80K+ · 4.5★ (303) wp.org #3 ↑3 2 too low 2 Easy Social Feed – All In One Social Feed Plugin for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502) wp.org #7 ↑5 5 too low 3 Spotlight Social Photo Feed 60K+ · 4.7★ (171) wp.org #6 ↓2 3 too low 4 ReelsWp – Shoppable Videos & Vertical Reels Carousels 300+ · 4.0★ (5) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #11 ↓3 6 too low 6 WPZOOM Social Feed Widget & Block 50K+ · 4.3★ (51) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Inavii Social Feed – Live Social Proof Gallery 9K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #4 ↓1 3 too high 8 Blog2Social: Social Media Auto Post & Scheduler 40K+ · 4.5★ (2107) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too low 9 Social Media Feed Gallery – Fetch Posts & Reels 2K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #2 7 too high 10 Qi Addons For Elementor 200K+ · 4.8★ (205) wp.org #19 ↓3 9 too low 11 Gallery by Visual Portfolio 60K+ · 4.8★ (340) wp.org #23 12 too low 12 Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62) wp.org #12 ↓1 13 Juicer.io: Effortlessly embed, curate, and aggregate social media feeds into your website 8K+ · 4.2★ (29) wp.org #20 ↓2 7 too low 14 Photo Gallery – Image, Video & Portfolio 1K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #17 3 too low 15 Video Player Block – play videos beautifully on any device 2K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #18 ↓4 3 too low 16 Marquee Addons for Elementor – Essential Motion Widgets & Templates 20K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 WPZOOM Addons for Elementor – Starter Templates & Widgets 20K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #8 ↓1 9 too high 18 Live Shopping & Shoppable Videos For WooCommerce 300+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 ReelsHive 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 ↑1 10 too high 20 Securicheck – Audit et Sécurité WordPress 60+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 ↓2 2 too low 21 ProductReels – Shoppable Reels for WooCommerce 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 7 too high 22 SocialFeeds 40K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too high 23 Juicer.io: The Best Social Photo Feed – Posts, Reels, Stories and more 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓2 8 too high 24 Vidreelo Shoppable Video Reels 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓2 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.