Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “regex”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 4 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

Block Emails & Addresses for WooCommerce Checkout shows at wp.org #7 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 700+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Checkout Field Editor for WooCommerce – Checkout Manager places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 165 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Search Regex 100K+ · 4.7★ (101) wp.org #1 2 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #2 3 Redirection 100K+ · 5.0★ (419) wp.org #3 4 404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring 100K+ · 4.7★ (321) wp.org #4 ↑2 5 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #6 ↑2 1 too low 6 Better Find and Replace – AI-Powered Suggestions 40K+ · 4.6★ (171) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #8 ↓4 1 too low 8 Advanced Product Fields (Product Addons) for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.8★ (284) wp.org #14 ↓2 6 too low 9 Safe Redirect Manager 40K+ · 4.7★ (78) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 Auto Image Attributes From Filename With Bulk Updater (Add Alt Text, Image Title For Image SEO) 100K+ · 4.8★ (93) wp.org #13 ↑3 3 too low 11 Checkout Field Editor for WooCommerce – Checkout Manager 20K+ · 4.9★ (165) wp.org #19 ↑1 8 too low 12 Jquery Validation For Contact Form 7 8K+ · 4.6★ (87) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too low 13 404 Solution 10K+ · 4.9★ (44) wp.org #20 ↓2 7 too low 14 GTM Kit – Google Tag Manager & GA4 integration 30K+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #16 ↑1 2 too low 15 Cache Warmer 1K+ · 4.8★ (19) wp.org #15 ↓1 16 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #11 5 too high 17 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 CM Search And Replace – Optimize content edits with a powerful search and replace tool 2K+ · 4.2★ (15) wp.org #9 9 too high 19 Block Emails & Addresses for WooCommerce Checkout 700+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #7 12 too high 20 ELEX WooCommerce Bulk Edit Products, Prices & Attributes (Basic) 4K+ · 3.7★ (25) wp.org #18 ↑5 2 too high 21 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #24 3 too low 22 Easy Search Replace – Find & Replace Text/HTML/URLs, Remove Footer Credit 700+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #12 ↑1 10 too high 23 Regex Textfield: Gravityforms Add-on 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too high 24 Regex Validation for Gravity Forms 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↑2 2 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.