Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “remove text”

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 “remove text”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

eRecht24 Legal Texts shows at wp.org #11 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 50K+ 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

Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) places #8 on merit, 5.0★ from 423 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Remove Footer Credit 60K+ · 4.7★ (88) wp.org #1 2 Image Alt Text 10K+ · 5.0★ (56) wp.org #2 3 Remove Uppercase Accents 8K+ · 5.0★ (28) wp.org #3 4 Text To Speech TTS Accessibility 4K+ · 4.8★ (92) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Remove Dashboard Access 30K+ · 4.6★ (78) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too low 6 Remove "Powered by WordPress" 20K+ · 4.4★ (21) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #14 ↓2 7 too low 8 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #22 14 too low 9 Auto Image Attributes From Filename With Bulk Updater (Add Alt Text, Image Title For Image SEO) 100K+ · 4.8★ (93) wp.org #19 ↓1 10 too low 10 Auto Alt Text 4K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too high 11 Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools 8K+ · 4.1★ (15) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 AI Alt Text Generator 2K+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #9 ↓2 3 too high 13 Alt Text AI – Automatically generate image alt text for SEO and accessibility 20K+ · 4.7★ (35) wp.org #21 ↓1 8 too low 14 JVM Rich Text Icons 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #12 ↓1 2 too high 15 Keep Emoticons as Text 700+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too low 16 Text to Speech – TTSWP 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #15 ↑6 1 too high 17 Marquee Running Text 5K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #10 7 too high 18 WP Remove Query Strings From Static Resources 3K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 Text Typing – grab attention with animated typing headlines 3K+ · 3.8★ (6) wp.org #13 6 too high 20 ImgSEO – AI Image Alt Text Generator & Image SEO Tools 400+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Remove Broken Images 700+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #16 ↓1 5 too high 22 Text Replace – Find and Replace WordPress Strings 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too high 23 Easy Search Replace – Find & Replace Text/HTML/URLs, Remove Footer Credit 600+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #23 24 eRecht24 Legal Texts 50K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↑3 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.