Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “repo”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 of the top 20. 3 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

LearnPress – Prerequisites Courses shows at wp.org #13 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 5K+ 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

Pop-up places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 86 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #1 2 Custom Post Type UI 1M+ · 4.6★ (276) wp.org #2 3 LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #3 4 Redirection 100K+ · 5.0★ (419) wp.org #4 5 Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74) wp.org #5 ↑4 6 HTML Editor Syntax Highlighter 60K+ · 4.4★ (110) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7 AddQuicktag 100K+ · 4.7★ (44) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 Product Feed Manager for WooCommerce – RexFeed – Sell on 200+ Shopping Channels 10K+ · 4.8★ (256) wp.org #10 ↑7 2 too low 9 Go Live Update Urls 90K+ · 4.5★ (59) wp.org #11 ↑1 2 too low 10 Pop-up 10K+ · 4.7★ (86) wp.org #14 ↑4 4 too low 11 ImageMagick Engine 60K+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #6 ↓1 5 too high 12 WPGraphQL 30K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too low 13 Admin Slug Column 5K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #12 ↑1 1 too high 14 WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #24 ↓13 10 too low 15 Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons 10K+ · 4.9★ (1911) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 W WP FullCalendar 8K+ · 4.7★ (96) wp.org #22 6 too low 17 O OpenID Connect Generic Client 10K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #17 ↑2 18 Debug Log Manager – Conveniently Monitor and Inspect Errors 10K+ · 5.0★ (25) wp.org #19 ↑5 1 too low 19 Yoast Test Helper 50K+ · 4.9★ (12) wp.org #9 ↓1 10 too high 20 SpinupWP 30K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #18 ↑3 2 too high 21 Search Attributes for WooCommerce 600+ · 4.9★ (9) wp.org #16 ↑4 5 too high 22 Helper Lite for PageSpeed 2K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #20 ↑2 2 too high 23 Featherweight 10K+ · 4.1★ (45) wp.org #21 2 too high 24 LearnPress – Prerequisites Courses 5K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↑3 11 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.