Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “reputation”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 5 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

Business Reviews – build trust with real customer feedback shows at wp.org #15 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 1K+ 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

WP TripAdvisor Review Slider places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 135 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Spam Protection | Maspik 30K+ · 4.7★ (87) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #2 ↑2 3 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #3 4 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #4 ↑2 5 SMTP2GO for WordPress – Email Made Easy 40K+ · 5.0★ (67) wp.org #5 6 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #6 ↑2 7 Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning 30K+ · 4.8★ (1039) wp.org #10 ↑2 3 too low 8 reSmush.it : The original free image compressor and optimizer plugin 100K+ · 4.3★ (166) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Real Testimonials – Testimonial Slider, Collect Customer Reviews and Video Testimonials 40K+ · 4.7★ (226) wp.org #14 ↓4 5 too low 10 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too low 11 Zero Spam for WordPress 20K+ · 4.1★ (143) wp.org #8 ↑3 3 too high 12 WP TripAdvisor Review Slider 8K+ · 4.8★ (135) wp.org #21 ↑1 9 too low 13 Shipping Live Rates for USPS for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.7★ (30) wp.org #17 4 too low 14 Video Popup – Video Lightbox for YouTube, Vimeo & MP4 10K+ · 4.5★ (43) wp.org #20 ↑1 6 too low 15 Hostinger Reach – AI-Powered Email Marketing for WordPress 1M+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #9 6 too high 16 GoSMTP – SMTP for WordPress 500K+ · 4.3★ (10) wp.org #11 ↑2 5 too high 17 ThreatPoint IP Reputation 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 ↑3 4 too high 18 Anti Spam and list cleaner – AcyChecker 400+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 ↑1 1 too low 19 Email Deliverability – SMTP Replacement, Email API Deliverability & Email Log 200K+ · 2.5★ (17) wp.org #12 ↑2 7 too high 20 The Courier Guy Shipping for WooCommerce 4K+ · 3.1★ (23) wp.org #18 ↑1 2 too high 21 Zoho ZeptoMail 5K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #23 ↑1 2 too low 22 BeyondSEO – AI SEO to Improve Rankings, Listings & Online Visibility 20K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #22 23 MailerSend – Official SMTP Integration 2K+ · 2.8★ (12) wp.org #24 ↓1 1 too low 24 Business Reviews – build trust with real customer feedback 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↑2 9 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.