wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “restrict woocommerce products”
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 “restrict woocommerce products”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20.
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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.
Ranked above its merit
Restrict for Elementor shows at wp.org #3 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 9 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction places #9 on merit, 4.7★ from 270 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.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4,835)
wp.org #1 2 
PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce 300K+ · 5.0★ (1,866)
wp.org #6 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 3 
Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127)
wp.org #4 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 
BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55)
wp.org #5 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 
Smart Coupons For WooCommerce Coupons 30K+ · 4.7★ (133)
wp.org #9 ↑4 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 6 
Restrict User Access – Ultimate Membership & Content Protection 10K+ · 4.3★ (94)
wp.org #8 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 7 
Back In Stock Notifier for WooCommerce | WooCommerce Waitlist Pro 20K+ · 4.7★ (122)
wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 8 
Pinterest for WooCommerce 200K+ · 2.3★ (68) low rating, top placement
wp.org #2 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 9 Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270)
wp.org #14 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 10 
Subscriptions for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.5★ (180)
wp.org #12 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 11 
PPOM – Product Addons & Custom Fields for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.5★ (283)
wp.org #13 ↑8 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 12 
Product Addons for Woocommerce – Product Options with Custom Fields 30K+ · 4.9★ (476)
wp.org #17 ↓6 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 13 Restrict for Elementor 900+ · 4.0★ (9) thin reviews
wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 10 places above merit 14 
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #19 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 15 
Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4,133)
wp.org #21 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 16 
Page Restrict for WooCommerce 700+ · 4.7★ (23) thin reviews
wp.org #7 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 17 
CatalogX Product Catalog, Product Enquiry & Quotes for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.2★ (60)
wp.org #11 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 18 
Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.5★ (355)
wp.org #22 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 19 
Sliding Cart for WooCommerce by FunnelKit – Skip Cart & Reach WooCommerce Checkout Faster 30K+ · 5.0★ (111)
wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 20 
Show only lowest prices in variable products for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.8★ (28)
wp.org #16 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 21 
Maximum Products per User for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.6★ (42)
wp.org #18 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 22 
MKL Product Configurator for WooCommerce – 2D & 3D Live Preview 2K+ · 4.8★ (42)
wp.org #23 ↓14 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 23 
Restrict – membership, site, content and user access restrictions for WordPress 2K+ · 4.2★ (25)
wp.org #24 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 24 
Product File Upload for WooCommerce 700+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.