Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “reverse post order”

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 “reverse post order”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Essential Content Types shows at wp.org #14 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 20K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

AudioIgniter Music Player places #11 on merit, 4.6★ from 64 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 Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (587) wp.org #1 2 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce 300K+ · 5.0★ (1865) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #8 ↑9 3 too low 6 P Post Order By Category 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #2 4 too high 7 Chronological Posts 1K+ · 4.9★ (12) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #10 ↓4 2 too low 9 VS Event List 8K+ · 4.9★ (82) wp.org #9 10 Prime Slider – Hero Slider, Carousel, WooCommerce & Post Slider Elementor Addons 100K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #16 6 too low 11 AudioIgniter Music Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (64) wp.org #22 ↑1 11 too low 12 OrderConvo – Vendor & Customer Messages After Orders 200+ · 4.6★ (22) wp.org #13 1 too low 13 C Custom Category Post Order 500+ · 3.2★ (19) wp.org #7 ↑1 6 too high 14 WCFM Marketplace – Multivendor Marketplace for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.6★ (449) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 List all posts by Authors, nested Categories and Titles 600+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #12 3 too high 16 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #11 5 too high 17 Flexible PDF Invoices for WooCommerce & WordPress 6K+ · 4.4★ (37) wp.org #20 ↑4 3 too low 18 Collapsing Categories 4K+ · 4.1★ (57) wp.org #18 ↑1 19 Better Block Editor (BBE) 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #15 ↑3 4 too high 20 Secure MCP Server for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI Agents 8K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #17 3 too high 21 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #21 ↑1 22 D Default Sort Ascend 400+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #23 ↓3 1 too low 23 Advanced Marquee Effect for Elementor – Smooth Marquee, News Ticker, Image Box & Icon Box Marquee 2K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #19 ↑2 4 too high 24 Essential Content Types 20K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #14 10 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.