wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “rock”
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 “rock”, 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
Grey Rock Block Synchroniser for Wordfence and Cloudflare shows at wp.org #6 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 10+ 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
My Sticky Bar – Floating Notification Bar & Sticky Header (formerly myStickymenu) places #4 on merit, 4.9★ from 1199 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2186)
wp.org #1 2 
GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708)
wp.org #4 ↓1 2 too low 3 
Flamingo 800K+ · 4.2★ (121)
wp.org #2 1 too high 4 My Sticky Bar – Floating Notification Bar & Sticky Header (formerly myStickymenu) 100K+ · 4.9★ (1199)
wp.org #13 ↑2 9 too low 5 
Really Simple CAPTCHA 300K+ · 4.2★ (131)
wp.org #7 2 too low 6 
Easy Social Feed – All In One Social Feed Plugin for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502)
wp.org #12 6 too low 7 
Disable Bloat for WordPress & WooCommerce – Speed Up & Clean Up Admin 10K+ · 4.8★ (100)
wp.org #10 3 too low 8 
Announcement Bar, Notification Bar & Banner – Bulletin 2K+ · 4.6★ (20) thin reviews
wp.org #5 3 too high 9 
Free Downloads WooCommerce 4K+ · 4.7★ (85)
wp.org #11 2 too low 10 
Webheadcoder Multi-Step Forms for Contact Form 7 50K+ · 4.2★ (49)
wp.org #9 1 too high 11 
WP Social Ninja – Embed Social Feeds, User Reviews & Chat Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (71)
wp.org #17 ↑3 6 too low 12 
Bogo 10K+ · 4.5★ (48)
wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too low 13 
Custom Payment Gateways for WooCommerce 8K+ · 3.8★ (21) thin reviews
wp.org #8 5 too high 14 
Contact Form Clean and Simple 7K+ · 4.7★ (195)
wp.org #23 9 too low 15 
Bulk Auto Image Alt Text (Alt tag, Alt attribute) optimizer (image SEO) 10K+ · 4.2★ (111)
wp.org #20 ↓1 5 too low 16 
Datafeedr Product Sets 4K+ · 4.3★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #3 ↑1 13 too high 17 
Digital Goods for WooCommerce Checkout 3K+ · 4.5★ (42)
wp.org #16 ↑1 1 too high 18 
Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance 5K+ · 4.5★ (102)
wp.org #22 4 too low 19 L Listo 7K+ · 4.8★ (12) thin reviews
wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too high 20 
Metorik – Reports & Email Automation for WooCommerce 9K+ · 5.0★ (20) thin reviews
wp.org #24 4 too low 21 
WP Spell Check 2K+ · 2.9★ (39)
wp.org #21 22 
Easy Popups – Simple Popup Builder for Lead Capture & Announcements 30+ · 4.7★ (7) thin reviews
wp.org #18 ↓2 4 too high 23 
Chatroll Live Chat 200+ · 4.0★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24 Grey Rock Block Synchroniser for Wordfence and Cloudflare 10+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #6 18 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.