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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “role based gateways”

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 “role based gateways”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Conditional Payment Gateways for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #9 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Germanized for WooCommerce places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 496 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 Payment Gateway Based Fees and Discounts for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.7★ (58) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Payment Gateways by User Roles for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Import and export users and customers 70K+ · 4.7★ (259) wp.org #7 ↑1 4 too low 4 Custom Payment Gateways for WooCommerce 8K+ · 3.8★ (21) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 D Disable Payment Methods based on cart conditions for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832) wp.org #15 ↓1 9 too low 7 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #11 ↓4 4 too low 8 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 Germanized for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.8★ (496) wp.org #22 ↓3 13 too low 10 Pay for Payment for WooCommerce – Payment Gateway Fees & Discounts 10K+ · 4.7★ (71) wp.org #14 ↑1 4 too low 11 Masteriyo LMS – LMS Course Builder, Quizzes & Certificates 6K+ · 4.8★ (184) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 Invoice Payment Gateway for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #8 ↑2 4 too high 13 Wholesale Suite – B2B, Dynamic Pricing & WooCommerce Wholesale Prices 20K+ · 4.8★ (546) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 Print Invoice & Delivery Notes for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.4★ (140) wp.org #16 ↓7 2 too low 15 Smart Coupons For WooCommerce Coupons 30K+ · 4.7★ (133) wp.org #19 ↓3 4 too low 16 Membership & User Roles for WooCommerce (Automatic Role Changer) 400+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #6 10 too high 17 Product Prices by User Roles for WooCommerce 1K+ · 3.4★ (14) wp.org #5 12 too high 18 FluentCart A New Era of eCommerce – Faster, Lighter, and Simpler 9K+ · 4.5★ (46) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 Custom Shipping Methods for WooCommerce – Create Weight based Shipping, Conditional Shipping, Table Rate Shipping and much more 3K+ · 4.8★ (18) wp.org #17 2 too high 20 Payment Methods by Product & Country for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.2★ (18) wp.org #10 ↑1 10 too high 21 Secure MCP Server for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI Agents 8K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Conditional Payment Gateways for WooCommerce 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #9 13 too high 23 Custom Order Numbers for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.2★ (25) wp.org #20 ↓7 3 too high 24 WPC Role-Based Payment Methods for WooCommerce 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓2

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.