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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “rss parser”

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 “rss parser”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20. 4 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

News-Parser shows at wp.org #4 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 100+ 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

FluentCRM – Email Newsletter, Automation, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Optins, Leads, and CRM Solution places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 250 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher 10K+ · 4.8★ (514) wp.org #1 2 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #5 ↑1 3 too low 3 F FeedWordPress 8K+ · 4.2★ (61) wp.org #3 4 Flow-Flow Social Streams 7K+ · 3.3★ (100) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticketing Sales 500+ · 4.4★ (136) wp.org #10 5 too low 6 Fast Velocity Minify 30K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #19 ↑4 13 too low 7 iubenda | All-in-one Compliance for GDPR / CCPA Cookie Consent + more 200K+ · 4.7★ (397) wp.org #22 ↓2 15 too low 8 FluentCRM – Email Newsletter, Automation, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Optins, Leads, and CRM Solution 80K+ · 4.8★ (250) wp.org #24 16 too low 9 Friends 900+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #6 ↓1 3 too high 10 Content Egg – Affiliate Product Importer & Price Comparison 10K+ · 3.9★ (56) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 Offload, AI & Optimize with Cloudflare Images 1K+ · 4.9★ (33) wp.org #23 ↓2 12 too low 12 MediaBlaster – Video CMS, Vimeo Import, Live TV & Podcasts 200+ · 3.9★ (14) wp.org #8 4 too high 13 RSS Retriever Lite 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 11 too high 14 No External Links 4K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #18 4 too low 15 LLMs.txt Curator 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #13 2 too high 16 KBucket: Your Curated Content in WordPress 10+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 News-Parser 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 13 too high 18 AI RSS Rewriter – Feed to Post, Autoblogging & SEO 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 7 too high 19 MF2 Feeds 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 7 too high 20 Capo – Head Optimizer 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 6 too high 21 Content Aggregator — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 5 too high 22 Lineate — Poetry Blocks 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 Newsroom OS – Google Discover, Google News, Schema & Editorial Workflow 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too high 24 Mayo Events Manager 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 4 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.