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

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 watch”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 4 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

Snow Monkey Blocks shows at wp.org #18 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 30K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 5333 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #1 2 Super RSS Reader – Add attractive RSS Feed Widget 9K+ · 4.6★ (67) wp.org #2 3 Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & More 20K+ · 4.3★ (113) wp.org #3 4 WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher 10K+ · 4.8★ (514) wp.org #4 5 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #7 ↑2 2 too low 6 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #5 2 too high 8 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #10 ↑3 2 too low 9 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #12 ↑2 3 too low 10 Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281) wp.org #8 ↑3 2 too high 11 Events Manager – Calendar, Bookings, Tickets, Appointments and more! 60K+ · 4.2★ (551) wp.org #9 ↑1 2 too high 12 Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons 100K+ · 4.8★ (5333) wp.org #23 ↓2 11 too low 13 FluentCRM – Email Newsletter, Automation, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Optins, Leads, and CRM Solution 80K+ · 4.8★ (250) wp.org #14 ↑3 1 too low 14 Seriously Simple Podcasting 20K+ · 4.7★ (330) wp.org #11 ↑1 3 too high 15 White Label CMS 200K+ · 4.7★ (114) wp.org #13 ↑2 2 too high 16 Slim SEO – AI SEO Plugin, Lightweight, Fast & Automated 70K+ · 4.7★ (136) wp.org #15 ↑1 1 too high 17 PPWP – Password Protect Pages 30K+ · 4.7★ (271) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #16 ↑4 2 too high 19 SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph 300K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #22 3 too low 20 Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62) wp.org #17 ↑1 3 too high 21 Podlove Podcast Publisher 3K+ · 4.3★ (45) wp.org #21 ↑3 22 BotWriter – AI Writer & SEO Content Generator 1K+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #20 ↑3 2 too high 23 T4B News Ticker – Responsive News Scroller, Slider, and Animations 7K+ · 4.5★ (16) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Snow Monkey Blocks 30K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #18 ↑4 6 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.