wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “schedule post draft”

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 “schedule post draft”, 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

Controlled Draft Publisher shows at wp.org #6 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Blog2Social: Social Media Auto Post & Scheduler places #7 on merit, 4.5★ from 2107 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Simply Schedule Appointments 50K+ · 5.0★ (155) wp.org #1 2

Schedule Post Changes With PublishPress Future: Unpublish, Delete, Change Status, Trash, Change Categories 100K+ · 4.5★ (172) wp.org #2 3

Post Duplicator 200K+ · 4.8★ (80) wp.org #3 4

SchedulePress – Auto Post & Publish, Auto Social Share, Schedule Posts with Editorial Calendar & Missed Schedule Post Publisher 10K+ · 4.6★ (201) wp.org #4 5

WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (199) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6

Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #8 2 too low 7

Blog2Social: Social Media Auto Post & Scheduler 40K+ · 4.5★ (2107) wp.org #14 7 too low 8

Delete Duplicate Posts 10K+ · 4.8★ (153) wp.org #10 2 too low 9

WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #13 4 too low 10

LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #15 5 too low 11

RSS Aggregator by Feedzy – Feed to Post, Autoblogging, News & YouTube Video Feeds Aggregator 40K+ · 4.6★ (361) wp.org #17 ↓1 6 too low 12

Revive Social – Social Media Auto Post and Scheduling Automation Plugin 20K+ · 4.0★ (556) wp.org #16 ↓5 4 too low 13

Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) thin reviews wp.org #9 4 too high 14

WP Bulk Delete 90K+ · 4.6★ (131) wp.org #20 5 too low 16

Duplicate Post – duplicate pages, copy content, clone posts 5K+ · 4.7★ (7) thin reviews wp.org #5 11 too high 17

Radio Station by netmix® – Manage and play your Show Schedule in WordPress! 1K+ · 4.6★ (30) wp.org #23 6 too low 18

Share a Draft 3K+ · 3.7★ (11) thin reviews wp.org #11 ↑1 7 too high 19

Social Post Flow – Social Media Automation, Scheduling, Scheduler, Posting & Auto Post 200+ · 4.2★ (10) thin reviews wp.org #12 ↓5 7 too high 20

Controlled Draft Publisher 300+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #6 ↓1 14 too high 21

Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) thin reviews wp.org #21 ↓2 22

Post Export Import with Media 1K+ · 4.5★ (8) thin reviews wp.org #18 ↓1 4 too high 23

AI Auto Post & Image Generator 200+ · 4.8★ (4) thin reviews wp.org #22 1 too high 24

Duplicate and Auto Draft Cleaner 100+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #19 ↓1 5 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.