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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “scraper”

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 “scraper”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 2 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

Tasty Recipes Lite – WordPress Recipe Card Plugin with Built-In Recipe Schema shows at wp.org #15 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 2K+ 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Scraper 2K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #1 2 Under Construction 600K+ · 4.8★ (1285) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 301 Redirects – Redirect Manager 300K+ · 4.7★ (578) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1014) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Known Agents – Track AI Bots and Crawlers, Block Scrapers, Analyze LLM Referral Traffic 1K+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #2 4 too high 7 Minimal Coming Soon – Coming Soon Page 100K+ · 4.3★ (282) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 Simple Author Box 90K+ · 4.3★ (115) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) – Advanced Security Plugin and Firewall 100K+ · 4.9★ (220) wp.org #10 11 External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window 90K+ · 4.3★ (247) wp.org #9 2 too high 12 Colorlib 404 Customizer 5K+ · 4.7★ (51) wp.org #12 13 Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance 5K+ · 4.5★ (102) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 Disable Right Click RB – Content Copy Protection, Prevent Copy & No Right Click 600+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #14 ↑8 15 VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control 2K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #24 9 too low 16 Affiliate Links – Link Cloaking and Management 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #17 ↓1 1 too low 17 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 800+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #13 4 too high 18 Trace My IP – Visitor IP Tracker, Stats Analytics & Page Views Counter with Email Alerts 1K+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #19 1 too low 19 App for Cloudflare® 1K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #22 ↑2 3 too low 20 Cryptex | E-Mail Address Protection 800+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too high 21 Tasty Recipes Lite – WordPress Recipe Card Plugin with Built-In Recipe Schema 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too high 22 WindCodex ScraperBlock – Block AI Scrapers & Bots from WordPress & WooCommerce 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too high 23 Forge AI Bot Log – Block AI Bots, Crawler Detection & Verification 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 WhoKnew Shield — Email, Phone & Address Security 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 3 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.