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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “scroll to anywhere”

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 “scroll to anywhere”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

Slider Text Scroll shows at wp.org #6 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 400+ 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

Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 701 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WPFront Scroll Top 200K+ · 4.9★ (142) wp.org #1 2 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #2 3 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #3 4 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #4 5 Ajax Load More – Infinite Scroll, Load More, & Lazy Load 30K+ · 4.8★ (287) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 WP Sticky Sidebar – Floating Sidebar On Scroll for Any Theme 10K+ · 4.9★ (153) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too low 7 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #9 ↑1 2 too low 8 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (701) wp.org #16 ↑7 8 too low 9 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #14 5 too low 10 Text To Speech TTS Accessibility 4K+ · 4.8★ (92) wp.org #10 ↓2 11 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #19 ↓7 8 too low 12 PDF Embedder – PDF Viewer & Embed PDF Files for WordPress 300K+ · 4.7★ (529) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too low 13 My Sticky Bar – Floating Notification Bar & Sticky Header (formerly myStickymenu) 100K+ · 4.9★ (1199) wp.org #22 ↓1 9 too low 14 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #15 1 too low 15 Photo Gallery by Supsystic – Image Gallery, Masonry, Albums & Lightbox 20K+ · 4.6★ (498) wp.org #23 ↓1 8 too low 16 FlexTable – Data Table Sync with Google Sheets 3K+ · 4.6★ (35) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 Logo Carousel – Responsive Logo Slider, Logo Showcase, and Clients Logo Gallery 20K+ · 4.7★ (162) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 X-Scroll To Top – Responsive 200+ · 4.1★ (8) wp.org #5 ↑10 13 too high 19 Divi Torque Lite 50K+ · 4.7★ (116) wp.org #21 ↓1 2 too low 20 Sina Extension for Elementor 40K+ · 4.9★ (35) wp.org #18 ↑1 2 too high 21 Slider Text Scroll 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #6 ↓1 15 too high 22 Arts Horizontal Scroll for Elementor 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↓2 11 too high 23 Show Certificates Anywhere for LearnDash 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↓1 11 too high 24 Sticky Content – Make Any Section Sticky on Scroll 500+ · 3.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓2 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.