wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “second mail option”
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 “second mail option”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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
Royal Mail Shipping Calculator for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #7 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 8 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Popup Maker – Boost Sales, Conversions, Optins, Subscribers with the Ultimate WP Popup Builder places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 4514 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209)
wp.org #1 2 
FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410)
wp.org #2 3 
Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108)
wp.org #3 4 
Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87)
wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 
Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205)
wp.org #9 ↑1 4 too low 6 
Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528)
wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too low 7 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4229)
wp.org #10 ↑1 3 too low 8 
GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155)
wp.org #6 2 too high 9 
Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358)
wp.org #12 ↑1 3 too low 10 
Weight Based Shipping Table Rate for WooCommerce – Flexible Shipping 100K+ · 4.9★ (706)
wp.org #15 ↑1 5 too low 11 
Import and export users and customers 70K+ · 4.7★ (259)
wp.org #13 ↑1 2 too low 12 Popup Maker – Boost Sales, Conversions, Optins, Subscribers with the Ultimate WP Popup Builder 600K+ · 4.9★ (4514)
wp.org #19 ↓1 7 too low 13 
Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.5★ (355)
wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too low 14 
Mail Queue 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) thin reviews
wp.org #4 ↑1 10 too high 15 
Flexible Checkout Fields for WooCommerce – WooCommerce Checkout Manager 80K+ · 4.7★ (296)
wp.org #16 ↑1 1 too low 16 
Solid Mail – SMTP email and logging made by SolidWP 60K+ · 4.2★ (52)
wp.org #11 ↑1 5 too high 17 
Antispam Bee 700K+ · 4.8★ (226)
wp.org #18 ↑3 1 too low 18 Royal Mail Shipping Calculator for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.4★ (8) thin reviews
wp.org #7 ↑1 11 too high 19 
CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135)
wp.org #24 5 too low 20 
FluentAuth – Login Security, Two-Factor Authentication, Passkeys & Social Login 10K+ · 4.1★ (35)
wp.org #17 ↑5 3 too high 21 
Meow Mailer – Free SMTP, Everything Included 900+ · 5.0★ (26)
wp.org #23 2 too low 22 
Cryptex | E-Mail Address Protection 800+ · 4.0★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #20 2 too high 23 
SendForce Mail SMTP Relay – SMTP and Email API 10+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #21 ↓2 2 too high 24 
Contact Info 100+ · 0.0★ (0) thin reviews
wp.org #22 ↑2 2 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.