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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “second title”

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 title”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

Duplicate Title Validator shows at wp.org #4 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Floating Chat Widget: Contact Chat Icons, Telegram Chat, Line Messenger, WeChat, Email, SMS, Call Button – Chaty places #11 on merit, 5.0★ from 1244 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Secondary Title 7K+ · 4.9★ (72) wp.org #1 2 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #2 3 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #3 4 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too low 5 Under Construction 600K+ · 4.8★ (1285) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (743) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too low 7 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too high 8 WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1014) wp.org #13 ↓1 5 too low 9 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #12 ↓1 3 too low 10 Custom Permalinks 100K+ · 4.1★ (116) wp.org #10 ↓1 11 Floating Chat Widget: Contact Chat Icons, Telegram Chat, Line Messenger, WeChat, Email, SMS, Call Button – Chaty 300K+ · 5.0★ (1244) wp.org #21 10 too low 12 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #20 ↓7 8 too low 13 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (199) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 CMS Tree Page View – Reorder Pages with a Drag-and-Drop Tree 50K+ · 4.9★ (365) wp.org #22 ↓12 8 too low 15 Max Mega Menu 300K+ · 4.8★ (882) wp.org #24 ↓5 9 too low 16 Eventin – Events Calendar, Tickets, Registration, Booking & WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.7★ (413) wp.org #14 2 too high 17 Duplicate Title Validator 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #4 13 too high 18 FluentAuth – Login Security, Two-Factor Authentication, Passkeys & Social Login 10K+ · 4.1★ (35) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 Read Meter – Reading Time & Progress Bar 10K+ · 4.5★ (19) wp.org #19 ↓3 20 GTM Kit – Google Tag Manager & GA4 integration 30K+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #23 ↑1 3 too low 21 Product Editor Pro – WooCommerce Bulk Edit: Prices, Stock, Images, Titles, CSV Import & More 1K+ · 4.6★ (22) wp.org #17 ↓2 4 too high 22 Daisy Titles — Style & Hide Page and Post Titles 3K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 ↓1 13 too high 23 Singular Alerts – Create Beautiful Alerts and Notifications in Seconds 90+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 12 too high 24 Teaser Post Title 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 9 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.