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

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 “secrets”, 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 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

eRecht24 Legal Texts shows at wp.org #6 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 50K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Page & Under Construction places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 317 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 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #1 2 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #3 ↓1 1 too low 3 GravityExport Lite for Gravity Forms 10K+ · 5.0★ (39) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too high 4 hCaptcha for WP 70K+ · 4.6★ (88) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Page & Under Construction 10K+ · 4.8★ (317) wp.org #16 ↓1 11 too low 6 Remove Dashboard Access 30K+ · 4.6★ (78) wp.org #11 ↓1 5 too low 7 Invisible reCaptcha 70K+ · 4.3★ (133) wp.org #12 ↑4 5 too low 8 Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74) wp.org #10 ↑9 2 too low 9 reCAPTCHA for WooCommerce 40K+ · 4.6★ (76) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too low 10 WPO365 | MICROSOFT 365 GRAPH MAILER 10K+ · 5.0★ (40) wp.org #18 ↓1 8 too low 11 Back In Stock Notifier for WooCommerce | WooCommerce Waitlist Pro 20K+ · 4.7★ (122) wp.org #15 4 too low 12 Atlant Security 700+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #8 ↑1 4 too high 13 Payment Button for PayPal 4K+ · 4.5★ (40) wp.org #17 ↓6 4 too low 14 Block wp-login 600+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too high 15 Gmail SMTP 10K+ · 4.1★ (103) wp.org #24 ↓11 9 too low 16 DoLogin Security 7K+ · 4.5★ (13) wp.org #14 2 too high 17 JWT Authentication for WP REST API 60K+ · 4.4★ (53) wp.org #22 ↓2 5 too low 18 BF Secret File Downloader 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 14 too high 19 Really Simple Under Construction Page – Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode 1K+ · 4.8★ (9) wp.org #20 ↑1 1 too low 20 CF7 Invisible reCAPTCHA 6K+ · 3.1★ (14) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too low 21 eRecht24 Legal Texts 50K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 15 too high 22 RunThings Secrets 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 15 too high 23 Interac e-Transfer / Email Money Transfer (EMT) Gateway for WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #23 24 M Minimal Maintenance Mode 900+ · 5.0★ (1) 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.