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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “secure wp admin”

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 “secure wp admin”, 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

SiteGuard WP Plugin shows at wp.org #7 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 600K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 15 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 1146 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #1 2 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 #2 3 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8708) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too low 7 WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1014) wp.org #11 ↑2 4 too low 8 Secure Custom Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #6 ↑3 2 too high 9 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too low 10 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #10 ↑1 11 WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect 50K+ · 4.9★ (1146) wp.org #17 ↑2 6 too low 12 WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #14 ↑2 2 too low 13 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #19 ↑3 6 too low 14 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #16 2 too low 15 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #18 2 too low 17 WP Umbrella: Security Backup Restore & Monitoring 90K+ · 4.8★ (81) wp.org #20 3 too low 18 Secure MCP Server for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI Agents 8K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #9 ↑6 9 too high 19 Secure Passkeys 2K+ · 4.8★ (19) wp.org #12 7 too high 20 All In One Login 60K+ · 3.6★ (35) wp.org #15 ↑2 5 too high 21 Secure Copy Content Protection and Content Locking 20K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #24 3 too low 22 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #21 ↑2 1 too high 23 Protect WP Admin 10K+ · 3.6★ (50) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too high 24 SiteGuard WP Plugin 600K+ · 4.3★ (15) wp.org #7 17 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.