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

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 “select”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 18 of the top 20. 2 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.

A

Ranked above its merit

Advanced Custom Fields: Image Size Select Field shows at wp.org #4 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 300+ 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

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 27821 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Image Regenerate & Select Crop 7K+ · 4.7★ (58) wp.org #1 2 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #5 ↑3 3 too low 3 Folders – Unlimited Folders to Organize Media Library Folder, Pages, Posts, File Manager 90K+ · 5.0★ (1525) wp.org #6 3 too low 4 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #7 ↓2 3 too low 5 RY City Select for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.9★ (9) wp.org #2 3 too high 6 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738) wp.org #13 7 too low 7 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #18 11 too low 8 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #16 ↓4 8 too low 9 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #14 ↓7 5 too low 10 Select All Categories and Taxonomies, Change Checkbox to Radio Buttons 3K+ · 4.3★ (12) wp.org #3 7 too high 11 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #21 ↓7 10 too low 12 Maintenance 1M+ · 4.4★ (869) wp.org #17 ↑4 5 too low 13 W WC City Select 2K+ · 4.9★ (14) wp.org #9 ↓3 4 too high 14 D Dropdown Multisite Selector 900+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #11 ↓2 3 too high 15 GravityWP – CSS Selector 4K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #8 7 too high 16 Redux Framework 900K+ · 4.4★ (273) wp.org #22 ↓11 6 too low 17 MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583) wp.org #12 6 too high 19 Disable Generate Thumbnails 6K+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #20 ↓4 1 too low 20 WP User Avatars 20K+ · 4.5★ (29) wp.org #23 ↓5 3 too low 21 B Bulk-Select Featured Image 100+ · 3.1★ (14) wp.org #10 11 too high 22 A Advanced Custom Fields: Image Size Select Field 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 18 too high 23 Frontype | Select a custom post type as a front page 300+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #15 ↓5 8 too high 24 NEX-Forms ADD ON – Super Select 900+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓4 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.