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

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 “sender”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

Change Default Email Sender Name shows at wp.org #7 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 90+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) places #6 on merit, 5.0★ from 422 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Sender – Newsletter, SMS and Email Marketing Automation for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.8★ (79) wp.org #1 2 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – The Most Popular SMTP and Email Log Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (5200) wp.org #2 3 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1432) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 WP Change Email Sender 10K+ · 4.9★ (9) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 600K+ · 4.8★ (405) wp.org #10 ↑1 5 too low 6 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (422) wp.org #24 18 too low 7 Change Mail Sender 20K+ · 4.4★ (18) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Elastic Email Sender 10K+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #4 4 too high 9 Stop WP Emails Going to Spam 10K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #11 ↓1 2 too low 10 Ultimate Gift Cards for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.7★ (242) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 VS Contact Form 7K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #18 7 too low 12 Change Sender Email – From Name and From Address 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #6 6 too high 13 Kali Forms — Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Builder 10K+ · 4.8★ (89) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 WPVulnerability 10K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #20 ↑2 6 too low 15 Payment Button for PayPal 4K+ · 4.5★ (40) wp.org #21 ↑2 6 too low 16 Sender by BestWebSoft 80+ · 4.1★ (9) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 Hostinger Reach – AI-Powered Email Marketing for WordPress 1M+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #9 8 too high 18 Send Emails with Mandrill 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #23 ↓2 5 too low 19 CF7 Submissions – Securely Store Contact Form 7 Data and Attachments, Reply to the Sender and more 2K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #14 ↑1 5 too high 20 Change Default Email Sender Name 90+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 13 too high 21 Email Deliverability – SMTP Replacement, Email API Deliverability & Email Log 200K+ · 2.3★ (16) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 Custom Email Sender 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓1 7 too high 23 SMS Gateway Center – Bulk SMS Sender 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 7 too high 24 Lettermint 400+ · 5.0★ (1) 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.