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← Rankings

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

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 “services”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

AI for Home Services shows at wp.org #7 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 800+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 5210 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #3 2 too low 2 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #4 ↓2 2 too low 3 Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons 30K+ · 5.0★ (775) wp.org #5 ↑1 2 too low 4 WPBot – AI ChatBot for Live Support, Lead Generation, WordPress Automation, AI Services 5K+ · 4.7★ (124) wp.org #6 ↑3 2 too low 5 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #10 ↓6 5 too low 6 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #9 ↓4 3 too low 7 Services Section Block – present your services in clean grids and columns 2K+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #1 6 too high 8 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #12 ↑1 4 too low 9 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5210) wp.org #15 ↓7 6 too low 10 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #16 ↓2 6 too low 11 WooCommerce Tax (formerly WooCommerce Shipping & Tax) 500K+ · 2.1★ (106) wp.org #2 ↑4 9 too high 12 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #17 ↑3 5 too low 13 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5040) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #20 6 too low 15 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #22 ↓3 7 too low 16 Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails 100K+ · 4.8★ (215) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 WP BASE Booking of Appointments, Services and Events 100+ · 4.9★ (34) wp.org #14 ↓3 3 too high 18 VikAppointments Services Booking Calendar 500+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #13 ↑4 5 too high 19 AI for Home Services 800+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #7 12 too high 20 AI Services 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #8 ↑2 12 too high 21 Service Box 400+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #21 22 Service Showcase 800+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↑2 11 too high 23 Service Box Slider 400+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 ILS – Indian Logistics Services 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↑6 6 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.