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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “ship date”

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 “ship date”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 5 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

Ship Discounts shows at wp.org #2 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 22 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor places #3 on merit, 4.9★ from 2051 reviews, but shows at wp.org #8. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Ship Estimate for WooCommerce 100+ · 4.9★ (8) wp.org #1 2 Redux Framework 900K+ · 4.4★ (273) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #8 ↓1 5 too low 4 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #7 ↑2 3 too low 5 Estimated delivery date per product for WooCommerce 300+ · 4.3★ (83) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.5★ (355) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 Meta Box – A Framework for Dynamic Websites 500K+ · 4.8★ (165) wp.org #11 ↑1 2 too low 10 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too low 11 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #13 ↓2 2 too low 12 Easy Google Maps by Supsystic – Custom Markers, Clustering & Map Themes 20K+ · 4.6★ (251) wp.org #16 ↑8 4 too low 13 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #18 ↓1 5 too low 14 WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Dokan: AI Powered WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy 30K+ · 4.6★ (769) wp.org #15 16 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #17 ↑1 1 too low 17 Event Booking Manager for WooCommerce – Sell Tickets, Event Registration, RSVP & Event Calendar 7K+ · 4.5★ (167) wp.org #21 ↓1 4 too low 18 EU Withdrawal and Legal Guarantee Compliance 1K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Partial Shipment for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.4★ (9) wp.org #23 ↓1 4 too low 20 EnvíaYa: Ship with all carriers (Rating, Booking and Tracking) 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 ↓1 11 too high 21 DayPick: Date Fields for Contact Form 7 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↑2 9 too high 22 Delivery & Pickup Date Time Scheduler for WooCommerce 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 JD Web & Ship 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓4 3 too high 24 Ship Discounts 100+ · 2.0★ (1) wp.org #2 22 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.