wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “show user meta”
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 “show user meta”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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
JSM Show User Metadata shows at wp.org #2 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 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 #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 27,820 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
Meta Box – A Framework for Dynamic Websites 500K+ · 4.8★ (165)
wp.org #1 2 
Import and export users and customers 70K+ · 4.7★ (259)
wp.org #3 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 3 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1,281)
wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 4 
User Role Editor 700K+ · 4.5★ (288)
wp.org #4 ↓1 5 
Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1,445)
wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 6 
WP User Manager – Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile Builder & Member Directory 10K+ · 4.7★ (350)
wp.org #11 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 7 
User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537)
wp.org #10 ↑8 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 8 
Meta Tag Manager 70K+ · 4.8★ (84)
wp.org #8 9 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27,820)
wp.org #16 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 10 
User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 10K+ · 4.8★ (913)
wp.org #17 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 11 W WP Meta and Date Remover 80K+ · 4.2★ (71)
wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 12 
Meta Field Block – Display Custom Fields for ACF, Meta Box and More 10K+ · 5.0★ (57)
wp.org #12 ↓1 13 
Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4,962)
wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 14 
All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5,231)
wp.org #20 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 15 
JSM Show Post Metadata 10K+ · 5.0★ (12) thin reviews
wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 16 
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7,322)
wp.org #22 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 17 
New User Approve 20K+ · 4.3★ (131)
wp.org #15 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 18 
One User Avatar | User Profile Picture 100K+ · 4.7★ (41)
wp.org #13 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 19 JSM Show User Metadata 3K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #2 wp.org ranks it 17 places above merit 20 
ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities 5K+ · 4.6★ (236)
wp.org #24 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 21 
ProfilePress – Paid Membership, Online Courses (LMS), Ecommerce, User Registration & Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content 100K+ · 3.1★ (938)
wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 22 
Head Meta Data 10K+ · 4.8★ (19) thin reviews
wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 23 
JSM Show Order Metadata for WooCommerce HPOS 700+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #18 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 24 
View User Metadata 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #23 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.