Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “sidebar duplicate”

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 “sidebar duplicate”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Sidebar Content Clone shows at wp.org #7 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 1.5★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 418 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Duplicate Page 3M+ · 4.8★ (466) wp.org #1 2 Delete Duplicate Posts 10K+ · 4.8★ (153) wp.org #2 3 Content Aware Sidebars – Fastest Widget Area Plugin 30K+ · 4.9★ (724) wp.org #5 ↑2 2 too low 4 Toolkit for Polylang – Translation Inspector & Duplicate Content 10K+ · 4.5★ (33) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 PublishPress Revisions: Duplicate Posts, Submit, Approve and Schedule Content Changes 10K+ · 4.6★ (66) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Polylang 900K+ · 4.7★ (3004) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #12 ↑1 5 too low 8 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #15 6 too low 10 Simple History – Track, Log, and Audit WordPress Changes 300K+ · 4.9★ (491) wp.org #18 8 too low 11 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #8 ↑1 3 too high 12 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #22 ↓1 10 too low 13 Infinity23 (Formerly Tag Manager) – One Plugin That Replaces All The Rest 20K+ · 4.7★ (53) wp.org #14 ↑2 1 too low 14 SimpLy Gallery 40K+ · 4.8★ (118) wp.org #19 ↑3 5 too low 15 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #21 ↓4 6 too low 16 All-in-One Sticky Anything – Click to Call, Fixed Widget, Sticky Header, Menu & Sidebar 1K+ · 4.9★ (15) wp.org #10 6 too high 17 Trash Duplicate and 301 Redirect 900+ · 4.3★ (36) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too high 18 Secure Custom Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #17 ↑3 1 too high 19 Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 Duplicate Title Validator 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #4 ↓1 16 too high 21 Simple Social Media Share Buttons – Social Sharing for Everyone 20K+ · 4.8★ (194) wp.org #24 ↓1 3 too low 22 Secure MCP Server for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI Agents 8K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #20 2 too high 23 Accordions – Responsive Accordion & FAQ Plugin for WordPress 1K+ · 4.6★ (10) wp.org #23 24 Sidebar Content Clone 400+ · 1.5★ (4) wp.org #7 ↓3 17 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.