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

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 “silent”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

PayZen for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #8 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 600+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Disable Bloat for WordPress & WooCommerce – Speed Up & Clean Up Admin places #3 on merit, 4.8★ from 100 reviews, but shows at wp.org #11. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Shortcode Redirect 10K+ · 4.3★ (31) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too low 3 Disable Bloat for WordPress & WooCommerce – Speed Up & Clean Up Admin 10K+ · 4.8★ (100) wp.org #11 8 too low 4 phpinfo() WP – Site Health, PHP Compatibility & Server Audit 3K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Advanced Cron Manager – debug & control 30K+ · 4.7★ (39) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Meow Mailer – Free SMTP, Everything Included 900+ · 5.0★ (26) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 WPConsent – Cookie Banner & Cookie Consent for Privacy Compliance (GDPR / CCPA / EU Compliance Cookie Notice) 200K+ · 4.8★ (85) wp.org #16 ↓1 8 too low 9 Honeypot Guard – Silent Anti-Spam 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #1 8 too high 10 CheckView – Form & Checkout Testing 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #7 3 too high 11 Bulk Auto Image Alt Text (Alt tag, Alt attribute) optimizer (image SEO) 10K+ · 4.2★ (111) wp.org #18 ↓1 7 too low 12 ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments 10K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #13 ↑6 1 too low 13 DietPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (38) wp.org #23 ↓3 10 too low 14 Advanced Age Verification Popup 700+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #6 8 too high 15 GutSlider – All in One Slider and Carousel Blocks for Gutenberg 6K+ · 4.9★ (14) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too low 16 Double Opt-In for Contact Form 7 – Secure, GDPR-Compliant Email Verification 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too high 17 Contact Forms by Cimatti 700+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #20 ↑2 3 too low 18 VidShop – Shoppable Videos for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too low 19 PayZen for WooCommerce 600+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #8 11 too high 20 HTML Page Publisher 500+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 ↓1 6 too high 21 Accessible Carousel & Slider – WCAG AA Compliant Slideshow 500+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too low 22 Amanva – Silent Mode Alert for FluentSMTP 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 10 too high 23 L Lubber – The Silent Bad Bot Blocker — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 User Registration Stats 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓2 3 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.