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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “simple cpt”

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 “simple cpt”, we and wp.org disagree 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 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

SuperLight CPT Manager shows at wp.org #11 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 30+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) places #5 on merit, 5.0★ from 423 reviews, but shows at wp.org #10. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Seriously Simple Podcasting 20K+ · 4.7★ (330) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Simple CPT 4K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Simple Revisions Delete 10K+ · 4.9★ (50) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Simple Sitemap – Responsive HTML Sitemap for WordPress 60K+ · 3.9★ (72) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #10 ↑1 5 too low 6 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Simple Blog Stats 4K+ · 4.9★ (38) wp.org #7 8 Custom Post Type WooCommerce Integration – Sell Any CPT with WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #5 ↑1 3 too high 9 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #13 ↑2 4 too low 10 Really Simple Featured Video for Posts, Pages & WooCommerce Products 4K+ · 4.0★ (34) wp.org #6 ↓1 4 too high 11 Simple Calendar – Google Calendar Plugin 50K+ · 3.8★ (397) wp.org #12 ↑2 1 too low 12 Events Manager – Calendar, Bookings, Tickets, Appointments and more! 60K+ · 4.2★ (551) wp.org #14 ↓2 2 too low 13 Social Preview and Open Graph Tags 50K+ · 4.6★ (122) wp.org #16 3 too low 14 Meta Box – A Framework for Dynamic Websites 500K+ · 4.8★ (165) wp.org #21 ↓1 7 too low 15 Simple XML Sitemap Generator 3K+ · 4.6★ (11) wp.org #8 7 too high 16 Meta Tag Manager 70K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 Pie Calendar – Events Calendar Made Simple 1K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #18 1 too low 18 Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #19 ↑3 1 too low 19 Duplicate Page and Post 70K+ · 4.6★ (29) wp.org #20 ↓1 1 too low 20 Simple SMTP 2K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #23 ↓2 3 too low 21 Simple Media Library Folders 100+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #15 6 too high 22 SuperLight CPT Manager 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↑2 11 too high 23 Dynamic Fields Engine – Custom post types, Custom fields, Meta fields, Taxonomies, Listing builder, Query builder and Relations 3K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 6 too high 24 S Simple Auto Post Scheduler 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↑2 2 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.