Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “sites”, 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

Inspiro Starter Sites – 20+ Free Demo Templates for Gutenberg & Elementor shows at wp.org #5 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 10K+ 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

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 27821 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #1 2 Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1012) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #4 5 Site Reviews 60K+ · 4.9★ (376) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning 200K+ · 4.9★ (1645) wp.org #9 ↓2 3 too low 7 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #13 ↑2 6 too low 8 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 Starter Sites & Templates by Neve 100K+ · 4.7★ (77) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too high 10 MainWP Child – Securely Connects to the MainWP Dashboard to Manage Multiple Sites 700K+ · 5.0★ (71) wp.org #6 ↑2 4 too high 11 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #23 12 too low 12 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #17 ↑2 5 too low 13 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #20 7 too low 14 Starter Templates & Sites Pack by ThemeGrill 70K+ · 4.7★ (197) wp.org #14 ↑2 15 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #15 ↑9 16 ManageWP Worker 1M+ · 4.6★ (679) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too low 17 Simply Static – The Static Site Generator 30K+ · 4.5★ (195) wp.org #22 ↓2 5 too low 18 Metricool – Social media and site statistics 90K+ · 4.4★ (23) wp.org #18 ↑3 19 Linguator – AI Auto Translate & Create Multilingual Sites 3K+ · 4.6★ (20) wp.org #21 2 too low 20 Royal WordPress Backup, Restore & Migration Plugin – Backup WordPress Sites Safely 30K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Inspiro Starter Sites – 20+ Free Demo Templates for Gutenberg & Elementor 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 16 too high 22 Woostify Sites Library 10K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 11 too high 23 Starter Sites 900+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #16 ↑1 7 too high 24 aThemes Starter Sites 30K+ · 2.0★ (2) wp.org #10 14 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.