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

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 “skills”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 2 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

Skill Bars shows at wp.org #3 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 4755 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #1 ↑4 2 Backup Migration 80K+ · 4.9★ (1338) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too low 3 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #6 3 too low 4 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (195) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #8 ↑2 3 too low 6 SKT Skill Bar 1K+ · 4.1★ (14) wp.org #2 ↓1 4 too high 7 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too low 8 Brizy – Page Builder 60K+ · 4.7★ (972) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755) wp.org #20 10 too low 11 WEN Skill Charts 600+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #4 ↓2 7 too high 12 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too low 13 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #9 ↓1 4 too high 14 Crisp – Live Chat and AI Chatbot 20K+ · 4.6★ (73) wp.org #15 1 too low 15 WP Responsive Menu 30K+ · 4.3★ (100) wp.org #16 ↑3 1 too low 16 Skill Bars 300+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #3 13 too high 17 BerqWP – All-In-One Optimization for Core Web Vitals, Cache, CDN, Images, CSS & JavaScript 4K+ · 4.3★ (54) wp.org #17 ↓2 18 Landingi Landing Pages 2K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25) wp.org #14 ↑4 5 too high 20 Resume Builder 1K+ · 4.4★ (17) wp.org #19 ↓3 1 too high 21 Team Showcase – Responsive Team Members Grid, Slider & Carousel Plugin 2K+ · 3.4★ (24) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Plover Kit – Blocks, Patterns, Responsive Layout and Gutenberg Editor Enhancements 3K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 Parallax Section Block – Add Parallax Scrolling Effects to Sections 3K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #24 ↓2 1 too low 24 LearnPress – Prerequisites Courses 5K+ · 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.