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

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 “sky”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 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

Sky Sliders for Elementor shows at wp.org #5 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 80+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Weight Based Shipping Table Rate for WooCommerce – Flexible Shipping places #5 on merit, 4.9★ from 706 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Sky Login Redirect 2K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #1 2 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 LifterLMS – WP LMS for eLearning, Online Courses, & Quizzes 10K+ · 4.8★ (393) wp.org #7 4 too low 4 Sky Addons for Elementor – 160+ Widgets, GSAP Animations, Templates & Theme Builder 2K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Weight Based Shipping Table Rate for WooCommerce – Flexible Shipping 100K+ · 4.9★ (706) wp.org #13 ↓2 8 too low 6 Variation Swatches for WooCommerce 300K+ · 4.8★ (926) wp.org #9 ↑3 3 too low 7 W WP-SCSS 40K+ · 4.3★ (61) wp.org #12 ↑4 5 too low 8 Product Bundle Builder for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.8★ (61) wp.org #10 2 too low 9 Snow Monkey Blocks 30K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 Slider Hero with Video Background, Animation 3K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #17 ↑1 7 too low 11 FluentAuth – Login Security, Two-Factor Authentication, Passkeys & Social Login 10K+ · 4.1★ (35) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 Contact Form Generator : Creative form builder for WordPress 700+ · 4.4★ (67) wp.org #20 8 too low 13 Revive To Sky – Post old content to Bluesky 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #6 7 too high 14 Khattat – Arabic Fonts 500+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 Sky Sliders for Elementor 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 10 too high 16 Simple Location 300+ · 4.6★ (8) wp.org #19 3 too low 17 Blogger Import Wizard – Blogger to WordPress Importer 80+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 ↓2 6 too high 18 SkyLang Auto Translator for Polylang 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓2 3 too high 19 WPBot – ChatBot Conversational Forms 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #24 5 too low 20 Sky SEO – SEO Bulk Editor & Automation, GEO, AI internal Linking, LLM.txt, Schema & More 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 4 too high 21 Migrate away from FooGallery 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 22 Sky Changelog Notifier 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 4 too high 23 MWR Hit Counter 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too high 24 FAQ Schema Shortcode 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↓1 1 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.