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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “snow fall”

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 “snow fall”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Falling Shapes shows at wp.org #9 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 10+ 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Snow Effect 1K+ · 4.9★ (390) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Unlimited Elements for Elementor 300K+ · 4.8★ (525) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 S Snow Fall 60+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 Advanced Form Integration — Connect Forms to 300+ Apps 9K+ · 4.8★ (91) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Minifly – Site Enhancement, White Label and Custom Dashboard Solution 10+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Christmas Snow – Festive Snowfall Effect 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 ↑2 2 too high 7 Snow 100+ · 4.5★ (13) wp.org #24 17 too low 8 Falling Things 200+ · 4.0★ (3) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too high 9 Christmas Decorations 10+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #22 ↑1 13 too low 10 Init FX Engine – Interactive, Event-Driven, Lightweight 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↓1 4 too high 11 Particle WordPress Backgrounds 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 8 too low 12 Season Particles 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 2 too high 13 Christmas Snow Effects 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 2 too high 14 Falling Shapes 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 5 too high 15 Sparkle for Divi 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 3 too high 16 DCLVBS Snowflakes — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 PhotoFetch — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 3 too high 18 Seazonify — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 Impress Living Backgrounds — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 Spelhubben Weather 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 3 too high 21 Target Media Toolkit – Maintenance Mode, Hide Login, WebP & Sitemap — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 3 too high 22 Plusero – Extra Fees for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 2 too high 23 Phaerixa Discovery Forensics & Indexing — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too high 24 DadsFam Live Chat — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 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.