wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “social media manager”
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 “social media manager”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.
Ranked above its merit
Social Post Flow – Social Media Automation, Scheduling, Scheduler, Posting & Auto Post shows at wp.org #16 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 10 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
Folders – Unlimited Folders to Organize Media Library Folder, Pages, Posts, File Manager 90K+ · 5.0★ (1,527)
wp.org #3 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 2 
Metricool – Social media and site statistics 90K+ · 4.4★ (23) thin reviews
wp.org #1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 3 
Wp Social Login and Register Social Counter 70K+ · 4.6★ (67)
wp.org #2 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 4 
Download Manager 90K+ · 4.1★ (1,006)
wp.org #4 5 
Feed Them Social – Social Media Feeds, Video, and Photo Galleries 20K+ · 4.7★ (639)
wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 6 
Blog2Social: Social Media Auto Post & Scheduler 40K+ · 4.5★ (2,107)
wp.org #9 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 7 
All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5,233)
wp.org #10 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 8 
Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2,409)
wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 9 
Bit Social – Social Media Auto Poster and Scheduler 6K+ · 4.5★ (36)
wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 10 
Meta Tag Manager 70K+ · 4.8★ (84)
wp.org #8 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 11 
Easy Social Feed – All In One Social Feed Plugin for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502)
wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 12 
ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2,051)
wp.org #14 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 13 
File Manager 10K+ · 4.3★ (202)
wp.org #11 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 14 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147)
wp.org #22 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 15 
Social Media Auto Poster – Schedule & Publish to Buffer 7K+ · 4.5★ (125)
wp.org #13 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 16 
Revive Social – Social Media Auto Post and Scheduling Automation Plugin 20K+ · 4.0★ (556)
wp.org #18 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 17 
WCFM – Frontend Manager for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.5★ (286)
wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 18 
PublishPress Capabilities: User Role Access Control, Admin Area Permissions 90K+ · 4.7★ (144)
wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 19 
Affiliates Manager 8K+ · 4.1★ (61)
wp.org #15 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 20 
Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62)
wp.org #17 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 21 
Social Engine 600+ · 4.8★ (30)
wp.org #23 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 22 
FluentAuth – Login Security, Two-Factor Authentication, Passkeys & Social Login 10K+ · 4.1★ (36)
wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 23 Social Post Flow – Social Media Automation, Scheduling, Scheduler, Posting & Auto Post 200+ · 4.2★ (10) thin reviews
wp.org #16 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 24 
Tracking Script Manager 2K+ · 4.1★ (7) thin reviews
wp.org #24 ↓2 Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.