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

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 “solid”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Solid Performance – Your No-Code Caching, Performance, & Page Speed Solution shows at wp.org #2 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 4K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 160 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Solid Post Likes 500+ · 4.8★ (9) wp.org #1 2 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3992) wp.org #6 4 too low 3 Solid Mail – SMTP email and logging made by SolidWP 60K+ · 4.2★ (52) wp.org #3 4 Media Cleaner: Delete Unused Images & Clean Your Media Library 90K+ · 4.6★ (779) wp.org #10 ↓2 6 too low 5 Enable Media Replace 600K+ · 4.4★ (302) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes 200K+ · 4.7★ (326) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 Solid Testimonials – Testimonial Slider, Video Testimonials & Customer Reviews 1K+ · 4.3★ (35) wp.org #5 2 too high 8 Log cleaner for Kadence Security 7K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #7 ↑8 1 too high 9 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #20 11 too low 10 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #21 ↓5 11 too low 11 Better Font Awesome 60K+ · 4.5★ (88) wp.org #15 ↓2 4 too low 12 BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security 100K+ · 4.9★ (160) wp.org #24 12 too low 13 Announcement & Notification Banner – Bulletin 2K+ · 4.6★ (20) wp.org #9 ↑1 4 too high 14 Advanced Custom Fields: Font Awesome Field 90K+ · 4.9★ (36) wp.org #16 ↓2 2 too low 15 Disable Bloat for WordPress & WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.8★ (100) wp.org #22 ↓2 7 too low 16 Super block slider – Image/video background & content slider 8K+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #12 ↓1 4 too high 17 Font Awesome 400K+ · 3.6★ (61) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too high 18 Solid Performance – Your No-Code Caching, Performance, & Page Speed Solution 4K+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #2 16 too high 19 Swipe Slider – Make dynamic slider with solid, gradient, or image background 3K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #4 15 too high 20 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #14 ↓5 6 too high 21 Header Footer Builder for Elementor 30K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 VK All in One Expansion Unit 100K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #18 ↑1 4 too high 23 Section Builder with Backgrounds – Customize with Color, Gradient, Image and Parallax. 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↓1 24 Hello Plus 70K+ · 3.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓1 5 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.