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

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 “soundcloud”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 5 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

Player for SoundCloud – share your music without leaving your site shows at wp.org #2 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 1K+ 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.

Buried gem

AI-Powered Carousel, Slider, Video & Photo Gallery Blocks by WP Carousel places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 434 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #1 2 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Robo Gallery – Photo & Image Slider 40K+ · 4.3★ (406) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons 100K+ · 4.8★ (5333) wp.org #9 ↓3 4 too low 6 Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons 10K+ · 4.9★ (1911) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 I iframe 60K+ · 4.4★ (56) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too high 8 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too high 9 All-in-one Sticky Floating Contact Form, Call, Click to Chat, and 50+ Social Icon Tabs – My Sticky Elements 40K+ · 4.9★ (542) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too low 10 AI-Powered Carousel, Slider, Video & Photo Gallery Blocks by WP Carousel 60K+ · 4.7★ (434) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar 20K+ · 4.8★ (302) wp.org #10 1 too high 12 WPSSO Core – Complete Schema Markup and Meta Tags 4K+ · 4.6★ (306) wp.org #18 ↑1 6 too low 13 Gallery – Photo Albums Plugin 2K+ · 3.8★ (277) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too low 14 FG Drupal to WordPress 700+ · 4.6★ (111) wp.org #16 2 too low 15 Post Grid 30K+ · 4.3★ (163) wp.org #21 6 too low 16 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #24 ↓4 8 too low 17 Fuse Social Icons 10K+ · 4.6★ (58) wp.org #11 ↑1 6 too high 18 PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry 20K+ · 4.6★ (231) wp.org #19 ↑4 1 too low 19 Flow-Flow Social Streams 7K+ · 3.3★ (100) wp.org #23 ↑1 4 too low 20 Player for SoundCloud – share your music without leaving your site 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 18 too high 21 SoundCloud Shortcode 5K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #22 ↓4 1 too low 22 Social Divi 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #12 ↓1 10 too high 23 Custom iFrame – Embed PDFs, Videos, and External Content in WordPress (Elementor & Gutenberg) 4K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #15 8 too high 24 All Embed – Multi-Source Embed Widgets for Elementor 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↑2 4 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.