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

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 “space”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

Money Space shows at wp.org #4 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 70+ 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

Backup Migration places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 1338 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 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #1 2 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #2 3 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #3 ↑3 4 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #6 ↓2 2 too low 5 Relevanssi – A Better Search 100K+ · 4.8★ (406) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Imsanity 200K+ · 4.9★ (291) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #9 ↑10 1 too low 9 Backup Migration 80K+ · 4.9★ (1338) wp.org #17 ↓7 8 too low 10 Download Manager 100K+ · 4.1★ (1006) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too low 11 Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection 5M+ · 4.7★ (1187) wp.org #13 ↓4 2 too low 12 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #18 ↑3 6 too low 13 Folders – Unlimited Folders to Organize Media Library Folder, Pages, Posts, File Manager 90K+ · 5.0★ (1525) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 Max Mega Menu 300K+ · 4.8★ (882) wp.org #21 ↓3 7 too low 15 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #16 1 too low 16 PNG to JPG 10K+ · 4.7★ (40) wp.org #12 4 too high 17 Orphans 50K+ · 5.0★ (164) wp.org #24 ↓2 7 too low 18 JSM Non-Breaking Space (nbsp) for French Content 1K+ · 4.6★ (15) wp.org #8 10 too high 19 Flexible Spacer Block 4K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #10 ↑1 9 too high 20 Safe SVG 1M+ · 4.9★ (79) wp.org #20 ↓3 21 Zalomení 6K+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too low 22 Money Space 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 ↓1 18 too high 23 Dashboard: Available Disk Space 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓4 4 too high 24 Aims Textarea Wordcount with/without Space For Contact Form 7 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓1 9 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.