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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “spam protection”

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 “spam protection”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

OpenPorte Spam Protection shows at wp.org #10 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 600+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection places #10 on merit, 4.6★ from 3,992 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.

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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3,224) wp.org #1 2 Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection 5M+ · 4.7★ (1,187) wp.org #2 3 Spam Protection | Maspik 30K+ · 4.7★ (87) wp.org #3 4 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5,043) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 5 WP Armour – Honeypot Anti Spam 400K+ · 5.0★ (1,475) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 6 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2,409) wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 7 Titan Anti-spam & Security – Brute Force Protection, 2FA & Spam Filter 50K+ · 4.5★ (370) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 8 oopspam Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for WordPress Forms & Comments (No CAPTCHA) 6K+ · 4.9★ (51) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 9 ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments 10K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 10 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3,992) wp.org #17 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 11 Zero Spam for WordPress 20K+ · 4.1★ (143) wp.org #12 ↑4 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 12 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1,398) wp.org #19 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 13 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1,720) wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 14 WPBruiser Security – No CAPTCHA Anti-Spam & Login Protection 10K+ · 4.6★ (213) wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 15 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 5K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #16 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 16 Disabled Source, Disabled Right Click and Content Protection 10K+ · 4.9★ (103) wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 17 Gravity Forms Zero Spam 100K+ · 4.3★ (24) wp.org #15 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 18 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #18 ↓6 19 CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #22 ↓5 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 20 Captcha by BestWebSoft – Advanced Spam Protection, Math & OCR-Friendly Captcha for Site Forms 10K+ · 4.1★ (21) wp.org #13 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 21 Anti-Spam Protection – No API Key, GDPR Friendly 1K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #14 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 22 Spam Destroyer 5K+ · 4.6★ (54) wp.org #24 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 23 OpenPorte Spam Protection 600+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #10 ↑4 wp.org ranks it 13 places above merit 24 Dam Spam 3K+ · 4.3★ (4) wp.org #11 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 13 places above merit

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.