Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “speech”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 2 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

Easy Text-to-Speech shows at wp.org #15 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 20+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

AI Puffer – AI Chatbot & MCP Server for Claude and ChatGPT places #8 on merit, 4.6★ from 166 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 Text To Speech TTS Accessibility 4K+ · 4.8★ (92) wp.org #3 2 too low 2 LIQUID SPEECH BALLOON 10K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 ResponsiveVoice Text To Speech 7K+ · 3.9★ (34) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 GSpeech TTS – WordPress Text To Speech Plugin 3K+ · 4.8★ (178) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 Screen Reader Accessibility – WCAG, Text-to-Speech & AI Accessibility Fixes 600+ · 4.8★ (31) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Button visually impaired 10K+ · 4.9★ (27) wp.org #10 ↓2 4 too low 7 Text to Speech – TTSWP 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #4 ↑1 3 too high 8 AI Puffer – AI Chatbot & MCP Server for Claude and ChatGPT 10K+ · 4.6★ (166) wp.org #17 ↓1 9 too low 9 Text to Speech – Reinvent WP 40+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #8 ↓2 1 too high 10 SiteNarrator Text-to-Speech Widget 800+ · 4.1★ (9) wp.org #6 4 too high 11 Trinity Audio – Text to Speech AI audio player to convert content into audio 2K+ · 4.0★ (25) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 Word Balloon 10K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #11 ↓2 1 too high 13 Magic Login – Magic Link & Passwordless Authentication for WordPress – Login Without Password 3K+ · 4.8★ (26) wp.org #21 ↓4 8 too low 14 AI Text to Speech – TTS Plugin For WordPress 80+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #9 5 too high 15 Voice Audio Widgets – Voice recorder with Forms, AI Powered STT, TTS, Transcriptions, Language Teaching 300+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #23 ↓2 8 too low 16 Yandex Metrica 20K+ · 3.8★ (33) wp.org #16 ↓1 17 Snow Monkey Editor 30K+ · 4.0★ (5) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too high 18 Simply Disable Comments 8K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Instaread Audio Player — Text-to-Speech & Article-to-Audio 90+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #18 ↑6 1 too high 20 Security.txt Manager 700+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too high 21 Easy Text-to-Speech 20+ · 4.0★ (3) wp.org #15 ↓2 6 too high 22 Unagi 800+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 ↓2 2 too low 23 AI Provider for Google 50K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too high 24 LIQUID BLOCKS – Slider, Carousel, Accordion 4K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓1 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.