Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “sponsored”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

SmartFormat feed for SmartNews shows at wp.org #12 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 85 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #1 2 External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window 80K+ · 4.3★ (247) wp.org #2 3 User Switching 200K+ · 4.9★ (238) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Cyr-To-Lat 300K+ · 4.7★ (98) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Query Monitor 200K+ · 4.9★ (470) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 W WP FullCalendar 8K+ · 4.7★ (96) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Flexible Map 7K+ · 4.8★ (66) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP 20K+ · 4.8★ (85) wp.org #15 ↑1 7 too low 9 Affiliate Link Marker 400+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #5 4 too high 10 Easy Affiliate Links 6K+ · 4.2★ (34) wp.org #10 ↑1 11 T Translation with DeepL API 3K+ · 4.0★ (29) wp.org #9 2 too high 12 rtMedia for WordPress, BuddyPress and bbPress 7K+ · 3.7★ (152) wp.org #14 ↓1 2 too low 13 Term Management Tools 10K+ · 4.9★ (76) wp.org #22 ↓3 9 too low 14 Embed Any Document – Embed PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel Files 50K+ · 4.2★ (92) wp.org #17 3 too low 15 Eway Payment Gateway 800+ · 4.3★ (15) wp.org #8 7 too high 16 Tablesome Table – Contact Form DB – WPForms, CF7, Gravity, Forminator, Fluent 7K+ · 4.8★ (89) wp.org #23 7 too low 17 Next Active Directory Integration 2K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #20 ↓2 3 too low 18 All-in-one Like Widget 1K+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #24 ↓3 6 too low 19 MWW Disclaimer Buttons 400+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too high 20 Leaving Notice Popup For External Links – nofollow, noopener & New Tab 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 ↓3 7 too high 21 Send Emails with Resend 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↓4 3 too high 22 Mortar for Bricks Builder 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 ↑1 3 too high 23 Checkout with Zelle on Woocommerce 3K+ · 3.4★ (5) wp.org #21 2 too high 24 SmartFormat feed for SmartNews 1K+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #12 12 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.