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

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 “spotify”, we and wp.org disagree 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

Anchor Episodes Index (Spotify for Podcasters) shows at wp.org #2 but places #11 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.8★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #3 ↑1 2 too low 2 Pixel Manager for WooCommerce – Conversion Tracking, Google Ads, GA4, TikTok, Dynamic Remarketing 40K+ · 4.9★ (399) wp.org #5 ↑2 3 too low 3 Liza Widget For Spotify and Elementor 1K+ · 4.0★ (8) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 Seriously Simple Podcasting 20K+ · 4.7★ (330) wp.org #6 ↓3 2 too low 5 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too high 6 Nextend Social Login and Register 200K+ · 4.9★ (446) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7 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 #8 1 too low 8 Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons 10K+ · 4.9★ (1911) wp.org #10 ↑3 2 too low 9 Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons 100K+ · 4.8★ (5333) wp.org #12 ↓1 3 too low 10 PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry 20K+ · 4.6★ (231) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 Anchor Episodes Index (Spotify for Podcasters) 1K+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #2 9 too high 12 Hubbub Lite – Fast, free social sharing and follow buttons 30K+ · 4.7★ (173) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too high 13 AI-Powered Carousel, Slider, Video & Photo Gallery Blocks by WP Carousel 60K+ · 4.7★ (434) wp.org #20 7 too low 14 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #18 ↓5 4 too low 15 Fuse Social Icons 10K+ · 4.6★ (58) wp.org #14 ↑2 1 too high 16 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #22 ↑2 6 too low 17 Cookie Choices (for EU Cookie Law & GDPR) 9K+ · 4.5★ (35) wp.org #13 4 too high 18 Podcast Importer SecondLine 4K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #15 ↑2 3 too high 19 Podcast Subscribe Buttons 4K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #23 ↓3 4 too low 20 BeyondWords – AI audio for publishers 800+ · 3.6★ (27) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Custom iFrame – Embed PDFs, Videos, and External Content in WordPress (Elementor & Gutenberg) 4K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Social Divi 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too high 23 LabelGrid Tools 50+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too high 24 All Embed – Multi-Source Embed Widgets for Elementor 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↑1 8 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.