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

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 “sprite”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 3 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 it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

merit plugin wp.org
1 JCH Optimize 4K+ · 4.4★ (69) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Minimal Share Buttons 100+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Sprite Connector — · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 R rtSocial 30+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #13 ↓1 9 too low 5 Init FX Engine – Interactive, Event-Driven, Lightweight 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Mudrava Icon Field for ACF with Lucide 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 7 U2Code Product Multicurrency for WooCommerce 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 ↑2 2 too high 8 Sprite Generator — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too high 9 EventBookings — · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↑1 3 too low 10 Universal Unit Converter: Convert Length, Weight, Temperature, Speed, and Time 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 Altonet Animated BG 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↑1 2 too high 12 SVG Forge Icon Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too high 13 Safesprite Icons — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 1 too low 14 Addifect — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 3 too high 15 Waito Animated Preloader and Loading Screen 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↑4 16 Modern Maps — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 17 Wonderful Selfhosted Fonts 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 18 A Axismundi Map — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓2 19 Christmas Snow – Festive Snowfall Effect 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 20 Starry Sky – Interactive Night Sky Cover Block — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓2 21 R RangerHQ Buddy — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓1 22 ZW Player Video Embed 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 A Axismundi Geodata — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓2 24 Izubizu Slider — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.