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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “ssl migration”

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 “ssl migration”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Migrate to WordPress.com shows at wp.org #8 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.7★ average from 9 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Store Locator places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 312 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #1 2 Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning 200K+ · 4.9★ (1644) wp.org #2 3 Auto-Install Free SSL – Generate & Install Free SSL Certificates 8K+ · 4.9★ (405) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #3 ↑9 1 too high 5 WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4229) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #9 ↓2 2 too low 8 Backuply – Backup, Restore, Migrate and Clone 600K+ · 4.5★ (135) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too high 9 BlogVault Backup & Staging 80K+ · 4.6★ (332) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too low 10 Postie 10K+ · 4.7★ (139) wp.org #13 ↑1 3 too low 11 Simply Static – The Static Site Generator 30K+ · 4.5★ (195) wp.org #15 4 too low 12 WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312) wp.org #22 ↓1 10 too low 13 Pantheon Migrations 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #5 ↓1 8 too high 14 ManageWP Worker 1M+ · 4.6★ (679) wp.org #18 4 too low 15 Cloudways WordPress Migrator 10K+ · 4.2★ (36) wp.org #10 ↓2 5 too high 16 Modular DS: Monitor, update, and backup multiple websites 40K+ · 5.0★ (133) wp.org #23 7 too low 17 Migrate to WordPress.com 2K+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #8 ↓2 9 too high 18 InstaWP Connect – 1-click WP Staging & Migration 40K+ · 4.5★ (12) wp.org #12 ↓2 6 too high 19 Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO – Find & Fix Broken Internal, External & Video Links 200K+ · 3.8★ (87) wp.org #24 5 too low 20 Version Info – Server Health Monitor, PHP & MySQL Version Display, Environment Indicators 10K+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too low 21 App for Cloudflare® 1K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #20 ↑2 1 too high 22 FlyWP Helper – Page Cache, Page Optimization, Emails for FlyWP Server Control Panel 4K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 かんたんお引越し for お名前.com 400+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Volixta SSL & Security Headers – Free SSL Certificates, HTTPS & Mixed Content Fixer 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 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.