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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “stale content”

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 “stale content”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

GetAutoSEO AI Tool shows at wp.org #13 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring places #11 on merit, 4.7★ from 321 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #1 2 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Random Content 3K+ · 4.8★ (35) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 AI Puffer – AI Chatbot & MCP Server for Claude and ChatGPT 10K+ · 4.6★ (166) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (195) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #6 ↑3 1 too high 8 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #11 ↓7 3 too low 9 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #21 ↑2 12 too low 10 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #5 ↑1 5 too high 11 404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring 100K+ · 4.7★ (321) wp.org #24 13 too low 12 s2Member – Excellent for All Kinds of Memberships, Content Restriction Paywalls & Member Access Subscriptions 8K+ · 4.1★ (234) wp.org #12 ↓1 13 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #23 ↓5 10 too low 14 Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO – Find & Fix Broken Internal, External & Video Links 200K+ · 3.8★ (87) wp.org #22 ↓1 8 too low 15 App for Cloudflare® 1K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #18 ↑2 3 too low 16 Subscriptions for WooCommerce Recurring Payments with Membership Content Restriction 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #16 ↑1 17 Topic SEO Content Optimization Tool 1K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #10 7 too high 18 WEUX Content Finder 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 ↑3 9 too high 19 Init Content Protector – Anti-Copy, Anti-Scrape, Encrypt-All 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 ↑2 5 too high 20 Content Guard Pro – Database Malware Scanner & SEO Spam Detector 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓1 5 too high 21 Codesala SEO Content Engine 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↑2 1 too high 22 Static Porter 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↑2 5 too high 23 GetAutoSEO AI Tool 2K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #13 10 too high 24 PixelParade Smart Purge for Breeze Cache 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑5 5 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.