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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “status bar”

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 “status bar”, we and wp.org disagree 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

Android 5.0 Lollipop Status Bar Customiser shows at wp.org #3 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 70+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets places #4 on merit, 4.9★ from 4132 reviews, but shows at wp.org #9. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Top Bar 10K+ · 4.0★ (43) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too low 3 StreamWeasels Online Status Bar 400+ · 4.2★ (11) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #9 5 too low 5 Maintenance 1M+ · 4.4★ (869) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Advanced Custom Stock Status 8K+ · 4.2★ (37) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too high 7 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 Free Shipping Label and Progress Bar for WooCommerce 5K+ · 5.0★ (43) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738) wp.org #14 ↑1 5 too low 10 Depicter — Popup & Slider Builder 70K+ · 4.6★ (236) wp.org #11 ↑5 1 too low 11 Announcer – Sticky Message Banner & Notification Bar 10K+ · 4.8★ (40) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #17 ↑1 5 too low 13 Icegram Engage – Popups, Welcome Bars, Optins, Slide-Ins & Lead Generation for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (370) wp.org #15 2 too low 14 NotificationX – FOMO, Live Sales Notification, WooCommerce Sales Popup, GDPR, Social Proof, Announcement Banner & Floating Notification Bar 30K+ · 4.8★ (228) wp.org #16 ↑1 2 too low 15 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #19 ↓5 4 too low 16 Android 5.0 Lollipop Status Bar Customiser 70+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #3 13 too high 17 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too high 18 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #23 ↑1 5 too low 19 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #18 ↓7 1 too high 20 Caddy – WooCommerce Side Cart & Free Shipping Bar 3K+ · 3.9★ (20) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too low 21 ElasticPress Debugging Add-On 800+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↑1 9 too high 22 PluggInsight – Maintenance Status 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 ↓2 2 too low 23 Browser Theme Color – Address Bar Color & Dark Mode 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓1 3 too high 24 Gaming-Plus Game Server Status 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 2 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.