wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “stay logged”
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 “stay logged”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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
Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes shows at wp.org #17 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 200K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 74 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1,720)
wp.org #1 ↑1 2 
FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (412)
wp.org #2 ↓1 3 
LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2,778)
wp.org #3 4 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1,281)
wp.org #4 ↑1 5 
WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2,617)
wp.org #5 ↑1 6 
PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1,321)
wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 7 
WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2,471)
wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 8 
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #9 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 9 
WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1,014)
wp.org #11 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 10 
GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155)
wp.org #6 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 11 
Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601)
wp.org #12 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 12 
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5,211)
wp.org #13 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 13 
Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262)
wp.org #10 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 14 
AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (876)
wp.org #16 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 15 
Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1,398)
wp.org #14 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 16 
Simple History – Track, Log, and Audit WordPress Changes 300K+ · 4.9★ (492)
wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 17 
WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167)
wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 18 
Nav Menu Roles 70K+ · 4.9★ (219)
wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 19 
Block Visibility — Conditional Visibility Control for the Block Editor 40K+ · 4.9★ (108)
wp.org #21 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 20 
BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55)
wp.org #18 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 21 
WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1,346)
wp.org #24 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 22 Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74)
wp.org #17 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 23 
Visibility Logic for Elementor 20K+ · 4.8★ (58)
wp.org #23 ↑1 24 
Simple Password Protect 500+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.