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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “stick anything”

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 “stick anything”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

News Ticker – Floating Headlines & Sticky Alerts shows at wp.org #12 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 1.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Blog Designer places #12 on merit, 4.0★ from 167 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Sticky Menu & Sticky Header 90K+ · 4.7★ (762) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2428) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Ocean Stick Anything 20K+ · 4.8★ (8) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 Photonic Gallery & Lightbox for Flickr, SmugMug & Others 10K+ · 4.8★ (193) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Happyforms – Form Builder for WordPress: Drag & Drop Contact Forms, Surveys, Payments & Multipurpose Forms 20K+ · 4.4★ (433) wp.org #9 4 too low 6 s2Member – Excellent for All Kinds of Memberships, Content Restriction Paywalls & Member Access Subscriptions 8K+ · 4.1★ (234) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Sticky Block for Gutenberg Editor 8K+ · 4.6★ (11) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 URL Shortify – Simple and Easy URL Shortener 10K+ · 4.7★ (166) wp.org #10 2 too low 9 Product Table & List Builder for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.9★ (253) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 Superb Addons: Blocks, Patterns, Pre-built Pages, Sliders, Popups, Free Forms, Animations & More 80K+ · 4.9★ (22) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 Essential Classy Addons for Elementor – 150+ Widgets, Templates & Performance Tools 500+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #11 12 Blog Designer 10K+ · 4.0★ (167) wp.org #18 ↑1 6 too low 13 TinyMCE Custom Styles 7K+ · 3.9★ (15) wp.org #22 9 too low 14 TraveledMap Trip itinerary: Embedded map 80+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #15 1 too low 15 AfterSalesPro Plugin 400+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #14 1 too high 16 Feedify – Web Push Notifications 90+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #16 17 F FameTheme Demo Importer 30K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 11 too high 18 Zen Site Security 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 Copyright AI Content Licensing – Block AI Crawlers + Get Paid 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Agentimus – AI SEO, llms.txt & MCP for AI Agents 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑1 1 too high 21 Roadmap and Feedback Plugin for WordPress – SimpleBoards 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↑1 1 too high 22 Emerge Mail 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓3 1 too high 23 PrintPrice: STL & 3MF Price Calculator for WooCommerce 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 News Ticker – Floating Headlines & Sticky Alerts 100+ · 1.0★ (1) wp.org #12 12 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.