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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “stop copy”

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 “stop copy”, we agree with wp.org 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 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

Stop Media Comment Spamming shows at wp.org #3 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 800+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Germanized for WooCommerce places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 496 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. 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 Secure Copy Content Protection and Content Locking 20K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #2 3 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #6 ↓1 3 too low 4 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #7 ↓3 3 too low 5 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #5 6 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #13 ↑1 7 too low 7 Weight Based Shipping for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.6★ (83) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Germanized for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.8★ (496) wp.org #17 ↓6 8 too low 10 Disable Right Click RB – Content Copy Protection, Prevent Copy & No Right Click 600+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #4 ↑2 6 too high 11 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #14 ↓2 3 too low 12 Advanced IP Blocker 3K+ · 4.9★ (27) wp.org #10 ↑6 2 too high 13 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #15 ↓2 2 too low 14 A AJAX Thumbnail Rebuild 30K+ · 4.8★ (90) wp.org #18 ↓9 4 too low 15 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #22 ↓4 7 too low 16 WPGraphQL 30K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #19 3 too low 17 Stop Media Comment Spamming 800+ · 3.0★ (6) wp.org #3 14 too high 18 FluentAuth – Login Security, Two-Factor Authentication, Passkeys & Social Login 10K+ · 4.1★ (35) wp.org #16 ↑7 2 too high 19 Disable Emails 30K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #21 ↓4 2 too low 20 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #23 3 too low 21 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #20 ↑4 1 too high 22 GTM Kit – Google Tag Manager & GA4 integration 30K+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #24 ↓4 2 too low 23 Right Click Ban – Disable Right Click & Content Copy Protection 400+ · 4.3★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓2 11 too high 24 Magic Copy for Elementor – Cross Domain Copy Paste & Page Duplicator 20+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 ↑8 13 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.