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

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 words”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 4 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

Sokol: Smart WooCommerce Search shows at wp.org #6 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 5K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 24 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Stop Spammers Classic 20K+ · 4.4★ (243) wp.org #1 2

Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5038) heavy footprint wp.org #2 ↑1 3

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #3 ↓1 4

Relevanssi – A Better Search 100K+ · 4.8★ (406) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too low 5

Advanced Woo Search – Product Search for WooCommerce 60K+ · 4.8★ (248) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #4 1 too high 6

WP Armour – Honeypot Anti Spam 400K+ · 5.0★ (1471) wp.org #9 3 too low 7

WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #10 3 too low 8

Ivory Search – WordPress Search Plugin 90K+ · 4.9★ (1562) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too high 9

Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #12 ↑1 3 too low 10

Translate WordPress with Weglot 2.0 – Multilingual AI Translation 50K+ · 4.8★ (1940) wp.org #13 ↓1 3 too low 11

Beaver Builder Page Builder – Drag and Drop Website Builder 100K+ · 4.7★ (394) wp.org #11 ↑3 12

MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #8 ↓1 4 too high 13

Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) not PHP-currentheavy footprint wp.org #14 ↓3 1 too low 14

WP-Members Membership Plugin 50K+ · 4.6★ (272) wp.org #15 ↑5 1 too low 15

Sokol: Smart WooCommerce Search 5K+ · 4.4★ (24) thin reviews wp.org #6 ↑2 9 too high 16

Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI 90K+ · 4.9★ (375) heavy footprint wp.org #16 17

All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) not PHP-currentheavy footprint wp.org #20 3 too low 18

Auto Image Attributes From Filename With Bulk Updater (Add Alt Text, Image Title For Image SEO) 100K+ · 4.8★ (93) wp.org #19 ↓2 1 too low 19

GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #21 ↓3 2 too low 20

Advanced IP Blocker 3K+ · 4.9★ (27) wp.org #18 ↑4 2 too high 21

Document Embedder – let visitors read files without downloading 9K+ · 4.9★ (120) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #23 2 too low 22

Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) thin reviews wp.org #22 ↓3 23

SEO Media Manager 5K+ · 4.8★ (18) thin reviews wp.org #24 ↓3 1 too low 24 S Stop Comment Spam 300+ · 5.0★ (4) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #17 ↓2 7 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.