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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “storm”

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 “storm”, 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 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

Nexura Security — Malware Scanner, Firewall, 2FA & WordPress Security shows at wp.org #14 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 20+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Snow Storm 300+ · 4.6★ (49) wp.org #1 2 WP Snow Effect 1K+ · 4.9★ (390) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Code Block Pro – Beautiful Syntax Highlighting 10K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Location Weather – WordPress Weather Forecast, Air Quality & Weather Widget 10K+ · 4.5★ (103) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Store Vacation Lite for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.6★ (189) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7 Honeypot Toolkit 400+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 Socicon 200+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too high 9 CelerSearch – AI-Powered Instant Search with Meilisearch 30+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too low 10 Bot Storm Radar — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 Storm Clean Admin — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↓1 12 Rocket Marketing Roofing Marketing Toolkit — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 1 too low 13 Impress Living Backgrounds — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 2 too low 14 MCP Logs — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 2 too high 15 ClearComet Cloak for MCP — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 1 too low 16 TheAVCoach Weather Station for WeatherLink 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 1 too low 17 Dreamfoxmedia Form Analytics — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 1 too low 18 AreaIntelig Lite — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 HarmonyUser Sync – Sync Users & Customers Across Multiple Sites 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 3 too low 20 Logtern – Debug Log Viewer — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 3 too low 21 Nexura Security — Malware Scanner, Firewall, 2FA & WordPress Security 20+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #14 7 too high 22 T Thessley Security Hardening — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 Media on Autopilot — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 BP Add Post Updates to Activity 20+ · 3.0★ (3) wp.org #24

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.