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← Rankings

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

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 “subdirectory”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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

Demo Importer Plus shows at wp.org #13 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Translate WordPress with Weglot 2.0 – Multilingual AI Translation places #4 on merit, 4.8★ from 1940 reviews, but shows at wp.org #9. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #1 2 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #2 3 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #3 4 Translate WordPress with Weglot 2.0 – Multilingual AI Translation 50K+ · 4.8★ (1940) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too low 5 XML Sitemap & Google News 100K+ · 4.4★ (85) wp.org #5 ↑2 6 Nginx Helper 200K+ · 4.4★ (31) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 NS Cloner – Site Cloner and Multisite Duplicator 6K+ · 4.7★ (279) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 Domain Mapping System | Create Microsites with Multiple Alias Domains (multisite optional) 2K+ · 4.5★ (56) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too high 9 WP Media Category Management 6K+ · 4.7★ (35) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 Images to WebP 9K+ · 4.4★ (32) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too high 11 R Rewrite Rules Inspector 10K+ · 5.0★ (26) wp.org #14 ↑1 3 too low 12 Ads.txt & App-ads.txt Manager for WordPress 2K+ · 4.8★ (48) wp.org #15 ↑1 3 too low 13 Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #12 ↑1 1 too high 14 CP Media Player – Audio Player and Video Player 3K+ · 4.4★ (46) wp.org #16 ↑1 2 too low 15 PDF Thumbnail Generator 2K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #22 ↑1 7 too low 16 Fastcache by Host.it 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↑1 6 too high 17 Layout Recompiler for Brizy 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↑1 1 too low 18 FlyWP Helper – Page Cache, Page Optimization, Emails for FlyWP Server Control Panel 4K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 ↑2 1 too low 19 HTML Page Publisher 500+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 ↑1 2 too high 20 Demo Importer Plus 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↑1 7 too high 21 Simple Force SSL 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↑1 2 too low 22 Frontend Gatekeeper 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 2 too high 23 AI Sales Agent & Chatbot for WooCommerce – WPCreatix 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too high 24 Admin Screenshots 10+ · 5.0★ (1) 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.