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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “technical analysis”

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 “technical analysis”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

BeyondSEO – AI SEO to Improve Rankings, Listings & Online Visibility shows at wp.org #9 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 20K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more places #7 on merit, 4.6★ from 709 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27820) wp.org #1 2 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #2 3 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #3 4 WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative 500K+ · 4.1★ (758) wp.org #4 5 Mercado Pago payments for WooCommerce 100K+ · 3.9★ (693) wp.org #5 ↑2 6 Spam Protection | Maspik 30K+ · 4.7★ (87) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #12 5 too low 8 CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #7 ↑6 1 too high 9 WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #13 ↑2 4 too low 10 ThinkRank SEO – AI SEO Plugin for SEO & Google Search Console 20K+ · 4.9★ (36) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 GEO Plugin by Squirrly SEO 30K+ · 4.6★ (683) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 Database Cleaner: Cleanup, Optimization & Repair 10K+ · 5.0★ (150) wp.org #14 ↓5 2 too low 13 FastPixel Cache – Optimize Page Speed: Compress Images, Minify, Clean Database & CDN 4K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 Page Builder by SiteOrigin 400K+ · 4.8★ (1005) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 5K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #17 ↑4 2 too low 16 SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph 300K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #20 4 too low 17 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 Hosting Benchmark tool 4K+ · 4.7★ (33) wp.org #18 19 BeyondSEO – AI SEO to Improve Rankings, Listings & Online Visibility 20K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #9 ↑5 10 too high 20 Interlinks Manager – Internal Links Optimizer 7K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #11 9 too high 21 QA Assistants – Driven by data 2K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too low 22 Zhanzhangb Indexing Submission for Baidu 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 ShopMagic Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too high 24 Technical Site Auditor 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↑2 9 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.