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

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 “telephone”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 of the top 20. 5 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

International Telephone Field For Elementor Form shows at wp.org #5 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 300+ 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

WPSSO Core – Complete Schema Markup and Meta Tags places #7 on merit, 4.6★ from 306 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Telephone field for Elementor Forms 4K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #1 2 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738) wp.org #10 8 too low 3 Checkout Field Editor for WooCommerce – Checkout Manager 20K+ · 4.9★ (165) wp.org #11 8 too low 4 Smart COD for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.6★ (52) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 International Telephone Input With Flags And Dial Codes 1K+ · 4.1★ (7) wp.org #2 3 too high 6 Country Code For Elementor Form Telephone Field 10K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 WPSSO Core – Complete Schema Markup and Meta Tags 4K+ · 4.6★ (306) wp.org #23 16 too low 8 Country & Phone Field Contact Form 7 40K+ · 4.5★ (41) wp.org #15 7 too low 9 Input Mask For Elementor Form Fields 10K+ · 4.5★ (24) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too low 10 Conditional Fields for Elementor Form – Apply Conditional Logic 10K+ · 4.7★ (32) wp.org #12 ↑4 2 too low 11 Telephone field for Gravity Forms 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 8 too high 12 Extra Product Options For WooCommerce | Custom Product Addons and Fields 30K+ · 4.9★ (219) wp.org #24 12 too low 13 F4 Shipping Phone and E-Mail for WooCommerce 700+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #9 4 too high 14 RTMForm – Contact Form, Multi-Step Forms & Form Templates for Elementor 30K+ · 4.3★ (14) wp.org #17 ↑1 3 too low 15 Form Input Masks For Elementor Forms 10K+ · 4.1★ (18) wp.org #13 ↑1 2 too high 16 MyParcel 8K+ · 3.9★ (48) wp.org #19 ↓7 3 too low 17 Cool FormKit Lite – Advanced Form Builder for Elementor 20K+ · 4.6★ (25) wp.org #22 5 too low 18 Disable Browser Telephone Format Detection 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 12 too high 19 Telephone Input For Contact Form 7 700+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 11 too high 20 International Telephone Field For Elementor Form 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 15 too high 21 imoje 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #16 ↑1 5 too high 22 Cryptex | E-Mail Address Protection 800+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 Pay. Payment Methods for WooCommerce 3K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 PayJustNow for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↑1 6 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.