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

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 “temperature”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 3 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

WFY24 Weather Widget shows at wp.org #12 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 40+ 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Location Weather – WordPress Weather Forecast, Air Quality & Weather Widget 10K+ · 4.5★ (103) wp.org #1 2 WP Recipe Maker 50K+ · 5.0★ (356) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 WP GPX Maps 4K+ · 4.1★ (59) wp.org #3 ↑20 4 AI Bud – AI Content Generator, AI Chatbot, ChatGPT, Gemini, GPT-4o 2K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #7 ↓1 3 too low 5 Weather Widget Pro 1K+ · 3.9★ (8) wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too high 6 Ventus – Weather Map Widget & Shortcode 3K+ · 4.9★ (13) wp.org #9 ↓1 3 too low 7 Weather Atlas Widget 8K+ · 4.1★ (41) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 m1.MiniWeather 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too high 9 Event Post 1K+ · 4.3★ (35) wp.org #14 ↓2 5 too low 10 Simple Location 300+ · 4.6★ (8) wp.org #11 ↑6 1 too low 11 Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools 8K+ · 4.1★ (15) wp.org #16 ↓3 5 too low 12 Under The Weather 60+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too high 13 HHG for TranslatePress 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 too high 14 FooSales – Point of Sale (POS) for WooCommerce 600+ · 3.2★ (13) wp.org #17 ↓3 3 too low 15 WP Wand – AI Content Writer for OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, OpenRouter and Deepseek 1K+ · 3.8★ (10) wp.org #20 ↓1 5 too low 16 XTX Integration for Netatmo 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #19 ↓4 3 too low 17 Text Prompter – Unlimited chatgpt text prompts for openai tasks 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↓3 4 too high 18 Meteo 700+ · 4.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↓2 19 Universal Unit Converter: Convert Length, Weight, Temperature, Speed, and Time 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓4 4 too high 20 WFY24 Weather Widget 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 8 too high 21 Live Sea Temperature Widget by SeaTempMap — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓2 2 too low 22 WS40 – Live Weather 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓2 23 CodeArt Units Converter 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 AI Product Description Generator for WooCommerce – Nexa AI Product Content SmartSuite 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓3 3 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.