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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “test orders”

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 “test orders”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

WC Search Orders By Product shows at wp.org #11 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 800+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 14387 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Autocomplete WooCommerce Orders 30K+ · 4.6★ (137) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Yoast Test Helper 50K+ · 4.9★ (12) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (588) wp.org #3 4 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #8 ↓1 4 too low 5 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #10 ↓1 5 too low 6 Trakoo – Orders Tracking for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.5★ (58) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 Split Test For Elementor 3K+ · 4.4★ (24) wp.org #4 4 too high 9 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too low 10 Custom Taxonomy Order 50K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too high 11 Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601) wp.org #17 ↑7 6 too low 12 WC Order Test 6K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #7 ↓1 5 too high 13 Nelio A/B Testing – AB Tests and Heatmaps for Better Conversion Optimization 4K+ · 4.8★ (99) wp.org #12 1 too high 14 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #24 ↓11 10 too low 15 OneClick Chat to Order 30K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too high 16 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #23 ↓1 7 too low 17 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #22 ↓4 5 too low 18 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #19 1 too low 19 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #18 ↓1 1 too high 20 WebToffee EU Order Withdrawal Button for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #13 ↓3 7 too high 21 EU Order Withdrawal Button for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.6★ (7) wp.org #16 5 too high 22 VRTs – Visual Regression Tests 800+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too high 23 WC Search Orders By Product 800+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #11 12 too high 24 Diluted Test Order for WooCommerce 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↑3 4 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.