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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “text rewrite”

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 “text rewrite”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 2 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

eRecht24 Legal Texts shows at wp.org #2 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 50K+ 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

Fonts Plugin | Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts & Upload Fonts places #10 on merit, 5.0★ from 1221 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Text To Speech TTS Accessibility 4K+ · 4.8★ (92) wp.org #1 2 AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #6 4 too low 3 Bulk Auto Image Alt Text (Alt tag, Alt attribute) optimizer (image SEO) 10K+ · 4.2★ (111) wp.org #3 4 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Yoast Duplicate Post 3M+ · 4.7★ (538) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #17 9 too low 9 WP Hide & Security Enhancer 50K+ · 4.3★ (275) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 Fonts Plugin | Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts & Upload Fonts 200K+ · 5.0★ (1221) wp.org #21 11 too low 11 Change Text Case 1K+ · 4.8★ (21) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 Copy Anything to Clipboard for WordPress – Copy Button, Copy Text & Copy Code 10K+ · 4.5★ (36) wp.org #12 13 WP Accessibility 60K+ · 4.8★ (68) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 SEO Engine – Smart SEO with AI, Schema & Redirection for WordPress 1K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Spectra Blocks – AI Website Builder for the Block Editor 60K+ · 4.6★ (53) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 Ads.txt Manager 100K+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #16 17 eRecht24 Legal Texts 50K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 15 too high 18 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #19 1 too low 19 Filikod – Alt Text Checker & Bulk Image Alt Text Editor 200+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #13 6 too high 20 Full-Text Search 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 11 too high 21 VK All in One Expansion Unit 100K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Simple Post Publish & Rewrite using API 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 7 too high 23 Text Prompter – Unlimited chatgpt text prompts for openai tasks 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Alt Text Generator AI – Auto Generate & Bulk Update Alt Texts For Images 30+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #14 10 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.