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

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 “tide”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Mawu Dark Mode for the Admin Dashboard, Editor & Website shows at wp.org #8 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 10+ 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 Tides Today UK and Ireland tide times 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #1 2 PHP Compatibility Checker 200K+ · 2.7★ (131) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Plugin Compatibility Checker 9K+ · 4.2★ (12) wp.org #6 3 too low 4 oik 2K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Photo Gallery by Re Gallery: Responsive Image Gallery with AI SEO 700+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #21 ↓1 16 too low 6 Advanced Floating Content Lite 7K+ · 4.1★ (30) wp.org #18 ↓1 12 too low 7 Popular Brand Icons – Simple Icons 3K+ · 4.7★ (10) wp.org #20 ↓1 13 too low 8 UK tides – heights and times 90+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #4 4 too high 9 Tides Today Tides and Weather 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 4 too high 10 UnoDock – Mobile Bottom Navigation 700+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 ↓1 9 too low 11 Nestides Tide Chart — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 ↓1 4 too high 12 Worldtides Widget 100+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #13 ↓1 1 too low 13 Hello Poppet 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↓2 4 too high 14 Waiting for the tide (UK) 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 4 too high 15 Mawu Dark Mode for the Admin Dashboard, Editor & Website 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 7 too high 16 SeaLegs AI — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 5 too high 17 MoxKit Addons for Elementor — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↑3 5 too high 18 Advanced Floating Sliding Panel (Lite) 30+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #23 5 too low 19 Tide Graph 100+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #24 ↓2 5 too low 20 Spelhubben Weather 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓5 6 too high 21 MultiWeather — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓2 6 too high 22 Tandem PHP Upgrade Gatekeeper — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓2 6 too high 23 One8 Weather Data Fields — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 6 too high 24 W WP-Tide-Height-Calculator 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓1 2 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.