wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “time to read post”

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 “time to read post”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Worth The Read shows at wp.org #10 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 27 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 2,147 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27,820) wp.org #1 2

Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #3 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 3

Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (588) wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4

Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1,238) wp.org #7 ↑8 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 5

Read Meter – Reading Time & Progress Bar 10K+ · 4.5★ (19) thin reviews wp.org #2 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 6

Post Duplicator 200K+ · 4.8★ (80) wp.org #6 7

Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7,322) wp.org #13 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 9

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2,409) wp.org #9 ↑4 10

Rate My Post – Star Rating Plugin by FeedbackWP 20K+ · 4.7★ (159) wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 11

Smart Post – Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider Gutenberg Blocks for Blog & News 20K+ · 4.7★ (210) wp.org #14 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 12

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147) wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 13

Reading Time WP 20K+ · 4.8★ (20) thin reviews wp.org #8 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 14

The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2,463) wp.org #19 ↓5 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 15

WP Date and Time Shortcode 10K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #11 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 16

Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 30K+ · 4.1★ (233) wp.org #17 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 17

Worth The Read 3K+ · 4.3★ (27) wp.org #10 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 19

W4 Post List 3K+ · 4.7★ (94) wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 20

Post Slider and Post Carousel with Post Vertical Scrolling Widget – A Responsive Post Slider 10K+ · 4.7★ (31) wp.org #20 ↓3 21

MB Custom Post Types & Custom Taxonomies 10K+ · 4.7★ (13) thin reviews wp.org #24 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 22

Most And Least Read Posts Widget 900+ · 5.0★ (6) thin reviews wp.org #15 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 23

Advanced Post Block – Display Your Posts Exactly How You Want 10K+ · 4.2★ (17) thin reviews wp.org #22 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 24

Duplicate Post – duplicate pages, copy content, clone posts 5K+ · 4.7★ (7) thin reviews wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.