Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “token url”

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 “token url”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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

Public Preview URL Manager shows at wp.org #6 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 200+ 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

Cookie Compliance for WordPress – Cookie Consent, GDPR & CCPA places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 3026 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #1 2 PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1322) wp.org #2 3 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5040) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too low 4 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (518) wp.org #9 ↑2 4 too low 6 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too high 7 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too low 8 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #12 ↑1 4 too low 9 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #14 ↑3 5 too low 10 Cookie Compliance for WordPress – Cookie Consent, GDPR & CCPA 800K+ · 4.8★ (3026) wp.org #18 8 too low 11 Bitly URL Shortener 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #3 8 too high 12 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #19 ↑3 6 too low 14 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #11 ↓1 3 too high 15 Element Pack Addons for Elementor – MCP & AI-Ready Elementor Widgets, Elementor Templates, Elementor Addons 100K+ · 4.7★ (284) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 Age Verification & Identity Verification by Token of Trust 20+ · 4.3★ (15) wp.org #7 ↓1 9 too high 17 ThinkRank SEO – AI SEO Plugin for SEO & Google Search Console 20K+ · 4.9★ (36) wp.org #16 ↓2 1 too high 18 JWT Authentication for WP REST APIs 10K+ · 4.4★ (74) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 LukasApps CAPTCHA tools for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.1★ (48) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #22 ↓3 2 too low 21 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #17 ↓1 4 too high 22 kURL – Short URL Manager for YOURLS 40+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↓1 12 too high 23 Public Preview URL Manager 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↑1 17 too high 24 SiteSEO – SEO Simplified 400K+ · 4.0★ (8) wp.org #24

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.