Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “tom”, we agree with wp.org 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

ThemeHunk – Side Cart, Ajax Cart & Menu Cart for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #11 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 5K+ 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

RSS Aggregator by Feedzy – Feed to Post, Autoblogging, News & YouTube Video Feeds Aggregator places #8 on merit, 4.6★ from 361 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 GenerateBlocks 200K+ · 4.9★ (122) wp.org #1 2 External Links in New Window / New Tab 30K+ · 4.5★ (77) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Boxtal – Shipping solution 9K+ · 4.0★ (46) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Ajax Search Lite – Live Search & Filter 70K+ · 4.8★ (266) wp.org #5 ↑3 1 too low 5 WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 SimpleTOC – Table of Contents Block 10K+ · 4.9★ (77) wp.org #7 ↑3 1 too low 7 EAN Barcode Generator for WooCommerce: UPC, ISBN & GTIN Inventory 10K+ · 4.9★ (56) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 RSS Aggregator by Feedzy – Feed to Post, Autoblogging, News & YouTube Video Feeds Aggregator 40K+ · 4.6★ (361) wp.org #18 10 too low 9 La Poste Pro Expéditions WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 Simple CSS 80K+ · 4.9★ (60) wp.org #16 ↓2 6 too low 11 Visualizer – Tables & Charts Manager with Built-in AI Generator 20K+ · 4.4★ (225) wp.org #20 ↓1 9 too low 12 Price by Quantity & Bulk Quantity Discounts for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too high 13 Digital License Manager 800+ · 4.7★ (30) wp.org #14 ↑3 1 too low 14 Free Shipping Bar: Amount Left for Free Shipping for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (26) wp.org #21 7 too low 15 Easy Digital Downloads Free Link 900+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #9 ↓3 6 too high 16 Additional Custom Emails & Recipients for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #23 ↓1 7 too low 17 Advance Product Search- Voice & Ajax Search for WooCommerce 9K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #12 5 too high 18 SheetDB – get your Google Spreadsheet data 600+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 Lead Form Builder & Contact Form 8K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #13 6 too high 20 Protección de datos – RGPD 7K+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #17 ↓1 3 too high 21 VG WORT METIS 1K+ · 2.6★ (14) wp.org #19 ↑1 2 too high 22 ThemeHunk – Side Cart, Ajax Cart & Menu Cart for WooCommerce 5K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 11 too high 23 Uplink Admin Menu Manager 50+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Envo's Templates & Widgets for Elementor and WooCommerce 9K+ · 1.0★ (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.