Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “top right”

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 “top right”, 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 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

MakeITeasy Back To Top shows at wp.org #5 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 1667 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 To Top 60K+ · 4.8★ (54) wp.org #1 2 Smooth Back To Top Button 40K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #2 3 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #3 4 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #7 ↓2 3 too low 5 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #8 ↓2 3 too low 6 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #10 ↓3 4 too low 7 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #6 ↑6 1 too high 8 Disable Right Click RB – Content Copy Protection, Prevent Copy & No Right Click 600+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #4 ↑5 4 too high 9 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #17 ↓2 8 too low 10 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #24 ↓3 14 too low 11 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #15 ↑2 4 too low 12 Simple Page Ordering 100K+ · 4.7★ (131) wp.org #18 ↓2 6 too low 13 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 WP Top News — Build a Complete News Portal in WordPress 800+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #9 5 too high 15 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too low 16 Simple Scroll To Top WP 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #13 ↓2 3 too high 17 MakeITeasy Back To Top 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 ↓1 12 too high 18 B Bitron Right of Withdrawal 400+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #11 ↓3 7 too high 19 Scroll Top | HR Scroll Top 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #16 ↓2 3 too high 20 MM Back To Top — Scroll Up Button 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #20 ↓2 21 Right Click Disable for Secure 60+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #22 ↓3 1 too low 22 Scroll To Top 300+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #14 ↓1 8 too high 23 Top-Down Scroll – Customizable Scroll to Top Button 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too high 24 Click to top 2K+ · 2.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↓2 12 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.