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

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 “translation”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 2 plugins are 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

Universally – AI Translation & Multilingual SEO: Translate Your Site into 110+ Languages shows at wp.org #6 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 20K+ 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

MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation places #12 on merit, 4.4★ from 1432 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 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1660) wp.org #1 2 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4958) wp.org #2 3 Translate WordPress with Weglot 2.0 – Multilingual AI Translation 50K+ · 4.8★ (1937) wp.org #3 ↑3 4 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8665) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too low 5 Polylang 800K+ · 4.7★ (2995) wp.org #10 ↑11 5 too low 6 Performant Translations 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #4 ↓1 2 too high 7 Translate and boost SEO – Automatic AI translation – wpLingua 2K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too high 8 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (509) wp.org #7 ↑7 1 too high 9 WP Multilang – Translation and Multilingual Plugin 10K+ · 4.3★ (100) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 AI Translation For TranslatePress 10K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too high 11 Loco Translate 1M+ · 4.8★ (453) wp.org #15 ↓8 4 too low 12 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1432) wp.org #18 ↓3 6 too low 13 AutoPoly – AI Translation For Polylang 5K+ · 4.6★ (29) wp.org #13 ↓3 14 ConveyThis AI Multilingual Translation 1K+ · 4.4★ (145) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Linguise – AI Automatic Multilingual Translation 1K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too low 16 GPTranslate – Multilingual AI Translation Agent for WordPress: Translate Your Site with AI 500+ · 5.0★ (33) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too low 17 T Translation with DeepL API 3K+ · 4.0★ (29) wp.org #16 ↓3 1 too high 18 AutoMLP – AI Translation for WPML 100+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #14 ↓2 4 too high 19 Override String Translations 1K+ · 3.9★ (7) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Universally – AI Translation & Multilingual SEO: Translate Your Site into 110+ Languages 20K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↓1 14 too high 21 WEB-Translation – eTranslation Multilingual 400+ · 3.7★ (7) wp.org #24 ↓1 3 too low 22 LATW AI Translation for WPML 80+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 Simple Translation Remover 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #23 24 Tranzly – AI Translation & Multilingual 7K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 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.