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

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 “tuning”, we and wp.org disagree 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

Easy Backend-Style – Custom WordPress admin and dashboard design shows at wp.org #16 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 7 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Redirection 100K+ · 5.0★ (419) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Side Cart Woocommerce | Woocommerce Cart 70K+ · 4.9★ (453) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too low 3 Customer Reviews for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (1539) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 SiteGuard WP Plugin 600K+ · 4.3★ (15) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Internal Links Manager 10K+ · 4.8★ (33) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Custom Permalinks 100K+ · 4.1★ (116) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 WP-Sweep 100K+ · 4.7★ (138) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Simple Calendar – Google Calendar Plugin 50K+ · 3.8★ (397) wp.org #8 9 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 too high 10 AI Bud – AI Content Generator, AI Chatbot, ChatGPT, Gemini, GPT-4o 2K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #10 11 Jooosi Fon – Use Custom Fonts, Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts 4K+ · 5.0★ (25) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too low 13 Prevent Browser Caching 10K+ · 4.9★ (29) wp.org #22 9 too low 14 A Access Areas for WordPress 400+ · 4.5★ (17) wp.org #15 1 too low 15 Dynamic Front-End Heartbeat Control 1K+ · 4.8★ (12) wp.org #13 2 too high 16 Block Responsive – Make Editor Blocks Responsive Easily 800+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too low 17 Smooth Scrolling 900+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #11 6 too high 18 Roles & Capabilities 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #23 5 too low 19 FlatPM – Ad Manager, AdSense and Custom Code 10K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Odyssey LLMS 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 6 too high 21 ST Demo Importer 800+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #21 22 Editor Cleanup For Elementor: clean up and solve plugin conflicts with the Elementor editor 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 Easy Backend-Style – Custom WordPress admin and dashboard design 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↑1 7 too high 24 ECU Remapping Performance Calculator 90+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↑1 6 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.