Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “tutor hosting”

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 “tutor hosting”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 5 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

GoDAM – Video Hosting for LMS & Online Courses shows at wp.org #3 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 100+ 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

LifterLMS – WP LMS for eLearning, Online Courses, & Quizzes places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 393 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 VdoCipher: Secure Video Player and Hosting 2K+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #1 2 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #7 5 too low 3 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #6 ↓2 3 too low 4 Pay with Vipps and MobilePay for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Noptin – Newsletter, New Post Notifications & Email Automation 10K+ · 4.5★ (120) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too high 7 LearnPress – WordPress LMS Plugin for Create and Sell Online Courses 70K+ · 4.3★ (597) wp.org #8 ↓3 1 too low 8 Online Scheduling and Appointment Booking System – Bookly 60K+ · 4.4★ (586) wp.org #14 ↓2 6 too low 9 hCaptcha for WP 70K+ · 4.6★ (88) wp.org #11 ↓5 2 too low 10 Easy Appointments 10K+ · 4.3★ (131) wp.org #9 ↓2 1 too high 11 LifterLMS – WP LMS for eLearning, Online Courses, & Quizzes 10K+ · 4.8★ (393) wp.org #23 ↓2 12 too low 12 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #10 ↓2 2 too high 13 FlexMeeting – Webinar & Meeting Plugin for Jitsi Meet 1K+ · 4.5★ (38) wp.org #13 ↓3 14 GoDAM – Video Hosting for LMS & Online Courses 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 11 too high 15 Creator LMS – WordPress LMS Plugin for Coaches, Cohorts & Course Creators 100+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #18 ↓7 3 too low 16 Subscriptions for WooCommerce with Stripe Recurring Payments 1K+ · 4.9★ (25) wp.org #16 ↓2 17 Easy Optimizer – PageSpeed, Cache & Core Web Vitals (Unused CSS, Delay JS, Lazy Load) 1K+ · 4.6★ (18) wp.org #19 ↓4 2 too low 18 MeetingHub – Appointment Booking & Meeting Scheduling for Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Jitsi 400+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #22 ↓3 4 too low 19 Easy!Appointments 500+ · 4.4★ (5) wp.org #12 ↓3 7 too high 20 NIBWP – Self-Hosted MCP Server – Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor & Any AI Agent via MCP 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 ↓2 5 too high 21 TNC FlipBook 3D – PDF Flipbook, 3D Flipbook, PDF Viewer, PDF Embedder 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 ↓1 4 too high 22 FastPix – Video Hosting, Player and Analytics for WordPress — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓3 1 too high 23 DriveHub – Google Drive Integration | File Manager, Image Gallery & Media Library 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 ↓4 1 too low 24 Webcam Microphone Screen Recorder – Media Capture 30+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #20 ↓3 4 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.