Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “unpublished”

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For “unpublished”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20.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

Static Porter shows at wp.org #10 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 100+ 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 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #2 ↑3 1 too low 2 Hide Drafts in Menus 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 FG Joomla to WordPress 7K+ · 4.7★ (336) wp.org #5 ↑1 2 too low 4 Post Duplicator 200K+ · 4.8★ (80) wp.org #6 ↓2 2 too low 5 ElasticPress 8K+ · 4.2★ (30) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 WP-DraftsForFriends 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #3 ↓1 3 too high 7 Code Embed 10K+ · 4.4★ (45) wp.org #16 ↓3 9 too low 8 Post Lockdown 1K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 LLM Markdown – Markdown Endpoints for AI Agents 700+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #9 10 Nexter Extension – Security, Performance, Code Snippets & Site Toolkit 10K+ · 4.7★ (13) wp.org #19 ↓7 9 too low 11 WP Admin Audit 1K+ · 3.7★ (6) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 LLMs.txt Curator 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #13 ↓3 1 too low 13 Draft List 40+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #11 ↓2 2 too high 14 PublishPress Statuses – Custom Post Status and Workflow 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #14 ↓3 15 translit it! 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 GRO 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 Eloquent 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #24 ↓6 7 too low 18 PublishPress Shortlinks – The Link Manager for WordPress 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 ↓4 19 Static Porter 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 9 too high 20 Init Pulse For Discord – Webhooks, Roles, Instant 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #22 ↓2 2 too low 21 Postora Export for DOCX 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 Astro Hide Unpublished Post Types From Menu — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓2 1 too high 23 Tidy Draft Share – Shareable Draft Preview Links 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 KP Agent Ready 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓4 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.