wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “user images”
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 “user images”, we agree with wp.org 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
WP SVG Images shows at wp.org #8 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 30K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 13 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832)
wp.org #1 ↑1 2 
Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053)
wp.org #2 ↑1 3 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281)
wp.org #3 ↓2 4 
User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537)
wp.org #4 ↑18 5 
Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (743)
wp.org #6 ↓2 1 too low 6 
WP User Manager – Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile Builder & Member Directory 10K+ · 4.7★ (350)
wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too low 7 
User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 10K+ · 4.8★ (913)
wp.org #10 ↑10 3 too low 8 
One User Avatar | User Profile Picture 100K+ · 4.7★ (41)
wp.org #5 ↑1 3 too high 9 
WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617)
wp.org #11 ↓1 2 too low 10 
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322)
wp.org #13 ↓5 3 too low 11 
Imagify Image Optimization: Optimize Images | Compress & Convert to WebP/AVIF 900K+ · 4.3★ (1657)
wp.org #12 ↓1 1 too low 12 
Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616)
wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too low 13 
Instant Images – One-click Image Uploads from Unsplash, Openverse, Pixabay, Pexels, and Giphy 100K+ · 4.8★ (59)
wp.org #9 4 too high 14 
EWWW Image Optimizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1843)
wp.org #16 ↓4 2 too low 15 
Open User Map – Interactive Leaflet Maps 10K+ · 5.0★ (70)
wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 
Quick Featured Images 50K+ · 4.7★ (235)
wp.org #17 ↓2 1 too low 17 WP SVG Images 30K+ · 5.0★ (13) thin reviews
wp.org #8 ↓1 9 too high 18 
TinyPNG Image Optimization – Image Compression JPEG & PNG | Convert to WebP & AVIF 100K+ · 4.5★ (181)
wp.org #18 ↓2 19 
Import and export users and customers 70K+ · 4.7★ (259)
wp.org #22 ↑2 3 too low 20 
User Access Manager 10K+ · 4.4★ (112)
wp.org #20 ↓2 21 
Categories Images 50K+ · 4.5★ (86)
wp.org #21 ↓2 22 
No Right Click Images 20K+ · 4.7★ (52)
wp.org #23 ↓2 1 too low 23 
Simple User Avatar 20K+ · 4.6★ (19) thin reviews
wp.org #19 ↓2 4 too high 24 
WP User Avatars 20K+ · 4.5★ (29)
wp.org #24 ↓1 Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.