Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “useragent”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 18 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

CloudAware Security Audit shows at wp.org #6 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its — 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

Swift Performance Lite places #8 on merit, 3.6★ from 125 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Digital License Manager 800+ · 4.7★ (30) wp.org #4 3 too low 2 UserAgent Themes Switcher 50+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 M Multi Device Switcher 10K+ · 4.3★ (11) wp.org #3 4 Real-Time Find and Replace 70K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #11 7 too low 5 YITH WooCommerce Wishlist 400K+ · 3.9★ (262) wp.org #14 9 too low 6 UserAgent Content Switcher 50+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #2 4 too high 7 Booter – Bots & Crawlers Manager 7K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too low 8 Swift Performance Lite 6K+ · 3.6★ (125) wp.org #19 ↑1 11 too low 9 MyParcel 8K+ · 3.9★ (48) wp.org #18 ↑1 9 too low 10 SpeedyCache – Cache, Optimization, Performance 500K+ · 4.4★ (30) wp.org #15 ↑1 5 too low 11 果果推送 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 6 too high 12 Aruba HiSpeed Cache 100K+ · 3.0★ (10) wp.org #9 ↑1 3 too high 13 Link To Bible 100+ · 4.1★ (10) wp.org #17 4 too low 14 LWS Optimize – All-in-One Speed Booster & Cache Tools 20K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #21 7 too low 15 Flexmls® IDX Plugin 1K+ · 3.5★ (22) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 WP-UserAgent 200+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #20 ↓2 4 too low 17 文章配图 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 10 too high 18 CloudAware Security Audit — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 12 too high 19 隐藏内容 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 11 too high 20 Gallop — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 7 too high 21 Klarna Order Management for WooCommerce 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 WSA – Website Accelerator Cache Purge 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too high 23 Bread 300+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 WC MyParcel Belgium 600+ · 2.0★ (3) wp.org #22 2 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.