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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “utility bar”

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 “utility bar”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 3 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

WP Supra – Maintenance & Support Utilities shows at wp.org #4 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 19 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.

Buried gem

HTML5 Video Player – embed fast, responsive videos with ease places #11 on merit, 4.6★ from 195 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 CiviCRM Admin Utilities 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Orbit Fox: Duplicate Page, Menu Icons, SVG Support, Cookie Notice, Custom Fonts & More 100K+ · 4.8★ (317) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #8 ↑1 4 too low 5 Safelayout Cute Preloader – CSS3 WordPress Preloader 10K+ · 5.0★ (84) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Admin Menu Editor 300K+ · 4.6★ (312) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 The Plus Addons for Elementor – Mega Menu, Header Footer, Post Grid, AI Widgets & Templates 100K+ · 4.6★ (388) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too low 8 Chart Block – Visualize Data with Bar, Line, Pie Charts 1K+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #3 5 too high 9 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3992) wp.org #15 6 too low 10 Customer Reviews for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (1539) wp.org #18 ↓2 8 too low 11 HTML5 Video Player – embed fast, responsive videos with ease 20K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #20 9 too low 12 Float menu – awesome floating side menu 30K+ · 4.4★ (41) wp.org #12 ↑1 13 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #16 3 too low 14 Search & Replace Everything – Quick and Easy Way to Find and Replace Text, Links 20K+ · 4.7★ (26) wp.org #14 15 Version Info – Server Health Monitor, PHP & MySQL Version Display, Environment Indicators 10K+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #13 ↓1 2 too high 16 Powerkit – Supercharge your WordPress Site 10K+ · 4.5★ (14) wp.org #10 6 too high 17 WP Extended – Modular WordPress Toolkit 600+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 Branda – White Label & Branding, Free Login Page Customizer 10K+ · 4.5★ (30) wp.org #21 ↓3 3 too low 19 DTX – Dynamic Text Extension for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.7★ (99) wp.org #22 3 too low 20 Legal Pages – Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, GDPR, CCPA, and Cookie Notice Generator 8K+ · 4.3★ (29) wp.org #24 ↓4 4 too low 21 Video Player for YouTube – Embed Videos Your Visitors Will Love to Watch 1K+ · 4.8★ (12) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 Blockenberg — 645 Advanced Gutenberg Blocks, 683 Templates and AI Agent for WordPress Block Editor 1K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #11 11 too high 23 WP Supra – Maintenance & Support Utilities 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 19 too high 24 Block for Mailchimp – grow your email list with signup forms 2K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #23 ↓2 1 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.