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

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 “validity”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

BBH Custom Schema – Add Custom JSON-LD to Your Website shows at wp.org #5 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 900+ 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

Groups – Memberships and Access Control places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 382 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #1 2 reCaptcha by BestWebSoft 100K+ · 3.9★ (391) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 BlogVault Backup & Staging 80K+ · 4.6★ (332) wp.org #6 3 too low 4 SSL Zen — SSL Certificate Installer & HTTPS Redirects 9K+ · 4.9★ (665) wp.org #10 6 too low 5 Groups – Memberships and Access Control 10K+ · 4.8★ (382) wp.org #16 11 too low 6 Captcha by Yandex for Contact Form 7 3K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #2 4 too high 7 Salon Booking System – Appointment Booking for Salons, Barbershops & Spas 2K+ · 4.4★ (187) wp.org #12 5 too low 8 Coupon Shortcodes for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.9★ (17) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 AdOpt | Easy Multi-Regulations Cookie Banner. 7K+ · 4.0★ (8) wp.org #3 6 too high 10 WP DSGVO Tools (GDPR) 10K+ · 4.0★ (116) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 License Manager for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.6★ (147) wp.org #20 9 too low 12 Music Store – WordPress eCommerce 200+ · 4.1★ (52) wp.org #13 1 too low 13 LWS Tools 10K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #9 4 too high 14 Membership & User Roles for WooCommerce (Automatic Role Changer) 400+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 Login Me Now – Passwordless, Magic Link, OTP & Social Login for WordPress 500+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 BBH Custom Schema – Add Custom JSON-LD to Your Website 900+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 11 too high 17 Secure MCP Server for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI Agents 8K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #23 ↑1 6 too low 18 Each domain a page 200+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #22 ↑1 4 too low 19 Wetterwarner 500+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Better Badge – Custom Product Badges for WooCommerce 600+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Tax Exemption for WooCommerce 700+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Coupon Plugin Lite 300+ · 4.8★ (4) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 Payment Multicaixa (ProxyPay gateway) for WooCommerce 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 9 too high 24 LegalWeb Cloud 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 9 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.