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← Rankings

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

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 “varnish”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 of the top 20. 4 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

Ergonet Cache shows at wp.org #5 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 3K+ 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

iQ Block Country places #11 on merit, 3.9★ from 166 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 CLP Varnish Cache 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #1 2 Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #6 ↑1 4 too low 3 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #8 ↑5 5 too low 4 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #10 6 too low 5 Breeze Cache 300K+ · 3.6★ (133) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Purge Varnish Cache 1K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #2 4 too high 7 Powered Cache – Caching and Optimization for WordPress – Easily Improve PageSpeed & Web Vitals Score 3K+ · 4.8★ (58) wp.org #7 ↑1 8 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #3 5 too high 9 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #9 ↓3 10 SpinupWP 30K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #13 ↓2 3 too low 11 iQ Block Country 20K+ · 3.9★ (166) wp.org #22 ↓4 11 too low 12 SpeedyCache – Cache, Optimization, Performance 500K+ · 4.4★ (30) wp.org #12 ↓3 13 LWS Optimize – All-in-One Speed Booster & Cache Tools 20K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #14 ↓2 1 too low 14 Swift Performance Lite 6K+ · 3.6★ (125) wp.org #20 ↑1 6 too low 15 WP Performance 200+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #19 4 too low 16 Fresh Forms for Gravity 3K+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #23 ↓1 7 too low 17 Ergonet Cache 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 12 too high 18 W WPBase Cache 3K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #11 ↑13 7 too high 19 The Cache Purger 1K+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too high 20 P Preload Fullpage Cache 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too low 21 Fastcache by Host.it 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too high 22 Asta HTML Minifier 100+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 MSCache Varnish Purge 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 5 too high 24 Clear Cache Everywhere 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↓1 7 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.