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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “video hosting”

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 “video hosting”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Spotlightr – Secure Video Hosting for WordPress, Courses & LearnDash shows at wp.org #8 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 200+ 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

Carousel, Slider, Photo Gallery with Lightbox, Video Slider, by WP Carousel places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 434 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth 3M+ · 3.7★ (2407) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too low 2 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (615) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too low 3 HTML5 Video Player – embed fast, responsive videos with ease 20K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too low 4 All-in-One Video Gallery – Video Player & Galleries for YouTube, Vimeo & Self-Hosted Videos 20K+ · 4.8★ (136) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7314) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Livid – Video Hosting 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #1 5 too high 7 EmbedPress – PDF Embedder, 3D PDF FlipBook, Google Reviews, YouTube Videos, Upload & Embed PDF documents 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #13 ↑9 6 too low 8 Real Testimonials – Testimonial Slider, Collect Customer Reviews and Video Testimonials 40K+ · 4.7★ (226) wp.org #17 ↓1 9 too low 9 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Carousel, Slider, Photo Gallery with Lightbox, Video Slider, by WP Carousel 70K+ · 4.7★ (434) wp.org #21 ↓3 11 too low 11 VdoCipher: Secure Video Player and Hosting 2K+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #7 4 too high 12 Videopack 10K+ · 4.8★ (63) wp.org #19 ↓2 7 too low 13 Video Player Block – play videos beautifully on any device 2K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #9 ↑1 4 too high 14 Jetpack VideoPress 7K+ · 4.0★ (16) wp.org #10 ↓2 4 too high 15 Seriously Simple Podcasting 30K+ · 4.7★ (329) wp.org #24 ↓4 9 too low 16 Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO – Find & Fix Broken Internal, External & Video Links 300K+ · 3.8★ (85) wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too high 17 Image and video gallery from Google Drive 4K+ · 4.3★ (39) wp.org #22 ↑1 5 too low 18 FV Flowplayer Video Player 10K+ · 4.4★ (90) wp.org #23 ↑1 5 too low 19 SmartVideo – Video Player and CDN 1K+ · 4.0★ (18) wp.org #11 8 too high 20 Virtual Classroom & Video Conferencing – BigBlueButton 400+ · 4.6★ (10) wp.org #18 ↑1 2 too high 21 Cincopa video and media plug-in 1K+ · 2.8★ (26) wp.org #14 ↓1 7 too high 22 Spotlightr – Secure Video Hosting for WordPress, Courses & LearnDash 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #8 ↑1 14 too high 23 RUS Video Embeds for VK Video, Rutube and Dzen 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 Mux Video Uploader 100+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #16 ↓1 8 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.