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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “view site”

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

YITH WooCommerce Quick View shows at wp.org #7 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 80K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.8★ average from 27 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 27821 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. 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 #1 2 Site Reviews 60K+ · 4.9★ (376) wp.org #2 3 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #3 4 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1237) wp.org #8 ↑3 3 too low 6 CMS Tree Page View – Reorder Pages with a Drag-and-Drop Tree 50K+ · 4.9★ (365) wp.org #11 ↓1 5 too low 7 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #14 7 too low 8 View Transitions 10K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 WPC Smart Quick View for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 View Admin As 9K+ · 4.9★ (49) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too high 11 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #17 ↑3 6 too low 12 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #23 ↑1 11 too low 13 Admin Menu Tree Page View 10K+ · 4.6★ (48) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too high 14 Restricted Site Access 10K+ · 4.8★ (62) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #15 16 NS Cloner – Site Cloner and Multisite Duplicator 6K+ · 4.7★ (279) wp.org #22 ↑1 6 too low 17 Simply Static – The Static Site Generator 30K+ · 4.5★ (195) wp.org #24 ↓2 7 too low 18 YITH WooCommerce Quick View 80K+ · 3.8★ (27) wp.org #7 11 too high 19 Grid/List View for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.4★ (50) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too high 20 Addonify – Quick View For WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 8 too high 21 Animate In View 1K+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #18 ↓2 3 too high 22 WP Global Site Tag 7K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 Light Views Counter – Fast, Scalable View Counter for High-Traffic Sites 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24 View User Metadata 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓1 4 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.