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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “virtual pet”

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 “virtual pet”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 0 of the top 16.

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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Fluent Booking – The Ultimate Appointments Scheduling, Events Booking, Events Calendar Solution 20K+ · 4.7★ (46) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Wapuu Dashboard Pet 50+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 SUBRE – Product Subscription for WooCommerce – Recurring Payments 200+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #3 4 Garanție SGR pentru WooCommerce 90+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Virtual Try-On for Shops 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Brandy Sites – 20+ WooCommerce Website Starter Templates 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Quill Booking – Appointment Scheduling & Event Management Solution 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 R RangerHQ Buddy — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 9 RentPress for Websites 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 10 DropAlertz Studio AI – AI Product Photography, Virtual Try-On & Video Ads for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 11 Book'd by WooNinjas — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↓1 12 KennelFlow Core — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↓1 13 ModuleFest Media Library Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 14 Zaply.me – Customer Videos & UGC for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 15 SandboxPress AI — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓3 16 Jellyfish Invaders 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↓2

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.