Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “visit”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 2 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

Link Visit Counter shows at wp.org #7 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 30+ 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

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 1281 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 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too low 3 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #6 ↑1 3 too low 4 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too high 6 Page Visits Counter – Lite 5K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #1 5 too high 7 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #8 ↑2 1 too low 8 Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1237) wp.org #12 ↑12 4 too low 9 WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic) 20K+ · 4.5★ (156) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too low 10 Post Types Order 600K+ · 4.5★ (296) wp.org #11 ↓3 1 too low 11 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #22 ↓9 11 too low 12 Loco Translate 1M+ · 4.8★ (453) wp.org #15 ↑2 3 too low 13 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #14 1 too low 14 My Calendar – Accessible Event Manager 20K+ · 4.7★ (159) wp.org #18 ↓6 4 too low 15 Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 30K+ · 4.1★ (233) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too low 16 StatCounter – Real Time Visitor Stats, Session Replay & Heatmaps 70K+ · 4.2★ (56) wp.org #13 ↑1 3 too high 17 BuddyPress 90K+ · 4.1★ (375) wp.org #21 ↓1 4 too low 18 Simple Googlebot Visit 1K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #9 9 too high 19 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #23 ↓1 4 too low 20 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Web-Stat – Live Visitor Analytics 5K+ · 4.4★ (20) wp.org #17 ↓2 4 too high 22 Link Visit Counter 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 ↓1 15 too high 23 Visit Site 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #20 ↓1 3 too high 24 Visit Notifications 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 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.