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

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 “wav”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20.

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

Cleanup Orphan Images shows at wp.org #7 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 100+ 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

Music Player for WooCommerce places #4 on merit, 4.8★ from 61 reviews, but shows at wp.org #9. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #1 2 Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (591) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 CP Media Player – Audio Player and Video Player 3K+ · 4.4★ (46) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Music Player for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.8★ (61) wp.org #9 ↑1 5 too low 5 CatFolders Document Gallery & PDF Library 3K+ · 4.5★ (15) wp.org #5 6 M MimeTypes Link Icons 8K+ · 5.0★ (26) wp.org #10 ↓1 4 too low 7 Easy Media Download 8K+ · 4.0★ (28) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Lean Player – Video and Audio Player with Playlist for WordPress, Elementor and Gutenberg 2K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #4 4 too high 9 Music Store – WordPress eCommerce 200+ · 4.1★ (52) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 Audio Story Images 400+ · 4.9★ (14) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 Liteweight Podcast – run your podcast site without the bloat 400+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 WPYog Documents 100+ · 4.6★ (12) wp.org #14 2 too low 13 Voice Audio Widgets – Voice recorder with Forms, AI Powered STT, TTS, Transcriptions, Language Teaching 300+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #22 9 too low 14 Audio Album 4K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #21 ↓2 7 too low 15 neo Rename – AI Media Renamer for renaming images & alt text with batch processing 200+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too low 16 Restrict WP Upload Type 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #12 4 too high 17 Cincopa video and media plug-in 1K+ · 2.8★ (26) wp.org #16 ↓1 1 too high 18 PausAR – 3D and AR for Elementor 300+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #23 5 too low 19 Cleanup Orphan Images 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 12 too high 20 Audio Comparison Lite 40+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Music Player for Easy Digital Downloads 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 3 too high 22 neo Alt – AI Alt Text Generator for images with bulk processing – Free and No API Key Required 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↑2 7 too high 23 KindPixels PDF Gallery – Turn Files into Clean Galleries 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too high 24 neo Replace – Simple replacement using drag & drop 90+ · 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.