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

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 “waveform”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Audio Editor & Recorder shows at wp.org #9 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar 20K+ · 4.8★ (302) wp.org #1 2 Gmedia Photo Gallery 7K+ · 4.3★ (260) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 HTML5 Video Player – embed fast, responsive videos with ease 20K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Audio Player Block – Advanced Block for Embedding Audio Files 2K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Voice Audio Widgets – Voice recorder with Forms, AI Powered STT, TTS, Transcriptions, Language Teaching 300+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #8 ↓2 2 too low 7 Alex Player 200+ · 4.0★ (8) wp.org #5 ↑9 2 too high 8 E Easy Waveform Player 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #2 6 too high 9 Text to Speech – Reinvent WP 40+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #15 ↓2 6 too low 10 Text to Speech – TTSWP 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #10 ↑2 11 WaveSurfer-WP 400+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #19 ↓3 8 too low 12 Instaread Audio Player — Text-to-Speech & Article-to-Audio 90+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too high 13 H hearthis.at 100+ · 3.7★ (6) wp.org #14 ↓3 1 too low 14 Media Player Addons for Elementor – Audio and Video Widgets for Elementor 1K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #12 ↓3 2 too high 15 Waveform License Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 2 too high 16 Audio Editor & Recorder 100+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #9 ↓1 7 too high 17 Audio Wave Block 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↑2 1 too high 18 Nucleus Audio Playlist 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓2 1 too high 19 Testimonials Block – Customer Reviews, Ratings, Badges & Video Testimonials 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 1 too high 20 SoundFiles Player — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 21 TruePlayer — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 T The Studio Player — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓2 23 AICreativa Music Player — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓2 24 Delo Voice Record — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓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.