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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “weather plugin”

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 “weather plugin”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

Weather Widget & Forecast by Meteoprog shows at wp.org #10 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 60+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

UpStream: a Project Management Plugin for WordPress places #11 on merit, 4.2★ from 74 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 Location Weather – WordPress Weather Forecast, Air Quality & Weather Widget 10K+ · 4.5★ (103) wp.org #1 2 Weather Effect 4K+ · 4.5★ (30) wp.org #2 3 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #7 ↑1 4 too low 4 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #4 5 wpDataTables – WordPress Data Table, Dynamic Tables & Table Charts Plugin 60K+ · 4.5★ (449) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 WP Travel Engine – Tour Booking Plugin – Tour Operator Software 20K+ · 4.9★ (594) wp.org #12 ↓1 6 too low 7 Weather Atlas Widget 8K+ · 4.1★ (41) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 Weather Widget Pro 1K+ · 3.9★ (8) wp.org #3 5 too high 9 Ventus – Weather Map Widget & Shortcode 3K+ · 4.9★ (13) wp.org #11 ↓2 2 too low 10 WPGet API – Connect to any external REST API 10K+ · 5.0★ (32) wp.org #19 ↑2 9 too low 11 UpStream: a Project Management Plugin for WordPress 500+ · 4.2★ (74) wp.org #23 12 too low 12 Under The Weather 60+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #5 7 too high 13 wp-forecast 4K+ · 4.2★ (23) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too low 14 Magazine Blocks – Blog Designer, Magazine & Newspaper Website Builder, Page Builder with Posts Blocks, Post Grid 6K+ · 4.9★ (11) wp.org #17 ↓1 3 too low 15 Wetterwarner 500+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 Simple Location 300+ · 4.6★ (8) wp.org #24 ↓6 8 too low 17 m1.MiniWeather 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↓1 1 too low 18 Weather Forecast Widget 200+ · 4.0★ (3) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too high 19 WFY24 Weather Widget 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 ↑13 10 too high 20 Weather Write 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↓1 7 too high 21 WS40 – Live Weather 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too high 22 Free Weather 300+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓2 1 too high 23 Tides Today Tides and Weather 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↑2 1 too high 24 Weather Widget & Forecast by Meteoprog 60+ · 2.7★ (3) wp.org #10 14 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.