wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “web design”

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 “web design”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 3 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

Web Stories Widgets For Elementor shows at wp.org #10 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 3220 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) not PHP-currentheavy footprint wp.org #1 2

Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1012) wp.org #2 3

Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) not PHP-current wp.org #4 1 too low 4

ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #6 ↓1 2 too low 5

Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) heavy footprint wp.org #5 ↑1 6

WP Content Copy Protection with Color Design 5K+ · 4.5★ (25) wp.org #3 ↓1 3 too high 7

LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #12 ↓2 4 too low 9

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #7 ↓4 2 too high 10

Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #11 ↑4 1 too low 11

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #15 ↑1 4 too low 12

WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) throws errorsnot PHP-currentheavy footprint wp.org #9 ↓1 3 too high 13

Beaver Builder Page Builder – Drag and Drop Website Builder 100K+ · 4.7★ (394) wp.org #17 ↑6 4 too low 14

Stackable – Page Builder Gutenberg Blocks 100K+ · 4.9★ (522) heavy footprint wp.org #20 ↓2 6 too low 15

Custom Fonts – Host Your Fonts Locally 400K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #13 ↓1 2 too high 16

NitroPack – Performance, Page Speed & Cache Plugin for Core Web Vitals, CDN & Image Optimization 90K+ · 4.3★ (311) wp.org #24 ↓4 8 too low 17

Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #19 2 too low 18

GutenKit – Page Builder Blocks, Patterns, and Templates for Gutenberg Block Editor 80K+ · 4.5★ (48) heavy footprint wp.org #21 ↓10 3 too low 19

Gravitec.net – Web Push Notifications 1K+ · 4.4★ (21) thin reviews wp.org #16 ↓2 3 too high 20

Web Accessibility (formally known as Ally) – WCAG Scanning, Guided Fixes, Usability Widget 500K+ · 2.9★ (162) wp.org #14 ↓1 6 too high 21

Web Stories Widgets For Elementor 900+ · 5.0★ (6) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #10 ↓3 11 too high 22

Web Accessibility by accessiBe 10K+ · 4.1★ (32) not PHP-current wp.org #23 ↓4 1 too low 23

Push Notifications for WP – Self Hosted Web Push Notifications 6K+ · 4.2★ (5) thin reviews wp.org #18 ↓1 5 too high 24

Mox Icons – Icon Pack for Elementor 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #22 ↓1 2 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.