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

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 scraper”, we and wp.org disagree 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

LLM Bot Tracker – AI Crawler Detection & Analytics shows at wp.org #8 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 1K+ 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.

Buried gem

Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance places #7 on merit, 4.5★ from 102 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) – Advanced Security Plugin and Firewall 100K+ · 4.9★ (220) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 WP Scraper 2K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5040) wp.org #3 4 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Known Agents – Track AI Bots and Crawlers, Block Scrapers, Analyze LLM Referral Traffic 1K+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance 5K+ · 4.5★ (102) wp.org #14 ↓1 7 too low 8 Trace My IP – Visitor IP Tracker, Stats Analytics & Page Views Counter with Email Alerts 1K+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 App for Cloudflare® 1K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control 2K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #15 ↑3 5 too low 11 AxiaChat AI – Free AI Chatbot (Answers Customers Automatically) 500+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 900+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #17 ↓3 4 too low 14 RankReady – AI SEO, Schema, llms.txt, AEO and GEO for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity 500+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #21 ↑1 7 too low 15 WindCodex ScraperBlock – Block AI Scrapers & Bots from WordPress & WooCommerce 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 9 too high 16 Bread & Butter – Identify Website Visitors, Score Leads & Gate Content 70+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #24 ↓1 8 too low 17 ShieldUp – Bad Bots, Scrapers, Attackers 80+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↑1 1 too low 18 LLM Bot Tracker – AI Crawler Detection & Analytics 1K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #8 10 too high 19 WhoKnew Shield — Email, Phone & Address Security 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↑3 6 too high 20 Forge AI Bot Log – Block AI Bots, Crawler Detection & Verification 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↑1 4 too high 21 ddosNull AI Crawler & Scraper Blocker — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↑2 1 too low 22 T Torrent Scraper for Blogs and Forums — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 BotObservatory – Live Bot Tracker & Anti-Scraper — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too high 24 Contact Camo 10+ · 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.