Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “webmaster”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 4 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

Seznam Webmaster shows at wp.org #2 but places #12 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 700+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Insert Headers And Footers places #4 on merit, 5.0★ from 135 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 SMNTCS Google Webmaster Tools 6K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #1 2 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 XML Sitemap & Google News 100K+ · 4.4★ (85) wp.org #6 ↑3 3 too low 4 Insert Headers And Footers 200K+ · 5.0★ (135) wp.org #9 ↓2 5 too low 5 Meta Tag Manager 70K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #8 ↑11 2 too low 7 Simple Client Dashboard 2K+ · 4.5★ (26) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 Bing URL Submissions Plugin 40K+ · 3.3★ (21) wp.org #3 5 too high 9 File Manager Pro – Filester 100K+ · 4.9★ (155) wp.org #13 ↑8 4 too low 10 The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380) wp.org #15 5 too low 11 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #12 ↓1 1 too low 12 Seznam Webmaster 700+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #2 10 too high 13 Simple SEO 10K+ · 4.7★ (33) wp.org #16 ↓3 3 too low 14 Head, Footer and Post Injections 200K+ · 4.9★ (735) wp.org #22 ↓7 8 too low 15 IndexNow Plugin 100K+ · 3.2★ (47) wp.org #10 ↓2 5 too high 16 Catch IDs 20K+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #14 ↓2 2 too high 17 Sitemap by BestWebSoft – WordPress XML Site Map Page Generator Plugin 20K+ · 4.3★ (115) wp.org #23 ↓1 6 too low 18 ReCrawler 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #11 ↓1 7 too high 19 SEO SIMPLE PACK 100K+ · 4.6★ (14) wp.org #19 ↓3 20 WPGraphQL Yoast SEO Addon 10K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↓4 2 too high 21 Catch Web Tools 10K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #20 ↓3 1 too high 22 Redirect 404 to Home Page – Custom URL 4K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 ↓3 1 too high 23 SiteStats Analytics – Google Analytics, Bing Webmaster & Search Console 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↑6 6 too high 24 GTranslate Visual Addon 400+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #24 ↓4

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.