wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “website content”
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 “website content”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 5 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
Passster – Password Protect Pages and Content shows at wp.org #9 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 60 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) not PHP-currentheavy footprint
wp.org #1 2 
Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418)
wp.org #3 1 too low 3 
Content Views – Post Grid & Filter (Shortcode, Blocks, Elementor Widgets) 100K+ · 4.8★ (333) heavy footprint
wp.org #5 ↑1 2 too low 4 
Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) heavy footprint
wp.org #6 ↑2 2 too low 5 
Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) thin reviews
wp.org #2 3 too high 6 
Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445)
wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too low 7 
MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #4 3 too high 8 
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821)
wp.org #10 ↑6 2 too low 9 
Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755)
wp.org #11 ↑1 2 too low 10 
WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138)
wp.org #12 ↑1 2 too low 11 
SSL Insecure Content Fixer 100K+ · 4.8★ (221) not PHP-current
wp.org #8 ↑3 3 too high 12 
Content Control – The Ultimate Content Restriction Solution! Restrict Content, Create Conditional Blocks & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (575)
wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too low 13 
TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667)
wp.org #17 4 too low 14 
Jetpack Boost – Website Speed, Performance and Critical CSS 200K+ · 4.7★ (612)
wp.org #20 6 too low 15 
Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187)
wp.org #15 ↑4 16 
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519)
wp.org #24 ↓2 8 too low 17 
Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) not PHP-current
wp.org #21 4 too low 18 
Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270)
wp.org #23 5 too low 19 
Disabled Source, Disabled Right Click and Content Protection 10K+ · 4.9★ (103)
wp.org #19 20 
Secure Copy Content Protection and Content Locking 20K+ · 4.3★ (62)
wp.org #14 ↑1 6 too high 21 Passster – Password Protect Pages and Content 10K+ · 4.2★ (60) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #9 ↓2 12 too high 22 
Spectra Blocks – AI Website Builder for the Block Editor 60K+ · 4.6★ (53) heavy footprint
wp.org #18 ↓8 4 too high 23 
MxChat – AI Chatbot & Content Generation for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (31) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #16 ↑2 7 too high 24 
Essential Content Types 20K+ · 3.7★ (3) 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.