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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “website kit”

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 kit”, 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

LA-Studio Element Kit for Elementor shows at wp.org #11 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI places #6 on merit, 4.8★ from 27821 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 Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1012) wp.org #1 2 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #2 3 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #3 4 Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755) wp.org #10 6 too low 5 GTM Kit – Google Tag Manager & GA4 integration 30K+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too high 6 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #14 ↑1 8 too low 7 Kit (formerly ConvertKit) – Email Newsletter, Email Marketing, Membership, Subscribers and Landing Pages 40K+ · 4.8★ (90) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Ultimate Post Kit – Elementor Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider & Blog Layout Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (58) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #9 10 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #5 ↓1 5 too high 11 Jeg Kit for Elementor – Powerful Addons for Elementor, Widgets & Templates for WordPress 300K+ · 3.8★ (79) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 Style Kits for Elementor 10K+ · 4.7★ (44) wp.org #13 1 too low 13 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #22 ↑1 9 too low 14 Spectra Legacy – Gutenberg Blocks 1M+ · 4.7★ (1872) wp.org #23 ↓1 9 too low 15 Kirki – Freeform Page Builder, Website Builder & Customizer 500K+ · 4.5★ (81) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too low 16 Blocks Kit – Popular Gutenberg Block Collection 400+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #18 ↑1 2 too low 17 LA-Studio Element Kit for Elementor 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #11 6 too high 18 Thim Kit for Elementor – Pre-built Templates & Widgets for Elementor 20K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #12 6 too high 19 SEO Repair Kit – Spam Monitor, Meta Manager, Schema Manager, Internal Linking, SEO Content Monitoring, GSC Integration 2K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too high 20 Plover Kit – Blocks, Patterns, Responsive Layout and Gutenberg Editor Enhancements 3K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #15 ↓1 5 too high 21 YITH Essential Kit for WooCommerce #1 4K+ · 3.4★ (14) wp.org #20 1 too high 22 News Kit Addons For Elementor 3K+ · 3.6★ (5) wp.org #16 ↑1 6 too high 23 Modules Kit – Beaver Builder Modules 80+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Gutena Kit – Gutenberg Blocks and Templates 1K+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #21 3 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.