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

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 maintenance”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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.

M

Ranked above its merit

Minimal Maintenance Mode shows at wp.org #11 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 3220 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Maintenance 1M+ · 4.4★ (869) wp.org #1 2 LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes 200K+ · 4.7★ (326) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 WP Maintenance 60K+ · 4.7★ (98) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too high 6 Slim Maintenance Mode 10K+ · 5.0★ (63) wp.org #6 7 Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755) wp.org #10 ↑2 3 too low 8 Under Construction, Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode 10K+ · 4.6★ (46) wp.org #8 9 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #21 ↑2 12 too low 10 Minimal Coming Soon – Coming Soon Page 100K+ · 4.3★ (282) wp.org #13 ↑2 3 too low 11 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 too high 12 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #16 ↑1 4 too low 13 Visual Composer Website Builder 30K+ · 4.6★ (220) wp.org #18 ↑1 5 too low 14 Modular DS: Monitor, update, and backup multiple websites 40K+ · 5.0★ (133) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 Spectra Blocks – AI Website Builder for the Block Editor 60K+ · 4.6★ (53) wp.org #14 ↓5 1 too high 16 Disabled Source, Disabled Right Click and Content Protection 10K+ · 4.9★ (103) wp.org #23 7 too low 17 Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode by Colorlib 5K+ · 4.7★ (42) wp.org #12 ↑2 5 too high 18 Maintenance mode for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #15 ↑1 3 too high 19 Coming Soon Maintenance Mode 6K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #9 ↑1 10 too high 20 Website Maintenance – PTI 10+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 Hostinger Tools 3M+ · 3.5★ (40) wp.org #20 ↑1 1 too high 22 M Minimal Maintenance Mode 900+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↑2 11 too high 23 Speedx – Maintenance Mode 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too high 24 Glow: maintenance & support management for agencies 800+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↑1 7 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.