Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 translator”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 3 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

SkyLang Auto Translator for Polylang shows at wp.org #10 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 2433 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Translate WordPress – Google Language Translator 100K+ · 4.7★ (620) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too low 2 Prisna GWT – Google Website Translator 8K+ · 4.5★ (54) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 LocoAI – Auto Translate for Loco Translate 70K+ · 4.9★ (642) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too low 7 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too low 8 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #12 ↑1 4 too low 9 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #11 ↓2 2 too low 10 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #20 ↑4 10 too low 11 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1668) wp.org #15 ↑3 4 too low 12 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #5 ↓1 7 too high 13 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #18 ↑1 5 too low 14 WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215) wp.org #19 ↓2 5 too low 15 SSL Insecure Content Fixer 100K+ · 4.8★ (221) wp.org #21 ↑1 6 too low 16 Automatic Translator with Google Translate 2K+ · 4.4★ (11) wp.org #7 ↑1 9 too high 17 Melapress File Monitor 5K+ · 4.1★ (32) wp.org #14 3 too high 18 AI Translator for Polylang 70+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #9 ↑2 9 too high 19 Translate and boost SEO – Automatic AI translation – wpLingua 2K+ · 4.9★ (33) wp.org #24 ↓3 5 too low 20 LATW AI Translation for WPML 100+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #16 4 too high 21 SkyLang Auto Translator for Polylang 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↑5 11 too high 22 Smartcat Translator for WPML 60+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 23 Hybrid AI Translator for TranslatePress 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 6 too high 24 Multilingual AI Translator 40+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #23 1 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.