Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “week”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 of the top 20. 2 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

DayOfWeek shows at wp.org #4 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.6★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 1281 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #1 2 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #2 3 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #3 4 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Backup Migration 80K+ · 4.9★ (1338) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too low 7 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #13 ↓7 5 too low 9 My Calendar – Accessible Event Manager 20K+ · 4.7★ (159) wp.org #10 ↓1 1 too low 10 Simple Calendar – Google Calendar Plugin 50K+ · 3.8★ (397) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too high 11 Click to Chat – HoliThemes 600K+ · 4.8★ (131) wp.org #9 ↑2 2 too high 12 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #16 ↑1 4 too low 13 Popups for Divi 100K+ · 4.8★ (442) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 WP Date and Time Shortcode 10K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #12 ↑1 2 too high 15 Simple Banner – Easily add multiple Banners/Bars/Notifications/Announcements to the top or bottom of your website 50K+ · 4.8★ (45) wp.org #14 1 too high 16 Product Feed Manager for WooCommerce – CTX Feed – Support 220+ Shopping, AI & Social Channels 90K+ · 4.6★ (838) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too low 17 ICS Calendar 10K+ · 4.9★ (72) wp.org #21 4 too low 18 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #18 ↑2 19 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #17 ↑2 2 too high 20 Search Regex 100K+ · 4.7★ (101) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 DayOfWeek 300+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #4 17 too high 22 EventPrime – Events Calendar, Bookings, Tickets & AI 7K+ · 4.4★ (85) wp.org #20 ↓5 2 too high 23 BA Book Everything 10K+ · 4.2★ (20) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Eight Day Week Print Workflow 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↑1 9 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.