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← Rankings

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

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 “what”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20.

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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Pay What You Want shows at wp.org #5 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 300+ 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

Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 7520 reviews, but shows at wp.org #10. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 What The File 40K+ · 4.9★ (883) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Say What? 40K+ · 4.3★ (92) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27820) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5040) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #10 5 too low 6 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #6 7 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1012) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 What Would Seth Godin Do 900+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #3 7 too high 11 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too low 12 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #17 5 too low 13 Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1238) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #14 ↑1 15 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #22 7 too low 16 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #19 3 too low 17 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #16 1 too high 18 Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74) wp.org #11 7 too high 19 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (199) wp.org #24 5 too low 20 Pay What You Want 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 15 too high 21 Custom Price for WooCommerce 3K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Footprint – Find what slows your site 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 9 too high 23 What If Bitcoin? 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 WZ Followed Posts – Display what visitors are reading 300+ · 3.0★ (2) 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.