Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wheel of prizes”

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 “wheel of prizes”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

WebEquipe Spin & Win Wheel shows at wp.org #5 but places #12 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 60+ 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

Points and Rewards for WooCommerce – Create Loyalty Programs, Reward Customer Purchases, Referral Points, User Badges, and Gamification places #7 on merit, 4.5★ from 181 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Lucky Wheel for WooCommerce – Spin a Sale 1K+ · 4.5★ (19) wp.org #1 2 WP Optin Wheel – Gamified Optin Email Marketing Tool for WordPress and WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.9★ (81) wp.org #3 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 3 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (701) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 4 Lucky Wheel Giveaway 400+ · 3.9★ (8) wp.org #2 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 5 Popup Builder by Claspo – Email Popup, Spin the Wheel, Exit Intent 1K+ · 5.0★ (41) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 6 Revopic – Photo Reviews for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.7★ (77) wp.org #13 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 7 Points and Rewards for WooCommerce – Create Loyalty Programs, Reward Customer Purchases, Referral Points, User Badges, and Gamification 6K+ · 4.5★ (181) wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 8 WinRocket – Raffle, Giveaway, Lottery & Lucky Wheel for WooCommerce 200+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #9 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 9 Smartarget Lucky Wheel 100+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #4 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 10 Simple Points and Rewards for WooCommerce – Create a Loyalty Program 400+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 11 Popup builder with Gamification, Multi-Step Popups, Page-Level Targeting, and WooCommerce Triggers 70K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #14 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 12 WebEquipe Spin & Win Wheel 60+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 13 Instant Popup Builder – Popup Maker for Videos, Forms, Offers, Announcements, Galleries & Exit Intent 100+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #21 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 14 Spin Wheel – Interactive spinning wheel that offers coupons 500+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 15 Spin Wheel – Lucky Wheel, Giveaway & Coupon Popup 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 16 Raffle for WooCommerce 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 17 EgyDevInfo Prize Wheel — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 18 WF1 Wheel — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 19 WPSP Discount Wheel — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 20 Limeboom Spin Wheel — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 21 WP Roulette Wheel – Versatile Roulette Game with Pop-Up, Email Collection and Coupon Generation 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 22 PrizeOrbit Rewards Wheel for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓4 23 Z Zuta Lucky Wheel — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓4 24 YS LeadGen – Popup Builder, Contact Form Builder, Exit Intent, Optin Forms & Lead Generation 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.