wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “where to find us”
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 “where to find us”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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
Interactive US Map – Create Clickable & Customizable U.S. Maps shows at wp.org #10 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 2,147 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.
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.
Better Find and Replace – AI-Powered Suggestions 40K+ · 4.6★ (171)
wp.org #1 2 
WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4,835)
wp.org #2 3 
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7,522)
wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 
Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2,409)
wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 5 
404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring 100K+ · 4.7★ (321)
wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 6 
Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1,014)
wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 7 
All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1,720)
wp.org #7 ↑4 8 
All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7,676)
wp.org #9 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 9 
Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (334)
wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 10 
Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1,205)
wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 11 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147)
wp.org #21 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 10 places below merit 12 
Text To Speech TTS Accessibility 4K+ · 4.8★ (93)
wp.org #13 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 13 
FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (412)
wp.org #16 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 14 
The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2,463)
wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 15 
Under Construction 600K+ · 4.8★ (1,285)
wp.org #22 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 16 
WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215)
wp.org #19 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 17 
WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative 500K+ · 4.1★ (760)
wp.org #18 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 18 
Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1,398)
wp.org #23 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 19 
WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (587)
wp.org #11 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 20 
Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186)
wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 21 
Search & Replace Everything – Quick and Easy Way to Find and Replace Text, Links 20K+ · 4.7★ (26)
wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 22 
Smartarget – Chat Buttons & Engagement Apps 900+ · 4.6★ (10) thin reviews
wp.org #14 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 23 Interactive US Map – Create Clickable & Customizable U.S. Maps 300+ · 5.0★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 13 places above merit 24 
Text Replace – Find and Replace WordPress Strings 300+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews
wp.org #17 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 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.