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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “woocommerce influencer”

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 “woocommerce influencer”, we agree with wp.org 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

Refersion for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #9 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Travel Engine – Tour Booking Plugin – Tour Operator Software places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 595 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. 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 Smart Coupons For WooCommerce Coupons 30K+ · 4.7★ (133) wp.org #1 2 Email Marketing for WooCommerce by Omnisend 40K+ · 4.9★ (169) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4,133) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Advanced Coupons for WooCommerce – BOGO, Store Credit & WooCommerce Coupons 20K+ · 4.4★ (184) wp.org #4 5 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 Dokan: AI Powered WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy 30K+ · 4.6★ (769) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 7 Coupon Affiliates – Affiliate Plugin for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.9★ (77) wp.org #7 8 MalCare WordPress Security Plugin – Malware Scanner, Cleaner, Security Firewall 100K+ · 4.4★ (561) wp.org #11 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 9 WP Travel Engine – Tour Booking Plugin – Tour Operator Software 20K+ · 4.9★ (595) wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 13 places below merit 10 Wp Social Login and Register Social Counter 70K+ · 4.6★ (67) wp.org #13 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 11 YITH WooCommerce Affiliates 6K+ · 4.2★ (19) wp.org #6 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 12 ReviewX – Multi-Criteria Reviews for WooCommerce with Google Reviews & Schema 6K+ · 4.5★ (85) wp.org #14 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 13 Goaffpro Affiliate Marketing 4K+ · 4.8★ (44) wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 14 WC Affiliate – WooCommerce Affiliate Plugin 300+ · 4.6★ (17) wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 15 Enhanced Ecommerce Google Analytics for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #12 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 16 UTM Event Tracker and Analytics, UTM Grabber 800+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 17 WPC Shoppable Images for WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 18 Refersion for WooCommerce 200+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 19 Taggbox: Social Media Feed Widget 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 20 URL Coupons for WooCommerce 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 21 AvantLink Merchant Integration For WooCommerce 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 Affiliatly 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 23 ClickDesigns 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 24 Trackdesk for WooCommerce 100+ · 2.0★ (2) wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 8 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.