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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wordpress migrate”

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 “wordpress migrate”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 4 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

FooGallery Migrate shows at wp.org #9 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 1K+ 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

WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 2470 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning 200K+ · 4.9★ (1645) wp.org #1 2 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #2 3 Backup Migration 80K+ · 4.9★ (1338) wp.org #3 4 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #6 ↓1 2 too low 5 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #8 ↑2 3 too low 6 Backuply – Backup, Restore, Migrate and Clone 600K+ · 4.5★ (135) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too high 7 WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #14 6 too low 9 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too high 10 JetBackup – Backup, Restore & Migrate 200K+ · 4.5★ (1056) wp.org #12 ↓1 2 too low 11 FG Joomla to WordPress 7K+ · 4.7★ (336) wp.org #11 ↑1 12 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too high 13 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too low 14 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #13 ↑4 1 too high 15 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1915) wp.org #18 3 too low 16 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 Total Upkeep – WordPress Backup Plugin plus Restore & Migrate by BoldGrid 40K+ · 4.8★ (442) wp.org #17 ↓2 18 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #22 ↑1 4 too low 19 MxChat – AI Chatbot & Content Generation for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (31) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Royal WordPress Backup, Restore & Migration Plugin – Backup WordPress Sites Safely 30K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #20 ↑1 21 Migrate to WordPress.com 2K+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #21 ↓1 22 Migrate To Liquid Web & Nexcess 1K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #16 ↓3 6 too high 23 FooGallery Migrate 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 ↓2 14 too high 24 W2S – Migrate WooCommerce to Shopify 1K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #19 5 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.