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

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 mu”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 5 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

WebSub (FKA. PubSubHubbub) shows at wp.org #6 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 100K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Hummingbird Performance – Cache & Page Speed Optimization for Core Web Vitals | Critical CSS | Minify CSS | Defer CSS Javascript | CDN places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 1488 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Disable All WordPress Updates 20K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too low 3 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Mu Manager – Manage mu-plugins like standard plugins 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 Advanced WordPress Reset – Debug, Recover & Reset WP 10K+ · 4.9★ (1233) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 W WP Customer Reviews 20K+ · 4.3★ (528) wp.org #9 ↑1 2 too low 8 WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1014) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 WP All Import – Drag & Drop Import for CSV, XML, Excel & Google Sheets 100K+ · 4.7★ (1966) wp.org #18 ↑1 9 too low 10 Hummingbird Performance – Cache & Page Speed Optimization for Core Web Vitals | Critical CSS | Minify CSS | Defer CSS Javascript | CDN 70K+ · 4.7★ (1488) wp.org #20 10 too low 11 WPS Limit Login 100K+ · 4.9★ (83) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 WordPress Beta Tester 2K+ · 4.0★ (47) wp.org #7 5 too high 13 Sentry for WordPress 10K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #8 5 too high 14 Admin CSS MU 10K+ · 4.5★ (26) wp.org #10 ↓1 4 too high 15 FluentSnippets – High-Performance Code Snippets, Header & Footer Code, Custom CSS & PHP Code Manager 50K+ · 4.7★ (78) wp.org #21 ↑3 6 too low 16 WebSub (FKA. PubSubHubbub) 100K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #6 ↓1 10 too high 17 WP REST Cache 10K+ · 4.9★ (42) wp.org #15 ↑2 2 too high 18 AMP WP – Google AMP For WordPress 600+ · 4.5★ (55) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Calendar 4K+ · 3.7★ (24) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 Native PHP Sessions 10K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #23 ↓2 3 too low 21 Code Profiler – WordPress Performance Profiling and Debugging Made Easy 8K+ · 4.3★ (36) wp.org #16 5 too high 22 L Logged-in-only 700+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too high 23 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #17 ↓2 6 too high 24 Phrase TMS Integration for WordPress 200+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #22 2 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.