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

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 posts”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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 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

WordPress Importer shows at wp.org #11 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 2M+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.1★ average from 327 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #1 2

MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3156) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #2 ↑1 3

Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #4 1 too low 4

TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #5 6

Duplicate Post 300K+ · 4.9★ (1623) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #8 1 too low 8

WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too low 9

Post Types Order 600K+ · 4.5★ (296) wp.org #6 ↑1 3 too high 10

Hustle – Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Optins, Popups 80K+ · 4.4★ (859) wp.org #9 1 too high 11

WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #15 ↑1 3 too low 13

Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails 100K+ · 4.8★ (215) wp.org #13 14

Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (587) wp.org #18 ↓1 4 too low 15

Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #16 ↑8 1 too low 16 P Posts 2 Posts 9K+ · 4.8★ (101) wp.org #14 2 too high 17

List category posts 80K+ · 4.7★ (254) wp.org #20 ↑1 2 too low 19

WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (195) wp.org #23 ↓4 4 too low 20

GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #17 ↓2 3 too high 21

Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 100K+ · 4.8★ (167) wp.org #24 3 too low 22

WordPress Importer 2M+ · 3.1★ (327) wp.org #11 ↓1 11 too high 23

FancyBox for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (92) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too high 24

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.