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

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 restore”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 3 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

Royal WordPress Backup, Restore & Migration Plugin – Backup WordPress Sites Safely shows at wp.org #7 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 30K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 1916 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Backuply – Backup, Restore, Migrate and Clone 600K+ · 4.5★ (135) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too high 5 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 WP Umbrella: Security Backup Restore & Monitoring 90K+ · 4.8★ (81) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too high 7 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too high 8 JetBackup – Backup, Restore & Migrate 200K+ · 4.5★ (1056) wp.org #11 ↓2 3 too low 9 Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner 10K+ · 4.2★ (129) wp.org #9 ↓1 10 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #10 11 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too low 12 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1916) wp.org #17 ↓4 5 too low 13 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (195) wp.org #16 ↑2 3 too low 14 AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #21 7 too low 15 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #20 ↓4 5 too low 16 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #12 4 too high 17 Total Upkeep – WordPress Backup Plugin plus Restore & Migrate by BoldGrid 40K+ · 4.8★ (442) wp.org #14 ↓2 3 too high 18 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #18 19 Royal WordPress Backup, Restore & Migration Plugin – Backup WordPress Sites Safely 30K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #7 ↑4 12 too high 20 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #13 ↑4 7 too high 21 WebToffee WP Backup and Migration 5K+ · 4.5★ (49) wp.org #22 ↓3 1 too low 22 MxChat – AI Chatbot & Content Generation for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (31) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 Accept PayPal & Stripe with Subscriptions for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.8★ (9) wp.org #24 ↓4 1 too low 24 Menu Backup & Restore + Import/Export 500+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 ↓4 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.