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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “words”

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 “words”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Count Characters, Words and Paragraphs while typing shows at wp.org #6 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.5★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Quiz Maker by AYS places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 601 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 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #1 2 Relevanssi – A Better Search 100K+ · 4.8★ (406) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Word Balloon 10K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #10 5 too low 6 Advanced File Manager – Ultimate File Manager for WordPress And Document Library Solution 100K+ · 4.8★ (441) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #8 ↑7 1 too low 8 Embed Any Document – Embed PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel Files 50K+ · 4.2★ (92) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too high 9 Linguator – AI Auto Translate & Create Multilingual Sites 3K+ · 4.6★ (20) wp.org #4 ↑2 5 too high 10 Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 Orphans 50K+ · 5.0★ (164) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 Really Simple CAPTCHA 300K+ · 4.2★ (131) wp.org #13 ↓2 1 too low 13 A Advanced Excerpt 80K+ · 4.3★ (101) wp.org #20 7 too low 14 Advanced Woo Search – Product Search for WooCommerce 60K+ · 4.8★ (248) wp.org #18 ↓9 4 too low 15 Count Characters, Words and Paragraphs while typing 300+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #6 ↑1 9 too high 16 Document Embedder – let visitors read files without downloading 9K+ · 4.9★ (120) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 WP-ShowHide 9K+ · 4.2★ (43) wp.org #22 ↓1 5 too low 18 Sortable Word Count Reloaded 2K+ · 3.7★ (10) wp.org #15 ↑1 3 too high 19 SmartText Rotator – Add Motion to Your Words 1K+ · 3.5★ (11) wp.org #16 ↑3 3 too high 20 Word Replace 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 ↑1 9 too high 21 The Word Widget 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↑1 9 too high 22 PuzzleMe – Interactive Puzzles for WordPress – Easily publish crosswords, quizzes, word searches and more 1K+ · 4.0★ (3) wp.org #23 ↑1 1 too low 23 Word Counter Plus 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Total Price in Words for WooCommerce 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↑1 3 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.