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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “world time”

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 “world time”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 2 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

World Clocks shows at wp.org #6 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #1 2 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 30K+ · 4.1★ (233) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #9 ↓1 3 too low 7 BlogVault Backup & Staging 80K+ · 4.6★ (332) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too low 9 Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning 200K+ · 4.9★ (1645) wp.org #12 ↓1 3 too low 10 SlimStat Analytics – Real-Time Stats, Heatmaps & Ecommerce 70K+ · 4.8★ (816) wp.org #7 3 too high 11 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1668) wp.org #11 ↑3 12 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #15 ↓2 3 too low 13 Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (591) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too low 14 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #18 ↑2 4 too low 15 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #14 ↓2 1 too high 16 Page Builder by SiteOrigin 400K+ · 4.8★ (1005) wp.org #22 ↑2 6 too low 17 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (742) wp.org #23 ↓2 6 too low 18 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #19 1 too low 19 Salat Times 500+ · 4.8★ (9) wp.org #13 ↓3 6 too high 20 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 World Clocks 100+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #6 15 too high 22 IP2Location World Clock 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too high 23 World Domination 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓3 3 too high 24 Advanced Date Time Field For Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms, Elementor & Fluent Forms 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓3 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.