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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wp admin template”

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

W

Ranked above its merit

WP Photo Album Plus shows at wp.org #14 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.7★ average from 199 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 1138 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #1 2 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #2 3 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8 Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755) wp.org #9 ↑1 1 too low 9 Show Current Template 100K+ · 5.0★ (71) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too high 10 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #15 ↓1 5 too low 11 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #10 ↑10 1 too high 12 PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce 300K+ · 5.0★ (1865) wp.org #11 ↑1 1 too high 13 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #13 14 WP Accessibility 60K+ · 4.8★ (68) wp.org #12 ↓1 2 too high 15 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #21 ↓3 6 too low 16 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #24 ↓3 8 too low 17 WP-PageNavi 400K+ · 4.7★ (149) wp.org #16 ↓9 1 too high 18 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #22 ↓3 4 too low 19 WP Job Manager 70K+ · 4.4★ (237) wp.org #20 ↓3 1 too low 20 WP-Polls 40K+ · 4.2★ (136) wp.org #17 ↓2 3 too high 21 W WP Photo Album Plus 10K+ · 4.7★ (199) wp.org #14 7 too high 22 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #23 ↓1 1 too low 23 Custom Field Template 30K+ · 4.0★ (24) wp.org #18 ↓2 5 too high 24 All In One Login 60K+ · 3.6★ (35) wp.org #19 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.