wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wp cli”
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 cli”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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
Gravity Forms CLI Add-On shows at wp.org #16 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 20K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470)
wp.org #1 2 
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706)
wp.org #2 3 
All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676)
wp.org #3 ↑2 4 
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209)
wp.org #4 ↓1 5 
WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617)
wp.org #5 ↓1 6 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228)
wp.org #7 ↑3 1 too low 7 
WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1014)
wp.org #10 ↓2 3 too low 8 
BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) not PHP-current
wp.org #6 2 too high 9 
SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267)
wp.org #12 ↑6 3 too low 10 
FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410)
wp.org #9 ↓2 1 too high 11 
Redis Object Cache 500K+ · 4.5★ (179)
wp.org #11 ↑2 12 
Index WP MySQL For Speed 50K+ · 4.8★ (99) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #8 ↑3 4 too high 13 
WP-Sweep 100K+ · 4.7★ (138)
wp.org #14 ↑3 1 too low 14 
WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167)
wp.org #13 ↑2 1 too high 15 
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) not PHP-currentheavy footprint
wp.org #17 2 too low 16 
LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778)
wp.org #24 8 too low 17 
WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215)
wp.org #23 6 too low 18 
WP-PostRatings 20K+ · 4.4★ (178)
wp.org #21 ↓7 3 too low 19 
WP-DBManager 50K+ · 4.4★ (95)
wp.org #19 ↑1 20 
WP-Polls 40K+ · 4.2★ (136)
wp.org #20 ↑3 21 
WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #15 ↑4 6 too high 22 
Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74)
wp.org #18 4 too high 23 Gravity Forms CLI Add-On 20K+ · 4.4★ (7) thin reviews
wp.org #16 7 too high 24 
WP SAML Auth 7K+ · 4.5★ (8) thin reviews
wp.org #22 2 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.