Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 contributors”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20.

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

WP Ultimate Review shows at wp.org #8 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 60K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.4★ average from 17 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #1 2 WP Job Manager 70K+ · 4.4★ (237) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 WP Event Manager – Events Calendar, Registrations, Sell Tickets with WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.0★ (249) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 WP Recipe Maker 50K+ · 5.0★ (356) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #6 ↑2 7 WP Go Maps – Google Map, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet Map 300K+ · 4.8★ (3055) wp.org #9 ↓3 2 too low 8 پارسی دیت – Parsi Date 100K+ · 4.6★ (130) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too high 9 Post Types Order 600K+ · 4.5★ (296) wp.org #10 ↓3 1 too low 10 PWA for WP – Progressive Web Apps Made Simple 10K+ · 4.6★ (230) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 WP fail2ban – Advanced Security 60K+ · 4.2★ (71) wp.org #11 12 Sentry for WordPress 10K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too low 13 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #20 ↓7 7 too low 14 WP Server Health Stats 9K+ · 4.8★ (110) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 WP Date and Time Shortcode 10K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #19 ↑3 4 too low 16 WPGraphQL 30K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #23 ↓2 7 too low 17 Database Backup for WordPress 60K+ · 4.5★ (66) wp.org #21 ↓1 4 too low 18 WP Post Author – Author Box, Multiple Authors, Guest Authors & Custom Avatars 10K+ · 4.2★ (22) wp.org #17 ↑2 1 too high 19 WP Ultimate Review 60K+ · 3.4★ (17) wp.org #8 ↑2 11 too high 20 W WP Auto Updater 7K+ · 4.6★ (10) wp.org #15 ↑1 5 too high 21 wp-forecast 4K+ · 4.2★ (23) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too low 22 WP Post Page Clone 70K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #14 ↑1 8 too high 23 WP-DraftsForFriends 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #16 ↑2 7 too high 24 Molongui Post Contributors: Multi-Role Contributor Attribution 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 ↓1 6 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.