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

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 designer”, 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

9MAIL – WordPress Email Templates Designer shows at wp.org #12 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents places #12 on merit, 5.0★ from 199 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer 90K+ · 4.5★ (142) wp.org #1 2 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #2 3 Blog Designer Pack – Blog, Post Grid, Post Slider, Post Carousel, Category Post, News 30K+ · 4.7★ (79) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too high 7 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #8 ↓2 1 too low 8 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Ollie Menu Designer 6K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #3 ↓1 6 too high 10 Email Templates Customizer and Designer for WordPress and WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.6★ (133) wp.org #10 ↓1 11 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (199) wp.org #16 4 too low 13 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 WP Coder – Insert & Manage Code Snippets 10K+ · 4.9★ (32) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 WP Custom Admin Interface 30K+ · 4.7★ (160) wp.org #15 16 WP Extended – Modular WordPress Toolkit 600+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #18 2 too low 17 MainWP Child – Securely Connects to the MainWP Dashboard to Manage Multiple Sites 700K+ · 5.0★ (71) wp.org #17 18 Post List Designer – Category Post, Recent Post, Post List 1K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #11 ↓1 7 too high 19 EmailKit – Email Customizer for WooCommerce & WP 70K+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 WP Terms Popup – Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy WordPress Popups 3K+ · 4.8★ (15) wp.org #23 ↓1 3 too low 21 9MAIL – WordPress Email Templates Designer 200+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #12 ↓1 9 too high 22 Ultimate WP Mail 700+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #22 ↑1 23 Email Marketing Plugin – WP Email Capture 1K+ · 4.3★ (19) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 WP School Calendar 400+ · 4.0★ (8) wp.org #21 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.