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

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

WP Cron HTTP Auth shows at wp.org #11 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 17 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Reset places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 1014 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 signals wp.org

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 #1 2

WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #2 3

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #3 4

All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #4 ↑1 5

WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6

WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect 50K+ · 4.9★ (1146) wp.org #7 ↑4 1 too low 7

WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #5 ↑4 2 too high 8

WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #8 ↓4 9

WP Force SSL & HTTPS SSL Redirect 80K+ · 4.7★ (179) wp.org #9 ↑1 10

WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184) wp.org #10 ↑9 11

Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #14 ↑8 3 too low 12

WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1014) wp.org #16 ↑1 4 too low 13

Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #18 5 too low 14

WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #15 ↓7 1 too low 15

WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167) wp.org #12 3 too high 16

WP Accessibility 60K+ · 4.8★ (68) wp.org #13 3 too high 17

WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #23 6 too low 18

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #20 ↓7 2 too low 19

WP Cron HTTP Auth 1K+ · 5.0★ (17) thin reviews wp.org #11 ↑1 8 too high 20

BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) not PHP-current wp.org #19 1 too high 21

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) heavy footprint wp.org #21 22 W WP Photo Album Plus 10K+ · 4.7★ (199) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #17 ↑7 5 too high 23

WP Umbrella: Security Backup Restore & Monitoring 90K+ · 4.8★ (81) wp.org #24 ↓1 1 too low 24

HTTP Requests Manager 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) thin reviews wp.org #22 ↓4 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.