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

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 mail”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 4 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

Ultimate WP Mail shows at wp.org #12 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 700+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.5★ average from 21 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP All Import – Drag & Drop Import for CSV, XML, Excel & Google Sheets places #11 on merit, 4.7★ from 1966 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 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 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #2 3 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #3 4 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 WP Mail Log 10K+ · 4.9★ (66) wp.org #5 ↑3 6 Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #7 ↓1 8 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #11 ↑5 3 too low 9 WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167) wp.org #8 1 too high 10 WP SMTP Mailer – SMTP7 8K+ · 5.0★ (115) wp.org #9 ↑1 1 too high 11 WP All Import – Drag & Drop Import for CSV, XML, Excel & Google Sheets 100K+ · 4.7★ (1966) wp.org #18 ↑1 7 too low 12 YaySMTP – WP Mail SMTP with Email Logs, Tracking & Reports 10K+ · 4.9★ (45) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too high 13 WP Table Builder – Drag & Drop Table Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (681) wp.org #20 7 too low 14 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #17 ↓2 3 too low 15 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #22 7 too low 16 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #14 2 too high 17 Mail Mint – Email Marketing, Automation & WooCommerce Emails with AI Assistance 4K+ · 4.7★ (125) wp.org #15 ↑3 2 too high 18 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #24 ↓3 6 too low 19 Check & Log Email – Easy Email Testing & Mail logging 90K+ · 4.8★ (292) wp.org #16 ↓2 3 too high 20 WP Hide & Security Enhancer 50K+ · 4.3★ (275) wp.org #21 1 too low 21 WP Offload SES Lite 10K+ · 4.3★ (36) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Ultimate WP Mail 700+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #12 10 too high 23 Mail Queue 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #13 ↑4 10 too high 24 CloudSecure WP Security 100K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #19 ↓6 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.