wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wp mail debug”
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 debug”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.
Ranked above its merit
Shipping Live Rates for Royal Mail for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #13 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
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 Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375)
wp.org #2 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 4 
Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108)
wp.org #4 5 
WP Mail Log 10K+ · 4.9★ (66)
wp.org #5 ↑1 6 
Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709)
wp.org #8 2 too low 7 
WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167)
wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too high 8 
Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87)
wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too high 9 
Check & Log Email – Easy Email Testing & Mail logging 90K+ · 4.8★ (292)
wp.org #10 1 too low 10 
All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720)
wp.org #11 1 too low 11 
Mail Mint – Email Marketing, Automation & WooCommerce Emails with AI Assistance 4K+ · 4.7★ (125)
wp.org #9 2 too high 12 
Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205)
wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too low 13 
WP Database Backup – Unlimited Database & Files Backup by Backup for WP 20K+ · 4.5★ (102)
wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too low 14 
Dark Mode – Improve Accessibility with AI Powered Dark Theme 20K+ · 4.5★ (391)
wp.org #23 9 too low 15 
Connect Matomo – Analytics Dashboard for WordPress 60K+ · 4.5★ (95)
wp.org #16 1 too low 16 
WP Offload SES Lite 10K+ · 4.3★ (36)
wp.org #12 4 too high 17 
Payment Button for PayPal 4K+ · 4.5★ (40)
wp.org #19 2 too low 18 
WP Cassify 900+ · 5.0★ (16) thin reviews
wp.org #21 3 too low 19 
WP Inventory Manager 1K+ · 4.6★ (32)
wp.org #24 5 too low 20 
Royal Mail Shipping Calculator for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.4★ (8) thin reviews
wp.org #17 ↑1 3 too high 21 
WP SAML Auth 7K+ · 4.5★ (8) thin reviews
wp.org #18 ↓1 3 too high 22 
phpinfo() WP – Site Health, PHP Compatibility & Server Audit 3K+ · 4.5★ (8) thin reviews
wp.org #22 23 Shipping Live Rates for Royal Mail for WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #13 10 too high 24 
WP All Import – Job Listing Import for WP Job Manager 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #20 4 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.