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

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 maintenance”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 3 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 Maintenance Mode & Site Under Construction shows at wp.org #9 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.5★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 4699 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Maintenance 1M+ · 4.4★ (869) wp.org #1 2 LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too low 3 WP Maintenance 60K+ · 4.7★ (98) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes 200K+ · 4.7★ (326) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 Slim Maintenance Mode 10K+ · 5.0★ (63) wp.org #7 ↑1 8 WP Umbrella: Security Backup Restore & Monitoring 90K+ · 4.8★ (81) wp.org #8 ↑1 9 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #16 ↑1 7 too low 10 Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #17 ↑1 7 too low 11 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #21 10 too low 12 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #19 ↑1 7 too low 13 WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215) wp.org #15 ↓3 2 too low 14 WP All Import – Drag & Drop Import for CSV, XML, Excel & Google Sheets 100K+ · 4.7★ (1966) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 Under Construction, Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode 10K+ · 4.6★ (46) wp.org #11 ↑2 4 too high 16 Maintenance & Coming Soon Redirect Animation 3K+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #13 ↑2 3 too high 17 Minimal Coming Soon – Coming Soon Page 100K+ · 4.3★ (282) wp.org #22 5 too low 18 Maintenance Redirect 10K+ · 4.9★ (24) wp.org #14 ↑2 4 too high 19 Maintenance Mode 8K+ · 4.6★ (14) wp.org #10 ↑1 9 too high 20 Index WP MySQL For Speed 50K+ · 4.8★ (99) wp.org #18 ↑3 2 too high 21 Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode by Colorlib 5K+ · 4.7★ (42) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Maintenance Switch 800+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too high 23 Coming Soon Maintenance Mode 6K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #12 ↑2 11 too high 24 WP Maintenance Mode & Site Under Construction 3K+ · 3.5★ (4) wp.org #9 ↑1 15 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.