Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 migrate”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

FooGallery Migrate shows at wp.org #11 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 1K+ 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.

Buried gem

WP All Import – Drag & Drop Import for CSV, XML, Excel & Google Sheets places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 1966 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 Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning 200K+ · 4.9★ (1645) wp.org #1 2 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #2 3 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 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 #6 1 too low 6 Backup Migration 80K+ · 4.9★ (1338) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too low 7 WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) wp.org #4 ↓1 3 too high 8 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #10 ↑2 2 too low 9 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #13 ↑2 4 too low 10 WP All Import – Drag & Drop Import for CSV, XML, Excel & Google Sheets 100K+ · 4.7★ (1966) wp.org #16 ↑2 6 too low 11 Backuply – Backup, Restore, Migrate and Clone 600K+ · 4.5★ (135) wp.org #8 ↑2 3 too high 12 WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #12 ↑2 1 too high 14 WP Recipe Maker 50K+ · 5.0★ (356) wp.org #14 ↓1 15 JetBackup – Backup, Restore & Migrate 200K+ · 4.5★ (1056) wp.org #18 ↑1 3 too low 16 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #19 ↑1 3 too low 17 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too high 18 WP All Export – Drag & Drop Export to Any Custom CSV, XML & Excel 100K+ · 4.5★ (415) wp.org #22 ↑1 4 too low 19 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #17 2 too high 20 hCaptcha for WP 70K+ · 4.6★ (88) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too low 21 WP Import Export Lite 40K+ · 4.0★ (113) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Migrate To Liquid Web & Nexcess 1K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #20 ↑1 2 too high 23 FooGallery Migrate 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 12 too high 24 W2S – Migrate WooCommerce to Shopify 1K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #24

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.