wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wp new user notification”
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 new user notification”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 4 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
Disable WP Notification shows at wp.org #13 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 12 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5,211)
wp.org #1 2 
WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2,471)
wp.org #2 3 
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8,716)
wp.org #3 4 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4,231)
wp.org #4 ↑3 5 
All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7,677)
wp.org #7 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 6 
WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1,346)
wp.org #6 ↑2 7 
New User Approve 20K+ · 4.3★ (131)
wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 8 
All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1,720)
wp.org #8 ↑12 9 
WP User Manager – Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile Builder & Member Directory 10K+ · 4.7★ (350)
wp.org #9 10 
WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490)
wp.org #10 ↑5 11 
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 12 
WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184)
wp.org #11 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 13 
Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1,445)
wp.org #15 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 14 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1,281)
wp.org #17 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 15 
WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative 500K+ · 4.1★ (760)
wp.org #12 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 16 
User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832)
wp.org #18 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 17 
User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537)
wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 18 
FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (413)
wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 19 
Import and export users and customers 70K+ · 4.7★ (259)
wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 20 
WPFront Notification Bar 40K+ · 4.5★ (131)
wp.org #20 ↓3 21 
Manage Notification E-mails 100K+ · 4.8★ (56)
wp.org #19 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 22 Disable WP Notification 10K+ · 4.3★ (12) thin reviews
wp.org #13 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 23 
Notification Master – Real-Time WordPress Notifications With Email, SMS, Webhooks & More 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #23 ↑2 24 
Push Notifications for WP – Self Hosted Web Push Notifications 6K+ · 4.2★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.