wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wp 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 notification”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Push Notifications for WP – Self Hosted Web Push Notifications shows at wp.org #11 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 1138 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

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 STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #2 3

WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #4 1 too low 4

WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #3 ↑5 1 too high 5

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6

All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #7 1 too low 7

WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative 500K+ · 4.1★ (759) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8

WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184) wp.org #9 ↑1 1 too low 9

WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #13 4 too low 10

WPFront Notification Bar 40K+ · 4.5★ (131) wp.org #10 ↑1 11

WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #20 9 too low 12

WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect 50K+ · 4.9★ (1146) wp.org #21 ↑2 9 too low 13

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too low 14

Disable WP Notification 10K+ · 4.3★ (12) thin reviews wp.org #5 ↑1 9 too high 15

Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #22 ↓1 7 too low 16

Manage Notification E-mails 100K+ · 4.8★ (56) wp.org #14 ↑1 2 too high 17

All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #23 ↓1 6 too low 18

Notification – Custom Notifications and Alerts for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (124) wp.org #18 19

Notification for Telegram 4K+ · 4.9★ (71) wp.org #19 20 W WP Photo Album Plus 10K+ · 4.7★ (199) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #17 3 too high 21

BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) not PHP-current wp.org #24 3 too low 22

WP Notification Bell 700+ · 4.9★ (12) thin reviews wp.org #16 ↑1 6 too high 23

Notification Master – Real-Time WordPress Notifications With Email, SMS, Webhooks & More 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) thin reviews wp.org #12 ↑4 11 too high 24

Push Notifications for WP – Self Hosted Web Push Notifications 6K+ · 4.2★ (5) thin reviews wp.org #11 ↑1 13 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.