Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 plugin”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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

SiteGuard WP Plugin shows at wp.org #11 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 600K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 15 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 1267 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 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #1 2 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #2 3 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #3 4 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #4 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 #5 6 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too low 7 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #7 ↑3 8 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too low 10 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #17 ↑2 5 too low 13 WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative 500K+ · 4.1★ (759) wp.org #12 ↑2 1 too high 14 WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312) wp.org #15 ↑2 1 too low 15 WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184) wp.org #13 ↑2 3 too high 17 WP-Members Membership Plugin 50K+ · 4.6★ (272) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167) wp.org #22 ↑2 3 too low 20 WP Accessibility 60K+ · 4.8★ (68) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Download Plugin 60K+ · 4.5★ (27) wp.org #18 ↑2 3 too high 22 WP Plugin Manager – Deactivate plugins per page 3K+ · 4.4★ (23) wp.org #20 ↑3 2 too high 23 W WP Multibyte Patch 1M+ · 5.0★ (25) wp.org #23 24 SiteGuard WP Plugin 600K+ · 4.3★ (15) 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.