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

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 smtp”, 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

SMTP for Amazon SES – YaySMTP shows at wp.org #13 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 10 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 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 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (413) wp.org #2 3 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #3 4 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #4 5 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4,231) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 7 WP SMTP Mailer – SMTP7 8K+ · 5.0★ (115) wp.org #6 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 8 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1,205) wp.org #10 ↑13 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 9 WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167) wp.org #8 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 10 Solid Mail – SMTP email and logging made by SolidWP 60K+ · 4.2★ (52) wp.org #9 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 11 Gmail SMTP 10K+ · 4.1★ (103) wp.org #11 ↓3 12 YaySMTP – WP Mail SMTP with Email Logs, Tracking & Reports 10K+ · 4.9★ (45) wp.org #12 ↓1 13 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7,322) wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 10 places below merit 14 WP Offload SES Lite 10K+ · 4.3★ (36) wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 15 SAR Friendly SMTP 2K+ · 4.6★ (46) wp.org #18 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 16 Meow Mailer – Free SMTP, Everything Included 1K+ · 5.0★ (26) wp.org #22 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 17 SureMail – SMTP and Email Logs Plugin with Amazon SES, Postmark, and Other Providers 200K+ · 4.7★ (25) wp.org #20 ↑4 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 18 SMTP for Amazon SES – YaySMTP 3K+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #13 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 19 Bit SMTP – Easy SMTP Solution with Email Logs 2K+ · 3.9★ (15) wp.org #14 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 20 SmartSMTP 2K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #16 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 21 SMTP for SendGrid – YaySMTP 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 22 CloudSecure WP Security 100K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #19 ↓7 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 23 Custom SMTP: Email Deliverability – FREE & Easy-to-use 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 24 SMTP for Contact Form 7 1K+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #21 ↓1 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.