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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “zoho add on”

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 “zoho add on”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Zoho Marketing Automation shows at wp.org #4 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Bit Form – Contact Form, Payment Forms, Multi Step Forms, Calculator & Custom Form Builder places #11 on merit, 5.0★ from 260 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

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 Zoho Flow – No-Code Workflow Automation 5K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #1 2 Zoho Mail for WordPress 20K+ · 3.7★ (42) wp.org #2 3 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 #7 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 4 Integration for WooCommerce and Zoho CRM, Books, Invoice, Inventory, Bigin 1K+ · 5.0★ (84) wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 WP Zoho for Contact Form 7, WPForms, Elementor, Formidable and Ninja Forms – CRM, Bigin 3K+ · 5.0★ (44) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 6 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #11 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 7 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3,224) wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 8 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (412) wp.org #12 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 9 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14,389) wp.org #19 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 10 places below merit 10 WP Gravity Forms Zoho CRM and Bigin 400+ · 5.0★ (25) wp.org #10 11 Bit Form – Contact Form, Payment Forms, Multi Step Forms, Calculator & Custom Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (260) wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 11 places below merit 12 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 13 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1,398) wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 10 places below merit 14 Zoho Forms – Drag & Drop Form Builder for Websites – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Order Forms & More 10K+ · 2.7★ (14) wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 11 places above merit 15 Zoho CRM Lead Magnet 3K+ · 3.1★ (25) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 16 Zoho Marketing Automation 1K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 12 places above merit 17 Zoho SalesIQ – Live chat, chatbots, and visitor tracking 10K+ · 4.1★ (7) wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 18 Integration for Zoho CRM and Zoho Bigin – Contact Form 7, WPForms, Elementor, Gravity Forms and More 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #18 ↑1 19 Zoho Campaigns 3K+ · 1.9★ (21) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 10 places above merit 20 Zoho Integration for WordPress 200+ · 2.9★ (9) wp.org #17 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 21 GoSMTP – SMTP for WordPress 500K+ · 4.3★ (10) wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 22 Integrations of Zoho CRM with Elementor form 200+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 23 Zoho PageSense for WordPress 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 24 Zoho Billing – Embed Payment Form 400+ · 2.0★ (4) wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 11 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.