How TrackWP gets its numbers
Every number is taken from WordPress.org, computed with a formula WordPress.org publishes, or an estimate we label as one.
- Public WordPress.org data only
- Refreshed every night
- Ranking formula from WordPress.org's own code
1
Exact, estimated or building up
Each number on TrackWP falls into one of three groups, and the pages always tell you which.
Taken straight from WordPress.org, or computed from it with its own published formula.
- Popular rank
- Daily downloads
- Ratings and reviews
- Support threads resolved
- Active-install band
- The six ranking multipliers
Worked out by us where WordPress.org keeps the input private. Always labelled.
- Text relevance for a search
- Predicted positions in the Rank Simulator
- Fit score of each estimate
WordPress.org keeps no history of these. Ours starts the night we first see a listing; before that, monthly Internet Archive captures fill in where they exist.
- Rank history
- Install history
- Rank movement (1, 7 and 30 days)
- Keyword position history
2
Every night, in this order
All times are UTC. Two things also happen straight away, outside the schedule.
- 02:00
Step 1: Directory snapshot
Every plugin and theme in WordPress.org's popular order: rank, installs, downloads, rating and support numbers. About 320 API calls for the whole directory.
- 04:00
Step 2: Keyword checks
Each tracked search, run once on WordPress.org. The top 100 results are stored, and one check serves everyone tracking that search.
- 04:30
Step 3: Download history
Official daily downloads for every tracked product and rival, a year back.
First look at a listing: we fetch two years of its official daily downloads, so its chart is full from day one.
New keyword: checked the moment you add it, then every night with the rest.
3
The search ranking formula
WordPress.org's plugin search is open source. After scoring how well a plugin's title, slug, description and tags match a search, it multiplies that score by six factors.
Exact: computed by TrackWP with the published formula Estimated: WordPress.org's search index isn't public
In each chart the thin grey line is ×1.00: above it a factor lifts your score, below it the factor lowers it.
Last updated
Full score for 180 days after a release, then it halves every further 360 days.
Tested up to
Full score within 0.1 of the current WordPress branch; it falls as "Tested up to" gets older.
Active installs
Grows with the logarithm of installs, so each band adds less than the one before.
Size penalty
An extra factor below 1 million installs that shrinks as installs grow, and disappears at 1M.
Resolved support threads
Grows with the logarithm of threads resolved in the last two months.
Rating
The square root of a quarter of the stars: 4 stars is neutral, 5 stars adds 12%.
Read it yourself in class-plugin-search.php in the WordPress.org repository. Theme search ranks differently and isn't covered by the Rank Simulator yet.
4
What we estimate, and how far to trust it
The text-match part of the score depends on WordPress.org's search index, which isn't public. We approximate it from which fields contain the search: title, slug, description and tags.
Predictions are anchored to your real position. If a change moves our estimate up three places, the prediction moves your real position up three places. Text relevance and rivals are assumed to stay as they are today.
The fit score
For each keyword, how closely our estimated order matches the real search results that day, from 0 to 1.
- Rough< 0.5
- Treat predictions as a direction, not a position.
- Fair0.5–0.75
- Close to the real order, give or take a few places.
- Good≥ 0.75
- Our estimated order closely matches the real one.
5
Good to know
Downloads aren't users
Every automatic update counts as a download, which is why release days show big spikes. Active installs are the better measure of reach.
Install bands, then an estimate
WordPress.org rounds active installs down (for example 30,000+ or 5+ million). We always show that band, and when enough peers share it we place an estimate inside the band from popular rank. Confidence drops on wide bands and at 1M+.
History from before we started
Daily rank and install history begin the night a listing first appears in our snapshot. Before that we read monthly Internet Archive captures of WordPress.org: install band, rating and version for established plugins, and rank near the top of the popular list. Downloads go back two years because WordPress.org publishes them.
TrackWP is independent and not affiliated with WordPress.org, Automattic or the WordPress Foundation.
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