Suggestion to Improve Author Ranking Algorithm (Plugins vs Themes)

[ahsandev0]

Hello WP Monitor Team,

First of all, great work on WP Monitor — it’s a very useful platform for tracking WordPress ecosystem data.

I wanted to share a suggestion regarding the Author Ranking algorithm. Currently, it appears that authors are ranked primarily by the number and mix of assets (plugins + themes), with a strong weight given to themes. As a result, plugin-only authors with very large install bases rank significantly lower than authors with fewer total installs but a mix of plugins and themes.

For example:

A plugin-only author with 6M+ active installs ranks lower than an author with <1M installs simply because the latter also publishes themes.

This can unintentionally undervalue highly impactful plugin developers.

Suggested Improvement

It might be more accurate and fair to:

Separate rankings for Plugin Authors and Theme Authors, or

Provide distinct leaderboards:

Top Plugin Authors

Top Theme Authors

Combined Publishers (Plugins + Themes)

This would:

Better reflect real-world impact

Avoid comparing fundamentally different asset types

Make rankings more meaningful for users, developers, and companies

Even a simple toggle or filter between plugin-focused and theme-focused rankings would add a lot of clarity.

Thanks for considering this feedback — happy to provide more examples if helpful.

Best regards,
Ahsan

[mono-ninja]

Hi

Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to provide such detailed feedback.

You’ve hit the nail on the head. Our current ranking logic does indeed lean heavily on the asset mix, and I agree that this can undervalue the massive impact of dedicated plugin developers. Your suggestion to separate or filter these rankings is an excellent idea.

Thanks for helping make WP Monitor better. I’ll keep you posted on the updates!

[mono-ninja]

Hi, I fixed the rating authors.
Thanks

[ahsandev0]

Hi @mono-ninja by “fixing” do you mean the code has already been pushed to production?

Thanks for the update. I think the ranking logic still feels a bit unbalanced.

For example, I see an Author A with 4–5 themes (≈147,000 total installs) and 5–6 plugins (≈620,000 total installs) ranking above Author B, who has 15–16 plugins with ≈6,200,000 total installs.

Numerically, Author B has nearly 8× more active installs, yet still appears lower in the ranking. This makes it hard to understand what the ranking is actually rewarding—popularity (installs), product volume, or product diversity.

A clearer and more consistent scoring model—especially one that gives meaningful weight to active installs—would make author comparisons easier to understand and feel more fair overall.

I’d also strongly prefer if the site displayed how authors are ranked (e.g. the formula or weighting used), as that transparency would help users interpret the leaderboard correctly.

[mono-ninja]

Hi, @ahsandev0
Please, check the autors page https://wpmonitor.dev/wp-authors/

[ahsandev0]

Hi @mono-ninja
Thanks now i see it working , only this color is bit odd with current styling of the website and hard to read

Its only when browser is running in dark mode.

On light mode its fine

Anyway that is different issue then the current thread

Thanks for your time, its realy nice to see such efforts for wordpress developers.

[mono-ninja]

Thanks for youe feedback