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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “azure ad b2c”

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 “azure ad b2c”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 of the top 15.

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

User Sync shows at wp.org #6 but places #12 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 2 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 WPO365 | SEAMLESS WORDPRESS + MICROSOFT INTEGRATION (WPO365 | LOGIN) 10K+ · 4.9★ (154) wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 2 SAML Single Sign On – SSO Login 10K+ · 4.9★ (402) wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 3 User Sync for Azure AD / Azure B2C 60+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #1 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 4 OAuth Single Sign On – SSO (OAuth Client) 7K+ · 4.9★ (327) wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 All-in-One Microsoft 365 & Entra ID / Azure AD SSO Login 600+ · 3.9★ (7) wp.org #2 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 6 Chatbot for WordPress by Collect.chat ⚡️ 6K+ · 4.4★ (38) wp.org #12 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 7 WP Login and Register using JWT 100+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #7 8 Office 365 User Authentication for WordPress 20+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #11 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 9 Intranet and Extranet with O365 Login 40+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #10 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 10 Cloud SAML SSO – Single Sign On Login 80+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 11 O OAuth client Single Sign On for WordPress ( OAuth 2.0 SSO ) 200+ · 4.1★ (8) wp.org #15 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 12 User Sync 200+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 13 Headless SSO Plugin for WP 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 14 Employee Directory – Staff Directory and Listing 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 15 SSO Login – Universal (OAuth + SAML) 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place 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.