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

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 “oauth”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 2 plugins are 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 it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Rundiz OAuth shows at wp.org #10 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Easy Social Feed – Social Photos Gallery and Post Feed for WordPress places #6 on merit, 4.6★ from 502 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7506) wp.org #1 2 OAuth Single Sign On – SSO (OAuth Client) 6K+ · 4.9★ (324) wp.org #2 3 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 600K+ · 4.8★ (405) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1677) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 WP OAuth Server ( Login with WordPress ) 1K+ · 4.9★ (41) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 Easy Social Feed – Social Photos Gallery and Post Feed for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502) wp.org #16 10 too low 7 WP OAuth Server (OAuth Authentication) 3K+ · 3.8★ (41) wp.org #5 2 too high 8 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 10K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 GSheetConnector – CF7 Google Sheets Connector & Save CF7 Entries to Database 40K+ · 4.4★ (129) wp.org #9 10 Gmail SMTP 10K+ · 4.1★ (103) wp.org #14 ↓2 4 too low 11 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (185) wp.org #21 ↑3 10 too low 12 Authorizer 6K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #11 1 too high 13 WPGet API – Connect to any external REST API 10K+ · 5.0★ (32) wp.org #15 ↓2 2 too low 14 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 Meow Mailer – Free SMTP, Everything Included 700+ · 4.9★ (17) wp.org #13 ↑1 2 too high 16 WPO365 | MICROSOFT 365 GRAPH MAILER 10K+ · 4.9★ (39) wp.org #20 ↓1 4 too low 17 JWT Authentication for WP REST APIs 10K+ · 4.4★ (74) wp.org #23 ↓1 6 too low 18 Enable Abilities for MCP 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #12 ↑3 6 too high 19 Log in with Google 6K+ · 4.6★ (17) wp.org #19 ↓1 20 JWT Authentication for WP REST API 60K+ · 4.4★ (53) wp.org #24 ↓3 4 too low 21 Tim's Nextcloud SSO OAuth2 200+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #18 ↓1 3 too high 22 SiteSEO – SEO Simplified 500K+ · 4.0★ (9) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too high 23 Flex MCP – Connect ChatGPT, Claude and AI agents with MCP, Undo, Abilities and Tools. 800+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too high 24 Rundiz OAuth 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 14 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian 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.