I’m doing a survey of 8 popular social login plugins for WordPress, including WordPress Social Login, Social Login, Social, LoginRadius, Users Ultra, WP-OAuth and Social Connect.
Whether you’re interested in a free light-weight plugin, a premium (paid) plugin, or a subscription-based plugin whose experts will custom tailor their solution to your needs, then you’ve come to the right spot.
The following is a table of results, as of this writing in November, 2014. Some of the info required investigation of the plugin’s source code.
WordPress Social Login | Social Login | Social | LoginRadius | Users Ultra | WP-OAuth | Janrain Social Login | Social Connect | |
PLUGIN OVERVIEW | ||||||||
Developer: | Miled | Claude Schlesser / OneAll | Alex King / Crowd Favorite / MailChimp | LoginRadius | Users Ultra | Perry Butler | Byron / Janrain | Rodrigo Primo |
Rating: | 4.1 (135 reviews) | 3.9 (235 reviews) | 3.4 (108 reviews) | 3.4 (113 reviews) | 4.8 (129 reviews) | 5.0 (2 reviews) | 3.5 (78 reviews) | 4.2 (110 reviews) |
Requires WP version: | 3.0+ | 3.0+ | 3.8+ | 3.4+ | 3.0.1+ | 4.0+ | 3.5+ | 3.0+ |
Total number of downloads: | 153,977 | 328,353 | 362,033 | 256,620 | 59,000 | 710 | 133,147 | 86,697 |
Number of downloads over 1 week: | 2,216 (+1.4%) | 1,677 (+0.5%) | 4,227 (+1.2%) | 2,354 (+0.9%) | 3,132 (+5.3%) | 207 (+34.3%) | 47 (+0.03%) | 232 (+0.26%) |
Last updated: | 9 days ago | 29 days ago | 331 days ago | 20 days ago | Today | Today | 90 days ago | 68 days ago |
Cost: | Free | Freemium or $8-$158 monthly | Free | Freemium or $150-$450 monthly | Freemium or $50-$160 yearly | Free | Freemium or $10-$2,250 monthly | Free |
PLUGIN FEATURES AND LIMITATIONS | ||||||||
Social login included with free version: | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Number of providers: | 25+ | 25+ | 2 | 25+ | 5 | 8 | 30+ | 5 |
White label / unbranded: | Yes | Requires paid plan | Yes | Requires paid plan | Yes | Yes | Requires paid plan | Yes |
Login / registration limits: | No | >2,500 users requires paid plan | No | No | No | No | >2,500 users requires paid plan | No |
Site / domain usage limits: | No | No | No | No | Paid plans allow usage on 1 site or unlimited sites | No | No | No |
Creates (registers) new WordPress user accounts automatically: | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Paid plan) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Link third-party providers to WordPress user accounts: | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (Paid plan) | Yes | Yes | No |
Works with existing user accounts: | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Provides login widgets or shortcodes: | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (Paid plan) | Yes | No | Yes |
Import friends, contacts, etc. from third-party providers: | Yes | No | No | No | Yes (Paid plan) | No | Yes | No |
Social commenting: | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Social sharing: | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
Includes login and registration tracking / stats: | No | No | No | No | Yes (Paid plan) | No | No | No |
Customize where users are redirected after login/logout: | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Compatible with WordPress Multisite: | Yes (Paid plan) | |||||||
Compatible with BuddyPress: | Yes | |||||||
Compatible with bbPress: | Yes | |||||||
Compatible with Theme My Login: | ||||||||
PLUGIN TECHNOLOGY AND SECURITY | ||||||||
Authentication method: | OAuth | OAuth | OAuth | OAuth | OAuth, OpenID | OAuth, OpenID Connect | OAuth | OAuth, OpenID |
Users are authenticated through a proxy, middleman, single integration point or online service that sits between the WordPress site and the third-party providers: | No | Yes, OneAll | Yes, MailChimp | Yes, LoginRadius | No | No | Yes, Janrain Engage | No |
Identifies authenticated users via their permanent unique user identifier: | Yes, with email address | No, identifies via email address | No, identifies via username | No, identifies via email address | Yes, with email address | Yes | Yes | No, identifies via email address |
Requests and/or stores private or sensitive user info from the third-party: | Yes, the user’s email address | Yes, the user’s email address, avatar, full name, etc. | Yes, the user’s username | Yes, the user’s email address | Yes, the user’s email address | No | No | Yes, the user’s email address |
An open-source library included with the plugin handles authentication: | Yes, HybridAuth | No | No | Yes, LoginRadius PHP SDK | Yes, Google API PHP Client, LightOpenID, Twitter OAuth, etc. | No | No | Yes, Facebook PHP SDK, LightOpenID |
Uses an outdated or deprecated technology / library: | No | No | No | No | Yes, LightOpenID | No | No | Yes, LightOpenID |
Calls third-party provider APIs that are secured with SSL via insecure (non-SSL) URLs: | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Educates users/admins about good security practices when using the plugin: | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Includes one or more settings related to security: | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Warns admins when configuration changes may affect security: | No | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A |
Installs with and defaults to a secure configuration: | No | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A |
Mentions SSL / HTTPS at all: | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
Recommends the WordPress site to use an SSL certificate: | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Requires the WordPress site to use an SSL certificate: | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
SSL features are enabled by default: | No | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A |
Performs SSL host verification: | No | No | N/A | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Performs SSL peer verification: | No | No | N/A | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Performance overhead – tested with P3 Performance Profiler (lower is better): | 84%, 0.0362 sec | 52%, 0.0107 sec | 77%, 0.0354 sec | 89%, 0.0705 sec | 95%, 0.1087 sec | 51%, 0.0114 sec | 89%, 0.048 sec | 77%, 0.0212 sec |