REST API access controls and authentication
The leading names point to two distinct themes: limiting REST API access and authenticating API requests.
- Disable REST API, Disable WP REST API and SMNTCS Disable REST API User Endpoints signal an access-restriction focus in their names.
- JWT Authentication for WP REST API and JWT Authentication for WP REST APIs signal an authentication focus.
- The security tag overlaps with 28 plugins, providing context for this access-control and authentication grouping.
Connecting WordPress data to other services
Integration and data transfer are visible themes in plugin names and related tags.
Make Connector and Contact Form to Any API sit within this theme by name. The related API tag overlaps with 76 plugins, while JSON overlaps with 44 and automation with 27.
Together, these tags indicate that the category extends beyond access controls to plugins associated with data formats and service connections; they do not establish the specific functions of individual plugins.
WooCommerce, headless sites and API extensions
WooCommerce and headless are notable adjacent areas, alongside tags for several other publishing contexts.
- WooCommerce Legacy REST API is a WooCommerce-named entry; the WooCommerce tag overlaps with 41 plugins.
- WPGraphQL is a distinct GraphQL-named entry. The headless tag overlaps with 36 plugins.
- Publishing, SEO and AI also appear as related tags, overlapping with 24, 40 and 23 plugins respectively; these tags alone do not establish what any particular plugin supports.
A broad category with uneven adoption and maintenance
The 337-plugin category combines limited high-install adoption with a majority of entries updated within the last year.
Only one plugin has at least 100,000 active installs, and eight have at least 10,000. At the same time, 73% were updated within the last year, so recent maintenance is common across the category, but not universal.
Among leading examples, WooCommerce Legacy REST API and Make Connector were updated this month. By contrast, Disable REST API was last updated 38 months ago, and WordPress REST API (Version 2) 108 months ago.
This spread makes adoption and maintenance separate considerations: high install counts indicate reach, while update recency provides a different signal. Neither figure alone describes every plugin in the category.