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WP Updates Notifier: know when your WordPress site has updates waiting. Free, open source, extensible, accessible, secure. WP Updates Notifier: know when your WordPress site has updates waiting. Free, open source, extensible, accessible, secure.

WP Updates Notifier

A free, open source, extensible, developer-friendly, accessible and security-conscious update notifier for WordPress.

WP Updates Notifier checks your site on a schedule and emails you when WordPress core, a plugin or a theme has an update waiting, so you know without logging in. It is made for sites you rarely visit and for sites you look after for clients.

Install from WordPress.org Read the user guide Read the developer guide View the code on GitHub

Why WP Updates Notifier

  • Free and open source

    GPL-2.0-or-later and developed in the open on GitHub. No tracking, no analytics and no account to sign up for.

  • Extensible

    A public, versioned API lets add-ons bring their own notification channels, item types, routing rules and configuration sources.

    Writing a module

  • Developer friendly

    Every hook is documented, settings can come from constants and environment variables, and the Docker setup runs every test with one make command.

    Hook reference

  • Accessible

    The settings screen is checked against WCAG 2.2 AA with axe and keyboard tests on every change. This site is checked the same way, in both colour schemes.

  • Security conscious

    A published threat model, security tests for every request handler, static and taint analysis in CI, and signed releases with build provenance you can verify.

    Threat model

  • Quietly useful

    Each new version is reported once, not every day. Choose the schedule, the recipients and whether to watch only the plugins and themes you have active.

What it does

  • Checks for core, plugin and theme updates hourly, twice daily, daily or weekly, and tells you about each new version once.
  • Sends email to one or more addresses, with a test send to check it arrives.
  • Can watch only active plugins and themes.
  • Lets you set channels and global settings in code: wp-config.php constants, environment variables or your own configuration source, so a fleet of sites can share one setup.
  • Routes each kind of update to the channels that should hear about it, and add-ons can add new kinds.

Requires WordPress 6.7 or newer and PHP 7.4 or newer.

Install

Then open Settings → Updates Notifier to choose where notifications go.

Where to go next

Help and feedback

About the developer

Scott Cariss

Scott Cariss

I've been a software engineer for over 20 years and I'm now a Lead Platform Engineer, building the platforms other engineers ship on. I have a passion for all things techy. At home that means a homelab I'm always rebuilding, a smart home that's never quite finished, and plenty of PC gaming.

I first released WP Updates Notifier on WordPress.org in 2011, and it now runs on around 30,000 sites. Version 2.0.0 is a ground-up modernisation: the same simple promise, with the testing, accessibility and security work a plugin on that many sites deserves.

Scott Cariss on GitHub Scott Cariss on LinkedIn

Support the project

WP Updates Notifier is free. If it saves you time and you'd like to say thanks, a donation helps keep it maintained.

  • PayPal: paypal.me/scottcariss
  • Bitcoin: bc1qd7cxxq4pyak47h6gdxpgggrpesep6hxrzmjs8j
  • Litecoin: ltc1q4r0qrfltarylj27znh89a4jt88errvg0uqt8g9
  • Ethereum: 0x5d9A2e20330d6a673531644d9Aa943F408fcB8E4

A review on WordPress.org or a star on GitHub helps too.