Friends

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 78% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.

No paid tier is visible, so we don't put a figure on revenue or sale value: that would be guessing. The install base is a real asset to an acquirer, just not one public data lets us price. A small install base leaves thin data to model from. A declining trend compresses what a buyer would pay.

1. ★★★★★ Peter Roe

   4mo ago

   Seems to do what it says well. Have been scrolling it for weeks and cant be happier with what you can find on the Fediverse. This one WP plugin and Activitypub ofc, has taken a lot of my social media use, it just does it good enough. This way of being on the Fediverse is so slick. If you know WP you need to try it. For some reason the /friends page is overriding my theme header but that it probably my fault. Doesn’t stop me from going there like every day!

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ Vondelphia.com

   8mo ago

   Perhaps something like this should be enabled by default on all WordPress plugins, it really hits home… the idea is brilliant!

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ vuorijoki

   1.6y ago

   This is really an excellent app. It’s possible to bridge to Bluesky with it and it’s really easy to reblog etc. I really like the email alerts. The only difficulty is finding sites to follow. A list of sites would be nice.

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ solarbird

   1.8y ago

   I decided to try to use this to bridge my self-hosted ActivityPub-enabled WordPress blog to BlueSky as well, using the opt-in BridgyFed service which connects BlueSky to the Federation. I found a problem and went to both Friends and BridgyFed to see if we could get it working – and over a weekend(!), got it sorted out and now people are following my blog from BlueSky via Friends and it’s pretty dang seamless! Federation is amazing, this plugin is great, and thanks devs getting this whole fleet of connectors working this quickly was awesome. 😀

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ kennethrg

   2.3y ago

   I started using this plugin in combination with the ActivityPub plugin. ActivityPub broadcasts my posts to Mastodon and other services across the Fediverse; the Friends plugin allows my followers to interact with my posts. Together the result is that my WordPress site acts (sort of) as a Fediverse instance. Very cool!After seeing the possibilities here, I am working on creating a small network of WordPress sites using the Friends plugin. Each of the sites represents an organization working on related community advocacy projects, and I am excited about the possibilities for connecting and sharing information in this way.

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ lordmatt

   2.8y ago

   I’ve got a few blogs running friends and I love it.

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ Matthias Pfefferle

   3.8y ago

   A federated network based on RSS!

   Read on wp.org ↗

3 disclosed vulnerabilities on record for this plugin, all fixed in the current version. Sites on older versions stay exposed until they update.

1. High · 7.5 Friends 3.5.1 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) PHP Object Injection ↗
   2025-07-11 CVE-2025-7504 Deserialization of Untrusted Data Affects 3.5.1 Patched in 3.5.2
2. Medium · 5.3 Friends <= 3.2.1 - Missing Authorization ↗
   2024-12-05 CVE-2024-12028 Missing Authorization Affects <= 3.2.1 Patched in 3.2.2
3. Medium · 5.5 Friends <= 2.8.5 - Authenticated (Admin+) Blind Server-Side Request Forgery ↗
   2024-02-28 CVE-2024-1978 Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Affects <= 2.8.5 Patched in 2.8.6

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 8.1.12 · WP 7.0

Translated into 9 languages, 0 at 90% or more

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

1. 2026-08-01 1K+ → 900+ down after 1 days in tier
2. 2026-07-31 900+ → 1K+ up after 2 days in tier
3. 2026-07-29 1K+ → 900+ down after 958 days in tier
4. 2023-12-14 900+ → 1K+ up after 55 days in tier
5. 2023-10-20 800+ → 900+ up after 11 days in tier
6. 2023-10-09 700+ → 800+ up after 24 days in tier
7. 2023-09-15 600+ → 700+ up after 1 days in tier
8. 2023-09-14 700+ → 600+ down after 1 days in tier

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

• Hubbub Lite – Fast, free social sharing and follow buttons 30K+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A
• RSS Importer 30K+ installs · 3.0★ · 1 shared tag D
• GN Publisher: Google News Compatible RSS Feeds 20K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag A
• RSS for Yandex Turbo 20K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag C
• D Disable Feeds 20K+ installs · 4.5★ · 1 shared tag D
• WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher 10K+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Friends into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Friends: 900+ active installs, 5.0★ (7 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/friends