Kudos
Kudos, as seen on the svbtle.com blogging network, are an unobtrusive and playful way for your readers to show their appreciation. To give kudos for a post the visitor simply hovers the Kudo-Button: A small animation…
Consider an alternative
Kudos shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 3.6/5 and was last updated 13 years ago, and scores 29/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- No update in 12 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 3.9 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Kudos stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| ajax | >100 |
| kudos | #44 |
| like | >100 |
| svbtle | #1 |
| svbtle.com | #1 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 3.6 from 5 reviews
About Kudos
From the official readme · v1.1.1Description
Kudos, as seen on the svbtle.com blogging network, are an unobtrusive and playful
way for your readers to show their appreciation. To give kudos for a post the visitor
simply hovers the Kudo-Button: A small animation starts for as long as the visitor does leave his cursor on the Kudo. When the animation is finished and the Kudo-Button is filled the count goes up by one. By clicking the then filled button the visitor can take his Kudo off the post again.
See the plugin in action on yrnxt.com.
Dustin Curtis, creator of svbtle.com and inventor of Kudos, describes Kudos like this:
Each post has one unusual feedback mechanism which has no external repercussions: Kudos.
By default Kudos are displayed in the top right of your post contents. You can
customize the positioning and texts at Settings -> Kudos. More customizations
will be added in upcoming updates.
Beside the default automatic insertion into your posts you can make use of the PHP-Functions and shortcode to display the Kudos more individually:
[kudos]
kudos()
get_kudos( $post_id, $attr )
kudos_count( $post_id, $text, $hover )
get_kudos_count( $post_id )
For more information on those take a look at the contextual help on your Settings -> Kudos screen.
This plugin makes use of Masukomi’s Kudos implementation.
If you like Kudos and the overall look of Svbtle take a look at wp-svbtle.
Installation
- Visit your WordPress Administration interface and go to Plugins -> Add New
- Search for “Kudos“, and click “Install Now” below the plugin’s name
- When the installation finished, click “Activate Plugin“
By default the Kudos are displayed in the top left of your content. Take a look
into Settings -> Kudos for customizations.
Changelog
1.1.1: 2014-01-28
- Tiny PHP 5.2 fix
1.1: 2013-04-23
- Added option to disable unkudo’ing
- Added contextual help
- Added settings action link
- Removed kudos from feeds
1.0: 2013-04-16
- Release
Screenshots
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Kudos alternatives
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FAQ
Kudos: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 22, 2026
Is Kudos free?
Yes. Kudos is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Kudos safe to use in 2026?
Kudos shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 3.6/5 and was last updated 13 years ago, and scores 29/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Kudos?
Kudos is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 4,140 times since it launched in April 2013. It was downloaded 38 times in the last 30 days.
Does Kudos work with WordPress 7.1?
Kudos is officially tested up to WordPress 3.9.40, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Kudos last updated?
The latest version, 1.1.1, was released on January 28, 2014 (13 years ago).
Who makes Kudos?
Kudos is developed and maintained by Alex.
What are the best alternatives to Kudos?
The most popular alternatives to Kudos are zipaddr-jp (50K+ installs), SearchWP Live Ajax Search (40K+ installs) and WP-Polls (40K+ installs).
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