Recommend to a friend
Plugin that add a share to friends jQuery Lightbox to your pages or posts. Users will be able to share your content using 2 ways :
Consider an alternative
Recommend to a friend shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 40+ sites, is rated 3.5/5 and was last updated 8 years ago, and scores 30/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (40+ active installs)
- No update in 8 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.9 (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 Recommend to a friend stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| >100 | |
| >100 | |
| recommend | >100 |
| share | >100 |
| widget | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 from 6 reviews
About Recommend to a friend
From the official readme · v2.2.2Description
Plugin that add a share to friends jQuery Lightbox to your pages or posts. Users will be able to share your content using 2 ways :
- Writing email addresses manually
- Using Facebook and Twitter sharing feature
Installation
- Upload and activate the plugin
- Go to the Recommend a friend option page
- Choose the feature you want to enable
- You can auto add the button after your posts content by checking the box
- Add the Recommend a Friend widget or use the php function
- $premalink is the URL you want to be shared
- $image_url (optional) the image url used instead of the default one
- $text_link(optional) the text you want to display instead the image (you need to choose between display an image or a text)
Changelog
- 2.2.2
- Tested up to 4.9.5
- 2.2.1
- Fixed email sent to last email address only
- Fixed success page loaded as a 404
- 2.2
- WARNING: REMOVED OPEN INVITER OPTION. This service no longer exists so I had to remove it from the plugin.
- Added google recaptcha option to avoid spam
- Global code refactoring + applied WordPress coding standards
- 2.1
- Added the ability to load a mo (translation) file from wp-content/languages/plugins/ folder
- 2.0.4
- Fix double MIME-type in email headers
- 2.0.3
- Add german translation thanks to Sebastian Maar
- Add portuguese (BR) translation thanks to Alexandre Ruoso
- Allow to load a custom CSS stylesheet in theme thanks to Emmanuel Hesry
- Use the official wp color picker thanks to me 🙂
- 2.0.2
- Add nofollow tag to the form
- 2.0.1
- Encode URL to the RAF link
- 2.0
- Code refactoring
- Fix bug with homepage link
-
1.0.6
- Security update thanks to http://secu.boiteaweb.fr/
- Change plugin name Recommend a friend > Recommend to a friend
-
1.0.4
- Cleanup CSS
- Add new widget image
-
1.0.3
- Remove font-face
- Use wp_redirect after sending mail
-
1.0.1
- Change readme file
-
1.0
- First release
Screenshots
For developers
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FAQ
Recommend to a friend: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 29, 2026
Is Recommend to a friend free?
Yes. Recommend to a friend is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Recommend to a friend safe to use in 2026?
Recommend to a friend shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 40+ sites, is rated 3.5/5 and was last updated 8 years ago, and scores 30/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Recommend to a friend?
Recommend to a friend is active on 40+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 20,932 times since it launched in May 2011. It was downloaded 67 times in the last 30 days.
Does Recommend to a friend work with WordPress 7.1?
Recommend to a friend is officially tested up to WordPress 4.9.33, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Recommend to a friend last updated?
The latest version, 2.2.2, was released on April 9, 2018 (8 years ago).
Who makes Recommend to a friend?
Recommend to a friend is developed and maintained by benjaminniess.
What are the best alternatives to Recommend to a friend?
The most popular alternatives to Recommend to a friend are WP Mail SMTP by WPForms (4M+ installs), MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPr… (1M+ installs) and Easy WP SMTP (500K+ installs).
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