Simba Plugin Updates Manager
Provides a facility for distributing updates and handling licences and renewal reminders for your own WordPress plugins
Solid choice
Simba Plugin Updates Manager is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 30+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 75/100 on our health check.
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Small user base (30+ active installs)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & supportDaily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Simba Plugin Updates Manager stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| licences | #19 |
| Plugin Updates | #23 |
| updates server | #20 |
| wordpress plugin updates | #58 |
| Wordpress updates | #63 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 5 reviews
About Simba Plugin Updates Manager
From the official readme · v1.12.1Description
This plugin enables you to host updates for plugins from your own WordPress site.
i.e. It provides a service for the availability and download of WordPress plugin updates – just like the wordpress.org plugin repository. This can be for free plugins, or licensed plugins – it includes a full licence manager (and a free class for using it is available).
This is the plugin updates server that has been providing millions of plugin updates to the users of the paid versions of the UpdraftPlus backup/restore/clone WordPress plugin since 2013 (and various other Team Updraft and Simba Hosting plugins).
A paid connector for WooCommerce is also available, allowing WordPress to automatically assign and renew licences when purchases are made; plus other features for coupons and renewal emails (including pre-filled carts); follow this link for more information.
The best way to get a feel for its features is to take a look at the available screenshots.
Features
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Manage multiple plugins, both free and paid
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Manage user licences – create, renew and delete licence entitlements for non-free plugins
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Send renewal reminder emails for licensed plugins
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Have multiple different zips (i.e. different plugin versions) available for your plugins
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Have sophisticated rules for which zip a particular user gets delivered (e.g. send them an older version if they are on an old version of WordPress or PHP)
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Counts plugin downloads, by version – calculate how many active users you have
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Shortcode provided for showing users on your website what plugins are available
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Shortcode provided for showing plugin changelogs (automatically read from the plugin zip)
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Data is included in WordPress’s privacy tools’ output (export / delete)
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Import a new zip via WP-CLI: wp plugins-manager import-zip –file=”/path/to/file.zip” –user=”your-WP-user” –add-rule
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Update plugins’ supported WordPress versions via WP-CLI:
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wp plugins-manager update-versions –user=”WordPress-username-or-email-or-id” –slug=”plugin-slug” –tested-version=”version-number(x.y.z)”
Or
- wp plugins-manager update_versions –user=”WordPress-username-or-email-or-id” –current-wp-version=”version-number(x.y.z)” –tested-version=”version-number(x.y.z)”
Running an updates and an licensing server are two important parts of providing plugin updates to your users. You will also need to add code in your plugin to point towards that updates server. A popular class used for this purpose with free plugins, that requires you to do nothing more than include it and tell it the updates URL, is available here: https://github.com/YahnisElsts/plugin-update-checker . For licenced plugins, a compatible class is available here: https://github.com/DavidAnderson684/simba-plugin-manager-updater .
Other information
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Privacy: The plugin does not contact any remote services. It also integrates with WordPress’s privacy tools (4.9.6+) for export/deletion, and removes user data when users are deleted.
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Some other plugins you may be interested in: https://www.simbahosting.co.uk/s3/shop/, https://updraftplus.com and https://getwpo.com
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This plugin is ready for translations, and we would welcome new translations (please use the wordpress.org translation system).
License
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright © 2015- David Anderson, https://www.simbahosting.co.uk
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Installation
Standard WordPress installation; either:
- Go to the Plugins -> Add New screen in your dashboard and search for this plugin; then install and activate it.
Or
- Upload this plugin’s zip file into Plugins -> Add New -> Upload in your dashboard; then activate it.
After installation, you will want to configure this plugin. To find its settings, look for the “Plugins Manager” entry in your WordPress dashboard menu.
To show users on your website what plugins they can download, use this shortcode (changing the value of userid to match the ID of the WordPress user who is providing the plugins): [udmanager showunpurchased=”free” userid=”1″]
To show the changelog for a plugin, use the shortcode udmanager_changelog; e.g. : [udmanager_changelog slug=”my-crazy-plugin” userid=”1″ maximum_sections=”9999″] . N.B. HTML will not be filtered, so do not use this upon untrusted input. If no slug is specified, then the value will be taken from the URL parameter udmanager_changelog_slug.
To show the previous versions for a plugin, add the show_downloadable_versions parameter into the “udmanager” shortcode e.g. : [udmanager show_downloadable_versions=”5″ showunpurchased=”free” userid=”1″]. This “show_downloadable_versions” parameter accepts numeric data type; you can define any number; by default this parameter is set to 1 (one), which is to display the previous version instead of just showing the latest
Changelog
1.11.12 : Fixed a bug in 1.11.11 that stopped downloads and licences from showing in the front-end. Requires PHP 7.4+. A recommended update for all.
1.12.1 – 2026-07-24
- FEATURE: Add a new option in the manage zip form to advise automatic update of the plugin
- TWEAK: Do not create dynamic property Updraft_Manager_Plugin_Premium::$user_can_manage
- TWEAK: Update to version 2.0.55 of the phpseclib 2.0 library
- TWEAK: Do not use phpmailer_init when no longer needed on WP 6.9+
1.12.0 – 2025-09-06
- FEATURE: Add an admin page for searching licences
- TWEAK: Add filters on the list table (allowing editing of columns) and on the HTTP response code when no valid licence exists
- TWEAK: Ensure validation error messages are formatted correctly
- TWEAK: Indicate in response whether site has a direct entitlement
- TWEAK: Avoid use of deprecated E_STRICT constant
- TWEAK: Add the ‘x-spm-version’ attribute to the plugin info response that indicates the Simba Plugin Updates Manager version
- TWEAK: Update to latest version of the phpseclib 2.0 library
1.11.12 – 2025-04-07
- FIX: Fix a regression in 1.11.11 that caused a user’s licences and downloads not to show in the front-end
1.11.11 – 2025-03-24
- FEATURE: Allow showing download links for previous versions of plugins
- TWEAK: Replace remove all uses of maybe_unserialize()
- TWEAK: Resolve some PHP 8 dynamic property deprecations
- TWEAK: Prevent a doing_it_wrong notification if an extension asks for entitlements very early in WP loading
1.11.10 – 2024-08-10
- TWEAK: Add a semaphore lock to the renewal reminder process to prevent duplicate runs when WP cron misbehaves
- TWEAK: Resolve some PHP 8 dynamic property deprecations
- TWEAK: Now requires PHP 7.4+ (previously 7.3+)
1.11.9 – 2024-01-17
- TWEAK: Prevent an unwanted PHP notice introduced in 1.11.8 when handling expired licences
- TWEAK: Add an extra parameter to the action updraftmanager_add_new_zip_go
- TWEAK: Remove use of dynamic properties in UpdraftManager_Manage_Zips
- TWEAK: Change how markdown is parsed to prevent HTML tags written raw in the readme from being shown when using the [udmanager_changelog] shortcode
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 Simba Plugin Updates Manager alternatives
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|---|---|---|
| 2 |
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FAQ
Simba Plugin Updates Manager: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 6, 2026
Is Simba Plugin Updates Manager free?
Yes. Simba Plugin Updates Manager is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Simba Plugin Updates Manager safe to use in 2026?
Simba Plugin Updates Manager is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 30+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 75/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Simba Plugin Updates Manager?
Simba Plugin Updates Manager is active on 30+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 22,663 times since it launched in March 2015. It was downloaded 178 times in the last 30 days.
Does Simba Plugin Updates Manager work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested Simba Plugin Updates Manager up to WordPress 7.1.2, the latest release. It requires WordPress 5.5 or newer.
What PHP version does Simba Plugin Updates Manager need?
Simba Plugin Updates Manager requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Simba Plugin Updates Manager last updated?
The latest version, 1.12.1, was released on August 13, 2026 (2 months ago).
Who makes Simba Plugin Updates Manager?
Simba Plugin Updates Manager is developed and maintained by David Anderson / Team Updraft.
What are the best alternatives to Simba Plugin Updates Manager?
The most popular alternatives to Simba Plugin Updates Manager are Leadovation Aero Users (<10 installs).
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