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Free Plugin by David Anderson / Team Updraft v1.12.1

Simba Plugin Updates Manager

Provides a facility for distributing updates and handling licences and renewal reminders for your own WordPress plugins

Simba Plugin Updates Manager

The facts

Rating
5★ from 5
Active installs
30+
Price
Free
Last updated
13 Aug 2026
Added
Mar 2015
Requires WP
5.5
Tested up to
WP 7.1
Requires PHP
7.4
Downloads
22,458

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Simba Plugin Updates Manager is a WordPress plugin that allows you to host and manage updates for both free and paid plugins from your own site. It includes features for managing user licenses, sending renewal reminders, and providing different versions of plugins based on user requirements.

This plugin is suitable for developers or site owners who need to manage plugin updates and licenses directly from their WordPress installation, without relying on external services. It also integrates with WordPress's privacy tools, ensuring compliance with data management practices.

Best for: This plugin is best for developers or site owners managing multiple plugins and licenses.

What it does well

  • Enables hosting updates for both free and paid plugins
  • Includes a full license manager for non-free plugins
  • Allows for sophisticated rules on plugin version delivery
  • Counts plugin downloads by version
  • Integrates with WordPress's privacy tools

Where it falls short

  • Requires additional coding to point plugins to the updates server
  • Limited information on potential support or documentation

Verdict

Simba Plugin Updates Manager provides essential tools for managing plugin updates and licenses within WordPress. It is a practical solution for those looking to maintain control over their plugin distribution.

From the developer

David Anderson / Team Updraft's own description of Simba Plugin Updates Manager, lightly tidied.

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

  • Manage multiple plugins, both free and paid

  • Manage user licences – create, renew and delete licence entitlements for non-free plugins

  • Send renewal reminder emails for licensed plugins

  • Have multiple different zips (i.e. different plugin versions) available for your plugins

  • 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)

  • Counts plugin downloads, by version – calculate how many active users you have

  • Shortcode provided for showing users on your website what plugins are available

  • Shortcode provided for showing plugin changelogs (automatically read from the plugin zip)

  • Data is included in WordPress’s privacy tools’ output (export / delete)

  • Import a new zip via WP-CLI: wp plugins-manager import-zip –file=”/path/to/file.zip” –user=”your-WP-user” –add-rule

  • Update plugins’ supported WordPress versions via WP-CLI:

  • 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

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:

Read the full description on the official page →

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