by Alex Kirk 5 (7 reviews)

Friends

Name: Friends
Rating: 5.0 (7 reviews)
Author: Alex Kirk

A self-hosted social reader for WordPress: follow people via RSS and ActivityPub, with multiple themes and a plugin ecosystem.

Friends ranks #7,149 among WordPress.org plugins with 900+ active installations, is #188 of 1,867 in the User Management category, a 5/5 rating from 7 reviews, and was last updated Oct 14, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Tested up to WP 7 (Current: 7.1.4)

v4.4.0 Current Version v4.4.0

Updated 3 weeks ago Last Update on 14 Oct, 2026

Refreshed 1 week ago Last Refreshed on

#188 of 1,867 in User Management Top 10% by installs Downloads +22.8% this week Actively maintained

View on WordPress.org

Rank

#7,149

— No change

Active Installs

900+

-8%

KW Avg Position

19.2

— No change

Downloads

79.8K

+23 today

Support Resolved

50%

— No change

Rating

100%

Review 5 out of 5

5 (7 reviews)

Next Milestone 1K

Total Progress 65%

900+ 1K+

238

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

Pro

Unlock Exact Install Count

See the precise estimated active installs for this plugin, calculated from real-time ranking data.

Exact install estimates within tiers
Track install growth over time
Milestone progress predictions

Upgrade to Pro

Need 35 more installs to reach 1K+

Rank Changes

Current #7,149

Change

Best #

Upgrade to Pro

Unlock 30-day and 90-day rank history charts with a Pro subscription.

Upgrade Now

Active Installs Growth

Upgrade to Pro

Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

Growth

Peak

Upgrade to Pro

Unlock 30-day, 90-day, and yearly download history charts with a Pro subscription.

Upgrade Now

Reviews & Ratings

5.0

7 reviews

Overall 100%

7 (100%)

0 (0%)

Support Threads Overview

Resolved

Unresolved

Total Threads

Resolved

Unresolved

50%

Resolution Rate

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

3 known vulnerabilities on record · 2 in the last 24 months · checked 3 months ago

Jul 11, 2025

Friends [friends] < 3.5.2

CVE-2025-7504 · Fixed in v3.5.2
Dec 5, 2024

Friends [friends] < 3.2.2

CVE-2024-12028 · Fixed in v3.2.2
Feb 28, 2024

Friends [friends] < 2.8.6

CVE-2024-1978 · Fixed in v2.8.6

Track This Plugin

Get detailed analytics, keyword tracking, and position alerts delivered to your inbox.

Start Tracking Free

Plugin Details

Version: 4.4.0
Last Updated: Oct 14, 2026
Requires WP: 0+
Tested Up To: 7
PHP Version: 7.4 or higher
Author: Alex Kirk

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5
Reviews: 7
Support Threads: 2
Resolved: 50%

Keywords

decentralized friends own-your-data rss social network

Upgrade to Pro

Unlock keyword rankings, search positions, and detailed analytics with a Pro subscription.

Upgrade Now

Similar Plugins

Adminify – White Label, Admin Menu Editor, Login Customizer

6K+ installs

#2,757

Master Addons for Elementor – Elementor Addons, Widgets, Mega Menu Builder, Popup Builder, Widget Builder & Template Kits

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin

300K+ installs

#186

HubSpot All-In-One Marketing – Forms, Popups, Live Chat

200K+ installs

#221

Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin

PublishPress Capabilities: User Role Access Control, Admin Area Permissions

FluentCRM – Email Newsletter, Automation, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Optins, Leads, and CRM Solution

80K+ installs

#517

View all User-management plugins

TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for WordPress site owners who want to follow people and read their posts from RSS feeds and the Fediverse (Mastodon and similar platforms) directly on their own site. It solves the problem of needing separate social media accounts by turning WordPress into a self-hosted social reader with feed aggregation, filtering, and multiple viewing themes.

Follow via RSS and ActivityPub
Multiple themes (Mastodon-style, Google Reader-style)
Dark mode support
Organize subscriptions into folders
Multiple feeds per person
Filter incoming content with rules
Full-post email notifications
Browser extension for one-click subscribe

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Friends

No, all the functionality is achieved with standard WordPress means. Followed people are stored as taxonomy terms, and their posts are cached in a custom post type.

That's exactly the point — with WordPress you own your data and decide where to host it. You get all the benefits of open source software without depending on a third party.

Cached posts are stored as the custom post type friend_post_cache. When you unfollow someone, their cached posts are removed with them.

Yes — install it for Chrome or Firefox. It adds a toolbar button that lets you subscribe to the site you are currently visiting with one click. Pair it with the API key on the Friends → Browser Extension page to also expose quick actions from other Friends-aware plugins (saving to a collection, sending to your eReader, etc.).