Plugin profile · observed daily since 02 Aug 2026
Friends
Active installs900+ rounded
Current authorAlex Kirk
Owner changesNone while we have been watching
Last release4 days ago 04 Sep 2026
Support0 / 1 resolved, last 2 months
Releases on record85
Rating5.0 /5 · 7
Added to directory06 May 2018
Requires WPfalse
Requires PHP7.4
Version lag0.1 behind
Tested up toWP 7.0.4 WordPress is now on 7.1
PluginPedia reports published data and observable changes. It does not rate plugin quality or safety, infer intent, or make recommendations. These are observations rather than a verdict. How this works
Ownership
Held by Alex Kirk throughout, with no change of ownership observed since daily tracking began on 02 Aug 2026.
Full observed history, including every field transition
Committing accounts
Read from the plugin’s public release log, so these predate this registry. A committing account is not an owner. Thirty accounts commit to WooCommerce and it has never changed hands.
| Account | Releases | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| akirk | 84 | 27 Jan 2023 | 03 Sep 2026 |
This registry did not observe a transfer; it read these names off a public log. Whether that reflects a change of ownership is not something the directory publishes.
Adoption
How widely the plugin is installed, and what the people running it think of it. WordPress.org rounds install figures to one significant digit, so they describe an order of magnitude rather than a headcount.
Small but established: 900+ active installs. Enough sites to show it works in the wild, too few for adoption to say much on its own.
312 downloads a day over the last 7 days, rising 1049% against the 7 days before. Downloads are counted exactly and without a ceiling, so they show movement the rounded install figure cannot.
08 Aug 2026peak 1,429/day08 Sep 2026
Daily record
Every field we record, one column per observation. Fields that never moved are named once rather than repeated across every column. A row of identical numbers would be padding.
| Field | 26 Aug | 27 Aug | 28 Aug | 29 Aug | 30 Aug | 31 Aug | 01 Sep | 02 Sep | 03 Sep | 04 Sep | 05 Sep | 06 Sep | 07 Sep | 08 Sep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downloads that day | — | 0 | 57 | 42 | 24 | 22 | 22 | 13 | 23 | 45 | 1,429 | 0 | 625 | 48 |
| Version | 4.2.1 | 4.2.1 | 4.2.1 | 4.2.1 | 4.2.1 | 4.2.1 | 4.2.1 | 4.2.1 | 4.2.1 | 4.2.2 | 4.3.1 | 4.3.1 | 4.3.1 | 4.3.1 |
Unchanged throughout: ratings total (7) · active installs (900+) · support threads (1) · threads resolved (0)
38 days of observation, most recent 14 shown.
Maintenance
When it was last released, and how far its declared compatibility has drifted from current WordPress.
Added to directory8 years ago 06 May 2018
Requires WPfalse
Requires PHP7.4
Version lag0.1 behind
Is anyone still maintaining this?
- Last released 04 Sep 2026, 4 days ago.
- Declares compatibility only up to WordPress 7.0.4, while 7.1 is current. The author has not confirmed it runs on the last 1 release.
- 0 of 1 support threads answered in the last two months.
- The same account maintains 8 other plugins, 3 of which were updated in the last 90 days. the account is active.
A plugin that does one thing correctly may need no changes for years; a long gap is not, by itself, evidence of neglect.
History
Everything dated that this registry holds about the plugin, most recent first. Releases carry the author’s own release date; everything else is dated to when it was observed.
Entries marked from the release log predate this registry, and daily observation began 02 Aug 2026. They were read from the plugin’s public SVN history after the fact, not watched as they happened. Everything else was observed directly.
- 04 Sep 20265 days agoVersion 4.3.1 released
- 03 Sep 20266 days agoVersion 4.2.2 released
- 02 Aug 20261 month agoFirst observed by PluginPediaDaily snapshots of this plugin’s directory record begin here. Everything above this line is observed; anything before it comes from fields the API itself reports.
- 13 Jul 20262 months agoVersion 4.2.1 released
- 11 Jun 20263 months agoVersion 4.2.0 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 21 May 20264 months agoVersion 4.1.0 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 27 Apr 20264 months agoVersion 4.0.6 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 10 Apr 20265 months agoVersion 4.0.5 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 01 Apr 20265 months agoVersion 4.0.4 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 28 Mar 20265 months agoVersion 4.0.3 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 27 Mar 20265 months agoVersion 4.0.2 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 26 Mar 20265 months agoVersion 4.0.1 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 25 Mar 20266 months agoVersion 4.0.0 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 15 Jun 202515 months agoVersion 3.6.0 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 04 Jun 202515 months agoVersion 3.5.2 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 09 May 202516 months agoVersion 3.5.1 releasedfrom the release logCommitted by akirk.
- 27 Jan 20233.5 years ago70 earlier releasesfrom the release logBetween 27 Jan 2023 and 08 May 2025. Listed individually in the public release log rather than here.
- 06 May 20188 years agoAdded to the WordPress.org directoryReported by the plugin API as the date this plugin was added.
What we know, and what we don’t
Everything on this page in one place, including the gaps, so that nothing here is mistaken for a clean bill of health.
What we know
- It has been held by Alex Kirk for all 38 days we have observed it.
- It was last released 4 days ago (04 Sep 2026).
- Its author declares it tested up to WordPress 7.0.4; WordPress is now on 7.1.
- WordPress.org reports 900+ active installs.
- It carries 7 ratings, averaging 5.0 out of 5.
- 0 of 1 support threads in the last two months are marked resolved.
Every record on this site, this one included, works under the same limits. We read what WordPress.org publishes about a plugin, never the plugin’s own code, so nothing here says whether a plugin is well built or safe. Install counts reach us already rounded; a change smaller than a band step doesn’t show. We don’t track security advisories yet. For anything older than our first observation we rely on the plugin’s public release log, where one exists. What this registry can and cannot see
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Reach out about this record
Corrections, missing context, or anything else about Friends: a person reads every submission, and corrections get a reply within 5 business days.