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Webmention

By Matthias Pfefferle

Community & Social / User-Generated Content

Reviewed by Abdul Hameid

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Webmention Review - In-Depth Analysis

Webmention enables conversations across different websites by notifying linked sites. It supports sending and receiving Webmentions.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.75/10

User Rating

5/5 (based on 8+ reviews)

Active Installations

900+

Update Frequency

Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

7.2 / 10 (High Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

When you link to a website you can send it a Webmention to notify it and then that website may display your post as a comment, like, or other response, and presto, you’re having a conversation from one site to another!

A Webmention is a notification that one URL links to another. Sending a Webmention is not limited to blog posts, and can be used for additional kinds of content and responses as well.

For example, a response can be an RSVP to an event, an indication that someone 'likes' another post, a 'bookmark' of another post, and many others. Webmention enables these interactions to happen across different websites, enabling a distributed social web.

The Webmention plugin supports the Webmention protocol, giving you support for sending and receiving Webmentions. It offers a simple built in presentation.

Comparing to Alternatives

Webmention stands alone in its category with no close direct alternatives available, making it a unique choice for users seeking this functionality.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Seamless integration with WordPress for Webmentions.
Highly rated for ease of use and reliability.
Strong support for IndieWeb standards.
Developed and maintained by a reputable developer.
Positive user feedback highlights effective functionality.

Weaknesses

Conflicts with Jetpack's comment system reported.
Minor bugs such as emoji icon quirks.
No direct alternatives to compare feature sets.
Security vulnerabilities have been identified and fixed in recent updates.

User Sentiment Analysis

With a perfect 5-star rating from all reviewers, user sentiment is overwhelmingly positive, praising ease of use and effective integration.

Positive highlights

"Works as expected" - Khürt Williams
"Easiest way to integrate Webmentions!" - Prateek Saxena
"Fantastic and well integrated into WordPress" - LewisCowles
"Good plugin by a top dev" - shawfactor
"Easiest way to begin integrating IndieWeb" - Nathan DeGruchy

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Conflicts with Jetpack's comment system.
Minor bugs with emoji icons.
Security vulnerabilities fixed in recent versions.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users looking to integrate Webmentions into WordPress easily, especially those interested in IndieWeb standards and reliable plugin support.

Not ideal for

Users who rely heavily on Jetpack's comment system or who are concerned about past security vulnerabilities, despite recent fixes, may want to consider alternatives or proceed with caution.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers full Webmention integration with WordPress, supporting IndieWeb features without limitations.

Final Verdict

Webmention is a highly rated and unique plugin that effectively integrates Webmentions into WordPress, favored for its ease of use and strong IndieWeb support. Despite minor bugs and conflicts with Jetpack, it remains a top choice for users seeking this functionality.

However, users should be aware of past security vulnerabilities that have been addressed in recent updates. With no direct alternatives available, Webmention stands out as the primary solution in its category, offering excellent value through its free version.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Webmention plugin.

Indieweb

Linkback

Pingback

Trackback

Webmention

FAQ

Webmention is a simple way to automatically notify any URL when you link to it on your site. From the receivers perpective, it’s a way to request notification when other sites link to it.

Webmentions should be allowed on all URLs of a blog, however WordPress does not support this as only posts can have comments attached to them. The plugin currently handles only Webmentions on posts and allows you to set a page to receive homepage mentions.

Even though it is not done automatically, it is very simple to add support for archives and URLs on your site by providing a post/page to show collect mentions. The plugin provides a simple filter for that.

In the below example, if there is no page returned it will send mentions to a catch-all post. You can also have unique posts per URL.

function handle_other_webmentions($id, $target) {   // do nothing if id is set   if ($id) {     return $id;   }    // return "default" id if plugin can't find a post/page   return 9247; } add_filter("webmention_post_id", "handle_other_webmentions", 10, 2);

Webmention headers are only shown if Webmentions are available for that particular URL. If you want to show it regardless, you can add below to your wp-config.php file.

define( 'WEBMENTION_ALWAYS_SHOW_HEADERS', 1 );

Contributors and developers

“Webmention” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Matthias Pfefferle

David Shanske

IndieWeb

Free Version

WPS

6.75

Average

Ratings

5 out of 5 | 8

Version

5.9.1

Last updated

3 weeks ago

Active installations

900+

WordPress version

7.1 or higher

PHP version

7.4 or higher

Languages

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Webmention Review - In-Depth Analysis

Performance Overview

What It Does

Comparing to Alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

Who Should Use This?

Pricing & Value

Final Verdict

Other Notable Features

FAQ

Contributors and developers

Ratings

Reviews (8)

Sort by:

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Security Status

Secure

No Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Known Vulnerabilities (2)

Previous Versions

WPS

6.75

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