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WP Auto Updater

By thingsym

Site Administration & Utilities / URL Redirects & 301 Management

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

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

WP Auto Updater Review - In-Depth Analysis

WP Auto Updater enables automatic updates for WordPress Core, Themes, Plugins, and Translations. It allows scheduling updates and managing update history.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.92/10

User Rating

4.6/5 (based on 10+ reviews)

Active Installations

7,000+

Update Frequency

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

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

WP Auto Updater plugin enables automatic updates of WordPress Core, Themes, Plugins and Translations. Version control of WordPress Core makes automatic updates safer.

With this plugin, you can automatically update WordPress Core, themes, and plugins. You can set up a schedule for automatic updates and disable automatic updating for specific themes and plugins. The plugin records update history and sends update notifications.

Before updating, it is important to back up your database and files. You can choose from various automatic update scenarios, including minor and major version updates.

The scheduled automatic updates can be set to occur twice daily, daily, weekly, or monthly. You can also specify the exact day and time for updates.

If you encounter any issues, you can seek support through forums or report bugs on GitHub. Contributions to the plugin are welcome, and you can help translate it into other languages.

Comparing to Alternatives

WP Auto Updater is a reliable plugin for managing automatic updates with several comparable options available for users seeking similar functionality.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Allows granular control over what updates to apply (plugins, themes, core).
Supports scheduling updates at specific times or intervals.
Lightweight and easy to configure.
Provides email notifications with customizable recipients.
Highly rated for reliability and ease of use.

Weaknesses

No pro version available for advanced features.
Limited to automatic update management without additional site maintenance tools.
Some users reported occasional issues with plugin not working as expected.

User Sentiment Analysis

With a high rating of 4.6 out of 5 from 10 reviews, most users praise the plugin's ease of use and effective update scheduling, though a small minority experienced functionality issues.

Positive highlights

"Makes things easier. No more wasting time in doing automatic’s!" — WebCodePoet
"Lightweight plugin with all settings which you need... I found exactly what I need 🙂" — Sten
"The Schedule updates works better than premium plugin 'Easy Update Manager'" — kodeo
"Works good. The option to set a time, also when the interval is a week, is very useful." — weboersma
"Works nicely. I’m start using this plugins to all websites I manage." — David Perez

Common complaints

Weaknesses

No advanced features beyond basic auto update scheduling.
Lack of a paid version limits access to premium support or enhancements.
Rare reports of the plugin not functioning properly for some users.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users who want a straightforward, lightweight solution to automate WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates with flexible scheduling and notification options.

Not ideal for

Users seeking advanced update management features, premium support, or additional site maintenance tools may find this plugin limited due to the absence of a pro version.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes full functionality for scheduling automatic updates, selecting what to update, and setting email notifications.

Final Verdict

WP Auto Updater is a highly rated, reliable plugin that simplifies the process of managing automatic updates for WordPress sites. Its lightweight design and flexible scheduling options make it a great choice for users who want effective update automation without complexity.

While it lacks a pro version and some advanced features, its strong user satisfaction and absence of known security vulnerabilities make it a solid option. Users needing more comprehensive update management might consider exploring the listed alternatives.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free WP Auto Updater plugin.

Auto-update

Automatic updates

Background updates

Screenshots

FAQ

The possible causes are as follows:

The cron schedule was updated somewhere else.
The cron schedule has been reset.

For example, when updating with wp-cli, the cron schedule may be updated.
The cron schedule does not match the one set in WP Auto Updater.
In that case, an alert is displayed on the settings screen.