How are you keeping up with Wordpress Updates?

CMS & WordPress
1

I love Wordpress, the only headache I find in using it is keeping up with software updates for my own sites as well as all of my clients. I’m curious how other designers / programmers stay on top of plugin and WP core updates? Do you have a favorite plugin for emailing you alerts? Is there a plugin that automatically updates all plugins as well as the core with the click of one button?

2

https://www.google.com/search?q=wordpress+update+alerts

It seems as though there are a few plugins floating around that can notify you of updates by email.

3

You don’t need a plugin to update the core and all the plugins. That functionality is now built into the core of WP.

Whenever I log into WP it tells me how many updates there are to run. I then click the link to go to the update page and then click the button to run all the updates.

4

Thanks for the responses guys.

the reason I need a plugin is because I’m talking about 22 sites in total. I do not log into everyone of these sites on a daily basis, so I need one solid solution that can alert me as soon as any plugin needs updating.

Softlicious does a great job of sending me an email when the core needs to be updated (Cpanel).

Force, I’m checking out your google results now. I try not to just grab random plugins but to get suggestions from users who have good feedback from regular use.

5

Are they all on different servers?

If they are all on one server then perhaps the solution is to switch to using one copy of WordPress with multisite turned on to run the 22 sites. Then you’d only have one copy to keep updated.

6

If the sites are on the same server (which seems unlikely in this case), not all plugins are compatible with multisite mode. It tends to be hit or miss, though most do work.

7

Some sites are on the same server, some aren’t.

Per multisite, I don’t know if I’m in the minority on this opinion, but I avoid using it. I don’t feel comfortable with different customers sharing resources. It’s easier to quarantine a bad site when all of its resources are separated.

I’ve decided to just use Softlicious to do auto updates and to alert me when new updates are available on all 22 sites. I also have backups generated via CRON every 2 weeks, so if an auto update screws up a site, I have a backup to load from. This is just for the core, I still don’t have a solution for individual plugins other than to schedule a once a month checkup on everybody. Probably a 4 hour task if done in one day.