WebSub (FKA. PubSubHubbub)

This plugin is a simple way to let people know in real-time when your blog is updated. PubSubHubbub/WebSub is widely adopted and is used by Google Alerts and many other services. Subscription requests are relayed through hubs, which validate and verify the request. Hubs then distribute new and updated content to subscribers when it becomes available.

This plugin:

Sends realtime notifications when you update your blog
Supports multi-user installations (WordPress MU)
Supports multiple hubs
Supports all of the feed formats used by WordPress, not just ATOM and RSS2
Supports latest specs
- PubSubHubbub Version 0.4
- WebSub W3C Version
Announces which hubs you are using by adding <link rel="hub" ...> declarations to your template header and Atom feed

By default this plugin will ping the following hubs:

Please contact me if you operate a hub that you would like to be included as a default option.

What is WebSub?

WebSub provides a common mechanism for communication between publishers of any kind of Web content and their subscribers, based on HTTP web hooks. Subscription requests are relayed through hubs, which validate and verify the request. Hubs then distribute new and updated content to subscribers when it becomes available. WebSub was previously known as PubSubHubbub.

Where can I learn more about the WebSub protocol?

Where can I learn more about the PubSubHubbub protocol?

What is a Hub?

A WebSub Hub is an implementation that handles subscription requests and distributes the content to subscribers when the corresponding topic URL has been updated. Hubs MUST support subscription requests with a secret and deliver authenticated requests when requested. Hubs MUST deliver the full contents of the topic URL in the request, and MAY reduce the payload to a diff if the content type supports it.

What is a Publisher?

A WebSub Publisher is an implementation that advertises a topic and hub URL on one or more resource URLs.

What is a Subscriber?

A WebSub Subscriber is an implementation that discovers the hub and topic URL given a resource URL, subscribes to updates at the hub, and accepts content distribution requests from the hub. The subscriber MAY support authenticated content distribution.

Works No Problems

By totalgaz on May 3, 2023

Just learnt more on the benefits of using WebSub a.k.a PubSubHubbub and love that this plugin did the necessary code to the feed instantly. I can see it worked as a newly published blog was discovered instantly by Googlebot after publish using the marked up feed url that I had submitted to search console sitemaps.

Good Plugin

By upgradeorid (updateorid) on February 20, 2023

Good and simple plugin

Indispensable?

By dmsr on July 22, 2022

Je l'installe systématiquement depuis bien longtemps sur tous mes sites!

Best Update Plugin

By Adebowale Adekoya (adebo4all) on February 5, 2020

This is the best update plugin so far.

Project maintained on github at pubsubhubbub/wordpress-pubsubhubbub.

3.2.1

fix: empty option on fresh install leads to broken feed links

3.2.0

improved validating, sanitizing, and escaping
simplified code

3.1.4

add Content-Type header to WebSub requests

3.1.3

update configuration files, fix typos, update dependencies

3.1.2

add new WebSub Hub

3.1.1

fix deprecation issue (PHP8)
add _deprecated_function warnings

3.1.0

update wording (more consequent use of WebSub)
add category-, tag- and author-feeds support

3.0.3

update dependencies

3.0.2

better self-link generator

3.0.1

add donation button

3.0.0

optimized the DB load
added help section
better code encapsulation

2.2.2

temporarily remove comment-feed support to be more GDPR compliant

2.2.1

display topic URLs on the settings page

2.2.0

fixed a discovery bug
changed http client

2.1.0

save pinged URLs to add correct headers

2.0.0

Complete rewrite
Support WebSub

1.0.0

First attempt

Upload the pubsubhubub directory to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
Select custom hubs under your WebSub/PubSubHubbub Settings (optional)