WebSub (FKA. PubSubHubbub)
A WebSub plugin for WordPress that enables real-time publishing and subscription capabilities.
- Active installs
- 100,000+
- #383 of 1,000
- Downloads, all time
- 2.2M
- 2,167,437
- Downloads, 30 days
- 11.2K
- 2.8K in the last 7
- Rating
- 5.0 / 5
- 6 reviews
- Last updated
- 2 months ago
- Aug 21, 2026
- Version
- 4.0.1
- 35 releases
Upkeep and compatibility
| Last updated | August 21, 2026Updated in the last 3 months |
|---|---|
| Tested up to | WordPress 7.1.4Covers WordPress 7.1.4, the current release |
| Needs WordPress | 4.5 or newer |
| Needs PHP | 7.4 or newer |
| First published | May 15, 2009 |
| Support, last two months | No threads opened |
Reviews
5.0 / 5 from 6 reviews
| 5 stars | 6 |
|---|---|
| 4 stars | 0 |
| 3 stars | 0 |
| 2 stars | 0 |
| 1 star | 0 |
Downloads, last 30 days
What the author says it does
This plugin implements the WebSub protocol (formerly known as PubSubHubbub) for WordPress. It enables real-time notifications when your blog is updated and provides a subscriber API for other plugins to consume WebSub-enabled feeds.
Publisher Features
When you publish or update a post, this plugin automatically notifies WebSub hubs, which then distribute the update to all subscribers in real-time.
- Sends realtime notifications when you update your blog
- Supports multi-user installations (WordPress MU)
- Supports multiple hubs
- Supports all feed formats used by WordPress (Atom, RSS2, RDF)
- Adds <link rel="hub"> and <link rel="self"> declarations to feeds and HTML
Subscriber Features
The plugin provides a subscriber API that allows other plugins (like feed readers) to subscribe to WebSub-enabled feeds using WordPress hooks.
- REST API callback endpoint for subscription verification and content delivery
- Hub discovery from topic URLs (HTTP Link headers and feed content)
- HMAC signature verification (SHA1, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512)
- Full lifecycle hooks for integration with other plugins
Supported Specifications
- WebSub W3C Recommendation
- PubSubHubbub 0.4
Default Hubs
By default this plugin will ping the following hubs:
- Demo hub on Google App Engine
- SuperFeedr
- WebSubHub
The opening of the plugin's own description. The full text, installation notes and changelog are on its WordPress.org page.
Questions the author answers
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 WebSub?
- W3C WebSub Recommendation
- WebSub on GitHub
- WebSub.rocks – WebSub validator
What is a Hub?
A WebSub Hub is an implementation that handles subscription requests and distributes content to subscribers when the corresponding topic URL has been updated.
What is a Publisher?
A WebSub Publisher is an implementation that advertises a topic and hub URL on one or more resource URLs. This plugin acts as a publisher for your WordPress site.
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. This plugin provides a subscriber API for other plugins to use.
How can I use the Subscriber API in my plugin?
The Subscriber API allows other plugins to subscribe to WebSub-enabled feeds using WordPress hooks. See the Subscriber API documentation for detailed examples and usage.
Latest changelog entry
- Fixed http_headers_useragent filter being applied without the required $url argument (since WP 5.1), which could cause a fatal ArgumentCountError when other plugins hook into it (props @sybrew, #36)
- Raised the minimum PHP requirement to 7.4 (in line with WordPress 7.0)
- Tested up to WordPress 7.0
Screenshots
The WebSub Settings page allows you to define which hubs you want to use
Tagged
Where this page's numbers come from
Read from the WordPress.org plugin API on , when WordPress 7.1.4 was the current release. WordPress.org rounds active installs into buckets. These are the directory's figures, not my verdict, and I haven't tested this plugin. The author takes donations at their donate page.