Use any WordPress site to provide automatic updates for your custom WordPress plugins and themes via native REST API. Simply set the Update URI of your plugins and themes to example.com/wp-json/update-pilot/v1/plugins and ask your users to install the Update Pilot plugin.
For Free and Paid Products
Enable updates for both free plugins and themes, and use license key checks for access to commercial packages. The composable architecture enables integrations with any provider of license keys and user data.
Multisite Support
Placing the update logic into a dedicated plugin enables updates even for plugins and themes that are disabled on the main network site.
Other solutions that bundle the update logic inside individual plugins or themes require them to be active at the network level which is not desired for security and performance reasons.
Composer Repository
Update Pilot Server includes a private Composer repository protected with HTTP Basic authentication and the same license keys as the regular updates.
Package Origins
Sync your plugin and theme packages from existing origins such as private or public GitHub repositories and Composer registries (such as Satis or Private Packagist).
Analytics and Privacy
Having the full ownership of the update process provides you with valuable insights into how many sites are using your products and which versions are they running.
By default only the following information is sent to the update server during the update checks by the Update Pilot client plugin (similar to WP core):
- Plugin directory name and filename such as
plugin-slug/plugin-slug.php. - Plugin header meta data (name, version, etc.)
- Version of WordPress and
home_url()of the site (added by WP to all remote requests by default).
Importantly, it doesn’t include any information about other plugins or themes used on the site like the default WP update checks do.
Availability
The Update Pilot Server is currently in development and testing on this very platform and will be available for purchase later in the year. Please reach out if you would like to test it.
Source Code
The source code will eventually be public to simplify contributions and encourage testing and security analysis. All source code is licensed as GPL-2.0-or-later.
Roadmap
- UI for adding GitHub and Composer origins.
- Update error reporting — invalid requests (non-existent packages)
- Package-level analytics of update requests.
- Easy Digital Downloads integration.
- WooCommerce integration.