Update: AutoUpdate feature now available for WordPress and Joomla!
UPDATE: SiteGround has now launched auto-updates for Joomla applications as well! All our Joomla users can now enjoy the same benefits and subscribe for free auto-updates of their application from the SiteGround auto-update tool in their cPanel. For a detailed tutorial how to turn on auto-updates for Joomla, check out our tutorial.
According to WordPress.com, there are about 56,4 million WP sites in the world right now. And that number is rapidly growing. Many big companies, such as CNN, NBC and UPS use WordPress for their company blogs, which makes the open source platform even more popular and trusted by people worldwide.
However, with a big open source software community like this, there are always the security threats and vulnerabilities that could ruin your day (or your site). We at SiteGround know this for a fact. We host numerous Open Source software instances, including more than 50,000 WordPress installations on our shared hosting plans. WordPress is slick, well written and highly customizable. However, like all open source applications, it could create a dramatic problem for you, your website and your visitors, should you not keep it up to date.
Updating WP seems like a straightforward process. You click the upgrade button in your WordPress admin panel and it is done. But still, too many people do not do it. Why? First, because they may not even be aware that there is a new version. Second, because there is always the chance that the upgrade breaks your site and you should take the time to create a backup before upgrading to be safe. And that whole process can be frustrating. REALLY frustrating. In fact so frustrating that it made a lot of people turn their backs on upgrading their WP forever.
Well, I’m really happy to say WP Updates are now much easier if you are hosted with SiteGround! This week we launched our WP Auto Update cPanel plugin. It tracks new versions and updates your WP Instances automatically.
And it will not only keep your blog Up-to-date, but it will back it up prior to an update, so that whenever you have a plugin or theme not working after an update, you can quickly restore the version before the update. A notification email will be sent to you 24 hours prior to every update, so you could also skip the auto-update if you plan on doing it manually.
In its essence, our WP Auto Update tool is really simple. But it is a real time-saver and can protect you automatically from fresh WordPress exploits that come out every other week.
IMPORTANT: All customers that install new WP instances will have this feature enabled by default, whereas all users with WP instances installed prior to this week can opt-in at any time by going to their cPanel and clicking the WP Auto Update icon. I advise you to opt-in and do it fast, since every other week there’s a new WP out that you should really stop thinking about 😉
