Social Pulse is a WordPress Plugin Directory app by Thomas Pesendorfer.
AppRanks verdict
Generated from live marketplace data — refreshed daily
Social Pulse is a newly-listed WordPress app with a limited review volume. Category data on the canonical marketplace listing is currently incomplete, so AppRanks falls back to platform-wide rather than category-relative comparison for this listing. no published reviews yet means feature claims are unverified by the wider merchant base. Without a published review base, the only fit-signal available is the developer's own documentation plus the marketplace's listing-quality audit (linked below). Paid-only pricing means evaluating fit on the marketplace listing or via the developer's documentation before installing. AppRanks tracks rating, review count, pricing tier, and category position daily — the figures on this page reflect the most recent scrape from the canonical WordPress Plugin Directory listing.
Pros
- +Published by Thomas Pesendorfer — established developer track record
Cons
- −No public reviews yet — fit and reliability are unverified
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How Social Pulse works
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Social Pulse … is a WP plugin showing follower counts from YouTube, Facebook, X, and Steam. It uses Leader/Follower modes to reduce API requests.
General Idea Social Pulse retrieves follower numbers from multiple platforms and displays them via WordPress shortcodes. In Leader mode, the plugin directly makes API requests to obtain the latest values, which are then cached and exposed at a dedicated URL. In Follower mode, the plugin skips direct API calls and instead retrieves the pre-fetched data from the Leader instance.
* Screenshot Leader-Mode
* Screenshot Follower-Mode
Try it out!
Download the ZIP
Navigate to the WordPress Playground
Go to the “Plugins” page
Click “Add New Plugin”
Click “Upload Plugin”
Select the ZIP and click “Install Now”
Click “Activate Plugin”
The plugin should now be visible at the bottom of the WordPress menu.
Leader and Follower Mode
Leader Mode:
In this mode, Social Pulse performs the actual API calls to get the latest follower counts and caches these values. The current values are also exposed at a special URL (e.g. /social-counters/values), which can be used by Follower instances.
Follower Mode:
Follower mode is designed to minimize API calls on installations that do not need to fetch data directly. Instead of making API requests, the plugin retrieves the cached values from the Leader URL. This is particularly useful when dealing with strict API rate limits.
How to Use Social Pulse in Leader Mode
Activate Leader Mode:
In the plugin settings, select Leader as the mode.
Configure API Credentials:
Enter your API keys, tokens, and IDs for YouTube, Facebook, X, and Steam in the respective fields.
Save Changes:
Make sure to save your settings.
Retrieve Values:
The plugin will automatically fetch and cache the current follower counts. The exposed values URL (displayed on the settings page) can be used by Follower installations.
How to Use Social Pulse in Follower Mode
Activate Follower Mode:
In the plugin settings, select Follower as the mode.
Enter Leader URL:
Provide the URL from a Leader installation (the URL where the leader exposes its cached values).
Save Changes:
Save your settings to store the Leader URL.
Automatic Data Fetch:
The plugin will now retrieve the follower values from the Leader URL every 5 minutes or whenever manually tested. Direct API requests are disabled in this mode.
Where to Find the Necessary Information For each platform, you will need to obtain API keys, tokens, or IDs. Here are some helpful links to get you started:
YouTube:
YouTube Data API v3 – Getting Started
(Find your API key and channel ID here.)
Facebook:
Facebook for Developers, Long Lasting Tokens for Clients
(Learn how to create an app, get an access token, and locate your Page ID.)
X (formerly Twitter):
X Developer Platform, Generating and Using an App-Only Bearer-Token
(Obtain a Bearer Token and set up your developer credentials.)
Steam:
Steam Web API Documentation
(Find information on obtaining your Steam App ID and using the API.)
External services WordPress guidelines require that the use of external services is clearly statet. Although this is the sole purpose of this plugin I hereby state the following external service usage:
* Youtube API (https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels)
The Youtube API is used to receive the youtube followers of the account the “Youtube API Key” belongs to.
* Steam API (https://api.steampowered.com/ISteamUserStats/GetNumberOfCurrentPlayers/v1/)
The Steam API is used to receive the current players of the Steam app with the “Steam App ID” you enter.
* Facebook API (https://graph.facebook.com/v22.0/)
The Facebook API is used to gather fan or follower count of the facbook page with the “Facebook Page ID” you enter.
* X API (https://api.twitter.com/2/users/by/username/)
The X API is used to gather the follower count of the account with the “X Username” you enter.
Competitors & alternatives
AppRanks tracks competitor sets per category. For Social Pulse, the independent listing audit includes a competitive context section, and the full WordPress app index shows the broader marketplace landscape this app competes in. Sign up free to surface a side-by-side competitor matrix customized to your tracked apps.
Frequently asked questions
What is Social Pulse?
Social Pulse is an app for WordPress. It is published on WordPress Plugin Directory and tracked by AppRanks, and AppRanks has been tracking its public marketplace data on the refresh cadence published in our methodology. AppRanks tracks its category position, review-velocity trend, and the top alternatives in the same space. Developed by Thomas Pesendorfer.