room34

Pending Status is a super-simple solution for WordPress sites that need very basic workflow functionality. It’s easy to set up and doesn’t overload your site with unnecessary features.
If you have Contributors who can create, but not publish, their own content on your site, Pending Status notifies you of any pending posts that are ready to review. By default, all users with the Administrator or Editor role will see a Pending Status box on the Dashboard, showing the counts of pending posts, with a convenient link to the list of pending posts for that post type.
Optionally, you can also identify one or more Administrators/Editors to receive email notifications whenever a post is saved with “pending” status. The subject and message of the email are fully editable, and a direct edit link for the post is included in the body of the email.
Pending Status works with all publicly queryable post types: Posts, Pages, and even Custom Post Types created by third party plugins (e.g. WooCommerce, The Events Calendar, etc.), or your own custom code.

Pending Status

Get notified when your site has posts pending review.

Alex Phelps

Simple Post Alerts 
Allows users to easily get alerts for new posts pending review and published.
<h4>How it works</h4>
Go to your user profile and you’ll see two new settings for pending review and published posts. You can also manage these settings for other users. Each time there is a new post that matches your settings you’ll get a simple email notification with a link.
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Note – users who cannot publish posts don’t see the setting for posts pending review.
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Simple Post Alerts

Allows users to easily get alerts for new posts pending review and published.

Pending Status vs Simple Post Alerts