Wordpress is one of the web’s most popular blogging platforms, with over 8.5 million downloads and 7,200 plugins. But with all those plugins, finding the high quality ones can be a challenge. That’s where WP Plugins comes in. Launching today, WP Plugins hopes to be the App Store for WordPress plugins.
WordPress plugin developers can upload their premium plugins to WP Plugins and sell them to users. Developers have the choice to sell their plugins at whatever price they choose, and can two choose from two pricing models: they can offer their plugin as-is (buyers will have a 7 day window to download it) or they can offer it as a subscription, which includes upgrades and personal support from the plugin’s developer for as long as you continue the subscription. Of course, the subscription will cost more in most cases. WP Plugins then takes 10% of each plugin sale.
To participate, plugin developers have sign up for a developer account, and upload their plugin. Incsub’s team of WordPress experts will then look over plugin, and once it’s approved, it’ll get put on the store and up for sale. Incsub will monitor plugins and make sure there is no malicious content as well. WP Plugins has more information here.
Incsub has quite the experience with WordPress; they’ve run sites including Edublogs, WordPress Multi-User Dev and blog network hosts Blogs.mu.
Thanks for the tips!
Am I the only one to find it weird that there is no mention of Automattic anywhere in this post?
My first question was about the relation (or not) of something so closely aligned to a core asset of Automattic/Wordpress (they use the wordpress logo a lot and the is no mention anywhere of “not affiliated with wordpress.org” or something similar)…
That’s how Incsub rolls…
Maybe it’s just me, but I cannot search for any WP plug-ins at http://wpplugins.com/ The search function brings back nothing.
Are these GPL?
“All plugins uploaded to WP Plugins must be GPL as per the WordPress license.”
I reckon the developers of these plugins do not release their plugins under the GPL as it would then be necessary for them to release source code as well.
Not that they aren’t doing it right now. It’s just the legal grounds they operate on.
You can’t provide a plugin without providing the source code. Next!
I think so…
From: http://wpplugin...plugin-authors/
“Licensing… and the GPL
All plugins uploaded to WP Plugins must be GPL as per the WordPress license.”
——————–
Not sure how you can make an WP-APP store that wants your code to be GPL..
Here is some info on the GPL:
http://www.gnu....uide-gplv3.html
According to http://wpplugin.../plugin-authors : “All plugins uploaded to WP Plugins must be GPL as per the WordPress license.”
So, there’s no legal obstacle to prevent you from giving a plugin away after you’ve bought it.
They certainly are. 100% GPL compliant.
The Mailchimp plugin is a free plugin released here: http://wordpres...gins/mailchimp/
Not sure about the rest, but this doesn’t look cool at all.
Think you’ll find that’s a different plugin. The one on wpplugins.com is this one:
http://premium....ter-integration
sounds great, However I think most of the Wordpress community are not used to pay for any plugin since millions of them are available for free.
I was going to say the same thing.
Why not? If it is good, i’ll pay for it. I think capturing 5% of the market is good enough. I bought a few themes and plugin.
Because the same thing is probably available for free.
I have bought plenty of commercial themes too because there are not many free themes that can help you build a professional blog however most of the plugins that you need to run any kind of blog are free.
I agree with Ngan. Sometimes its’ not that easy to find the perfect plugin you’re looking for. I would’nt mind paying (a reasonable price) for a high quality plugin rather than spending hours developping a custom one. Lot’s of people already buy premium themes. So why not plugins?
WordPress not Wordpress
Another approval process? Count me out.
Let me just start by saying that I luv WP and I think the open source concept is great. However, I find this to be a pretty sad statment:
“I think most of the Wordpress community are not used to pay for any plugin since millions of them are available for free.”
At the end of the day, it’s about solutions. So free isn’t free if it costs you time and/or money. If people are too hung up to pay $5 or $10 for something they need that just doesn’t make sense to me. If a programmer can make a few bucks and therefore spend a bit more time enhancing his code, well, what’s wrong with that incentive? It’s not the end of the world.
Yes, there are quite a few free plugin and a good majority of them are crap, barely documented and/or are not being maintained. If this changes that a bit, why not? Is $5 or $10 a bad thing? I’d pay it out of my pocket for a client if I knew the vetting, etc. was already done.
I would be willing to pay for the support, the free plugins are great, but for those who lack the technical know how, having some support would be great for a reasonable one time fee.
I think Incsub is DOA. Here’s why:
The greatness of WordPress has been not only the quality of the product but also the quality development and engagement of the developer community. While many offer their contributions for free, some request donations. I myself donate to those that I use, and think the model works.
Other developers have offered their products for fee only. I have no problem with that; the developers understand that it may limit their exposure, but in return they perhaps have higher revenue.
Additionally, some developers use their plugins as a calling card for custom development, which I think is a great concept.
My point is this: I’m able to get awareness of all of these plugs from within WordPress’ catalog of plugins already.
So what value does Incsub offer over and above what’s already available?
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the donation business model works.
I use to have a donation request on my plugins. I received 3 in 6 years. That $55 went a long way towards paying my bills.
Well that is meaningless unless you share (non-exaggerated of course) number of downloads over the 6 years.
From personal experience, plugin authors get less than 1% donating.
http://tomuse.c...business-model/
Well, one of them is here:
http://wordpres...ashboard/stats/
Which, for that one alone, if we assume that all the donations are for that one (they aren’t) would give me a 0.053% donation rate.
Sorry, maths is wrong on that it is actually 0.026%
Why do you want to make a business out of plugins, when there are so many out there for free already? It’s as if you wanted to be the first candy company out there to charge for your candy, when every other candy company provides their candy for free. Your candy may be of higher quality, but when you start taking exposure away from other candy companies that do maintain their product, they will react by pushing an even better quality of candy AND still keep it free. It’ll be like taking candy from a money-hungry baby.
You know, I think I may upload plugins to the “app store” and “sell” them all for free. That will surely draw profits away from the greedy pigs.
If you consider donations to be a business model, I think that line of thinking is all wrong. If you want to make money from your plugins, charge for them up front. Don’t rely on the donation model.
It’s been said already but I think many are ignoring the reality – GPL is a challenge to the business model here.
App stores are sexy right now, pretty much had to happen to the WordPress community because of the vast user base. I just hope it doesn’t draw in half-arsed developers and bad code.
I think this is great, and I would defiantly pay for really good plug-ins. Too often are plug-ins left for dead because the developer looses interest or doesn’t have the time. This could change that.
It’s a glaring mistake not to mention the official WordPress plugins directory:
http://wordpres...extend/plugins/
This is like writing about a new Mozilla Firefox Add-Ons directory without considering the official addons.mozilla.org.
Similar to Mozilla’s directory, wordpress.org lacks a premium model for plugins (donation links can be provided) but it’s a thriving directory and community of plugin authors and users.
10 paid plugins do not count as a “App store”, it’s more like personal collection
‘The App Store for WordPress plugins’? I sincerely hope not.
The App Store does nothing to sort the wheat from the chaff.