Thoughts on "premium" plugins?

[AlexDenning]

Hey guys,

I'm putting together a post for WPShout on "premium" plugins (premium meaning paid for) and wanted to get some second opinions.

What do you think about paying for plugins? Has CodeCanyon pushed them past supporting the developer? Will they ever become as mainstream as premium themes?

Any thoughts at all would be appreciated.

[Otto]

"Premium" is the wrong word to use for non-free plugins, just as it is for themes.

I have nothing against non-free plugins. I just like my words to say what they mean.

[MiroslavGlavic]

just because you pay for a plugin or because it is called premium, doesn't mean it's better.

[andreasnrb]

I have paid for plugins. There is really a lot of commercial plugins. Most don't venture into the WordPress mainstream though.
One thing seem to be that commercial plugins aren't really that well accepted within the wp.org ecospehere. WP.orgs lack of a commercial plugin section speaks for it self. Commercial plugins is bad commercial services good.
There really is just one commercial plugin that is talked about and well known, Gravity Forms.
A lot of plugins seem to revolve around membership sites and autoblogging. There is really quite a few commercial membership plugins.
To find a bunch of plugins you can search ClickBank. The plugins are of course of differing quality.

[Jeffro]

Take a look at the following discussion which may or may not be of value to you and your post.

http://lists.automattic.com/pipermai...ch/037895.html

I have paid for a few plugins and don't regret doing so. The use and functionality of the plugins have well outpaced the initial price. I'm pretty thankful that I can purchase them with a one time fee and not have to worry about a subscription. The support for those plugins has been pretty good as well although I don't need much of it.

Whether people like it or not, commercial plugins are going to continue to increase but there is not a single way in which to depict how that will play out as there is no guaranteed system that will work. Software as a service tends to work pretty well and requiring the purchase of an API key works as well but for a plugin that just offers functionality without API keys or a way to tie into a service, not sure how those will play out

[commentluv]

I have bought quite a number of not-free plugins. I like supporting someone who creates 'just the right tool' for the job that I'm seeking.

As someone who has written a few plugins and released them for free, I have to admit that I am fine for paid plugins. Once a plugin gets fairly popular, the amount of support that it requires rises exponentially (along with the time it takes to provide it).

I have seen many plugin authors give up development of their plugin because so many of their users need to be spoon fed information on things like how to ftp or chmod and it's massively frustrating to receive emails or support tickets from downright rude or aggressive users who say things like, "this stupid plugin dont work" when in fact it is their stupid eyes that didn't read the big bold letters right in front of them telling them what to do.

My dedicated server that houses the site and handles the registrations and actions of the plugin costs hundreds every month, heck even a script I host on Amazon S3 just for intensedebate users costs more than my personal VPS every month in bandwidth fees (for a lowly 9kb file!).

There is a very low ceiling on how much money I can make back from selling ads on the support site and there's only so long I'm willing to put in so many hours per week and so much money that I could instead be spending on cups of tea and chocolate biscuits before something breaks!

So what am I supposed to do?

It's a choice, charge for the plugin or give it up. I know which direction I would prefer :-)

[Ryan]

If the support requests are what is causing someone to question whether they want to continue developing a plugin or not, then the solution is rather simple, just charge for support.

I'm slowly moving in this direction myself as I simply can't stand dealing with free-loaders anymore. I don't mind reasonable free-loaders, but the number of unreasonable ones is too much to handle. I'd have already transferred everything over to a paid support model except I've been procrastinating, trying to decide how best to handle it.

[commentluv]

If the support requests are what is causing someone to question whether they want to continue developing a plugin or not, then the solution is rather simple, just charge for support.

Yes, it's the support that takes the time and effort and a whole lot of patience!. When I sell ads on the site, I know I've gotten paid already so even silly questions are a breeze to answer. It's even a pleasure because I don't have to tax my brain to find the answer. But, when it's a silly question like ,"I downloaded your plugin, can you tell me what it does?" for a free plugin and they mark it as urgent then it's a little harder each time to bite my lip!

[chipbennett]

Yes, it's the support that takes the time and effort and a whole lot of patience!. When I sell ads on the site, I know I've gotten paid already so even silly questions are a breeze to answer. It's even a pleasure because I don't have to tax my brain to find the answer. But, when it's a silly question like ,"I downloaded your plugin, can you tell me what it does?" for a free plugin and they mark it as urgent then it's a little harder each time to bite my lip!

Build up a solid FAQ based on all of the "silly" support questions, and use it as a time-saver to which to point people who ask them. I wold then categorize support requests into "bug reports", "feature requests", and "custom support" (i.e. "hand-holding"). Move the "custom support" people off into hourly rate-based support. :)

[Ryan]

I like those categories Chip. That is making me change my current plan of attack re: support.