- Feb 20, 2018
- 434
- 400
I've been a WordPress developer for a long time and I've used Envato / CodeCanyon to sell my plugins. It used to be a great place to launch something and get exposure. But over the years, it's turned into a mess with Elements being pushed constantly by them...
I got tired of it. So I decided to build my own alternative, I called it WPBay.
The idea behind it is simple: a marketplace where plugin and theme developers have full control. You set your price, you manage your updates, you get to build a real customer base.
I built it mainly for myself, like how I would have wanted to be CodeCanyon in the first place. I set up licensing (can be one time payment, monthly/yearly subscription), added support tools, upgrade paths and more.
I launched it and have been pushing updates weekly. It's already being used by a few sellers and getting early traction. I've also started building an SDK that lets developers add license checking, support requests, and purchases directly from inside their plugin's WordPress admin. It's been a crazy amount of work, but honestly, I am the most excited I've been in years!
I'm sharing this here to ask your opinion on this project. What would make you actually use a new marketplace? What's missing from the ones that exist now?
This isn't some VC-funded startup, just me with a developer friend, we are indie and built from scratch with devs like us in mind. There is still much work to be invested in this project, also to build up marketing efforts for it.
Any idea or suggestion is welcome. I will post updates here on my journey.
I got tired of it. So I decided to build my own alternative, I called it WPBay.
The idea behind it is simple: a marketplace where plugin and theme developers have full control. You set your price, you manage your updates, you get to build a real customer base.
I built it mainly for myself, like how I would have wanted to be CodeCanyon in the first place. I set up licensing (can be one time payment, monthly/yearly subscription), added support tools, upgrade paths and more.
I launched it and have been pushing updates weekly. It's already being used by a few sellers and getting early traction. I've also started building an SDK that lets developers add license checking, support requests, and purchases directly from inside their plugin's WordPress admin. It's been a crazy amount of work, but honestly, I am the most excited I've been in years!
I'm sharing this here to ask your opinion on this project. What would make you actually use a new marketplace? What's missing from the ones that exist now?
This isn't some VC-funded startup, just me with a developer friend, we are indie and built from scratch with devs like us in mind. There is still much work to be invested in this project, also to build up marketing efforts for it.
Any idea or suggestion is welcome. I will post updates here on my journey.
