There are many different payment models for WordPress plugins used on the market. Of these, perhaps the best is to adopt a ‘software as a service’ type business model, offering support and updates to the plugin for recurring payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s what the author of this article believes. Below he’ll present why SaaS is the future of WordPress plugins, and why monthly recurring payments are the best plan for most plugins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking at the WordPress plugins market today, the most widely used monetization model is \u201csupport + unlimited premium updates\u201d, for a period of a year. And if you want to keep getting updates and support, you\u2019ll have to purchase a license for another year.<\/p>
In fact, everyone is actually selling recurring-payments licenses but without the automated renewals. Developers don\u2019t admit it, or probably do not acknowledge that, but that\u2019s exactly what it is!<\/p>
I\u2019ve talked to dozens of fellow WordPress plugin developers about this topic, and once I tell them the \u201ctruth\u201d, they suddenly start to feel a bit \u201csilly\u201d and question themselves why they don\u2019t auto-renew, turning their products into WordPress SaaS like plugins.<\/p>
We all hear how SaaS is a wonderful business model\u2013so why don\u2019t we try to leverage the SaaS\u2019 model for our plugins? Well, most plugins are not exactly \u201cSoftware as a Service\u201d, but we sell software and provide support as a service with the license \u2014 which sounds close enough to me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n