Plugins with Annual Subscriptions

As an owner of the WordPress based business that sells licenses to my plugins, I understand why many companies don’t want to have lifetime license. ACF did have lifetime license until couple of years ago, but decided that such licenses are bringong a lot less value compared to support demands over time.

I do offer lifetime licenses for my plugins, but I also have experience with users that buy one year license and don’t renew after that, continuing to use older plugin version.

Depending on plugin, and that is not related only to my plugins or ACF, it is not a good idea to use old plugin versions due to security concerns, bugs, compatibility issues. WordPress is updated 3 or 4 times each year, PHP gets one major release each year. I testy plugins with every major WP and PHP release and usually release updates.

Now, what if you comtinue to use older plugin version, but you update WordPress regularly? It can lead to plugin errors, strange behaviour or website breaking. Now, that is the extreme possibility, and it doesn’t happen always, but it can happen. PHP is usually a bigger problem, and every few major PHP versions introduce backward compatibility breaking changes that can crash websites if the plugons don’t support newer PHP versions.

Software in general requires constant maintenance and updates to ensure it runs as it should. WordPress website is even more difficult becuase you have not only WP, but a theme, many plugons by different authors. And if things are not always updated, it can lead to problems.

Using premium plugins can be expensive, but if you build your business on that, factor in the price of the plugins and make sure to keep them updated, because loosing your data or work due to security or compatibility issues will be much more expensive. Either that, or develop all plugins you need yourself, but that is the most expensive thing to do.

If you build websites for clients, always factor price of licenses for plugins you want to use into price you charge your client, or make the client pay for thier own license.

2 Comments

r1ckd33zy says:
July 6, 2023 at 9:01 pm
>What happens if you can’t pay next year? Or if you go out of business and stop paying the fee? Will your client’s sites all break?
You just won’t be able to get new updates to the plugin and your support options may be reduced.
GDragoN says:
July 6, 2023 at 9:19 pm
As an owner of the WordPress based business that sells licenses to my plugins, I understand why many companies don’t want to have lifetime license. ACF did have lifetime license until couple of years ago, but decided that such licenses are bringong a lot less value compared to support demands over time.
I do offer lifetime licenses for my plugins, but I also have experience with users that buy one year license and don’t renew after that, continuing to use older plugin version.
Depending on plugin, and that is not related only to my plugins or ACF, it is not a good idea to use old plugin versions due to security concerns, bugs, compatibility issues. WordPress is updated 3 or 4 times each year, PHP gets one major release each year. I testy plugins with every major WP and PHP release and usually release updates.
Now, what if you comtinue to use older plugin version, but you update WordPress regularly? It can lead to plugin errors, strange behaviour or website breaking. Now, that is the extreme possibility, and it doesn’t happen always, but it can happen. PHP is usually a bigger problem, and every few major PHP versions introduce backward compatibility breaking changes that can crash websites if the plugons don’t support newer PHP versions.
Software in general requires constant maintenance and updates to ensure it runs as it should. WordPress website is even more difficult becuase you have not only WP, but a theme, many plugons by different authors. And if things are not always updated, it can lead to problems.
Using premium plugins can be expensive, but if you build your business on that, factor in the price of the plugins and make sure to keep them updated, because loosing your data or work due to security or compatibility issues will be much more expensive. Either that, or develop all plugins you need yourself, but that is the most expensive thing to do.
If you build websites for clients, always factor price of licenses for plugins you want to use into price you charge your client, or make the client pay for thier own license.

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