Ive made some plugins I use internally for client projects as needed, wondering if I shouldn’t sell them or if everyone at this point just uses whatever from the market. I tend to develop these as lightweight, minimalistic versions so I’m not adding unnecessary bloat.
For example:
– White label login (super minimalist, overtakes the login experience to give you something less wordpressy, no moving parts to break)
– Custom roles (I often need to allow a non tech user in, so I’ve made a plugin that creates a minimalist experience for the Editor role. Just what they need, you can hide pretty much everything except the areas they need to go)
– Custom woocommerce checkout screens. Runs as a plugin so can always be disabled. I right now make these on demand for clients for $500 per customization but thinking about whether making a do it yourself lightweight version makes sense.
For those with experience selling these kinds of plugins, is there an expected price point? Id be looking at doing them direct via a dedicated site vs through a marketplace.
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Why not just start selling them? You set the price. I’m seeing “big name” brands creeping up to $299 per year now for some plugins.
The hardest part will be marketing them, esp since you’re not wanting to use a marketplace.
If they are good, why not. A couple of issues that need need to be accounted for are :
1) Support. How do you plan to offer support to customers? Free “customers” are needy, premium customers are even more so.
2) Updates and licensing. How do you plan to tackle those? There’s several good options but need to account for also maintaining those systems, if not just using a 3rd party marketplace.
3) Marketing. “For sale” is a lot different than “making sales” – gotta get people to actually buy them.
My suggestion would be to put them in the regular WP repo for awhile. Use it to work out all the support stuff, get feedback from real users, gauge interest, refine, and build a base. Then you won’t need to ask, you’ll have all the data you need and an established user base to market to.