I've noticed a continue trend for the past few years, all these plugins are now subscriptions per year. Is driving me off the walls, the developer community have become a money grabbing vampires like these big corporations.
Anyone have some plugins that they use that has life time purchase?
here's are few i like:
WPAmelia
WPForms – alternatives anyone?
ViewWPForms – A plugin on top of core plugin subscription >> drives me nuts
I'm in search of a WebHook Automator at the moment, i've seen Uncanny Automator and Automator WP. Which one is the best? Or do you have alternative solutions??
Thanks!
Can’t comment on the LTDs now, but I startet communicating more actively that plugins are not for free.
I feel like I am the super complicted douche for the client. Others just include it all for free, don’t mention it to the client, and I am the one who gives the warnings about licence costs, yearly subscriptions, and I am charging for it, etc.
I have it in my proposals and all the additional text and information – it really su**. I feel I should be the one who saves the client from all of that. They mostly don’t care about such things.
But on the other hand – the client should know! They should know what they pay is not only going to me, it’s going to the plugin developer as well.
Here’s a secret most people don’t know.
Wordpress plugins have to use the GPL license, making copying and reselling them quite legal.
As such, there are companies that buy these plugins, then resell them for pennies on the dollar.
I’ve replaced many WP plugin functions with a combo of functionality from self-hosted N8N, Mautic and Baserow.
The issue with LTD is the support people ask for or the amount of work needed to keep the plugin moving forward. That’s why some plugins just can’t offer LTD.
One of the few plugins I pay for is gravity forms but every month there is a new update and support is great.
On the other hand, a simple plugin with a few functions I would expect an LTD.
Which plugins are you looking to replace with LTDs?
I moved a while ago to bricksbuilder.io and I’m very happy with it. Plus the addons are LTDs too.
Advanced themer
ACSS
Bricks extra
Bricks ultimate (amazing for WC sites)
Bricks forge
Some LTDs I use alot are:
Metabox.io (replace ACF)
SlimSEO + schema LTD (SEO plugin)
Yay commerce’s YayMail Pro (I got it a few years ago on appsumo and it’s really has been becoming good. Customize emails)
HappyFiles.io
MainWP
A few LTDs I’m very happy I got when I could are:
WPML
Ewww.io
An all in one LTD you might like is: Admin and Site Endangerment (ASE). Has alot of features that can get the job done but you might need a dedicated plugin for a feature if you’re trying something more advanced
Some advice, if you’re not watching appsumo, definitely watch for deals but most are trash and cash grabs unfortunately
originalplugins.com
festingersvault.com
I get were you come from but looking it from another perspective, you pay for the updates, new features and security improvements from that plugin actually, most of the plugins will continue to work for quite some time if you stop paying for them.
Unless they have shitty tactics like Memberpress or Elementor that lock you out of their features if you stop paying.
learn javascript
Because fuck developers that need to earn a regular income, right? All those money-grabbing bastards wanting to be paid for the work they do. How dare they! /s
Every day I wake up and thank the universe for my health, my loved ones, and my lifetime ACF license
Fluent forms is a good alternative to wpforms and has a ltd
You should see Shopify’s app (plugins) ecosystem. It’s practically predatory. We have zero problem with annual pricing so long as the quality and changelog consistency remains constant.
Here’s one way to look at it…
Imagine you did not use a plugin and built it yourself. That code would be fixed as is for years and you’d never update it unless you found a bug or issue. You certainly wouldn’t add new features unless the customer wanted it and paid for it.
So if you did not pay the subscription you can still use the plugin you just won’t get updates. That’s the same as if you built it yourself.
It’s not recommended just in case of security issues but there may not be. So you could take a risk and just use the code as is forever. New updates could even introduce new security risks anyway so updating to stay secure is not actually that correct.
If in 3 years there’s a security risk found you could renew it then. Or if WordPress itself needs it updated.
Personally I pay to get the security updates but I do not like it when new features are added. So often a plugin update actually changes something on the front end or the experience for the admin, and we don’t like it. Some plugins change so much we can’t use them and have to install something else which causes us more work.
Just a thought if the cost to renew is too high. It’s the same as buying software then like in the old days. You’re stuck on that version for years but that suits many people just fine.
No one is forcing you to renew or use pro versions of plugins.
Formidable Forms is the way to go. It doesn’t nickle and dime you like WPForms / Gravity Forms 3rd party add-ons.
Formidable has the Views feature built in that you are looking for and more.
Regarding automations, Uncanny Automator is solid. Huge time saver for clients.
Support indie devs when you can
Pay someone to build you a custom plugin for a one-time fee plus extra and if anything breaks, get them to fix it. Simple as that.