In this ever changing world we live in – sometimes, things have to change – for better or for worse.
Recently WPMU Dev a popular subscription service for WordPress web developers walked back 90% of their plugins – they also put them on the WordPress dot org repository so, in their words, people could fork them, use them or even make premium versions from them to benefit the ‘Community’. You can read all about it by following the link below.
This Is Gonna Be Emotional, We’re Setting over 90% of Our Premium Plugins Free!
In short, its all about support – supporting deprecated or unused plugins is both time consuming and expensive – we all gotta get paid right? Most of the comments I have seen on the blog post are positive – some are asking for a change in pricing as users get less for the same amount – WPMU have addressed this;
We have been working hard on improving the value of membership with hosting and better services, and there are more things to come so there will be no changes to pricing structure.
If you have any additional questions about pricing or suggestions for future improvements we would love to hear them out, you can send us a message from the form on our Contact page.
Is it right the pricing isn’t going to change – is it right that users are effectively paying more, for less? I’m on the fence on this one – its a tough call and I for one, would not like to make that one. Its certain however, that WPMU are a genuinely concerned company in the WordPess space. Its certain that that they want to be around and support users of all levels with free and premium solutions and its certain for me anyway, that they have the best intentions. I wish them luck and look forward to seeing further enhancements in the coming months.
Now, having said it once in this post, I am going to say it again – Things change….
Elementor changes UNLIMITED to 1,000 sites and renames the package to EXPERT!
OH MY GOODNESS!
The furore in the Elementor Community Facebook groups is incredible. Here we have one of the biggest game changer page builder plugins out there – free in the WordPress Repository and quite adequate frankly, and then they go and change the TOS to say, I am paraphrasing here – ‘You can only have 1,000 sites on the now Extra package as we have had some issues with support due to resellers (There is no reseller package by the way) abusing our systems and we need to put a stop to that!”
I could go on about the fact you have to build 2 point something sites a day to exceed the limit, I could go on about the fact that I, along with others bought the unlimited package because we understood it to be unlimited, I could go on about how the fact that you allow me to get used to it for free, forever if I want to, and then upgrade if I love it, is awesome – but, I won’t 😉
The simple fact of the matter is that things change – did I say that already?
As a marketplace owner, I know all about support – it is a given – we NEED to support our customers – this costs money, time, effort and let’s be honest, a few smashed screens due to punching them when you see the same old questions that even the most ill informed user should understand – like unzipping the file named PLEASE UNZIP ME – but, we love supporting our customers and vendors – we really do, its in my DNA –Â why? Because I love good support, I like to receive it so, I have to be committed to giving it, right?
BUT! – Someone has to pay for it in the end
It’s no good expecting great support without having to pay for it, its no good complaining that support is slow because a few thousand users (resellers) abuse the system and then when a company says, right, we’re going to fix this – and then complain when they do.
I have never agreed with free software – ever.., I use it of course and, if there is a donate button on a WordPress.org plugin page, I hit donate – it might be 5 bucks it might be 10 but every little helps – Especially if there is no commercial or premium version.
The bottom line is – if you want great support – start giving great support and donate as much as you can when you can – especially if you are using ‘free’ products to earn your living when building out a website for profit.
And, if you are an unauthorized reseller of any products that are licensed under GPL/GNU – just stop it – you are not doing anyone any favors – least of all the WordPress community which you are a part of.
So, when will Divi walk back on the lifetime membership? – I think it is inevitable – I think it would be a good thing – I think I will support them to the ends of the earth if they do –Â Divi used to have 3 deals, but they stopped the personal version –Â now down to to 2 – remember that? – many of you reading this earn a great living from Divi, Elementor and a whole host of free and premium plugins, themes and services – lets get this right and appreciate that with providing a service comes risk – risk of someone taking your work and selling it to the lowest bidder and that bidder then expecting premium support, risk of employing people, and risk of failing – Let us get behind these innovative companies and back them to the hilt because without them – a lot of us – including me – would be doing something that we hate, rather than something that we love.
With progress, comes change – Please, welcome it, in all its forms.
tough i agree to the support issues and complexities, but i do not agree to unlimited purchasers being shrunken to lower limits. ts like you buy a car with a 5 -year premium maintenance paid at purchase time, ad then the company decies ok now its just or oe year .. WT! thats open cheating.
There should be better license management – and atleast till now i like div’ unlimited policy – its clear if one did not purchase license – one doesnt get support – and a client hould either buy own license or pay to their developer for it… simle
It is unlimited and shares as often you like and modify as often you like as long as you keep the GNU GPL working. All you need from a WordPress premium plugin is actually ONE plugin from each kind and not for whatever sites. It is in WordPress no problem to find alternatives which are unlimited and even they are your own unlimited packages which you resell as unlimited – You can find most premium plugins for Free – well some are with some add-ons 😉 so better know what you are doing and have at least one original available. And delete those parts – malicious codes – usually itis the same principle in all of there premium themes and plugins.
You also don’t need to worry about ethics etc, as only very very few of them actually name all the resources THEY took the parts from to build those premium plugins – WPMUDEV is such a Master for example. Don’t ever start thinking that all code has bee written from scratch by them as they actually REUSE, MODIFY and SHARE and RESELL other codes like you would do with their code.
Wordpress Automatic plugins usually share who has developed teh stuff and also ET does it in DIVI. So simply stick to those HONEST plugins and best of all you will rarely find one of those honest plugins which will NOT allow you to run it on unlimited sites. They usually honor the GNU GPL.
Unfortunately, lots of NON Coding Resellers are out there who simply use cheap devs to copy paste a new plugin together and then resell it for hard cash – It is legit – Buy it and resell it again 😉 that is legit too according to GNU GPL!. We actually encourage our customers to try first the plugins and when they seem to be usefull for them t buy them, simply to support those developers who are god in that copy paste recreation jobs.
Thanks all for commenting – Grandfathering is actually very difficult to achieve and monitor, I know when we changed some products to subscription, we grandfathered those that bought ‘it’ under an unlimited deal – Grandfathering in this instance, would not solve the issue, as the ‘resellers’ would be grandfathered in as well – its a tough call and in my view a brave one. 1,000 sites is not bad and as we all know, all web hosts who offer resellers unlimited – don’t really – as its all connected to a fair use policy.
@SteveB, no, we’re not grandfathered. I purchased an “unlimited” Elementor Pro license, and just received email that it was now an Expert (1000 site limit) license. 1000 sites is certainly sufficient for most, and if you need more you can purchase another license, but I’m not a fan of unilateral changes like this.
Well said
I agree with you that Elegant Themes must remove the lifetime deal eventually. When Toolset did so they posted a blog to explain the decision, showing accumulated profits / losses for the various account types:
https://toolset.com/2018/04/why-were-not-going-to-offer-any-more-lifetime-accounts-for-toolset/
Lifetime accounts only work if the users stop using the product after a couple of years, which kind of defeats the point of a lifetime account.
WPMUDEV had simply no other choice. Simply check back my numerous coments on WPMUDEV that the plugins are mostly not even maintained they have. The developers which did work on the Upfront WPMUDEVs Front end builder are now masters at Oxygen 😉 who wonders. The pricing won’t change but the competition will move people more and more to solutions outside of WPMUDEV as the support they provide lacks on all end since they introduced the Live Support – and well DIVI Elegant will probably be the next having a suffering from that Live Support!
Elementor well who uses it? As all is GNU GPL there is simply NO site restriction at all an of course you will be able to use it on as many sites as before if you use Elementor at all (not recommended). Much better is actually to switch to solutions like DIVI and Oxygen who provide an unlimited sites and even lifetime plan!
Hi Andrew,
I don’t have an issue if the TOS are revised going forward for new clients/purchasers but I would hope that those already having a support licence for lifetime/unlimited sites are grandfathered in.
This has certainly been my experience with other Premium plugins.
I would have thought that legally that’s the only way such changes in licensing terms can be changed. Unless there was a term in the license contract stating the developer can change the terms at will, including the duration of the contract. Otherwise, a lifetime license is forever a lifetime license. They can choose to stop selling new lifetime licenses, but can’t revoke an existing lifetime license (unless the terms we agreed to allow for that).
Time to check the terms of the LT license I bought from ET.