Freemius: Recent Episodes
Author
What happens when a community comes together to make a change? Yesterday, we witnessed the answer as software makers across the globe united for our 24-hour fundraising campaign in support...
Today marks an important chapter for Freemius and a step forward for tech diversity. As we celebrate 10 years of empowering software makers, we’re kicking off a 24-hour fundraising campaign...
Standing out in crowded markets can feel like an uphill battle — especially if you’re part of a small team or working solo with limited marketing resources. But there’s a...
EU VAT reverse charge can be a real challenge for makers and businesses selling software products across the European Union. With different VAT rates in each country and strict rules...
It’s a ghoulish Halloween Special like no other — we’re digging up a product graveyard and uncovering the corpses of five horrific software failures from five successful makers. Each tale...
Creative Market is becoming a popular choice for WordPress product makers, offering access to a community of over 10 million creative professionals. It allows sellers to set their own prices,...
Outbound sales often get a bad rap, especially among solo software makers and small businesses. When you hear the terms “outbound” and “sales” together, is the first thing that comes...
We’re always exploring new ways to enhance the software-selling experience for makers and their users. These new Freemius release notes mark an exciting milestone as we begin expanding our support...
Optimizing your checkout is a critical yet challenging task. You need to make it seamless, secure, and efficient, as it’s the last hurdle between a potential sale and a paying...
Following Shutterstock’s acquisition of Envato, many WordPress software makers are searching for new alternatives. One popular option is TemplateMonster, a well-known digital marketplace that offers a wide selection of high-quality...
It’s hard to believe ten years have passed since Freemius first came to life. What started as an idea to help solo makers and indie hackers pursue their passions has...
When a talented technical mind meets an entrepreneurial spirit, great products can happen — and this is exactly the case with Webba Booking. Ivan Halaka, the problem-solving developer, and Tauras...
Years ago, charging money for plugins/themes in the WordPress space was frowned upon. But when WordPress began commercializing, developers saw the opportunity to start selling themes and plugins full-time instead...
Let’s face it: you’d rather be knee-deep in your latest project than figuring out how to tweet or blog about it. Trust us, we get it. You’re juggling deadlines, squashing...
Refreshed and reconfigured to boost conversions and maximize sales price, the new Freemius Checkout has officially launched and is in production! The best part? The new Checkout is the result...
As a WordPress theme or plugin developer, you’ve likely felt the tremors caused by Shutterstock’s acquisition of Envato. This significant shift in the industry landscape has left many questioning the...
Subscription businesses have come a long way from magazines and daily milk deliveries. With an average American spending close to $1,000 per year on different types of subscriptions, it’s not...
Let’s cut to the chase: Selling WordPress plugins ain’t easy. Solo plugin makers and SMBs in the space need to use all means available to convert customers and drive revenue....
Mastering the art of inbound sales can help bootstrapped software makers and SMBs increase revenue by attracting, engaging, and converting more customers — without breaking the bank. Inbound sales focus...
Your software is ready for the real world, and you know its potential. But launching a successful SaaS goes beyond just having a great product—you’re facing the challenge of convincing...
If you’ve been struggling to make sense of what’s been going on in the SEO world lately, you’re not alone. Keeping up with standard problems like dealing with the rise...
At Freemius, our mission is simple: we’re continuously striving to find new ways to improve the commercial experience for software makers and their users, to help them thrive. We’re proud...
Ciao, tutti! I’m glad to report that I got safely back home from Turin. WordCamp Europe 2024 was productive, fun, and insightful. I caught up with old friends and made...
On May 2, 2024, Envato — the powerhouse behind CodeCanyon, ThemeForest, and Envato Elements — announced its acquisition by stock file giant Shutterstock for a staggering US$245 million. This unexpected...
Nowadays, breaking new ground in WordPress is like herding cats. The market’s matured: almost every possible niche is filled with plugins, themes, or static software offering solutions that compete for...
Many WordPress founders will toy with the idea of taking their team to a WordCamp to network, learn about industry trends, and exchange ideas. But, for remote teams, the benefits...
Key Article Takeaways: Digital PR focuses on building relationships with journalists and influencers to get mentioned in their content — one mention in the right publication or YouTube video can...
For many developers, the satisfaction of making software products lies in creating genuinely useful things for people (all from the comfort of your home office or local coffee shop 😉)....
Let’s not beat around the bush — many (if not most) software makers would rather focus on product development than sink their teeth into marketing and sales. But, ironically, you...
Making software products is the fun part 🚀 Selling them is where things get tricky 📉 With numerous sales tools and technologies available, software creators need to find the right...
End-user license agreements (EULAs) ensure that the rights and responsibilities of software creators and users are clearly defined and protected. Crafting this legally binding document is, however, not as cut...
End-user license agreements (EULAs) are the guardians of a software creator’s intellectual property. They serve as clear declarations of what users can and cannot do with your software and define...
Phew! I’m finally back home from Taiwan. I made meaningful new connections at WordCamp Asia 2024 and caught up with old friends. Our Makers’ Meetup was the biggest success so...
It’s official — we’ve launched plugin.fm Season 2 and we’re thrilled to share what’s in store 🥳 Season 2 builds on the lessons learned from the previous season and swings...
Ben Sibley has always had an entrepreneurial spirit, as illustrated by the fact that he’s only had one ‘normal’ job — cashiering at a grocery store during high school. While...
Ever wondered why your competitors have a plethora of reviews or why they seem to be better at generating them? It’s not because their customers love them more or are...
The age-old platitude that it’s never too late to learn or start over? It doesn’t get any truer than for Alan Fuller, founder of Fullworks, a successful WordPress plugin company...
Hiring during the economic crisis, keeping the business stable in unstable times, going heavy on content, customer service, redesigning the blog, organizing Makers’ Meetups, hosting our first-ever company retreat, and...
Think your software product can’t get any ‘beta’? 🧐 Think again! Beta programs — a phase in software development where a pre-release version is made available to a select group...
Building in public is more than a development approach: it can be an immersive, inspiring experience that weaves together transparency, community, and product innovation. In a landscape where the lines...
For software product makers, nothing is certain in life except for (death by) support tickets and taxes 😩 and we’ve got some bad news for those who are lax on...
We don’t talk about failure nearly enough in the software world ☠️ The mistakes and hard lessons learned from %^&*@!#ing up spectacularly are stepping stones to successful product development, as...
It’s time to discuss your weekend plans 💰 For BFCM 2023, that is 😉 With less than three weeks until the end-of-year sales fever hits, software product makers and entrepreneurs...
It’s not what you know, it’s Woo you know… especially if you want to capitalize on using one of the biggest marketplaces in the WordPress space, and one that offers...
From cutting office costs to choosing from an international pool of candidates, remote work offers plenty of perks to founders and their companies. However, one concern looms large in this...
In the ever-evolving realms of WordPress and SaaS, the battle against customer churn is like a high-stakes game of chess. With each move, software product makers must strategize, adapt, and...
Don’t discount your hobbies because there’s always a chance they could lead to greater things. For Tobias Bäthge, the success of TablePress — the top WordPress table plugin — is...
Converting your plugin to Software as a Service could prove to be fanSaaStic for your product-making journey 😁 Seriously, though — SaaS offers developers an opportunity to service bigger markets and potentially grow their products into empires. Assuming you’re ready to take up the mantle of SaaS emperor 👑 how does one transition from a […]
At some point, most WordPress plugin developers will ponder the possibility of transitioning to SaaS 🧳 For good reason: There are plenty of perks to consider, ranging from scalability and larger target audiences to platform independence and proprietary code. So, what are the signs that your plugin can (or can’t) take the leap? Freemius is […]
US sales tax is an ever-growing thorn in the side of solopreneurs and SMBs 🌵 As of 2018, anyone selling software and SaaS products in the US must collect US sales tax from customers based on where they reside, regardless of the seller’s physical location. What does this mean for US-based WordPress and SaaS developers? […]
Both WordPress plugins and SaaS products offer perks as software models 💃🕺 But which one is better for your objectives? Freemius founder and CEO, Vova Feldman, and I have the lowdown to help you choose your way when confronted with a career crossroads. Before we examine the benefits of WordPress plugins and SaaS — and […]
Hear that? That’s the sound of innumerable business podcasts flooding the digital airwaves with an abundance of opinions, information, and… hmm… value? There’s the rub — with the huge number of podcasts out there, it can be challenging to sift through the quantity to find the verified, value-driven quality. Compounding this is the fact that […]
Humans are versatile and we can multi-task on a level that’s unheard of in nature 🫅 But while we’re good at juggling tasks, we’re also an error-prone species. And in business, where fine margins make all the difference, human errors can make or break the customer experience (to the detriment of your bottom line). The […]
Success Stories are back with a 💥 In July, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vinod Dalvi, the creator of one of WordPress’s leading search plugins, Ivory Search. Previously known as ‘Add Search To Menu’, Ivory Search has since notched up 100,000+ active installs and an impressive 1165 five-star reviews on WP.org. For this showcase, […]
You’re back for Part III of our Collective Wisdom series so I’m going to assume you’re keen to have fun and make new friends discuss business topics and overcome challenges with like-minded peers 😉 In this final installment, we’ll show you how to find or start a mastermind group of your own, and then optimize […]
Over the past few weeks, our team has dealt with an XSS security vulnerability in the Freemius WordPress SDK. Due to the unique nature of WordPress being an open-source ecosystem, our WordPress SDK, and all products using the SDK are open source — making the patch-planning and execution trickier than software in closed ecosystems. The […]
Welcome to Part II of our Collective Wisdom 🧠 series — we’re happy to have you back for more mastermind group ruminations and observations! Previously, we explored fourteen reasons why WordPress developers should join a mastermind group. In Part II, we’re going to unpack six — yep, just six — reasons not to join a […]
You’ve heard that two heads are better than one and that no man is an island. No, we’re not about to share a survival guide for writing an email without ChatGPT 🤠 Instead, we’re going to discuss how you can overcome challenges, find inspiration, and grow your business when you join a mastermind group. To […]
What a blast 💥 is how I’d sum up the energy and camaraderie that was WordCamp Europe 2023. So many friendly faces, so many new connections, and so many parties 🥳 Here’s how WordCamp Europe in Athens, Greece, went down for Zee Hazan (Freemius Head of Video) and I. Strap in because it’s a rollercoaster! […]
We’ve written plenty of articles about improving plugins/software and growing your business. But this time, we’re unpacking a totally different subject 👀 A WordPress network is one of the most valuable assets you can have as a solopreneur in the ecosystem, and building one is not as daunting as it might seem. Grab your business […]
After two years of assembly, countless hours of planning, meticulous research, never-ending reviews, and scrutinous editing… It’s my pleasure to announce that Freemius is getting into the podcast game with the plugin.fm software product business podcast! 🥳 Learn and Launch: What is plugin.fm and Who Is It For? plugin.fm is a value-first podcast that aims […]
Bundle up, WordPressers! If you’ve got two or more WordPress plugins in your inventory, you may be sitting on a uniquely packaged solution known as a WordPress plugin bundle. Solution-rich product bundles offer excellent value that could generate more sales, more customers, and — of course — more profit 😉 To help you figure out […]
For years, traditional WordPress themes have dominated the ecosystem’s website-building market. But with the rise of the block editor, full site editing, and page builders, many WordPressers are asking if these enduring solutions (and their creators) have had their time in the sun. Before we uncover the crystal ball and get into who (or what) […]
How do you stay on top of your game or get a foothold in WordPress plugin development in 2023? Good news: you don’t need a bunch of flashy tricks up your sleeve to stand out. The best news: we’ve done the hard yards for you and curated a list of essential coding skills, practices, and […]
You’re here, so you’re probably interested in a role as a remote WordPress developer 😉 With prospects ranging from handsome pay to siteless work, it’s no mystery these jobs are so desirable. But what does it really take to get hired and make a living out of WordPress development (and do it well)? Quite a […]
For the Freemius team, it was a story years in the making, with many a twist and turn along the way. But finally, at WordCamp Asia 2023, we traveled from all over the world to meet in person, face to face, for the first time! Meeting each other was as awesome as we’d hoped, and […]
In our last user-facing release notes in November, we announced many big changes addressing around 90% of the concerns we collected. That said, some of the requested changes were infrastructural, and thus more complex and time-consuming to tackle, which meant we couldn’t get to them in the last batch. Dear WordPress users, we’re thrilled to […]
Have you considered boarding the ‘WordPress acquisition’ express and cashing in on an exit? Best start preparing early. In our new Gamechangers article, serial entrepreneur Erick Danzer explains how to sell your WordPress business by putting measures in place long before you even consider going to market. He also shares when to sell your WordPress […]
Wow! What a year 😅 We’ve been sending annual transparency report emails to our selling partners since 2018. This time, I decided to open it to the public to let others get a glimpse of the happenings at Freemius and what we have planned for 2023. Plus, with thousands of products selling through Freemius in […]
A mega-project deserves a mega-announcement! The new Multi-store Dashboard is by far our biggest milestone and most complex deployment in 2022. More than a year’s worth of hard work — scrutinizing, listening to feedback, making changes — has resulted in a brand new multi-store interface that’s powered by super-fast, granular, and customizable analytics. What’s under […]
How much do you know about Elementor Templates? These new-generation static themes are easy to build and offer developers and digital creatives an opportunity to cash in on the no-code revolution. Get insider tips from four WordPress professionals on how to successfully sell Elementor Templates (and Template Kits) in 2023. When I joined Freemius in […]
Unlike previous release notes where we update our selling partners about new features, this release is dedicated to plugin & theme users and covers all recent changes to address feedback and concerns raised in the community. Many of these concerns are rooted in the fact that Freemius has always been seen as a dev-centric platform. […]
In 2020, Zach Tirrell was tasked by Modern Tribe to help prep The Events Calendar for an acquisition, despite owning no part of the business. After Liquid Web took over the reins, the lessons Zach learned about WordPress acquisitions and taking a business to market saw him become an integral member of their M&A team. […]
Do you hand over the coding keys to a lead engineer or do you keep them? This is a question most technical founders will have to answer as their WordPress business scales. On one hand, you’re partially saying goodbye to a passion you’ve spent years nurturing. On the other, you’ll be launching into exciting new […]
Welcome to the last part of our planned run of four release notes 💃 Let’s face it, page builders and Gutenberg are the future of WordPress site-building, and I’m pleased to announce that we’re expanding our offering to help our partners build momentum in that growing market. Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting article […]
We always deliver on our promises 😉 Here’s part three of our four planned release notes. As any software customer — developer or end-user — will attest, it’s pretty frustrating to upgrade to a new product version only to discover that it’s breaking something. And just as irritating when you want to revert back to […]
As promised, here’s part two of four planned release notes over the coming weeks. Affiliate programs are an invaluable marketing tool for driving extra traffic to product pages. Many of our partners have had great success incorporating them as part of their growth strategies, which is why we’ve made some awesome affiliate-related updates to help […]
What’s new with Freemius? A few days ago, we received an email from a partner raising concerns that we haven’t published any release notes in some time. Fair enough! Truth is, we’ve been ‘heads down’ working on tons of features, and — before we knew it — our release notes were stacking up high (thanks […]
WordPress networking strategies probably don’t immediately come to mind when you think of plugin and theme development. But Extendify’s Chris Lubkert and Artur Grabowski believe that networking is a crucial aspect that’s frequently overlooked by product owners who have plans to sell their businesses down the line. Artur clarifies: “Too often we see sellers not […]
Like cracked software is to the internet at large, so too are nulled WordPress plugins and themes to devs and users in the WP space — a nuisance, a danger, a badge of honor. Wait, what? A badge of honor? Unique to WordPress, having your first product ‘nulled’ is something of an achievement, a kind […]
Five months into my WordPress writing career, I watched a rerun of an old Top Gear episode where Jeremy Clarkson admits that he doesn’t know a thing about how engines work. I couldn’t help but chuckle. Put it this way — if I were a motor journalist and WordPress was a sports car, my journey […]
After a period of massive growth that saw the majority of markets scramble online to survive, we’re entering a time of deceleration. Growth is slowing, the COVID-19 Stock Market bubble has burst, and there’s a cautious atmosphere in WordPress. Based on signals in the ecosystem and sentiment from Freemius’ selling partners network, here’s the general […]
Being a newcomer to WordPress can be daunting, especially when you’re a writer, not a developer, and have no great knowledge of the space. As I started this journey (AKA new job), my imposter syndrome kicked in by reminding me of a scene in Disney’s Tarzan where Kerchak tells Kala: “It’s not our kind.” I […]
At the end of 2020, then-Yoast CEO Marieke van de Rakt and her husband Joost de Valk (Yoast’s Founder and Chief Product Officer) had reached a crossroads. Though they’d created one of the most successful WordPress plugins ever and operated a flourishing company together, they weren’t happy in their roles. Running a company the size […]
Taken at face value, the UX and security fundamentals of a high-converting WordPress checkout are straightforward. If you want prospects to stay the course, you strip away friction points and remove components that aren’t critical to building confidence and completing the transaction. All while ensuring security layers and validation points are working in the background […]
In November 2021, we launched The Gamechangers: a video series that deep-dives into WordPress mergers and acquisitions with the leading entrepreneurs, founders, investors, and business mavens responsible for the big moves in our ecosystem. Episode One came out swinging with heavy-hitter Syed Balkhi of Awesome Motive, who was recently at the center of conversation after […]
In the last two years, I’ve gone through a growth journey that has helped me transform my life from constantly feeling anxious and unsatisfied to becoming happy, more positive, and more productive. Sharing my struggles with dozens of fellow entrepreneurs taught me that anxiety is a pretty common problem among high-achievers. For those of you […]
It’s a WordPress tale as old as time (well, at least since monetization became popular). You’ve hit on a great idea for a plugin that fills an underserved niche. You want to monetize it and potentially build a business around this core offering. Or, maybe you’re a seasoned maker who wants to launch a new […]
Running a startup is a rollercoaster. And like any good rollercoaster, there’ll be peaks, troughs, and curves that throw you for a loop along the way. During the last two weeks, we’ve been riding downhill, strategizing and executing the development and distribution of a security patch for our WordPress SDK. What was supposed to be […]
It’s official! WordPress SDK 2.5.0 RC1 is now available with awesome (and relevant) enhancements that tackle what we’ve identified as your topmost common and time-consuming issues to date. Our goal with this version is to help you reduce support load so that you can allocate more of your time towards deliverables and other more productive […]
You design incredible products, and it’s driving profitable growth for your WordPress business. With an ‘official’ declaration that WordPress powers 43.1% of the internet at last year’s State of the Word, it’s an exciting time to be a plugin developer — especially now with more buyers on the market looking to acquire (or acqui-hire) businesses […]
On the cusp of 2022, the market share of WordPress is bigger than ever. But as new plugin and theme developers enter the market to seize the perceived opportunity, major players — with more seniority in our space — are driving a WordPress acquisitions boom that’s changing the face of our ecosystem. […]
In November, I had the pleasure of chatting with Amit Keren and Maxim Vendrov, Founders of one of Elementor’s leading plugins, Unlimited Elements. From a realization that they weren’t working to their full potentials to developing a unique widget creator framework that can’t be found elsewhere, they shared the journey that led to their plugin’s […]
Hi Aravind, thanks for joining us today! Please tell us about yourself, your interests/talents, and where you’re from Thanks for the opportunity! My name is Aravind Ajith, and I am from Kerala, a state in the Southern part of India. I head up Awsm Digital Innovations, a WordPress company that I founded in 2010. […]
The life of a solopreneur lends itself to a certain level of solitude (at least in the beginning). From the day you push your product live to the moment you resolve your first support ticket and implement user suggestions, you’re the one-person-army who gets the job done. And rightly so, because your plugin/theme is your […]
WordPress is an ever-evolving beast, and whether you’re new to the platform or an experienced product maker, there’s always a new advancement to wrap your head around. Thankfully, there are several online WordPress plugin development courses and tutorials to make the learning process easier. Trouble is, there are so many of them, making it difficult […]
A warm welcome to Damian Góra, the brains behind the most prominent WooCommerce search plugin, FiboSearch, and the latest guest in our Success Story showcase of awesome products and awesome people. Previously known as ‘Ajax Search for WooCommerce’, FiboSearch now leads its niche with 100,000+ active installations and a 5-star rating. I sat down with […]
We’ve reviewed hundreds of pricing pages to help developers perfect their content, layout, and design. Throughout this process, we’ve seen the common mistakes and mixed messages that many product makers — both inside and outside the Freemius community — are unknowingly repeating, as well as the opportunities they’re missing out on. We want the odds […]
The freemium business model is popular among WordPress and SaaS solutions because it increases the likelihood of users upgrading to paid licenses. It typically includes a free product and the option of a paid upgrade for extra benefits, such as advanced or additional features. Increasing the freemium model’s rate of success, the WordPress.org repository provides […]
It’s been more than two years since Gutenberg made its public debut. While it had a rocky start, the team has made significant improvements and the slow uptake has accelerated to over 33 million active installations. This shows that there is a clear demand for new blocks-based plugin businesses to enter the market. So, if […]
Hosting a plugin on the WordPress.org repository is one of the most popular (and effective) ways of kickstarting a successful freemium business. If it’s your first time submitting a plugin to the repository, some of the steps may be unclear or confusing, which is why I’ve outlined the process to guide you. I’d also recommend […]
Growing a WordPress plugin or theme business is hard. Apart from the obvious product development work, you have to deal with marketing, customer support, team growth, design, licensing, taxes, legal, and the list goes on and on. We’ve consolidated years of “wisdom” into a concise “cheat sheet” to help ease your business growth pains with […]
About a year ago we started the Experts Corner video series. We reached out to influential, experienced product business owners in the WordPress space, asking them to share their thoughts and learnings on various burning topics related to running a product business. In this article, I’ll share the insights we uncovered throughout our Experts Corner […]
Based on your requests, we are excited to announce the launch of a WYSIWYG Email Styler, enabling you to manage the appearance of the transactional emails we send to your users and customers on your behalf. The Email Styler customizes the visual appearance of your emails to better align them with your brand. With it, […]
The next in our series of success stories is Mark Zahra, CEO of RebelCode – the company behind WP Mayor, WP RSS Aggregator and several more WordPress plugins. His team launched Spotlight Instagram Feeds, a social feed plugin, which has risen to over 10,000 active installs on WordPress.org in less than 9 months. Let’s see […]
If you’re a new plugin creator, there’s a good chance that you’ve probably heard of AppSumo. For new plugin creators especially, AppSumo can seem like an answer to your prayers. For us developers, creating the plugin itself is the “easy” part – but the real struggle comes in trying to market and sell it, and […]
Building a WordPress website is all about customization to make it look and act the way a customer wants. So, what does that mean for plugin and theme developers like yourself who get requests for features or customizations of all kinds? Should you accommodate those requests or toss them to the side and focus strictly […]
WordPress SDK 2.4.2 was just released with some great license activation improvements, a bugfix for the Beta Programs feature, and streamlined activations for Add-ons. Oh yeah, and we fixed a little conflict with the new ReactJS Pricing page that’s still in the works! Let’s jump right in so you can see all the improvements we’ve […]
It’s a lot of work to build a plugin or theme, and it can seem like extra, unnecessary work to add multilingual support to your project. However, based on our experience with multilingual partners and our own multilingual plugins, investing the time and effort to add this feature is well worth it. In this blog […]