Here's the latest WooCommerce stats for 2025. Finding accurate data on how many websites use WooCommerce can be challenging, as many statistics are outdated. I've done the research to provide the most up-to-date figures on the number of websites using WooCommerce.
I've also provided stats on the WooCommerce market share compared to other e-commerce platforms and WordPress e-commerce plugins. The results are fascinating!
You're welcome to quote, share, or embed any of the resources from this article. Please add a link crediting this article as the source.
Store Leads says that based on the 12+ million websites they track, 4,613,637 of these run WooCommerce.
BuiltWith claims that 5,261,111 of all the websites on the internet use WooCommerce.
Based on this, we can reliably say that more than 5 million websites worldwide use WooCommerce 🤯
While the number of websites using WooCommerce is interesting, I find it more interesting to look at the % of e-commerce websites that use WooCommerce. The percentage is where WooCommerce really starts to stand out in the stats. We have found this each year since we started publishing this post, including 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and now 2025.
What is the market share of WooCommerce?
Now, this is where I got really confused when researching the WooCommerce market share in 2025.
First, let's look at Built With. This suggests that the current 2025 market share for WooCommerce is 13% of the top 1 million sites using e-commerce technologies:
This represents a decrease from its 16% market share in 2024 and also suggests that Shopify take over WooCommerce as the market leader between 2024 and 2025.
On the other hand, data from Store Leads paints a much more positive picture of WooCommerce's market share in 2025:
This suggests that WooCommerce is still the market leader over Shopify by a long way.
The main difference between BuiltWith and Store With seems to be that it tracks 12 million websites, whereas Built With tracks the top 10,000, 100,000, million sites plus the whole internet. Maybe that explains the difference in the market share stats for WooCommerce.
Whether or not WooCommerce is the current market leader, it's clear that Shopify is a strong competitor. The WordPress and WooCommerce communities need to make sure that WooCommerce remains competitive against Shopify in particular.
Where are the other WordPress e-commerce plugins?
You'll notice that no other WordPress plugins appear in the list at all. These are obviously covered by the big 'Other' category, but no other WordPress plugin makes the top 10 e-commerce platforms. It may feel as if plugins such as Easy Digital Downloads are very popular, but they're not even in the top 20.
How many WooCommerce themes are there?
It's impossible to know how many dedicated WordPress themes are available which include support and styling for WooCommerce. This is because many WooCommerce-ready themes are sold on independent websites and smaller marketplaces. Here are some WooCommerce stats for the bigger theme providers, as of January 2025:
This brings us to over 3,702 just from 2 big players. The total number will be much higher when you include other theme marketplaces and independent theme companies. Clearly, there's no shortage of choice in choosing a WooCommerce theme for a website design!
As with themes, it's impossible to provide an exact number of how many WooCommerce plugins there are. Here's what I discovered:
Strangely, the official WordPress.org plugin directory doesn't let you filter by WooCommerce plugins. However, a quick count showed that there are well over 2,349 plugins with 'WooCommerce' in the title.
The real total for this stat will be much higher as a huge number of websites sell e-commerce plugins independently or via smaller marketplaces. For example, we sell our own WooCommerce add-ons via our own website, so popular plugins such as WooCommerce Product Table aren't even included in this figure.
How many new websites are installing WooCommerce?
It's easy to get the latest figures on the number of websites that are newly installing WooCommerce if you know where to look. An up-to-date figure for this WooCommerce stat is available at all times on the WooCommerce page in the WordPress plugin directory.
At the time of writing (March 2025), WooCommerce has been downloaded 2,083,489 times in the last week. That's pretty incredible and shows how quickly WooCommerce is growing.
What is the future of WooCommerce
I don't think I'm alone in predicting that WooCommerce will continue gaining market share in the future.
The future of WooCommerce looks promising, with continued growth expected as it remains a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. With such a huge ecosystem of WooCommerce experts, themes, plugins, and hosting to choose from, WooCommerce provides an immediate advantage for any e-commerce website compared to other platforms. WordPress is the world's biggest CMS with a huge 62.7% market share. As the main WordPress e-commerce platform, that's an enormous market.
If you haven't started making money with WooCommerce yet, there are plenty of excellent WooCommerce tutorials on how to get started with WooCommerce in 2025, such as this one from Moosend.
This puts lots of exciting new developments in the pipeline such as the likelihood that WooCommerce will become available on WordPress.com. This will bring it to a whole new market, increasing market share even further in 2025 and beyond.
Overall, WooCommerce's flexibility and constant evolution ensure it will remain a dominant force in the e-commerce world for years to come.
If you notice anything different around here, you're not mistaken. As of today, Barn2 has a shiny new look - complete with new logo, redesigned website, and a complete overhaul of all our communications.
We've been working on Barn2's rebrand for a full 12 months, so you can imagine how delighted we are to finally see it live. I hope you like it as much as we do!
This is the story behind our rebrand. It's a story of blood, sweat and tears (maybe not literally, but it certainly felt like that).
A rebrand was long overdue
The old Barn2 website hadn't been redesigned since 2014. Of course, 5 years is a long time in the web world - particularly for a WordPress plugin company!
To be fair, we had refreshed the site several times to modernise it and add features over the years. However, the fact remained that this was the same website that we originally used to sell our services as a web design company. Since then, we have made the transition to selling WordPress plugins and no longer design websites for clients. And while the website content had evolved with us and we had made some tweaks to the design, we'd never actually branded as a plugin company.
Our web design agency homepage in 2017
Our WordPress plugins homepage in 2019
As a result, a rebrand was long overdue.
I'd been putting it off for years due to the size of the project. I wanted to focus on building our plugin business, not on designing a new website! But of course you can't have one without the other, and Andy and I eventually agreed to take on the project.
It's practically impossible not easy to find the right designer
As WordPress specialists who aren't designers, we're the worst possible people to find someone to design our brand identity and website. Seriously.
After years of building WordPress sites for clients using off-the-shelf themes, we know what makes a good and a bad website. We know what we like, and are familiar with the latest web design trends. However, we don't have the skills to do it ourselves.
We started by hiring a local designer who we had worked with before. After several in-depth meetings to analyse our requirements, on paper he had an excellent understanding of Barn2 and our future direction. However, we unfortunately felt that none of his brand concepts or logo designs represented our vision for the company. Things failed to improve after we provided feedback, so we made the difficult (and expensive) decision to cancel the project and find another designer.
Next, I contacted several WordPress companies whose websites I like (e.g. LearnDash, IconicWP, WP Rocket, GeneratePress and WeDevs). However, I didn't manage to find a designer this way.
I also visited the websites of dozens of designers and WordPress agencies. Amazingly, there were hardly any that I liked - the designs in their portfolio were either too corporate, or lacked the attention to detail and flair we were looking for.
I was tempted to hire 93Digital, whose portfolio was closest to my vision for the Barn2 rebrand and responded well to my initial enquiries. However, on reflection, I decided that receiving a small selection of branding concepts from an individual designer or company was too risky. Design and branding are incredibly personal and subjective - no matter how good the designer, there's no guarantee that their work will reflect your vision. As a result, I went to the opposite extreme and ran a logo design competition on 99Designs, which guaranteed a wide selection of concepts to choose from.
New Barn2 logo
The plan was to get a logo designed first, and use this as the basis for the wider rebrand.
122 designers entered the competition, with a grand total of 692 separate logo designs. Some of the early entries didn't quite feel right for a plugin company:
The sheer number of entries was quite overwhelming and it took a long time to sort through them all. On the plus side, some of the concepts were excellent and the designers were incredibly responsive in improving their logo concepts in response to my feedback.
The final shortlist
A week later, I created a shortlist which included strong logo concepts:
99Designs has a nifty feature where you can email your shortlist, and share it on social media. This was a useful way to get feedback - essential given that logos are very personal and everyone sees them differently.
I obtained feedback from a cross section of friends, family and colleagues - including people in the WordPress community whose opinions I respect (thanks Vova Feldman, James Kemp, Chris Hadley, Kobe Ben Itamar, Drew Jaynes, Gareth Harris, and others!).
Armed with some incredibly helpful feedback, it was time for Andy and I to do some long, hard thinking!
The winner
We chose the winning design from a talented designer called 'Satryo':
The new logo is effective, versatile, and works well in a range of formats. (Note: This is a different shade of blue from the final website.)
I felt bad for the designers whose logos didn't win - particularly the other finalists who worked so hard and were so responsive to my requests for revisions. However, there could only be one winner.
Finding a winning website redesign
So, we had a new logo. But it wasn't much use without a new website and wider rebrand to go with it!
I had enjoyed the process with 99Designs, so decided to see how it would work out for designing our actual website. As a result, I posted a new competition on 99Designs - this time to design 5 initial web page templates.
This time, it was quite different. I received 87 designs from 21 designers. After building so many WordPress sites for clients in the past, I know exactly what I like and the attention to detail I'm looking for. One designer stood out above the rest, and it was very clear straight away that they would be the winner.
Since then, they have designed all the templates for our new website as well as additional designs such as custom graphics, plugin banners and email templates. We also worked with the logo designer to create new business cards and email signatures.
However, it wasn't all plain sailing. In the early days of the competition, the website designer showed an incredible understanding of our vision and excellent attention to detail. As the project progressed and we commissioned them for more and more work, the newer designs required long lists of feedback to achieve the standard we were looking for. It almost felt as if we had switched designers part-way through the project (which we will never know, as we were working with a project manager and not directly with the designer). Several times, we opened up Photoshop ourselves and redid templates to show the designer what we were looking for. We also chose the final color scheme ourselves.
I have known for many years that if you have to micro-manage a designer and point out every detail, the relationship is not working. We're happy with the end result, but only because we were so hands-on and insisted on a large number of improvements. After such a promising start, it was a shame to end up in this situation because we had wanted a designer who would use initiative and not have to be managed so closely.
Building the new Barn2 website
When the designs were complete, it was time to start converting them into a new WordPress theme for our website.
We had known from the outset that it wasn't a good use of time for Andy - Barn2's technical director and lead developer on all our plugins - to build the new theme himself. As a result, we needed to find an excellent developer to do this for us. Fortunately, finding a good developer was well within my comfort zone, having outsourced WordPress development projects for many years.
We didn't know any suitable developers already, as the people that we used to work with have since moved on to other things. Instead, I got quotes from a number of developers from Codeable, Upwork, and independently.
As well as assessing the quality of their communications for clues that they would be good to work with, we checked their technical competence. This involved looking at previous websites they have built, and asking technical questions about how they would approach the project. For example, we asked how they would implement the curved backgrounds shown in the design. We rejected anyone who would use normal image files, and kept the ones who would use SVG's and code-based solutions.
There were several excellent contenders but one WordPress web developer, Nick Redmond, stood out above the rest. We could immediately tell from his messages that he had a fantastic attitude and would be good to work with. We were equally impressed by his technical abilities.
How it went
One of many chats with Nick in the Barn2 Slack workroom
This time, we weren't wrong. Nick was a delight to work with throughout the project, and was worth every penny.
I'm well aware that Andy and I aren't the easiest people to work for, as we're perfectionists and point out every detail. Nick took this in his stride, and even described it as "magical" to wake up to long lists of feedback every morning (he's in the US and we're in the UK, so there was a time zone difference).
Nick made lots of positive suggestions and added plenty of value to the project, instead of just doing what he was told - exactly what we had been looking for! As a result, we plan to continue working with him on an ongoing basis.
The end result
To see the end result, click on the menu links above and browse around our new website. Here are some before-and-after screenshots to show you the difference:
Before
After
We've dropped the 'Media'
The old Barn2 logo
Did you notice that the new logo - and the wording of this post - uses 'Barn2' rather than 'Barn2 Media'? That's no accident.
The old Barn2 office
We chose the name 'Barn2 Media' back in 2013 when we first incorporated the company. (We traded as 'Cadover Creative' from 2009-2013, but that's another story.) Back then, we were a web agency building WordPress sites for clients around the world. 'Barn2' came from the company's physical location - no. 2 of a complex of beautiful converted barns in Dartmoor National Park, England. 'Media' reflected our work as a web design company.
Since the switch to selling plugins in 2016, 'Media' has felt less appropriate because we now sell products rather than services. As a result, we've dropped the 'Media' as part of the rebrand and simply refer to ourselves as 'Barn2' or 'Barn2 Plugins'. (The legal company name remains 'Barn2 Media Limited'.)
Internally, we often discuss whether to change the name completely. We are no longer based in a converted barn, and the name doesn't say anything about WordPress or plugins. However, Barn2 is a well-known name in WordPress circles. A lot of developers and agencies know and trust our plugins. It's lovely to meet people who have heard of us when we attend WordCamp conferences. One lady even saw the 'Barn2' on our t-shirts at WordCamp EU and told us how she's our biggest fan! Because of all this, it would be a shame to lose such a well-known name. I can't guarantee that we will always be Barn2, but we are committed to it for the time being.
This is what I got wrong
The new website looks fantastic and I'm delighted with it. However, if I did the project again then I would take a completely different approach.
While the first designer wasn't the right fit, with hindsight, perhaps I didn't need to take the opposite extreme and crowdsource the design on 99Designs. It was a lot of work to co-ordinate separate logo designers, website designers and developers. We could have saved a lot of effort - and probably spent a similar amount overall (see below) - by using a single agency to carry out the entire project.
I'm not experienced in managing custom design projects, as my previous work managing web design projects focussed on building websites using existing themes. We did take on a few custom design projects, with the design and build outsourced to freelancers with the right skills. However, these were always my most challenging - and least enjoyable - projects for me. These experiences affected the way I approached our own rebrand, and probably not for the better.
To mitigate the risk of hiring the wrong company, I hired different people for different parts of the project. This made the process much more difficult to manage, and harder to get right. For example, it was a pain having to liaise between the designer and developer about minor details like file formats.
If I did it again then I would probably hire a dedicated agency. This would make it much easier to predict the overall cost and timescale from the outset, instead of arranging the project in stages.
Ok, so what did it cost?
As a company, this has been the most expensive project we've ever done:
Logo - £788 for the finished logo from 99Designs, plus £1,300 for the original designer whose work we never used (this included 3 logo concepts plus wider branding concepts) - total $2,534 / £2,088
Website design, plus email templates, custom plugin graphics and YouTube banners - $8,278 / £6,822
Business cards and email signature design - $243 / £200
Business card printing - $23 / £19
T-shirts - $105 / £86
Website development - $13,801 / £11,505
Bringing us to a grand total of $24,985 USD or £20,618GBP.
To put it into context, that's about a fortnight's worth of plugin sales. So it's a lot of money, but not horrendous in terms of the bigger picture.
Of course, that doesn't include our time in managing the project, setting requirements, liaising between designers and developers, writing copy, feeding back, etc. We didn't track our own time on the project, but it was definitely many weeks of work for both Andy and myself.
Was it worth it?
Did we save money by hiring people individually instead of using a full service design agency? Probably a bit, but not very much!
Did we waste time by not using a full service design agency? Almost certainly.
How many more plugins could we have developed if we had stuck with our old website? Several.
Could we have saved money by redesigning our site using an off-the-shelf WordPress theme? Definitely, but we wouldn't have a unique brand or a complete set of branded materials to show for it.
These are all valid questions.
But ultimately, the answer to this question depends on how it helps to build Barn2's success in the future. Will the new look generate more in additional sales than it cost - both financially and in terms of the opportunity cost? We'll evaluate this over time by keeping a close eye on traffic, sales and conversion rates.
What's next?
Now Barn2's new website is live, I'm looking forward to user-testing and fine-tuning it.
There are lots of projects on the horizon to monitor how people are using the website and make it as useful as possible for our plugin customers. The project plan for 'Phase 2' includes:
Redesigning the checkout page to speed up and simplify the process.
Improving usability of the Support Center page and plugin support forms.
Redesigning the knowledge base, which only received a re-skin as part of this project and would benefit from a bigger overhaul.
Performing real user testing and implementing the feedback.
A/B testing to discover ways to improve sales and conversion rates.
Various functionality tweaks to improve user experience, such as improving error messaging and email notifications.
I'd love to hear what you think of the new website - please leave your comments below. We're actively gathering feedback on how to improve usability so if anything doesn't work in the way you expected, please let us know!
Since we first launched WooCommerce Product Table in 2016, it's grown to be used on over 3,000 WooCommerce stores. It's popular for everything from restaurant ordering systems and product lists to wholesale bulk order forms and...well, pretty much anything else that benefits from WooCommerce products and tables!
We're happy to have created a successful WordPress product that helps people get more from WooCommerce. But our success has also led to an uptick in people searching for and supplying WooCommerce Product Table nulled releases.
In fact, maybe you ended up at this article because you were searching for a WooCommerce Product Table nulled version yourself…
We understand why you might be looking for a cheaper alternative - not everyone has the same budget. But beyond the fact that any WooCommerce Product Table nulled versions are not authorized by us, we also want to explain some of the benefits to you of purchasing an officially licensed and supported version.
See - beyond that money helping us keep the lights on and continue to maintain and improve WooCommerce Product Table - it also helps save you time and get more from the plugin. And more importantly, it keeps your website stable and secure, which is vital for any e-commerce store.
Keep reading to discover the top six reasons not to use nulled versions of WooCommerce Product Table.
Six reasons not to use WooCommerce Product Table nulled versions
1. Paying customers have access to support (and customers love our support!)
If you use a nulled WooCommerce Product Table free download, you won't get access to any support.
In addition to helping you with the basics, we always strive to go above and beyond. We want to make sure WooCommerce Product Table functions as well as possible for each and every customer.
For example, we've helped customers fix mistakes in their shortcode and integrate the plugin with the rest of their site. Often, we even offer general suggestions for how to use WooCommerce Product Table to boost sales for specific types of products.
Offering this high level of support isn't just about helping you use the plugin, though. It's also about helping you save time that you might otherwise waste if you're using a nulled version of WooCommerce Product Table. And it's about helping you make more money from your WC store.
As you've probably heard, time equals money, so the "free" nulled plugin isn't always the most affordable option if it causes you to waste hours trying to do something that our support could've helped you with right away. And if you lose out on opportunities to use the plugin in a way that will increase your sales, then you're actually leaving money on the table.
2. No updates (a big deal for bug fixes and security)
If you're using a licensed version of WooCommerce Product Table, you'll receive update notifications in your WP dashboard. As a result, you can update the plugin with a single click, just like you can with any plugin you've installed from WordPress.org.
However, with a nulled WooCommerce Product Table download, you won't receive update notifications, nor will you be able to update the plugin from your WordPress dashboard.
The big issue here is that you will not be notified of, nor receive, any updates that apply to:
Bug fixes
Security patches
Compatibility issues
Not being able to promptly apply those updates as we release them might cause an issue on your site, especially because of the next issue...
3. Compatibility issues
This one ties with the point above. However, compatibility issues deserve a special mention because there are a lot of moving parts to WordPress. As the plugin developers, we need to stay on top of these to make sure WooCommerce Product Table keeps functioning properly.
The biggest one is WooCommerce itself. The WooCommerce team releases a new version about every month or so (sometimes more).
That means we need to test WooCommerce Product Table's compatibility pretty much every single month. The same goes for new WordPress core releases, especially major releases.
Beyond that, WooCommerce Product Table also works well with a number of other popular plugins. All of those plugins are constantly changing themselves, which requires further testing to ensure compatibility with WooCommerce Product Table.
Without a license key and update notifications, you might miss out on new versions designed to keep WooCommerce Product Table compatible with the other plugins at your WordPress site. Using WooCommerce product table nulled simply isn't worth the risk.
4. No new features
Since its initial release, we've been constantly improving WooCommerce Product Table with new features and enhancements.
For example, the plugin started as a shortcode only. 2 years later, it now has a full visual interface where you can configure all of its settings.
If you're using an older WooCommerce Product Table nulled download, though, you might not have access to these features.
Beyond that, adding these new features requires time and effort. Your official purchase gives us the resources to continue improving WooCommerce Product Table with new features in the future.
5. You don't know what's in a nulled WooCommerce Product Table download
Such sites are not operated as a charity, and they're going to make their money somehow.
In the best case scenario, such a site might just charge a monthly subscription fee. In the worst case scenario, they might add a malicious backdoor that lets them take over your site and, say, inject malicious links into your site's footer.
Whether you're building your own site or a site for a client, this risk is not something you want.
When you purchase from the official plugin page, you can have the peace of mind that you know you're getting 100% clean code that's authorized by us.
6. There's no risk to purchasing a license!
Finally, we know that you might be searching for a nulled Woo Product Table download simply because you want to test if the plugin can do everything you need it to before cracking open your wallet.
We understand the feeling. We certainly don't want you to waste money if you're not sure whether or not WooCommerce Product Table is right for your needs.
That's why we offer a 30-day money back guarantee - no questions asked.
So if you're on the fence about whether WooCommerce Product Table is the right tool for the job, just go ahead and buy a license and try it out.
If you're not 100% happy, just get in touch and we'll give you a full refund.
Get your official copy of WooCommerce Product Table
By skipping the WooCommerce Product Table nulled versions and purchasing an official license, you're ensuring that you always have access to:
The latest version of the plugin, complete with bug fixes and security patches
Clean code, with none of the malicious backdoors that some nulled plugin sites add
The latest compatibility fixes for WordPress, WooCommerce, and other compatible plugins
An ever-evolving list of new features and functions
Beyond that, you get above-and-beyond support to help you get the most from WooCommerce Product Table. This saves you from wasting time on figuring out something our support can solve for you.
Finally, with a 30-day money back guarantee, you can purchase an official license at no risk to your wallet:
It's finally happened. WordPress version 5.0 is now available, and the new Gutenberg page builder has been added to WordPress core.
Other blogs have endlessly discussed the pros and cons of Gutenberg, so this post will focus specifically on how Gutenberg affects Barn2's plugins.
The good news is that you can continue using our plugins in the usual way after upgrading to WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg. If you're using the shortcodes that come with our plugins, just add them to a 'Shortcode' or 'Paragraph' Gutenberg block.
For full details, we've published a knowledge base article about how to use each plugin with Gutenberg. We've also updated the instructions throughout our knowledge base.
Here are some screenshots showing our plugins in use with Gutenberg:
If you're using one of our table plugins with Gutenberg, then you can add the [posts_table] or [product_table] shortcode to a 'Shortcode' block.
If you're using any of our category protection plugins, create a password login form by adding the [category_login] shortcode to a 'Shortcode' Gutenberg block.
If you've used Gutenberg for your post contents, then the 'content' column of our Posts Table Pro plugin can display the correct layout for your Gutenberg blocks.
We receive a lot of enquiries from WordPress developers wanting to buy our premium plugins for a client with no ongoing costs. They say they want to buy the plugin for a client and then hand over the website without the client having to pay to pay any future costs. It surprises me that so many WordPress professionals have such short-term relationships with their clients, as well as so little understanding of the issues around WordPress and ongoing maintenance.
I'm writing this post for other developers, to share our experience of reselling WordPress plugins to our own clients. This will help you develop an effective process for charging clients for ongoing plugin costs. It will also help you to build more profitable, longer-term relationships with your clients.
I'm also writing this post to highlight some wider issues. I believe that buying a WordPress plugin should not be a one-off expense. Treating it as one overlooks the importance of ongoing software updates and maintenance, causing problems for your clients later on.
Why are some WordPress plugins billed annually?
Until a couple of years ago, most WordPress themes and plugins had a single one-off cost. A small one-time fee of perhaps $29 would get you a premium plugin plus unlimited updates and support FOREVER.
You heard me right. WordPress theme and plugin developers were prepared to develop a software product, keep adding new features and keep it in line with the latest web technologies and WordPress versions for a tiny one-off fee. They were also prepared to respond to unlimited support queries as part of the deal.
Customers love this model (obviously) but you can easily see how unsustainable it was. No viable company can afford to do such a high amount of work for so little money. Even if they have thousands of customers, the extra support demands that come with more customers make it hard to sustain.
What happens if a plugin developer can't afford to provide ongoing support?
This model can lead to WordPress theme and plugin authors withdrawing their products, leaving customers in the lurch. For example, the Terso theme was quite cutting edge back in 2013 and got lots of sales - we used it for one of our clients' website designs. A couple of years later, the theme company decided to stop supporting or updating the theme. They justified this by saying that sales had now dropped off. They couldn't afford to support their original customers now this wasn't being funded by new sales.
Websites using the Terso theme are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. They need to update to the latest version of WordPress for security reasons and to keep everything running smoothly with their hosting environment, other plugins etc. But the latest versions of WordPress don't work with the Terso theme. The page editor breaks so you can't make changes. Not a good place to be.
This illustrates the problem with one-off plugin sales. The tiny one-off fee can't possibly pay for long-term term support and updates, leaving customers vulnerable once the sales stop coming in.
So what's the alternative?
It's only reasonable to say that if you expect ongoing plugin support and updates, you should pay some sort of ongoing fee.
That's the way things are going in the WordPress industry these days. For example:
The Envato marketplaces such as ThemeForest and CodeCanyon now make you pay every 6 months to continue accessing support.
Some big WordPress plugin companies such as WooCommerce, Gravity Forms and the Events Calendar require annual renewals to continue getting updates and support. They've recently been adding new features such as auto-renewal or you can renew manually.
Other WordPress companies like Easy Digital Downloads automatically sign you up to an annual subscription when you buy a plugin. You continue receiving support and updates unless you cancel.
We use the 3rd option for our WordPress plugins. This saves customers having to bother renewing each year. Automating the prices reduces admin time. It also increases renewal rates, giving us an incentive to continue developing and supporting our WordPress plugins.
I predict that in the next couple of years, most or all WordPress themes and plugins will adopt a similar model. This is annoying for customers who want a cheap one-off solution. However a plugin is not a one-time solution as it comes with ongoing support and updates, so I can only see this as a good thing. The market needed to correct itself in this way and will be more robust in the long-term as a result.
So that's all well and good. The problem is that a lot of developers are still selling WordPress websites to their clients with an expectation that there will be no ongoing software costs for themes and plugins. Let's talk about this now.
Can I buy a plugin once then cancel my subscription?
With many premium WordPress plugins, a subscription is often set up to take payment each year (or maybe every 3 or 6 months, depending on the plugin). If you like, you can cancel the subscription straight away so it effectively becomes a one-off payment.
If you cancel then you can generally continue using the plugin for as long as you like. After the first year ends, you won't be able to install future plugin updates or access support.
This is fine for WordPress developers who plan to launch the website, bill the client and then hand everything over. However it's not really fair on the client.
If you develop a website and install premium plugins with licenses that will expire, the client deserves to know. They need to know that it's important to keep installing plugin updates when they're released, as this keeps their website running smoothly, secure and bug-free.
If you buy a plugin for a client in your name then the renewal reminders will be sent to you. If you're no longer working with the client, they won't know the license has expired. The plugin updates will stop appearing in the WordPress admin but the client will just assume that no update is available - not that they need to renew.
WordPress developers can profit from selling ongoing services and renewals
I've talked about why clients need your help to keep their website running smoothly long after it goes live. The other side of the coin is the benefit this can bring you as a developer.
A lot of WordPress developers design a website and then hand it over. They may or may not provide hosting, but overall the responsibility passes to the client. In most cases, I think this is a mistake. Most clients aren't on a position to properly maintain their website themselves. They'd be better off if the website remained in your capable hands.
And just as importantly, this brings you a vital source of ongoing revenue. By selling maintenance and support plans to clients, over time you can earn just as much as from the initial website development. Possibly for a lot less work, making it much more profitable for you.
If you're providing ongoing services to a client, it's no trouble to include a small extra amount on your regular invoices for plugin renewals. You could even add a markup to cover your time in administering the renewal for the client (even if it's automated), further increasing your revenue.
Even if a client declines your hosting and maintenance services, ongoing plugin renewals are an opportunity to renew your relationship. You may not have talked to them for a while, so this is an excuse to give their website a once-over, offer a software update and any other work that's needed. Hopefully this will result in more work and ongoing revenue for you.
Develop a process for your clients' ongoing plugin renewals
Ideally, it's best to have an effective process for how your clients' plugin licenses will be renewed. You can automate this when you first develop the website, saving time and admin when the renewal date comes.
Who should pay for plugin licenses?
There are several ways you can do this. The first decision is whether you will pay for renewing the plugin, or whether your client will do this directly.
For some of our web design clients, we ask them to buy the plugin directly and send it to us. This is good for clients who you know will be unlikely to invest in ongoing website maintenance. It puts the onus on them to keep the plugin renewed and up to date. You're giving them the tools to fully take over their website and aren't misleading then in any way.
For clients whose websites you plan to maintain (or who you want an excuse to contact in future), you can buy the plugin on their behalf. If you do this, you should always sign up on ongoing renewals and make this clear to the client. Don't buy the plugin, cancel the subscription and ignore the situation.
Mention ongoing plugin costs in your original quote
If possible, your initial quote for the website should include a section about ongoing plugin costs. This can be separate from the main quote (so it doesn't make your prices look less competitive!) but it helps clients make an informed decision.
If you don't know whether the project will require paid plugins, that's ok. The quote can mention that you will consult the client about any premium plugins that you recommend during the project.
Getting clients' approval to use paid WordPress plugins
If you discover that you need to use a premium plugin during the project, you can get the clients' approval at the time. Explain the benefits and the fact that it's an ongoing cost so they can get ongoing updates and support.
This can get awkward if you have quoted for a custom development project and end up deciding to use a plugin. You may feel uncomfortable suggesting that the client pays an ongoing cost for a plugin you were planning to develop from scratch. If this happens, you can explain that as part of your in-depth analysis in the early stages of the project, you have discovered a plugin that is better than your original outline solution.
Clients can save money by using off-the-shelf plugins because the plugin company is responsible for ongoing maintenance - even if the initial development cost is the same. If you develop a custom feature that doesn't work with a future version of WordPress, the client has to pay to redevelop it as needed. With an off-the-shelf plugin, the plugin developer will release a fully compatible version.
An example
For example, our responsive WordPress table plugin displays various information from posts or pages in a table. A recent WordPress update changed the way taxonomies work so we had to change the plugin and release an update to work with the new version. All our customers could then continue using the plugin with the new version of WordPress for no extra cost. In contrast, if you had developed your own WordPress table plugin then you would have had to do this yourself, which would cost a lot more.
By explaining this, you can get a clients' buy-in for plugin costs even if this wasn't the original plan.
Invoice for plugin renewals along with other ongoing WordPress services
Set up a subscription to pay for plugin renewals on behalf of a client. You can then recharge for it as part of your usual invoicing system. You hopefully already have automatic invoicing for clients' other ongoing services. This might include hosting, SEO and maintenance (and if not, you should!). It's easy to include plugin renewals in this, with any markup you decide to charge. Everything can then happen automatically.
I hope these tips help you to present the ongoing plugin costs to clients in a more positive way. Done properly, this is an opportunity to provide more future-proof websites to your clients. You can also increase your own income at the same time.
This represents a decrease from its 16% market share in 2024 and also suggests that Shopify take over WooCommerce as the market leader between 2024 and 2025.
![[posts_table] shortcode added to a 'Shortcode' Gutenberg block](https://barn2.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Posts-table-Gutenberg-back-end.png)
That's the way things are going in the WordPress industry these days. For example: