Have You Ever Paid for a Plugin?

yes, why?

Nope, and I never will. I have a big problem with someone who charges for an addon to a free program. For someone to make profits off of a free, public software such as WordPress is low. There should be something in place to prevent such things. They are making money off of all the hard work the WordPress developers have done. They would not have a product or profit were it not for the WordPress developers or any other plugin developer who created a similar and/or less advanced version that they may or may not have used as a reference in the building of their own plugin. Donations are one thing, but not profits…

kahil just because the program is free that doesnt mean everything else should be free

I bet you resent paying for internet, paying for gas, paying for food

Heck life is free but you have to pay for food to keep yourself alive..

Joomla is free but there are many places you can BUY templates, Buy additions

At the end of the day if someone wants something if they are not willing to make it themselves then they shouldnt get it for free this includes wordpress yet wordpress people are nice enought o give something free.. doesnt mean other things you shouldnt have to pay for..

You need internet access to use wordpress.. should that be free LOL.. exactly.. wake up get with the real world and stop being a free loader

I gladly pay for plugins if they do what i want.. i have no qualms handing over $20 or $90 depending on what it does and depending on that there isnt a free version out there thats better

I have never bought a plugin per se, and probably never would. There are just way too many great plugins out there that are free — I have seen a couple that cost money and my reaction was somewhat like Kahil’s. Probably that is mainly because I have never seen a paid plugin I could not live without that someone else hadn’t created something very similar (or even better) for free.

The obvious exception would be a custom plugin. If I actually asked for someone to build me a custom plugin because I couldn’t find one to meet my needs, I would assume I was paying for that, since I initiated the request.

That said, I have indeed donated several times. I know how many hours these guys sit around just tweaking with code, producing in some cases many, many useful and brilliant features for users like me who aren’t so savvy. And the really great ones provide fantastic support too. These are the ones I will tend to donate too….if I’ve used a bunch of their plugins, and they were super helpful to support my use of it, and they aren’t asking for anything in return. That’s when I want to do something in return!

I also have donated when someone made major mods to a plugin based on my suggestions, and when someone actually made a custom plugin just for me, without my asking directly (it was the result of some support questions on an existing plugin, which led to a completely new plugin). In both cases, the developer never asked for anything, and in both cases they really could have.

I hope that helps to answer your question!

Comparing WordPress and internet or gas is not a very good comparison! I do not resent paying for those things as it is the work of making those things that I pay for.

So if you create a unique plugin and charge for it, will you be angry when someone else comes along and releases a free version? I have yet to see a completely original plugin for wordpress that does not use any part of wordpress to run nor have I seen one that wasn’t loosely based on another plugin in form or in idea. Any original plugin from the time of WordPress’ conception has already been changed, copied, upgraded, phased out, etc. All plugins do anyways is tie in things that could, with the know how, be done by yourself, etc.

Name any plugin out there that is completely original and not based even loosely off another. Name any plugin out there that in its original form will function as a standalone, without the use of WordPress’ code, etc. Thats right, you can’t… Any plugin made for profit will have a short lived span of profitability as others out there will undoubtedly create a new, free version that will do the same thing.

WordPress developers spend countless hours making a free product. It is immoral for someone to come along and make a profit off of that.

Agree completely with Kahil – never have and never will.

WordPress developers spend countless hours making a free product. It is immoral for someone to come along and make a profit off of that.

Well, that’s a rather dramatic statement.

I have a client who wants a new web presence. As part of that, they want a CMS and blog. I should charge them for my time to do everything except installation, customization and configuration of their WordPress install(s)?

I don’t think so.

Yes, installs are different than plugins… but you could extend my scenario there too. Perhaps they need WP authentication to work with their existing Portal and its security system. There’s no existing plugin that’ll do it, so I’ll code it for ’em. That won’t be for free.

Side note: This could be an interesting discussion if it stays civil. Let’s try and do that, else it’ll get closed quickly as we’re wandering rather far afield of “Support”.

You are NO fun.

samboll and kahil, are you two against paying for custom themes too?

You have a point there, but they are only paying you for the time you spend on said project. You would be charging them for the creation of that plugin, yes, but you would not be creating it with the intentions of charging countless others in turn. That is the difference.

samboll and kahil, are you two against paying for custom themes too?

Sure am – I can find dozens of easily modded themes – why pay for them?
Like handy, I’ve created many custom plugins/themes/etc. for customers, but that’s not the same as making a plugin for sale only.

Throwing themes into the discussion is no different than plugins. You pay for the time to make that custom theme or plugin. Custom themes are made for a single user and not with the purpose of making that money off of many others. If I needed a theme or a plugin to be custom made for me, then yes, I would pay for someone to make it for me, but again, it wouldn’t have been done with the premise of making profits from many others.

samboll is on the mark there. custom jobs for single users is not the same as doing so for mass sale.