Recently, we've changed our Blesta plugins pricing model.
Here's what you need to know, how it will affect current customers and what that means for future purchases.
Our current model was a one-time payment, customers pay for the plugin, they receive the source code and all future updates.
If someone wanted a major feature implemented, they could reach out for “Sponsored Development” if that feature was major, or wait until we have free time for us to implement it ourselves for basically free.
I personally liked this pricing model, as I saw it most appealing to most people, you could buy only what you'd need, and since we're not encrypting our plugins, you'd get full access to the plugin.
However, problems with this model and its sustainability are quite apparent.
If a new Blesta version came about that broke some funcionality of the plugin, we'd have to, of course, update it.
Relying on new sales in this case isn't sustainable and to see that, take this example scenario into consideration:
Lets say 10 people purchased the “Announcements” plugin, and we've had no new purchases for it for a really long time - That would be 250 GBP (before expenses) of profit which, lets say, covers our development costs. If there are no new sales, and we have to update the plugin to keep it working on the new versions, we'd be doing those updates basically for free (losing us money and resources in the process) as they weren't included in the initially price of the plugin.
Here's where the new pricing model steps in:
Now you can tick a box for “Extended Support & Updates”, that option will renew and charge you a small amount on a yearly bases, with the first year included for free in the initial plugin price.
If you don't tick it, you won't get any new updates after that first year expired, however you'll still have access to versions you had before.
How much you get charged will depend on a couple of factors, such as the initial plugin price and how hard it is to maintain, thus 3 price tiers were setup:
In my personal opinion, this way of handling it is way better than a subscription model!
Why?
Looking at our current clients, most of them have 2-3 paid plugins AT MOST.
So offering something like a subscription service (like most seem to) where you get all the plugins for lets say 25 GBP/yr is a waste of money to you if you'll just use 2-3 plugins (or even being optimistic, 4-5 plugins) from that whole lot - Instead this way you can pay for just what you're using and nothing more, saves you money, but still keeps supporting us for the long term sustainability.
Lets clear the elephant in the room, what will happen to current customers and plugins they bought?
For those customers, there's no need to worry, you won't be forced to this model on your existing purchases, you'll be able to keep those plugins maintained for free 24/7/365 - Take this as a sign of gratitude for being here with us from the start, without those initial few sales, all of these plugins wouldn't have happened, and I'd like to thank you for that.
Regards,
Aleksa Đorđić
https://code-cats.com
