The argument that plugin developers benefit by offering their work for free is flawed. Furthermore, for me, I do not care to turn my personal website into a billboard. But donate buttons rarely provide much support and providing consulting services to clients is not for everyone. That is not my point.Īll I’m asking is how can plugin developers exist on an equal footing with theme designers when it comes to the issue of earning a living? Currently, the only three options that developers have, it seems, are to advertise a donate button for each plugin, accept consulting gigs, or accept advertising on their website. I do not have any issue with how Automattic runs the WP plugin repository or care if they never list commercial plugins. In fact, as a salaried employee of Automattic, Andy Peatling, the lead developer of BuddyPress, is the only one who gets paid for his time working on this Open Source project (as far as I know).Īgain, I am not looking to fan the embers of previous debates. Like the vast majority of BuddyPress developers, I do not get paid a single cent for my contributions. To be clear, I am not an employee of Automattic. I think it is not only fair and appropriate, but also necessary for plugin developers to have the opportunity to make a living, or at least part of their living, writing great code that extends the base functionality of the BuddyPress platform. See my current thoughts on this issue in this article, BP Privacy: History and Lessons Learned from Developing a Major BuddyPress Component.
UPDATE: JanuA year after this post and here are the results. I also do not want to reopen the war wounds from previous debates on this topic.
I won’t go into the reasons for this, but there is a sordid history, to say the least. Plugin developers, on the other hand, have been shunned in the past for offering premium plugins. GPLed–premium themes are not only an accepted part of this ecosystem, but seem to thrive. In the WordPress ecosystem, when it comes to getting paid for time spent, it seems that theme designers are far ahead of plugin developers.