Envato Marketplaces used to be an excellent platform for selling digital products. Now it’s just a marketplace where you may get started quickly, but you can’t rely on it to develop a long-lasting business. Over time, Envato marketplace authors grew frustrated of seeing little to no innovation, yet the commission rate remained unchanged.
Advantages of selling on CodeCanyon:
- A sizable audience.
- Envato takes care of payments, downloads, and licenses on your behalf.
- Trusted by clients.
Disadvantages of selling on CodeCanyon:
- High commission. They take 30-70% cut of your revenue
- There is no method to charge for a license.
- No recurring revenue.
- More emphasis is placed on promoting Envato Elements (subscription-based).
- Crowded market
- Poor search and discoverability, making it difficult for people to locate your product
- It is difficult to gain product visibility in the midst of a sea of possibilities and established products.
- Unable to provide Coupon codes
- No method to incorporate analytics to calculate ROI.
- Clunky upload/update experience
- The affiliate system is inefficient.
- Being unable to identify who your customers are.
List of WordPress Companies that left CodeCanyon
Established WordPress plugin and theme developers began leaving Envato and selling on their own websites to build a sustainable company over time. Here are a few of the firms that have left CodeCanyon:
| Company | Popular Plugin | Curently Using | Founder | Left CodeCanyon | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analytify | Analytify | EDD | Muhammad Adnan | 2020 | Subscription model and addon model |
| Array Themes | N/A | Mike McAlister | 2014 | Competition with bloated themes | |
| FooPlugins | FooBar | Freemius | Brad Vincent | ||
| Iconic | Flux Checkout for WooCommerce | Freemius | James Kemp | 2017 | Subscription model |
| Layer Slider | Layer Slider | FastSpring | 2019 | Subscription model | |
| Orion Origin | WooCommerce Product Designer | WooCommerce | 2019 | ||
| Pippins Plugins | Easy Digital Downloads | Pippin Williamson | Subscription model, Tiered Pricing | ||
| StylemixThemes | MasterStudy | Freemius | Igor Ligay | 2019 | Subscription model |
| Themekraft | BuddyForms | Freemius | Sven Lehnert | ||
| Unlimited Elements | Unlimited Elements For Elementor | Freemius | Amit Keren, Maxim Vendrov, & Irit Mejibovsky | 2021 | Recurring revenue |
| Wiz Plugins | Scheduled Notification Bar Plugin for WordPress | Freemius | John | Subscription model, Marketplace commision | |
| WP SMS | WP SMS | WooCommerce | VeronaLabs | 2018 | |
| WP Ultimo | WP Ultimo | Freemius | 2019 | Subscription model | |
| Xplodedthemes | Floating Cart for WooCommerce | Freemius | Georges Haddad | 2021 | |
| YayCommerce | YayMail | EDD | Subscription model |
- Pippins Plugins
Pippin Williamson, the developer of the popular WordPress plugin Easy Digital Downloads, got his start on CodeCanyon. He identified there was no way to create a tiered price system while also managing licenses, upgrades, and support. They eventually decided to quit CodeCanyon in order to develop a more sustainable business. - Unlimited Elements
Unlimited Elements is the developer of the plugin Unlimited Elements For Elementor. Founded by Amit Keren, Maxim Vendrov, and Irit Mejibovsky. In 2021, they quit CodeCanyon and began selling on their own website through Freemius. Their path from CodeCanyon to Freemius is documented here, as well as the pain points or frustrations that drove them to leave the marketplace. - Analytify
Muhammad Adnan, the founder of Analytify, is the developer of one of the best Google Analytics Plugins for WordPress. They left CodeCanyon in 2020 and began selling on their own website through Easy Digital Downloads. The reasons they quit CodeCanyon are detailed here, with recurrent revenue and greater control over their business fueling this move. - IconicWP
IconicWP, founded by James Kemp, is the creator of numerous unique WooCommerce plugins. They left CodeCanyon in 2017 to create more sustainable solutions and better user experiences. They currently use Freemius to offer WooCommerce plugins on their own website. - WP Ultimo
WPUltimo left the marketplace in 2019 and now sells independently through Freemius. - Layer Slider
Layer Slider left CodeCanyon in 2019 and began selling only on their own website through FastSpring. Layer Slider was sold under a different brand name on CodeCanyon. Where it was marketed as the Kreatura Slider Plugin. - FooPlugins
FooPlugins is the developer of the popular plugin FooBar. They left the marketplace to sell on their own. - Themekraft
Themekraft’s Sven Lehnert switched to selling on their own website. And now utilizing Freemius to deal with the recurring payment and EU VAT issues. - StylemixThemes
StylemixThemes, the developer of the MasterStudy Wordpress plugin, quit the marketplace in 2019 and now sells on their own website through Freemius. - Orion Origin
In 2019, Orion Origin pulled the WooCommerce Product Designer plugin from CodeCanyon and began selling on their own website. - Xploded Themes
Georges Haddad’s Xploded Themes withdrew their CodeCanyon plugins and began selling on their own website in 2021. They are now collecting recurring revenue through Freemius. - Wiz Plugins
Wiz plugin left the marketplace in search of introducing a subscription model. They wrote a detailed article about why they left Envato and they are currently selling Wordpress plugins on their own website using Freemius. - WP SMS
VeronaLabs’ WP SMS began selling on their own website in 2018. They removed their products from Envato and began selling them through WooCommerce.
Why do Plugin Developers prefer Freemius?
- Software Licensing
Freemius makes it simple to introduce licensing and manage activations. When a consumer purchases your premium WordPress plugin or theme, Freemius instantly generates and securely sends them a unique software license key. As the product owner, you may manage all of your client licenses in one place.
- Recurring payments and subscriptions
It costs more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. By running automated renewals on existing customers’ payments, you may generate a consistent recurring revenue stream using Freemius. - Automatic Updates
From the Freemius interface, you can easily submit a new version of your WordPress theme or plugin. - Coupons and discounts
You can simply offer discounts and coupons without using any additional code.
- Multi-currency
The infrastructure of Freemius fully enables multi-currency transactions. Currently, it accepts three currencies: US dollars, Euros, and British pounds. - Staged Rollouts
It’s one of my favorite Freemius features. If you’re making significant changes to your product, you can release the theme or plugin update in stages. Then you have to patiently wait for feedback. If everything is in order, the update can be fully released.
- Access to Customer Data
When you sell on a marketplace, you have no idea who purchased your product. For example, suppose you released another product and know your existing users will enjoy it, but there is no method to interact with them. Freemius overcomes this problem by allowing you to keep all of your clients’ data and utilize it to your benefit. - Cart Abandonment Recovery
Cart Abandonment Recovery is a feature built into Freemius. It sends a series of emails to customers who added your product to their shopping basket but did not purchase.
TL;DR
Sell independently and build your brand if you want to build a long-term business. If it’s a side project to test the market, go for the marketplace.