One of the headlining features of Craft 3, and possibly the single most-anticipated feature for Craft ever, is finally here: the Craft Plugin Store.
The Craft Plugin Store aims to provide an amazing experience for Craft developers and plugin developers alike, by centrally solving all of the pain points that are commonly associated with releasing, maintaining, trying, buying, and updating plugins.
When we set out to create a plugin marketplace for Craft, we spent a lot of time thinking about how we could make it an amazing experience for customers and plugin developers alike.
As long-time followers may know, we got our start in plugin development. So we know first hand that if a plugin ecosystem is going to be successful, first and foremost the plugin developers have to be successful. If a plugin can't be maintained, it affects everyone using that plugin and creates headaches for both developers and those using the site. To ensure that plugin developers are always able to maintain, update, and improve their plugins, the Craft Plugin Store creates a centralized environment for plugin to developers to focus on making great plugins and for customers to purchase and manage their plugins easily.
What does that mean for plugin developers?
- Easy publishing and releasing. To publish a plugin, you simply register its GitHub repo with your Craft ID account and submit it for approval. Once we’ve approved your plugin, releasing a new version on the Plugin Store is as easy as pushing a new tag to GitHub. (For complete instructions, see our Publishing to the Plugin Store guide.)
- Discoverability. The Plugin Store lives right within Craft’s Control Panel, and we highlight all new plugins right on its homepage, so getting your plugin in front of the Craft community has never been easier.
- Centralized license verification. All commercial plugin installations are validated right alongside Craft license validation, so you can rest assured that your plugin isn’t accidentally being used outside of its licensing terms.
- Instant payouts. Connect your Craft ID account to your Stripe account, and we’ll transfer your plugin revenue to you just as soon as the customer’s credit card has been charged. If a customer ends up returning a plugin license, in most cases we’ll just set a negative balance on your account, so you can pay us back out of future sales.
- Recurring revenue. All commercial plugins come with one year of updates, after which the customer will be asked to pay a renewal fee to keep the updates flowing. Which means you won’t be stuck supporting years-old licenses at a loss.
What does this mean for Craft developers?
- One-click installs. Install and update all your plugins with a single click right within your Control Panel, just like Craft.
- Centralized license management. You can purchase plugins right within Craft’s Control Panel – even in the same transaction as Craft Pro if you want – and you can manage your plugin licenses from Craft ID right alongside your Craft licenses.
- Try before you buy. When you run Craft from a non-public domain (like
craft.test), you’ll be able to run all commercial plugins as trials, the same way you can run a trial of Craft Pro. Craft won’t bother you about paying up until you move the site to a public domain, so you can be sure the plugin fits your needs before you buy. - 30 day return policy. If for any reason you need to return a plugin license within 30 days of purchase, we’ll refund you in full, no questions asked.
- A healthy plugin ecosystem for the long haul. The Plugin Store sets the foundation for creating a healthy, vibrant plugin ecosystem, where plugin developers are compensated for their hard work, and incentivized to keep the plugin quality up to snuff. Of course, a marketplace is only as good as the things inside it. And the Plugin Store does not disappoint. We’ve been blown away by how hard plugin developers have been working to get their plugins ready for this launch – there are already over 200 plugins in the store, with more being added daily. We’re thrilled and extremely grateful to see so many developers getting behind Craft 3 and the Plugin Store. If you have an active Craft 3 project, make sure you update to 3.0.0 GA and help us support plugin developers by purchasing a plugin!