From the very first release of WPCD we’ve highlighted the fact that it was an open source product which provides all kinds of advantages. However you would only get the full source when you made a purchase. After that, it would be yours to do with as you please as long as you respected the terms of the GPL agreement.
Today, we’re taking the next step by providing access to a PUBLIC repository for the full source of the core plugin – no purchase necessary.
This has a number of ramifications:
- It effectively makes the core free if you do not want our support or any of the other add-ons we provide.
- It makes it much easier for the community to provide changes, updates and fixes via the PR process.
We’re choosing to do this now because we believe that the product is the most stable it’s ever been and is ready for widespread public consumption.
And we’ve spent the summer attempting to clean up the code base to bring it more in line with WP standards. It’s not fully there yet but the most glaring issues are resolved so we’re not too embarrassed about putting it into the public domain.
We can already anticipate a few of the questions we might get, so here are the answers.
Q: Does this change your pricing for the core plugin?
No, it does not. Purchasing the core plugin provides benefits such as support, 1-on-1 walkthroughs and automatic updates.
Q: Why will anyone purchase the core plugin now?
We doubt that anyone who is going to bet their business server operations on WPCD will avoid purchasing a license. At $199 per year, it is not going to break the bank for serious businesses. [Edit: Nov 1st 2021: The core plugin will increase in price to $299 per year on December 1st 2021.]
Q: Does this change your pricing for other premium options?
No, it does not. But we are seriously considering removing the lifetime pricing option next year. [Edit Nov 1st 2021: There is a price increase scheduled for December 1st 2021]
Q: Will the premium add-ons be available on Github in the future?
Right now there are no plans to move them to Github.
Q: Are your other providers such as Linode, Vultr etc. included in the public repository?
No, these are part of our premium offering.
Q: Are the WooCommerce features included in the public repository?
No, these are also part of our premium product.
Q: Is there a discussion forum or other venue available for support?
As you might expect, there is no free support. But we do have a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group that may be useful in the future. And, of course, you can purchase a license for the Core plugin which includes support.
Wrapup
The core of WPCD was always supposed to be a fully open-source project. It took us a bit to get to the point where the code was in reasonable enough shape to be made public.
If you’re not an existing WPCD customer, we hope you take the chance to give it a whirl.
[Edit Nov 4th 2021: Someone (Vlad!) already submitted PRs against the project that have been merged! Yay for open source! And thanks Vlad Olaru for being our first outside contributor to WPCD!]
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