This article is prompted by the sad news that the popular WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) is about to have a massive price increase: removing the unlimited sites allowance from the $29 and $79 plans, increasing the price of annual renewals by up to 52%, and getting rid of the Lifetime license.
It is still possible toget the old plans, the old terms and the Lifetime license here but, now that they have already announced the new pricing, we don’t know how long this loophole will remain open.
In the early days of paid WordPress products, “Lifetime” licenses were considered a good way to squeeze a little more money out of those buyers who could afford it. We were all just figuring this stuff out and most WordPress vendors reckoned there was a pretty low chance that the buyer would bother renewing in a year’s time – Hell, their young business might not even exist in a year – so, getting two or three times the money right now, upfront, was the smart move.
It often turned out to be a smart move for the customer too because not only did most of those companies survive, they generally ended up improving their products, expanding their functionality and, as their reputation grew, raising their prices. Early customers could enjoy a warm glow as they watched new customers paying more per year than they had paid for their lifetime license.
By the time WordPress had grown into a billion dollar industry, however, certain companies realised that customers had grown dependent upon them, allowing them to massively change the terms in their favor.
In 2013, WooCommerce was the first major player to really bend their customers over: out went unlimited sites, out went lifetime updates, in came annual renewals. Customers were outraged, but there was nothing they could do, they could either play along or abandon the websites they had already built. (It is interesting to note that, in 2017, new WooCommerce owner Automattic continued this ruthless treatment of loyal customers by eliminating the 50% discount on renewals without evening bothering to tell anyone).
Other companies decided to change their pricing structure too but in most cases, unlike WooCommerce, as gesture of goodwill towards their existing customers, decided to honor their licenses on the terms under which they were sold. This is called “grandfathering” and meant that, although no new lifetime licenses would be sold, existing licenses would be honored.
Current sentiment among the sellers of WordPress products is that the industry as a whole should move towards per site pricing and subscriptions with automatic renewals. The trend is very much towards increasing the amount of money levitating out of the customer’s pocket and flying towards their bank accounts.
This, understandably, causes great excitement in private industry chatrooms such as the Post Status Slack channel but, back in reality, customers are not always so thrilled with this idea. So, vendors have to tread carefully: they can only afford to introduce massive price increases when they are confident that, like WooCommerce, their customers do not have any other options.
The latest WordPress product to announce a massive increase in their pricing is The WordPress Multilingual Plugin, commonly known as WPML, and owned by OnTheGoSystems, the makers of the advanced WordPress site builder Toolset.
WPML is probably the most well-known plugin for creating different language versions of WordPress websites, and they are also notable for their bravery in being the only brand I am aware of, in any industry, whose logo is a big black sperm:
For any website owner with global ambitions, being able to easily create multiple language versions of your site is essential. Remember, only 360 million people speak English natively, compared to over 400 million Spanish speakers and almost a billion Mandarin Chinese speakers. There are almost 7.5 billion people in the world, so, only 20% of your potential customers are in our cosy little English-speaking bubble.
WPML are gambling that this reality, combined their dominance of the WordPress multilingual market, puts them in a position to massively increase their prices.
Under the current pricing, the cheapest level of WPML, Multilingual Blog, costs $29, you can use it in unlimited sites and the annual renewal is $15.
The current mid-level plan, Multilingual CMS, which offers more features, costs $79, you can use it in unlimited sites and the annual renewal is $39.
The Lifetime license, Multilingual CMS Lifetime, which has the same features as the mid-level plan, costs $195, you use it in unlimited sites and, because no renewals are needed, you would make back your money in 4 years.
Under the newly announced pricing, the Lifetime license disappears:
The new cheapest plan will be $29, the same as before, but the annual renewal will increase 40% from $15 to $21, and the number of sites will drop from unlimited to 1.
The new mid-level plan will be $79, the same as before, but the annual renewal will increase 52% from $39 to $59, and the number of sites will drop from unlimited to 3.
An entirely new “Agency” plan, which is essentially the same as the previous mid-level $79 + $39 renewal plan, will cost $159 and the renewal will be $119, but will now be the only plan to allow unlimited sites.
These changes are a great pity, particularly the shift away from unlimited sites. Part of the GPL heritage is that, if someone invests their time into learning how to use your code, and they invest their money into buying it from you, they can then use the code in any way they want, as many times as they want. For people starting out in WordPress, there is an exhilaration in that, we have all got high on the sheer possibilities of unlimited licenses.
Of course, in reality, most people end up using their “unlimited” license on just one or two sites, or possibly even none, but it is a pity that they can no longer at least enjoy that initial exhilaration. I firmly believe that there should be no restrictions on the number of sites a GPL plugin allows. It is like when you buy a knife in a hardware store: you are sold the object, the price should not change according to the number of people you stab.
Ultimately, however, it is entirely up to the owners of WPML, it is their product. They know their market, they know their competitors, they have decided that this is the right time to cash in.
What separates WPML from the hardball tactics of WooCommerce, however, is that they WILL honor the Lifetime licenses of existing WPML customers. Even better, they are allowing a short grace period, following their announcement of the new prices, during which new customers can grab the old plans, all for unlimited sites, including the Lifetime license, which will continue to guarantee you free renewals for as long as WPML continues to be developed.
Compared to the equivalent plan which will replace it, Agency for $159, you would make back the $195 you spend on the old Lifetime license within just 16 months, and you would subsequently be saving $119 per year on renewals, and even more when they inevitably raise their prices again in the future.
The prices of the new plans are terrible, but the number-of-sites restrictions are even worse. If you think multi-language sites are something you might ever need, seriously consider getting in on the old pricing. We don’t know exactly when this loophole with close but, for now, you can still grab the old prices here:
Multilingual Blog (Unlimited sites) $29
Multilingual CMS (Unlimited sites) $79
Multilingual CMS Lifetime (Unlimited sites, no renewals ever) $195
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