How much money can you make from building and selling an extension for WooCommerce? Is it enough to make a business out of? I’m going to answer this question from the perspective of a solopreneur, so my threshold for a “yes” will be relatively low.
This is something I thought about and did rough calculations on a while back, but I’m writing it down here as a reminder for what I’m shooting for, and as a reminder that it’s possible.
On WooCommerce.com, since they show the active install count and the cost, it’s easy to calculate how much a plugin is making.
Here are a few plugins I picked. I chose ones that are contained within WooCommerce, not those that bring other external services into WooCommerce (like a plugin that allows integrations with Zapier, for example), since Dashify is more similar to the those. I also tried to choose some that provide functionality within the scope of Dashify.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the active install count is a lower bound (2,000+ could mean 2,500), so the actual number of installs is almost certain to be higher, and so too the revenue.
Revenue of a few WooCommerce plugins
The ones made by large companies or made by the Woo team itself have much higher revenue, in general. My guess is that they are able to promote their plugin to more people and have it featured on the front page of the plugin listings. Although they may be featured, they still have to solve some problem out there—people don’t buy a plugin for no reason.
- Admin Custom Order Fields (Add administrative detail fields to your order admin pages to streamline order processing.)
- 2,000 active installs × $8.25/mo = $16,500/mo
- WooCommerce Order Status Control (Automatically change the order status to “completed” after successful payment.)
- 8,000 active installs × $2.42/mo = $19,360/mo
- Split Orders (Split orders so you can process and ship each part separately.)
- 900 active installs × $4.09/mo = $3,681/mo
- Clone Orders (Make copies of existing orders to quickly insert similar orders.)
- 500 active installs × $4.09/mo = $2,045/mo
- Order Approval for WooCommerce (Manually validate new orders based on user roles and products in cart. Receive payment before or after order approval.)
- 200 active installs × $4.09/mo = $818/mo
- Order Tags (Manage orders more efficiently with automatic or manually assigned tags.)
- 200 active installs × $6.59/mo = $1,318/mo
- Merge Orders (Merge orders so you can process and ship them as one.)
- 200 active installs × $4.09/mo = $818/mo
- Order Chatroom for WooCommerce (A simple and clean chatroom for your customers. Receive order feedback and improve your services.)
- 100 active installs × $6.59/mo = $659/mo
- Cashier (All-in-one plugin to optimize your customer checkout experience.)
- 300 active installs × $12.42/mo = $3,726/mo
- Cost of Goods (Easily track profit by including your cost of goods in your orders and reports.)
- 6,000 active installs × $6.59/mo = $39,540/mo
- Sequential Order Numbers Pro (Tame your order numbers! Upgrade from Sequential Order Numbers with advanced features and with optional prefixes/suffixes.)
- 9,000 active installs × $4.09/mo = $36,810/mo
- Customer/Order/Coupon CSV Import Suite (Import both customers and orders into WooCommerce from a CSV file.)
- 8,000 active installs × $6.59/mo = $52,720/mo
- Customer Upload Files for WooCommerce (Allow customers to upload files on the product, cart, and checkout page to sell customizable products easily.)
- 1,000 active installs × $4.09/mo = $4,090/mo
- Product CSV Import Suite (Import, merge, and export products and variations to and from WooCommerce using a CSV file.)
- 10,000 active installs × $4.92/mo = $49,200/mo
- EU VAT Number (Collect VAT numbers at checkout and remove the VAT charge for eligible EU businesses.)
- 30,000 active installs × $3.25/mo = $97,500/mo
Two interesting things:
- Compared to how much these are making, the number of reviews is tiny. The first plugin in the list, for example, only had 3 reviews.
- A few of them had mixed reviews, signaling a lot of room for improvement.
Some thoughts:
- Dashify could easily offer some of this functionality for a lower price, possibly getting more active installs as a result by allowing more people to afford it, as the USD prices for some of these plugins is unaffordable in many countries.
- Dashify could market itself as solving the problem of having to get many separate plugins to make the WooCommerce experience better.
Should my bootstrapped product be a WooCommerce plugin?
For a small team or solo maker, making a living in the United States from selling a WooCommerce or WordPress plugin seems possible, given the right problem, solution, and marketing.
In countries with a lower cost of living country, it would be even more feasible.
What’s next for Dashify
I’ve reached my 20 active install goal and I’m back from my trip, so I’m going to start making the paid version tomorrow!