So, how much do WordPress plugins cost?
The two correct answers are 1) it depends and 2) they’re free.
Let me explain. There are literally tens of thousands of WordPress plugins available for you to add to your website. Most of them can be put into three buckets.
Free WordPress Plugins
A vast majority of WordPress plugins are free. If you already have a WordPress site, then you can search the WordPress plugin repository for plugins. Just hover over the ‘Plugins’ section on the left navigation of your dashboard and click on ‘Add New’. This will take you to the repository and you can immediately see the featured plugins. There are also tabs for popular, recommended and favorites. You can also do a search for plugins by category. Do a search for ‘social media’ and you’ll get a ton of results.
“Freemium” WordPress Plugins
The Freemium pricing strategy is very common with online products and services. This strategy is all about giving you “just a taste” of something, but if you want to devour the whole thing, then you have to pay up. There are a lot of really cool plugins that fall into this bucket. For some of these plugins, the free version is all you need. There is no need for you to pay up for access to the additional features as you simply don’t have a use for them. I would put Yoast’s SEO plugin in this category – this is one of the best SEO plugins around; free or paid. The free version, which has been downloaded well over a million times, is very robust and offers a ton of features. We’re using on this site. There is also a premium version and a few other extensions you can add to this free version that will cost money. Whether to pay up for the added features or not is really up to you.
Premium WordPress Plugins
These little WordPress functionality expanders (errr… plugins), are gonna cost you. The cost truly does depend on the plugin and the pricing model the plugin’s developer chooses to employ. Some plugins can be had for a one time charge. These tend to range from as little as $5 to well over $100. Other premium plugins require a subscription – monthly or annual is typical. The Envato Marketplace is chalk full of plugins, codes, themes that are available for as little as $5 bucks. I’ve purchased a few plugins and themes from the site over the years.
To give you an idea of some more WordPress plugins that cost money, check out these popular ones:
Memberpress – this plugin allows you create a membership site.
BackupBuddy – This plugin will backup your WordPress website. Read about how to backup WordPress
GravityForms – Allows you to make some really cool website forms and it integrates with various email providers.
As you can see, WordPress plugins do cost money….sometimes!
One last thing. Plugins are how you really expand the functionality of your WordPress website. WordPress plugins are currently being used to turn websites into online stores and membership sites, for example. They are being used to turn business sites into lean mean lead generation machines.
There is a reason WordPress is the most widely used website platform in the world. WordPress is highly versatile and plugins play a big role in that.
