You can sell a WordPress plugin, but you cannot take away the freedoms the GPL gives buyers. Learn free-plus-paid or premium, licence keys, updates, pricing, quality checks and where to sell.
How to sell a WordPress plugin starts with one fact: you can. The GPL, the licence WordPress uses, lets you charge for copies. What you cannot do is take away the freedoms the GPL gives your buyers, so you earn from updates, support, convenience and a licence key rather than from locking the code. This guide covers the licence question, free-plus-paid and fully premium models, updates, pricing, quality checks and where to sell.
In short
WordPress's licence page says its developers believe plugins and themes are derivative works that inherit the GPL, while admitting some legal grey area about what counts as a derivative work. The first guideline of the Plugin Directory requires GPL compatibility and strongly recommends the same licence as WordPress, GPLv2 or later. Assume your plugin's code must be GPL-compatible.
The GNU project's FAQ says you may sell copies of GPL software, and that recipients may pass copies on without extra restrictions from you. So a buyer may legally share what they bought. That sounds risky, but it shapes your business model rather than ending it: buyers pay for the licence key, the updates, the support, the documentation and the confidence that the plugin is maintained. This is not legal advice, so read the official text for your own case.
| Free plugin plus paid version | Fully premium | |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Search in the plugin directory | You bring the audience |
| Rules | The directory guidelines apply | Your own terms, inside the GPL |
| Features | No locked or trial functionality | You decide |
| Updates | Free plugin from WordPress.org, paid add-on from your server | From your update server |
| Trust | A free version lets people try it | Needs demos and reviews |
The directory has clear rules. Its guidelines say plugins may not contain functionality that is locked until payment or upgrade, may not be disabled after a trial, and may not serve updates from other servers. Paid services are allowed when the service provides real functionality, but a service that only validates licence keys is not. The guidelines recommend add-on plugins, hosted outside WordPress.org, to keep premium code out of the directory version. The directory review takes between 1 and 10 days, according to the submission page.
A common pattern is therefore a useful free plugin in the directory and a paid add-on from your own site. A fully premium plugin skips the directory, so you need your own demo, documentation and trust.
A licence key links a purchase to a plugin. In general, the premium plugin contains an update checker. It sends the key, the site address and the installed version to your update server. The server checks that the key is valid and the updates are still included, then answers with the newest version and a protected download link. WordPress then shows the update on the Plugins screen as usual.
WordPress supports this with the Update URI plugin header, which stops a third-party plugin from being overwritten by a similarly named plugin in the directory. A filter named update_plugins_{$hostname}, added in WordPress 5.8, lets code supply update details for plugins whose header points to another host. You can build the server yourself, or use ready-made tools: the Easy Digital Downloads plugin lists activatable licence keys as a Pro feature.
Good practice: tell buyers what your plugin sends to your server, and let an expired licence stop updates and support rather than breaking the plugin on their site. On DevMarket, buyers get a licence key after payment and download releases from their account; read the seller terms for what the marketplace handles.
An annual licence brings steady income that pays for updates and support, and a buyer who stops renewing keeps the version they have. A lifetime licence is attractive to buyers but commits you to maintenance for years, so consider tying "lifetime" to a defined product version or a support period. Offer tiers by number of sites if usage varies. How to price and license your software covers the options. On DevMarket you can choose lifetime updates or updates while support lasts, set a support period, and price in several currencies.
Write the installation steps, the requirements, a screen-by-screen guide to your settings, a FAQ and a changelog. If developers might extend the plugin, list your hooks and filters. Decide where support happens, how fast you reply, and what is out of scope. Ask buyers for the WordPress, PHP and WooCommerce versions and active plugins in every request, so you can reproduce problems.
Run Plugin Check. It is published by WordPress.org and tests a plugin against directory standards, plus best practices in internationalisation, accessibility, performance and security. Use Tools, then Plugin Check, or wp plugin check on the command line. It does not replace manual review, and passing it does not make approval certain. The submission page adds that plugins with unescaped output, unsanitised data or forms without a nonce will not be approved.
Then check the declarations. Plugin headers can state Requires at least, Requires PHP, License and Requires Plugins. For WooCommerce, add the WC requires at least and WC tested up to headers, and declare compatibility with high-performance order storage (HPOS) in your main plugin file, as the WooCommerce recipe book shows:
add_action( 'before_woocommerce_init', function () {
if ( class_exists( \Automattic\WooCommerce\Utilities\FeaturesUtil::class ) ) {
\Automattic\WooCommerce\Utilities\FeaturesUtil::declare_compatibility( 'custom_order_tables', __FILE__, true );
}
} );WooCommerce warns shop owners who enable HPOS while an incompatible extension is active. If your plugin touches the cart or checkout, check the cart and checkout blocks too. See shipping releases that pass review for the full routine.
On your own site you keep the customer relationship and the whole margin, and you also run payments, tax, invoices, licence keys, downloads, refunds and support. A marketplace such as DevMarket gives you an audience and a ready checkout. It issues a licence key after payment, checks each release before it is published, and shows a live demo or an automatic product tour. Reviews come only from buyers with an active licence, and you can reply publicly. It keeps a commission, so read the seller terms. Many authors list on a marketplace and also sell from their own site.
Refunds follow the same split: on your own site you write the policy, and a marketplace has its own, such as DevMarket's refund policy. Answer reviews politely and with specifics.
WordPress's position is that plugins inherit the GPL, and the directory requires GPL compatibility. Read the licence page and ask a lawyer about your case.
The directory hosts a free, fully working plugin. It does not allow locked or trial features, so sell premium features as a separate add-on, or as a service, from outside the directory.
Use the Update URI header, a licence check and an update server, which you build or buy. Keep updates tied to the licence, not the features.
Only if you can maintain the plugin for years. Many authors limit it to a version or a support period.
If your plugin works with WooCommerce orders, you should. Declare compatibility only after you have tested it.
Pick your model, write your licence terms, and test every release. Then see how to write a product listing that sells software, browse existing WordPress plugins for ideas on presentation, and apply through the seller page.
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