When it comes to WordPress, there are thousands of free as well as paid plugins. As we know, the best source of free plugins is WordPress.org plugin library where you can find quality free and freemium plugins, but when it comes to paid plugins, then you can find them on the developer/third party sites. So if there are free plugin alternatives, then does it still make sense to purchase a paid WordPress plugin? It’s hard to answer but lets take a look at a few points in this article.
Advantages of Paid/Premium WordPress Plugins
Dedicated support: One of the most important advantage of using/purchasing a paid plugin is that it will come with good support. This means that whenever you’re stuck, there will always be someone to help you with. In fact, their support will also be able to help you in minor customization like changing CSS, changing the footer credit of your theme, etc. Free plugins on the other hand will not be able to give you such a level of support.
Less expensive: Lets say you have a requirement of a contact form. Instead of trying to find a developer who can help you build this plugin or functionality, what you can do is to simply find a good paid contact form plugin.
Why develop a plugin from scratch?
Sometimes even the free ones will suffice, but if it doesn’t then there are always the paid ones which will be less expensive then hiring a developer and paying him. Plus why develop from scratch when there’s always a good plugin available, right!
Better coding: Normally, paid WordPress plugins have very good coding and the developers do try to follow WordPress’s best practices when coding. This is not to say that free plugins don’t have good coding, but when it comes to paid plugins, their developer is answerable and is responsible for maintaining the code and providing updates. When they don’t, then you can always contact them and hit them up at support.
Updates: When you purchase a license of a plugin, it also comes with regular plugin updates. For how long will you receive the update, it depends on the plugins pricing and license plans but normally paid plugins do come with at least one year of free updates.
Advanced features: Free plugins may be sufficient for your basic requirements, but paid plugins will offer many advanced features. For example, a free page builder can offer many features but for advanced features like more widgets, more page templates, sliders, that’s something that only paid version of page builder can offer you.
Better documentation: Premium or paid plugin can have good documentation that can help a lot when we’re stuck. There’s a dedicated page for documentation, video tutorials and even tutorials/guides. So instead of waiting from support to answer your query, you can try to refer to documentation, and yes that really helps.
Support developer: When you purchase a license of a premium plugin, it means you support the effort of the developer or the small business. This in turn helps them continue to develop and improve their plugins. Many times they’re just a small team, and when you purchase a license, this helps them earn a small amount and support their family. Also always purchase the plugin license from the official site only, and not from other sites.
Conclusion
So coming back to the initial question – should you buy WordPress plugin, or is it worth buying license of a paid WordPress plugin, the answer is definitely yes!
Sometimes free plugins can help in accomplishing the task to only a certain level, but paid plugins can take it forward and can help you in adding advanced features and functionalities. So if you really want that functionality added to your site, then instead of hiring a developer, explaining the project details and then waiting for it to be developed, its always a good idea to purchase a license of a paid plugin which is already available. If you’re not sure whether that plugin fits your requirements or not, then you can always contact them and ask questions.
Hope this article will help you in clearing the dilemma on whether you should buy a license of your favorite paid plugin, or should you find a free plugin alternative.