Personally, when I have to add a new plugin or buy anything online or offline, I tend to look out for a product which is the best in my budget. However, I also don’t mind paying a little extra if the product is worth it.
But, there are times when you buy a premium WordPress plugin at an early stage by reading fake reviews and end up regretting it later.
I have had similar experiences in the past with a few premium products that I bought after reading astounding reviews.
Today, I’m sharing a few things that you should keep in mind while purchasing premium WP plugins or any other products online.
I’m writing this specifically for WordPress plugins, but the simple logic can be applied to all online products.
Buyer’s Guide To Premium WordPress Plugins
Do you need it?
There are thousands of premium plugins out there, and if you look at their sales page, I bet a large percentage of such plugins will make you feel like you need it.
Sales pages are designed to create the need, and if you are an impulsive buyer, you are most likely to end up buying any premium product you come across.
The first thing which you should ask yourself before buying the product is: Do I need it?
If you have a habit of, buy now use later, it’s time to change it to “Buy only when I will use“. A good practice should be to use your credit card or Paypal account only when you are sure about using the product. Else, it’s a good idea to wait till the time you have enough time to put the product in use.
Don’t buy after reading reviews from untrustworthy sources: Fake reviews
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to make money. However, some people review products without actually using them. For example, Thesis 2.0 WordPress theme is not a product worth buying, but you will read hundreds of reviews where people are going gaga about it just for the affiliate income.
Also, people often launch a new micro website (product-review.com, product-bonus.com, product-discount.com) just to push-up their affiliate income, and it’s a good idea to ignore such sites.
Try established and trustable website in that niche. For example, ManageWP, WPFreesetup are reliable websites to learn about WordPress & products.
Support
Plugin compatibility issues are nothing new. So, before you invest money in a premium WordPress product, make sure the company behind the product offers excellent support.
A proper support system is essential for any premium plugin, as you can’t get free support from the WordPress support forum.
History of the plugin
Have you seen plugins which are ‘updated’ with no definite changes from an older version?
It’s the same as republishing your old content by changing the date. It works in the case of blogging, but not in the case of products like WordPress plugins. A plugin needs to be continuously updated to stay compatible with the latest version of WordPress and other popular plugins.
Tip: You should always check how often a plugin is updated and whether or not new features are added to the plugin.
Comparison sucks
Some people often try to promote one product by criticising others. This is not only negative marketing, but it’s also the same as cheating your readers.
I made a comparison table for Bluehost Vs. Hostgator Vs. Dreamhost, because I have tried all three of them. So, when you read a comparison table on any website, make sure the reviewer has used all the products being comparing. If not, time to move to another comparison post.
What works for me might not work for you
As a blogger, our role is to make our readers’ lives easier. We must give our readers the best options that are available, and users can decide which one to go for.
What works for me, might not work for you, and you as a user need to understand that.
For example, there are easy to use plugins like Contact form 7, or Jetpack comment form, but I use Enhanced contact form plugin, as it serves my purpose of showing referral URL. You might not need this particular feature, so you can always take help of simple plugins.
Also, I use ManageWP to backup my blog, but you might have one website, and VaultPress could be a better choice for you.
A good idea here is to look out for features offered by the plugin and stick to one which fulfills your requirements. For example, when you try to compare membership WordPress plugins, you will be bombarded with tons of options, and picking the best one will not be easy.
You can make a list of 2-3 such plugins which meets your requirement, compare the features which they have, and then put a pre-sales support question. A good company will not only reply in lesser time but will also give a human touch to it.
To sum it up…
Always believe in “money saved is money earned.” Don’t rush into using your credit or debit card, until you are sure of the product. I have lost a few bucks because of this, and I hope my mistakes will help you save your money.
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Until next time.
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Yes, I agree with you. Internet is full of fake.
@ Harsh, Nice list of things to look, but i am more oriented towards using free plugin, is there any performance or ranking improvement if i use premium plugins..
Nice one Hars,Support and seeing whether the license is valid for future upgradation is a main criteria to go for premium plugins.
Hi Harsh,
Can you please tell me what is the issue with thesis 2.0 theme ? After I read your other post where you recommend thesis themes for wordpress, I am planning to buy thesis theme for my new blog.diythemes showing thesis 2.0 in their website now.
can you please suggest what is the issue with this new version ? and please suggest me an alternate theme(free or premium) for my new blog
@Anoop
I’m crafting a post with the issues with Thesis 2.0, but in nutshell:
It’s a Premium product with no documentation.
Thesis has become like a dictator, where they change it to anything whenever they want.
Saying that what I meant, With Thesis 2.0, they changed the framework completely, and there is no easy way to upgrade from Thesis 1.8x to 2.0…
That’s more like irritating your existing users, and would you ever care about a company, which doesn’t care about existing customers.
Can you suggest a wordpress plugin for making CSS sprites easily. I am not much of a coder so a simple to use plugin should serve my purpose.
Thanks
Harsh
@Harsh
Funny thing, we share the same name 🙂
Getting back to your query, I’m not sure about any such plugin, but since your goal is to improve the loading time, Go ahead with CDN. MAXCDN is so far one of the best for WordPress.
Indeed we do 🙂
As for the CDN I currently use Cloudfare. When I test my website on Pagespeed it shows me Sprite your images in high priority which is why the query. Any other way to manage it? Have you sprited images on ShoutmeLoud?
Fake Reviews has been a Great Distress as the Promoters sometimes Make it so perfect that it is hard to Determine that whether is it Good or Not. Moreover sometimes When Top Bloggers recommends or claim that they use particular Plugin the Crowd just Go Crazy and sometimes they Get Upset.
Hey Harsh,
Some times it’s really tough to decide whether to buy a new product or not. I think by this post you’ve cleared it to us. My advice is not to buy the product immediately after it launched. Most of the time people want to be the fist reviewer of the product. As a result they provide low quality review. So it is better to wait and watch the trusted review.
@Istiak
Sometime it’s beneficial if you are the early adopted of the plugin, if you are marketer, else wait for a while and let the consumer do the talking.
nice guide harsh, i think first we should check that the plugin we are used to is compatible with the theme or not?
@Hrmehrotra
True.. We need to check compatibility with theme, and also with existing plugins. Sometime hosting also plays funny games.. So make sure new plugin doesn’t screw up with existing hosting setup.
This is great article harsh, and your points are really worth looking for before buying premium plugins. recently my friend bought a plugin and afterwards realized that it was not worth buying… I wish this article would have published earlier. Anyways very nice article.
Buying a premium theme for WordPress is a n expensive option for every bloggers. Its better to develop your very own theme of WordPress with getting knowledge of basic PHP and very much HTML which is the base of every blogger.
Agree To All The Points Made! 🙂
Currently I Am Using Only Free Themes, But Will Keep Your Post in Mind, When Buying One! 🙂
Hi Harsh, Thanks for the informative post. Can you suggest me a good premium WordPress plugin for email marketing?
@Mathews
Optinmonster is good, well maintained & they keep adding new feature. This one is what I use & recommend coz its worth the money.