For years, building a WordPress product meant shipping a feature.
A form builder. A slider. A pricing table. Something self-contained, something you could zip, upload and sell for $29. The value was in the code and the code lived entirely inside WordPress.
That model is fading faster than most people want to admit.
I’m Szabi, co-founder of WPBay. I spend a good chunk of my time reviewing what developers are building right now, not what worked five years ago. And I see a clear shift which is hard to ignore:
The best “WordPress products” being built today don’t really look like plugins anymore.
They still install like plugins. They still live in wp-admin. But under the hood, they’re something else entirely.
Here are the types of products that are quietly taking over:
1. The “Thin Plugin, Thick Backend” Product
The plugin is no longer the product. It’s just the interface.
What actually matters lives outside: APIs, processing layers, AI models, data pipelines. The WordPress side becomes a control panel, not the engine.
You’re already seeing this with things like AI content tools, image optimization, search, even forms. The heavy lifting happens off-site. The plugin just connects the dots.
This is good, because you’re not limited by PHP or shared hosting, you can iterate without pushing constant plugin updates, you can actually justify recurring pricing.
The developers still building “all-in-one local plugins” are fighting the last war.
2. AI-Native Plugins (Not AI Features Bolted On)
There’s a big difference between “we added AI to the plugin” and “this plugin only exists because of AI”.
Most plugins today are doing the first. A button here, a generator there. It’s surface-level.
The next wave is different, more tools will come which are: AI agent decision-making (not just generation), context (site-wide understanding), agent continuous interaction (not one-off actions) and other AI tools which extend the current boundaries of AI integration into WP.
Think less “generate 5 blog titles” and more “optimize this entire site’s content strategy over time”.
3. Workflow Plugins, Not Feature Plugins
Users don’t wake up thinking: “I need a better settings panel”.
They think:
- “I need leads and more sales”
- “I need faster pages”
- “I need to convert traffic much better”
So, instead of a popup plugin, you get a lead capture + segmentation + follow-up system (which also includes a popup).
Instead of a caching plugin, you get performance monitoring + auto-optimization + alerts (which also includes a caching feature).
Remember, you are not selling tools, but instead, you are selling outcomes and customer needs.
4. Vertical-Specific Products
Generic plugins are getting squeezed. Why? Because AI and no-code tools can now cover “generic” pretty well. If your plugin tries to serve everyone, it’s competing with tools that move faster than you ever will.
The opportunity is in going narrow.
Keep in mind, don’t build another “booking plugin”, but try your luck with a high quality plugin for: “a booking system for small fitness studios”, “appointment flow for private clinics”, “lead handling for local real estate agents”, etc.
5. Data Layer Plugins
This is the least talked about category, but probably it’s going to explode in the near future.
Modern WordPress sites don’t just run on content. They run on data moving between tools like CRMs, analytics platforms, ad systems, email tools or even AI services (as mentioned above).
The messy part is syncing, enriching and making sense of that data. So, a new plugin type idea emerges: unify data + clean it + enrich it + route it where it needs to go.
I leave you with this idea, grow and develop it into your own idea.
6. Automation Packs
These are not only plugins, not only SaaS, but something in between.
These are products that bundle triggers, actions, integrations or pre-built logic.
Instead of giving users a tool and saying “figure it out”, you give them ready-made automations. Examples:
- “When someone submits this form, qualify the lead, send a personalized email, push to CRM and notify Slack”.
- “When a product goes out of stock, update ads, notify users and adjust pricing rules”.
AI makes this even more powerful, because the logic doesn’t have to be rigid anymore.
7. Marketplace-First Products
This one is subtle, but important. Some products are no longer designed to be standalone businesses. They’re designed to live inside ecosystems.
I mean by this: add-ons for larger platforms, extensions to existing plugins, micro-products that plug into bigger workflows.
The standalone plugin is getting harder to sustain. The ecosystem player is getting stronger.
The Pattern Behind All of This
If you zoom out, all of these categories point to the same thing:
The value is moving away from code sitting inside WordPress and toward systems that extend beyond it.
That’s why the old model feels like it’s breaking.
A $29 one-time plugin made sense back in the old times, when the problem was simple, the solution was self-contained and maintenance was manageable. None of that is true anymore…
Modern problems are ongoing. They involve data, automation, external services and constant change.
You can’t solve that with a static product.
The Bottom Line
Most developers are still building plugins like it’s 2015. Small tools. One-time payments. Minimal scope. Meanwhile, the market is shifting toward ongoing value, connected systems and products that evolve over time.
This doesn’t mean “plugins are dead”, it means the definition of a “WordPress product” has changed and right now, there’s a gap between what users actually need and what most developers are still building…
That gap is where the next wave of successful products will come from! Now is the time to be smart and see the big picture!
