How WPBay was built: Why starting a WordPress theme and plugin marketplace isn’t easy
It started like many things do – with frustration, late-night rants, and the question every WordPress developer asks eventually:
“Why is selling my plugin or theme still such a pain in 2024?”
Szabi and Stefan had been in the WordPress game for over a decade. Their conversations were always a mix of brainstorming and venting, and this one was no different. Between them, they had built and sold hundreds of plugins, some listed on CodeCanyon, others on WordPress.org, others commercial. But time and time again, they hit the same walls:
- Marketplaces taking huge cuts.
- Overly rigid submission policies.
- No control over the customer relationship.
- Outdated tools.
- Opaque decision-making.
Worse? The places developers once trusted – like CodeCanyon – had shifted their priorities. They weren’t built for developers anymore. They were built for volume. For pay one subscription download everything style shops. For platforms, not people.
Not just another CodeCanyon clone, but a developer-first platform. A marketplace where plugin and theme authors could sell on their own terms, communicate directly with their customers, push updates freely, and keep more of their earnings. Something modern. Friendly. Open. And maybe a bit rebellious.
They both knew it wouldn’t be easy, this is why they joined forces.
“What if,” Stefan asked, “we built our own marketplace?”
That was the seed of WPBay.
Why WPBay Had to Exist
We weren’t the first to feel the need. In fact, just look at the forums on Envato – veteran authors have seen sales drop by 70% since 2018. The move to subscriptions might be great for customers, but it crushed indie developers.
We saw talented devs abandon plugin work altogether. We saw support threads go unanswered. Great tools vanish because creators couldn’t make it sustainable.
So we built WPBay to flip that.
- A marketplace by developers, for developers.
- A place where authors own their customer relationships, define their licensing, and keep most of the money.
- A community that rewards innovation, not gaming the algorithm.
“We didn’t just want to fix the system – we wanted to build a new one that actually values the people who create on it.”
The Hardest Part: Not the Code
We’ve built plugins from scratch. We’ve handled REST APIs, licensing SDKs, dynamic dashboards, and update systems. None of that compared to the payment processor rabbit hole.
Stripe, Braintree, PayPal Marketplace, MangoPay – we spoke with all of them.
Some wouldn’t support multivendor at all. Some required absurd levels of KYC. Others didn’t handle global seller payouts or taxes properly. Some needed a full US business entity. Others were just vague.
We didn’t want a patchwork setup. We wanted to get it right from day one: clean payouts, W-8/W-9 compliance, auto-invoicing, EU/US tax support. It took months of back and forth, trials, compliance calls, and paperwork.
At one point we had a working checkout with three plugins duct-taped together – and we still weren’t confident it would scale.
“Building a marketplace is hard. Building a fair marketplace is much harder.”
A Different Kind of Marketplace
From day one, we asked: What would we want, as developers?
So we built that.
- Simple registration. No hoops. Just name, email, done.
- No email verification walls. Get in, start exploring. You can always confirm later.
- Seamless seller onboarding. Upload your logo, add tax details, write a bio. Done.
- Real product pages. With changelogs, screenshots, pricing tiers, feature sets, license options.
- Private or public listings. Offer discounts, free trials, or launch and let affiliates promote your product.
- Gamification. Top author ladders, badges, increasing commission % for top sellers.
And yes, we built the good stuff too:
- Detailed analytics: leads, views, sales, conversion rate
- Customer reviews + comments
- One-cart checkout across multiple vendors
- Dynamic pricing (set discounts for custom time periods)
And of course, marketing.
“We’re devs, not marketers,” Stefan admits. “We had to learn how to tell our story, not just build cool stuff.”
Why WPBay is Different
We’re not here to compete with the big guys on scale. We’re here to offer a better experience – for the people who actually make the stuff.
If you’re a developer:
- No gatekeeping.
- 70% earnings for the beginning, 90% for seasoned WPBay sellers.
- Free licensing SDK, open and flexible.
- Auto plugin/theme updates, right inside WordPress, directly from WPBay servers.
- Built-in affiliate system (with custom rules).
- You own your customers.
If you’re a buyer:
- Safe, developer-backed products.
- Transparent reviews.
- First-time buyer discounts and coupon codes.
- Loyalty rewards.
- Direct developer contact.
- Clean, fast UX. No bloat. No noise.
“We had no funding, no team,” Szabi recalls. “Just two stubborn guys and a dream.”
Behind the Scenes
The first few months of WPBay were held together with Trello cards, late-night commits, and coffee-fueled Zoom calls. Szabi handled most of the plugin development and server infrastructure – wiring up SVN for uploads, licensing APIs, custom shortcodes, and integrating with server side and PHP SDK. Stefan focused on seller tools, onboarding, and UI/UX – making the marketplace feel intuitive for developers and buyers alike.
We used what we had: a droplet on DigitalOcean, some open source code, and a custom build that pulled together their code, to form WPBay as it is today. The first version was messy. Some things broke. But it worked. Over time, we tuned the WPBay server to be faster and more reliable, adding all needed features to it, which a developer might need in their journey selling WordPress products. Also, a forum integration via Discourse was implemented.
We’ve also:
- Reserved the wpbay.com domain for authority
- Set up Discord for early dev access
- Registered our firm for proper accounting and legal handling
- Built a waitlist system with launch invites
- Created product plan logic with feature toggles
- Implemented a support system + email fallback
“We built WPBay,” Stefan says, “because we were tired of being treated like replaceable vendors. We wanted to build a place where developers are treated like partners.”
What’s Next?
We’re launching with a small group of trusted devs – friends, beta testers, early believers. No press release. No Product Hunt campaign. Just a tweet, a blog post, and a few emails to developer friends.
But the response? It was real!
We’re listing our own plugins first, to show it’s possible. We’re using the platform ourselves, so we’ll know when it breaks – and we’ll fix it fast.
There’s more to WPBay than it appears at the first glance:
- Public API access available
- Seller rewards + milestones
- Featured product of the month
- Wall of Fame for top authors
- Fast onboarding wizard for sellers
- SEO optimization, mailing list growth, and performance upgrades
“We didn’t want to grow too fast,” Stefan says. “We wanted to get it right first.”
Join the Movement
This isn’t just a marketplace. It’s a platform. A protest. A promise.
We’re building WPBay for every developer who’s been ghosted by CodeCanyon. For every buyer who’s bought a plugin and never got support. For every plugin that deserves a spotlight but got buried by outdated rules.
You’re invited.
Join WPBay as a seller Follow us on X Join our Discord Email us if you want more details
“WPBay provides everything a WordPress developer needs to sell their work: updates, licensing, support tools, analytics, payouts, and community.
No gatekeepers. No BS. Just good software, sold simply.”
Let’s make marketplaces human again!
