If you’ve sold WordPress plugins or themes for any length of time, you’ve probably considered Envato.
I know I did. In fact, I spent years selling on CodeCanyon, I am Szabi, you can find my store listed on CodeCanyon as CodeRevolution. It helped me get my first customers, my first meaningful revenue and taught me a lot about building products people actually want.
But it also taught me something else. At some point, every successful developer starts asking the same question: “Why am I giving away so much control over my business?”
That’s one of the reasons I built WPBay.
What Is Envato?
Envato is the company behind CodeCanyon and ThemeForest, two of the largest digital marketplaces in the world.
For many developers, it’s the first place they think about when selling a plugin or theme.
The biggest advantage is obvious: traffic.
Millions of users already know the platform and search for products there every day.
The downside is that you’re building your business inside someone else’s ecosystem.
What Is WPBay?
WPBay is a marketplace built specifically for WordPress plugins and themes.
The goal is simple: help developers sell products without sacrificing their brand, customer relationships or a large percentage of their revenue.
WPBay includes licensing, updates, subscriptions, support tools, seller profiles and product discovery while keeping developers at the center of the experience.
WPBay vs Envato – The Biggest Differences
Your Customers
This is where the difference becomes very important.
On Envato, customer relationships largely belong to Envato. Customers trust the marketplace, interact through the marketplace, often remember the marketplace before they remember the author. Building a long-term business becomes difficult when you don’t fully control the relationship. WPBay takes a different approach.
Every product clearly belongs to its creator. Every seller has a public profile, product portfolio and direct presence on the platform. The goal isn’t to hide developers behind a marketplace. The goal is to help them build their own reputation.
Revenue Share
One of the most common frustrations I hear from developers is commission. When you’re just getting started, marketplace fees may not seem like a big deal. But once your products start generating meaningful revenue, those percentages become real money. WPBay uses a tiered commission structure that rewards successful sellers, with commissions dropping as your total sales grow.
The idea is simple: the more successful you become, the more you should keep.
Review Process
Anyone who has submitted products to Envato knows the review process can be challenging.
Sometimes products are approved quickly. Sometimes they’re rejected. Sometimes feedback is clear. Sometimes it isn’t.
Many developers spend weeks or months trying to navigate marketplace requirements before their products ever reach customers. At WPBay, the goal is to maintain quality standards while making the process more transparent and developer-friendly. We review products for quality, functionality, security and compliance, but we’re also developers ourselves and understand the work that goes into building a product.
Branding
One thing that bothered me as a seller was how difficult it was to build my own brand. Customers often remembered they bought something from CodeCanyon. They didn’t always remember who built it. That’s a problem if you’re trying to grow beyond a single marketplace.
WPBay was built around developer identity. Seller profiles, product portfolios, reviews, badges, support history and community engagement all help developers build trust under their own name.
Licensing and Updates
Envato wasn’t originally designed around recurring software businesses. As WordPress evolved, developers increasingly needed:
- Software licensing
- Subscription billing
- Automatic updates
- Upgrade paths
- Customer management
WPBay includes these features as part of the platform. Developers don’t need to piece together multiple services to run a modern plugin business.
Subscriptions and Recurring Revenue
Recurring revenue changes everything. Many WordPress businesses have moved from one-time purchases toward yearly subscriptions. WPBay supports both approaches.
You can offer one-time purchases, recurring subscriptions, multiple plans and upgrade paths depending on what fits your product. This gives developers more flexibility when building sustainable businesses.
Marketplace Traffic
This is Envato’s biggest advantage. It’s one of the largest digital marketplaces in the world and has spent years building an audience. If your only goal is exposure, that’s difficult to ignore.
WPBay is still growing. We’re not going to pretend otherwise. The difference is that WPBay was built exclusively around WordPress plugins and themes, with the goal of creating a marketplace where developers aren’t just another listing in a massive catalog.
Which Platform Is Better?
Envato may be a good fit if:
- You want access to a large existing audience
- You don’t mind marketplace restrictions
- You’re comfortable building inside someone else’s ecosystem
- You are focused primarily on exposure
WPBay may be a better fit if:
- You want to build your own brand
- You want stronger customer relationships
- You want modern licensing and subscription tools
- You want a marketplace built specifically for WordPress
- You want a platform designed around developers rather than around the marketplace itself
Why I Built WPBay
I didn’t build WPBay because I dislike Envato. I built it because I experienced the limitations firsthand.
For years, I sold products on CodeCanyon and relied heavily on the platform. It helped me get started, but it also made me realize how little control developers often have over the businesses they’re building.
WPBay is my attempt to create the marketplace I always wanted as a seller. A place where developers can sell WordPress plugins and themes, build a reputation under their own name, keep more of what they earn and develop lasting relationships with customers.
If that sounds like the kind of marketplace you’ve been looking for, I’d love to welcome you to WPBay.