Pricing Feedback
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I NEED MORE SPACE!
I have been with WordPress for 11 – THAT’S ELEVEN – Years, and have recently begun noticing assets from years back have started to disappear or become inactive.
Without warning, I have lost more than a decade of assets.
I sometimes use my blog as a storage backup for my photography images, and now there are many just gone.
This has affected my ability to use my blog as a professional online portfolio too.
I can deal with SO many other glitches and stuff but not the loss of so THOUSANDS of assets.
Please find a way to enact your plans that gives legacy plan users a chance to make alternative arrangements then.
Right now, you are decimating years of loyalty, credibility, and hard work.
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I think, if I was a WordPress employee, I’d be making sure my LinkedIn is up to date and keeping an ear out for further opportunities. There’s trouble at the top, and some eejit thinks squeezing the pips out of many previously ‘happy with what they had’ customers, dressing it up as ‘simpler’, is the way forward.
I’d just started a new hobby blog a couple of week ago, for a laugh, for enjoyment, in fact, as as a hobby don’t you know, and as I don’t want readers pestered by ads, intended to run it on the personal plan… after a few starter posts, came to do the deed today… bugger.
So if I have understood this correctly, from £50 odd a year to be reasonably happy, to £180 a year for stuff I don’t need, just to lose the ads? Nah, you’re alright thanks. Cheers. -
What is this “visit limit” you’re referring to? I’m confused… So we get nothing, or everything, but now we’re capped on some number of visits our sites can receive? What’s the number?
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Wordpress is shooting itself in the foot with this mess in my opinion. I’ve got several .com’s on this platform that I have recently set Personal and Premium plans to expire because I haven’t had the time to work on these websites. My mission was to kill the plans for awhile, but keep the domains for them, and then upgrade again in the future so that I could reassign the associated .com to them once I’ve had time to build these very low traffic websites up some more. That isn’t going to happen now. I’m not paying $180 a year for .com’s I’m accustomed to paying $48 or $96 for. You can forget that. I’ll be letting the .com’s expire as well, and will just move whatever content I have on them to my main website, and will then just delete all the other websites. This is ridiculous.
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I’m sad and concerned to see the plan/price changes and disappointed in how they were unexpectedly launched without notice.
Being constructive, I would be very surprised if a middle tier/plan option was not offered. Only a free and pro tier is too limiting; there must be a balanced option around the middle, like “small, medium, and large.” Three plans is reasonable and feasible, being neither too simple nor too complex.
The new free plan is too limited in features. I think the top feature many (most?) hobby/personal bloggers like me find missing is the custom domain followed by no ads. A minimum of $15 per month to remove ads and use a custom domain is a bridge too far. Also, I was interested in upgrading to the former Premium plan so I could customize my theme; this feature could be in a middle tier.
WordPress would gain more money from the many free subscribers who would upgrade to a middle tier if one was available within reach. And the high volume of middle tier subscribers would offset its lower cost compared to the Pro plan.
That said, after several loyal years of subscribing and investing my time and money in WordPress with my blog (not earning a penny), I’m glad my paid Personal plan can remain, but its now “legacy” status feels a bit tenuous and jeopardized. Because of this and the unsettled (ongoing) and unsettling plan/price changes with their poor optics, I’ve already transferred my custom domain away from WordPress to Hover, and I’ve been seriously considering alternative content management systems.
I hope and trust that WP’s new plans will soon be adjusted to meet the needs of most (customers before investors) while remaining simple and accessible.
Thank you for consideration. Jason McFadden at Jason Journals.
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Apparently, this is the official statement with a fine tuning. Nice points:
– No traffic limits on either the Free or Pro plan. You’ll enjoy the same unlimited traffic you’ve always had.
– The new Free plan storage limit will include 1GB of Free storage, and existing Free users will keep the 3GB they already have on hand.
– Additional storage will be available for purchase at a very reasonable price, very soon.
– As-you-need them add-ons for both plans, to give you a la carte upgrades. Coming soon.Not sure about what happens to the legacy plans:
[…] if you’re on one of our legacy plans, nothing will change unless you want it to.
What happens at the first renewal? The legacy plan (Business, for instance) stays forever at the old price, or there’s a migration to the new Pro plan?
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I renewed my Business plan, which had two months remaining, as a Pro plan yesterday. They gave me credit for the months remaining on the old plan, and this is costing me much less than before.
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Right after I posted my thoughts above, I noticed WP just officially announced the plan changes. Nice.
Seems like WP has already incorporated some of the user feedback, which is good. WP is listening.
I still wonder how “stuck” I am with my legacy Personal plan.
I still strongly believe there should be a middle tier plan.
I really hope some top features become a la carte on the free plan: custom domains and ad removal.
I hope theme customization also becomes a free plan a la carte option.Thank you, WP.
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Coming back to this thread now that I saw the official announcement to give additional feedback. Thank you for getting that announcement out there quickly after receiving our feedback. I do feel as if you took into consideration what we had to say.
- Highly approve removing all traffic limits for all plans – thank you!
- I approve giving new free accounts at least 1gig of storage – this is better, thank you!
- I approve features and storage being available a la carte – but will need to see your plans for this before I can say how well this works for me and other small bloggers.
- I get the idea that legacy accounts will be left alone unless we want to change things – if so, I approve.
If the a la carte features turn out to be a better deal than what I’m currently paying, then I will be even more of a happy camper – so I am now eagerly awaiting what you might have to share with us going forward.
Thank you for listening to our feedback and making positive changes. I feel more confident in keeping my hosting in your hands going forward.
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Friends, I haven’t yet been able to go through all of the new feedback you’ve shared while I was asleep, but in case you missed it, I do want to point out some announcements here that I think you’ll like. And they are based on the feedback you’ve shared. THANK YOU :)
We’re listening to your feedback, and want to be clear that it will, as always, shape the future of WordPress.com.
With that in mind, we’re committing to:
– No traffic limits on either the Free or Pro plan. You’ll enjoy the same unlimited traffic you’ve always had.
– The new Free plan storage limit will include 1GB of Free storage, and existing Free users will keep the 3GB they already have on hand.
– Additional storage will be available for purchase at a very reasonable price, very soon.
– As-you-need them add-ons for both plans, to give you a la carte upgrades. Coming soon.
– It’s important that we keep things simple, honest, and clear in everything we do, and we’re looking forward to hearing from you about your plans, feedback, and ideas!
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Congratulations! I’ve just set 8 .com websites along with their plans to expire over the course of this year. You know what you can do with your visit limits and your “Pro” plan. No worries, I’m still keeping a few .com websites, but most likely will move any important content to just my main website, and then put the others on “private” until I decide I actually need to pay for them… which may be never.
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Congratulations! I’ve just set 8 .com websites along with their plans to expire over the course of this year. You know what you can do with your visit limits and your “Pro” plan. No worries, I’m still keeping a few .com websites, but most likely will move any important content to just my main website, and then put the others on “private” until I decide I actually need to pay for them… which may be never.
Of course I didn’t see the news about there not being limits on views now, but still this new “Pro” plan stomps my plans for the above mentioned websites. I’ve now decided, I don’t really need them like I thought I did. Thank you for helping me save money lol.
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This has all been very interesting. I am starting to see the true colors of WordPress, or at least where upper management seems to be steering the platform. IMHO, based on the comments here, if the world were flat, WordPress is just about to sail over the edge.
My website has been hosted elsewhere since 1999. I used to code it myself in HTML, JavaScript, etc. but, in 2019, I converted it over to a WordPress site. Since my website is a hobby site in the strictest sense, cost versus “hobby-grade features” are paramount for me. I was looking to possibly migrate the website to a WordPress domain and scale things back to be more of a blogging site but, now I’m not so sure.
I was looking at saving a bundle of money with some of the now discontinued plans but, with just the Pro plan now in place of the others, at $180 per year, I might as well stay where I am at less than $180 per year for a multi year plan that has better attributes than the pre-March 31st rollout of the new structure.
WordPress has really stumbled on this move. The question is will they catch themselves and avoid falling face first into the wet cement which would seal their fate? Hey folks, don’t forget the small guys. And many of us in this boat probably are not even in business to make a profit. We’re hobbyists! Why don’t you try asking us what we are willing to shell out for what features? Somebody mentioned à la carte choices earlier. Make them bite sized and small in price for us folks with shallow pockets.
Give and take. I’ve always said that charging $100 for something 5 people will pay for us not as smart as charging $10 for the same item that 500 people would pay for. Do the math folks and consider human tendencies. You just might discover that you would come out ahead…
Thanks for your sincere consideration.
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Personally I like the new pro tier. A long time premium user I’d tried business a while back and it was a bit much for what I needed (custom themes) – pro is exactly what I’d been looking for.
Two questions I’d have. One, is it the same infrastructure as business? Rather than the personal / premium / free one? Main thing I noticed when I tried business was the loss of the ‘My Sites’ WP.com banner at the top / Follow button at the bottom so be interested to know if pro loses that too (the replacement plugin wasn’t quite the same as I recall).
The other is will you be supporting switching from a legacy option (e.g. premium) to the new pro?
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Hi there,
One, is it the same infrastructure as business? Rather than the personal / premium / free one? Main thing I noticed when I tried business was the loss of the ‘My Sites’ WP.com banner at the top / Follow button at the bottom so be interested to know if pro loses that too (the replacement plugin wasn’t quite the same as I recall).
WordPress.com Pro is essentially the same as WordPress.com Business in that regard, but with that said, the issue you’re referring to was cleared up a while ago.
The other is will you be supporting switching from a legacy option (e.g. premium) to the new pro?
Not in a user-facing fashion yet, but please contact us separately via https://wordpress.com/help/contact and we may be able to work something out.
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And of course, thanks everyone for the constructive feedback! We’ll continue to make sure that’s passed along. :)
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So, first of all, I don’t think WP users — new or existing — will appreciate being called stupid.
I refer to the fact someone at Automattic thought the old plans were too “confusing” for their users to comprehend.
Opportunistic (meaning, favoring Automattic as opposed to the users), yes. Confusing, no.
I have a legacy plan that I pay for (already with more features than I use) but if I was looking to start a blog right now, the proposed plans would have me eliminate WP from consideration.
And, as far as being able to keep the legacy plan, I remember a time when I was told I could keep using the Classic Editor.
Speaking of which, I also remember when I was told the Block Editor (ptui!) was the be-all to end-all. And more recently, the supposed Site Editor being touted as complete freedom to do pretty much everything one wants . . . as long as one only wants to do limited stuff.
Here’s my feedback in the form of how I buy a car . . . I buy base models because I don’t like paying $$$ for packages with stuff I will never use.
I used to be able to custom order a car with only what I wanted, but once buying was “simplified” I switched to buying the cheapest that I could.
Automattic is showing its true face with this plan, and it’s NOT to “democratize” anything.
Finally, one would think that with more and more users, WP would become cheaper, but, instead, they’re heading the Apple way, milking their users for all they’re worth.
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I knew it was coming to this eventually when wordpress started deprecating widgets and other things with this new Gutenburg and FSE set up. You would create a BS plan option, and it would be the only option, and it’s more of a deterrent than a motivation to start a new paid plan website for people. Do let us know how much business you’ve lost over the next month.
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Wait what? Did I read right? Users can’t directly upgrade from a Personal or Premium plan to the Pro plan as per the usual and simple upgrade process? Why? Why hasn’t your company Worked out all of these things including these non-promise sounding “a la carte” things before shoving this down our throats?
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I am currently on the Premium plan and am curious about the number and quality of themes available if I go Pro. My other blog is self-hosted and there is an excellent variety of themes to choose from.
IMO, unless one is ready to spring for FSE, the offerings for .com themes lack variety since many are retired and/or no longer available.
I understand WordPress wanting to streamline its plans, however, I feel there should be a third plan available, as well. $15. seems pretty steep for hobby bloggers. I pay $96. for the Premium plan and wouldn’t mind paying a little more if I had more options.
The main reason I moved my other blog to self-hosted is that the price was right for the options I wanted.
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