Where to Buy & Sell WordPress Themes & Plugins in 2024?

Looking to sell WordPress themes? As the popularity of WordPress grows, so does the demand for WordPress themes. As a result, it’s no surprise that an increasing number of web developers are converting to WordPress developers in order to pursue this lucrative niche. 

If you’re one of them and you’ve just finished creating your first WordPress theme, you’re probably wondering, “Should I sell my WordPress theme on a marketplace?”

It makes no difference if you are a novice or a seasoned designer. Regardless, selling WordPress themes on the digital marketplace will surely benefit you.

Advantages of Selling on a Marketplace

There are several benefits to selling your goods on a theme marketplace, including:

1. It’s a time-saving solution that’s easy to get started with. Nothing has to be made from the ground up. From creating an account through your first transaction and payment, which are also handled by the marketplace, there are only a few steps. 
2. Already built trust and a large number of visitors – markets have already created the trust and attracted a large number of visitors. As a result, with very little work, you can get your theme in front of potential buyers.

Disadvantages of Selling on a Marketplace

Marketplaces, unfortunately, have some drawbacks as well. Among the most frequently mentioned are: 

1. Today’s popular marketplaces are crowded platforms, making it challenging to stand out. 
2. You may not have access to some extremely vital data due to specific regulations and terms of use. It may be difficult for you to depart and comprehend the true state of your firm without this knowledge. 
3. Your target audience grows in lockstep with you. It could be difficult to depart and begin selling on your own eCommerce site.
4. There will be no brand recognition. Since they purchase your theme in the marketplace, customers will most probably remember the marketplace, not your brand.

What Makes a WordPress Theme Successful?

The premium WordPress product industry has grown in strength over the previous few years. 

Top developers can now earn six figures or even seven figures per year by selling premium themes and plugins. This has resulted in a flood of new items hitting the market, as well as a slew of new developers vying for a piece of the action. 

Unfortunately, many of them are let down by sales that fall far short of their expectations. It’s fairly typical that the time and effort put in never pays off, and a great product fails to sell successfully. So we put this list to help you have an idea what are the things that make a successful theme to sell in the market. 

1. Define and remember your vision and goals, prioritize objectives, and decide how to achieve them. If you’re working in a group, be patient, experiment, collect feedback, and divide tasks. To get the greatest results, find the ideal combo. Your theme’s success is built on a solid business strategy. You’ve already taken the first step toward marketing and promoting your theme by investing your time and energy in it.
2. Theme and plugin markets have been extremely competitive in recent years, and the only way to succeed is to offer some original ideas or solutions. It doesn’t have to be something completely new; it might be something that has already been done but in a more user-friendly or better-designed manner.
3. WordPress developers go to considerable efforts to ensure that everyone is on the same page. CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and HTML are all covered in the coding manual as they relate to the WordPress platform. Following best practices throughout your development process will help ensure that your new theme is well-documented and functioning. This is a win-win situation for everyone concerned, and it helps you create loyalty and trust as a theme developer.
4. Provide a demo site, with a separate demo page for each of the features that your plugin or theme will offer, and link them all together; create video and text overviews, and don’t be afraid to repeat some of the material.
5. Even if the theme you’re planning to sell is a premium one, it’s always a good idea to give something away for free to your clients. Allowing users to check out your product is a fantastic method to market it. To be successful in the market, you must have people’s trust and credibility. The free version is a tried and true method of spreading the word about the theme. This is how you can persuade your audience to upgrade to a newer version with more features (if you have a premium version as well). You can still give something without asking for money, whether the theme is free or paid.
6. You should utilize all available methods to explain to existing and potential users every aspect of your plugin or theme, including each checkbox and button, what they do, how to use them, and so on: this will save both you and the users a lot of time in the future.
7. Plan a promotion for your product. You can just Hire professionals for promotion, it will save you time and effort. 
8. Users often provide a lot of feedback to plugin and theme creators in support requests, comments, etc. and while some of it is just emotions, there is a lot of it worth paying attention to, so don’t dismiss it. That’s the greatest method to figure out what has to be improved, what features should be included, which parts of the interface might be unclear, and so on.
9. Set a routine update and improvement with your product. The most popular themes are those that have been developed over time and are continually updated with new features and are compatible with the latest WordPress version.

Now, you know the things that make a theme successful. We can now go through the list of marketplaces that are best in selling your theme designs. 

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is an online marketplace run by Envato that allows you to purchase and sell HTML templates and themes for popular content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Static templates and themes for various content management systems are among the items available. 

The price of an item is determined by the file’s complexity, quality, and intended purpose; the overall price also includes a Buyer Fee. According to Alexa, they are among the top 1,000 websites in the world, with millions of monthly visits. They are without a doubt one of the largest marketplaces of their type with a thriving community of web designers and developers.

It’s no coincidence that ThemeForest has a reputation for high-quality themes and templates. During the evaluation process, ThemeForest adheres to very strict quality requirements to ensure that the themes sold there are only of the highest quality.

Pros

• If you’re starting a web design business, Envato gives you stability and confidence in your bright future.
• Every month, Themeforest has a large number of people who visit their website.
• You have complete freedom in applying prices for your product.

Cons

• Envato’s criteria are very high, and they occasionally alter too abruptly, so you’re likely to get several rejections.
• If you want to compete on Envato, you’ll have to put in an extra marketing effort to get your themes seen.

Visit ThemeForest

Template Monster

TemplateMonster is a digital marketplace for one-of-a-kind and inventive items. Template Monster has established itself as a credible theme and template marketplace that accepts a diverse variety of contributions from external designers and contributors. The major purpose of this marketplace is to provide the best possible conditions for digital product creators and to encourage them to publish more of their incredible creations.

The Template Monster marketplace now has over 30,000 products available, with more on the way.

Pros

• Exclusive authors earn 50% at first, up to 70% once they exceed $100,000 in total sales.
• For the first three months, new authors receive the entire 70% discount, which is a fantastic benefit for getting started with their platform.
• The TemplateMonster marketplace has over 6 million potential customers, making it an excellent resource for both novice and experienced site designers.

Cons

• Approval has a 2-3 weeks interval.

Visit Template Monster

Mojo Marketplace

Mojo Marketplace is a subsidiary of the Endurance International Group. They integrated this marketplace and products into the greatest hosting platforms available through Endurance.

WordPress plugins may be found in abundance on MOJO Marketplace. In fact, well-known suppliers like WooThemes can be found there, and it appears to be a good spot to look for WooCommerce modules and extensions. MOJO Marketplace also has a few free plugins available.

Pros

• Mojo Marketplace also has a lot of traffic
• They have a lot of helpful instructions and articles for vendors.

Cons

• You don’t have control over placing price for your product

Visit Mojo Marketplace

Codester

Codester is a Dutch-based creative digital marketplace that was designed to meet the needs of aspiring developers, designers, programmers, and anybody else interested in the sector. It’s an online marketplace where users may purchase and sell any web development materials. 

The site first went up on May 10, 2014, and has since grown to become one of the most well-known digital markets. There is little doubt that it has a solid basis and will continue to grow over time, with new users signing up every day. Codester is well worth a look if you’re wanting to buy or sell pre-made scripts, design materials, or any other app or web-related components.

Pros

• As non-exclusive authors, exclusive authors will receive 70% flat of total sales. 
• Payments are handled at the end of each calendar month and paid out by PayPal or Payoneer on the 15th of the following month.

Cons

• It will take two weeks for items to be approved.

Visit Codester

WordPress Repository

WordPress Repository is a website that allows you to upload and sell your WordPress themes and plugins. Your theme and plugin will go through a screening procedure, following which you will be able to see data on how many times your WordPress theme/plugin has been downloaded, as well as feedback and ratings from users.

Pros

• This is where you may first publish the Lite version of your WordPress theme/plugin and learn the fundamentals of the business.
• It is a great platform to introduce your product to the market.

Cons

• It only handles the free version. 

Visit WordPress Repository

Creative Market

Creative Market is an online marketplace for design elements created by the community. Web designers may buy graphics, WordPress themes, stock photography, and other digital items from the company. Creative Market offers over a million users and over 250,000 things for sale.

Pros

• It doesn’t need to renew an old listing
• You can sell your files right away because there is no approval process to go through.
• There are no restrictions on exclusivity.

Cons

• Creative Market takes a huge commission.

Visit Creative Market

Etsy 

Although vintage jewelry and apparel come to mind when thinking of Etsy, you can sell much more on this one-of-a-kind marketplace. Etsy’s rules state that anything sold must be vintage, handmade, or craft supplies and WordPress themes fit squarely into the handmade category.

Pros

• It has a low price listing charge of only $0.20.
• It has only an approximate 8% commission for payment processing transactions when selling themes here.

Cons

•  There is no automatic renewal. You need to make sure a listing is renewed as soon as it’s sold or a customer looking for it may not find it.

Visit Etsy Website

GrayGrids

GrayGrids is a marketplace where you may download and publish free, premium, and freemium HTML5 Bootstrap Templates and WordPress Themes. It is a user-friendly, comprehensive, and intelligent marketplace that allows anyone to sell and download items.

Pros

• Authors will exclusively receive 60-80% of total sales. 
• Payments are handled at the end of each calendar month and paid out by PayPal or Payoneer on the 15th of the following month. 
• It only takes 7-10 days for items to be approved.

Cons

• It’s still a new marketplace platform

Visit GrayGrid

WrapBootstrap

WrapBootstrap is a marketplace where designers may offer their own Bootstrap-based themes and templates. This marketplace was built to fill that void by allowing designers to post and sell their own Bootstrap-based themes and templates. Sellers can sell their things under one of the various usage licenses and earn a percentage of each transaction.

Pros

• A seller receives between 50 and 75 percent of the entire sales price. You will receive 35% of the sales value as a non-exclusive seller. 
• HTML5 templates take three weeks to review, whereas WP or E-commerce templates take two weeks.

Cons

• There is no support system.

Visit Wrapbootstrap

Where do you sell your WordPress themes?

When it comes to determining which marketplace is best for your themes, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You’ll need to decide if you want to be an exclusive vendor on a certain marketplace or if you want to keep the option of selling your products elsewhere. 

Another thing to think about is whether you’re willing to create a free, basic version of your theme. This will allow you to provide your free version on specific marketplaces and earn clients’ confidence as they learn more about your products – an investment that will pay off handsomely.

Wrapping Up!

Designing a high-performance theme entails not just creating an appealing design, but also selling it effectively. Working with a marketplace has numerous benefits, ranging from attracting a larger audience to saving the author time. 

People should get along with such mundane tasks as securely receiving payments, taxes, software licensing, transactional emails, managing subscriptions, automatic upgrades, and so on when doing it outside of an online market. You can delegate all of these tasks to our staff and concentrate on the creative process. 

Both novice and experienced authors will benefit from joining such a store. As a newbie, you should start from scratch, create niche-specific items, acquire professional reviews, and hunt for optimization advice. Your theme will also be put on the top-rated list! Let us know if you have any dilemmas, we’ll try our best to help you! :)