In my last blog titled “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?  Paid vs. Free WordPress Plugins” I compared free WordPress plugins to paid WordPress plugins.   But there is a way to have your cake and eat it too!

There are many plugins out there which utilize a model known as the “Freemium” model.  This is a amalgam of the words “Free” and “Premium”.   What this model plugin provides, is the perfect way to try before you buy.

Plugins using this model have a Free and a Paid version of their plugin.  Usually the free version has limited functionality compared to it’s paid version – but enough functionality to give you an idea that it works and is useful for you.

Another variation on this model is one where the primary plugin is free, but extensions (or plugins for the plugin) are available for an additional charge.  One of the most popular examples of this is a very popular (over 12 million downloads) shopping cart plugin called “WooCommerce”.  This is an amazingly powerful shopping cart plugin, which allows you to turn your WordPress site into a complete eCommerce solution.   But they charge for the extensions for additional functionality, so you can buy only the additional functionality you need.

An example of these extensions would be interfaces to certain payment processors, interfaces to shipping carriers, connections to other marketing programs etc….

>> Joshua Pettit is Lead Developer and Project Manager at Sunrise Marketing.  http://www.sunrise-marketing.com/