Pretty much like a theme marketplace, a WordPress plugin marketplace is where WordPress developers can sell their plugins. The benefit for you is that you can choose from a range of different plugins, and only opt for the ones that best fit your needs. Creative Market, CodeCanyon and MOJO Marketplace are three of the most popular such marketplaces out there. Which one is best? Today we compare them:
WordPress plugin marketplace comparison: MOJO, Creative Market and CodeCanyon
Creative Market
Creative Market has always had a reputation of being more of a designer’s domain and less about code. This, indeed, is true. You will find more graphics, fonts and stock images here than WordPress themes or plugins. But that does not mean WordPress is left out unrepresented.
Basically, Creative Market has a recently added and sparsely populated WordPress plugins section. As of now, it claims to have “40 plugins from independent creators”. Very clearly, the focus of Creative Market is on WordPress themes. Plugins are yet to be given the driver’s seat.
That said, the catalog is not something out of the ordinary. You can have “coming soon” plugins for $10 or a JigoShop to WooCommerce migration plugin for $50, and so on. However, all products in this WordPress plugin marketplace are GPL. You do not have to pay extra for proper support either.
You should consider looking at Creative Market WP plugins’ section if you aren’t looking for a niche-centric plugin. “WordPress plugin for wedding websites” is probably not what you can find here. However, if you are looking for a clean-coded shortcodes plugin or a simple WooCommerce extension for a fraction of the price that you might find elsewhere, Creative Market is the place to go!
In other words, you may not find many GPL-ready $5-$10 WordPress plugins on Creative Market.
- Visit Creative Market – WordPress Plugin Marketplace
CodeCanyon
CodeCanyon is the world’s leading WordPress plugin marketplace. It is Envato’s division for code, plugins and extensions, pretty much like ThemeForest is for themes and templates.
CodeCanyon has an ever-growing and versatile collection of WordPress plugins, with over 4,700 plugins as of now. Based on research conducted by Freemius, the marketplace grossed over $70,000,000 since 2009, processed 2.3 million plugin sales, and has a growing community of 7.8 million members. Popular entities such as Visual Composer, Slider Revolution and many others are available on CodeCanyon.
You probably might have heard that ThemeForest themes tend to be over bloated and often provide functionality that should belong in a plugin (you can read more here). CodeCanyon’s WordPress plugins too suffer from this problem, albeit to a lesser extent. One will find more drag and drop builders and page composers here than one can count. Fancy animations, notification bar plugins, excessively bulky plugins – everything is here.
But of course, that should take nothing away from CodeCanyon. In a collection of thousands of WordPress plugins, there are bound to be some bad ones. Numerous amazing and useful WordPress plugins can be found here. In simple words, your search for premium WordPress plugins should begin at CodeCanyon simply owing to the large collection of plugins.
Note that not all products in Envato’s marketplaces are GPL. Some might come with a custom proprietary license. Therefore, be sure to double-check, especially if you intend to use the plugins on multiple websites or tweak/edit them.
- Visit CodeCanyon – WordPress Plugin Marketplace
MOJO Marketplace
MOJO Marketplace, the third entry on this list, has been around for quite a while. However, it has never been the leader in its league and has, more often than not, been overshadowed by CodeCanyon and Creative Market.
MOJO Marketplace has a decent collection of WordPress plugins. In fact, popular sellers such as WooThemes can also be found there, and it seems like a great place to find WooCommerce addons and extensions. Plus, MOJO Marketplace also has some free plugins on offer.
Among other things, MOJO Marketplace seems like a good place for beginner-level buyers. You can hire premium WordPress installation, setup an maintenance services. It also offers one-click installations of various CMSs (including WordPress, obviously) so if you are not on a managed web host, MOJO Marketplace’s offerings can prove helpful for you.
However, on the downside, MOJO Marketplace’s collection is fairly small. It still is, comparatively, larger than that of Creative Market (speaking purely of WordPress plugins). But Creative Market has added WordPress plugins to its list only recently, whereas MOJO Marketplace has been offering them for years now.
In fact, you won’t find many “MOJO exclusive” WordPress plugins; but you surely can find many “Envato exclusive” WordPress plugins on CodeCanyon. Naturally, MOJO is probably not yet ready to be anyone’s first choice for WordPress plugins. However, to be fair, it does have some nice surprises, such as a premium inventory management WooCommerce extension for free.
- Visit MOJO Marketplace – WordPress Plugin Marketplace
Conclusion
So, which WordPress plugin marketplace is the best?
The answer is not simple and varies on the basis of your needs. CodeCanyon does have a large collection of plugins, so it is only natural if you pick it as your favorite. However, in terms of post-sale support as well as GPL-friendly nature of content, Creative Market has always had the upper hand.
Creative Market sellers tend to be independent shops and can offer better and personalized support; buyers can also leave “comments” on products even before purchase, pretty much like a blog post. Thus, Creative Market acts more like a “community” and less like a marketplace.
Furthermore, both Creative Market and MOJO Marketplace do not have a large assortment of WordPress plugins. So if you fail to find a specific plugin there, CodeCanyon is surely the way to go!
Lastly, amidst all of these plugin marketplaces, it does not make sense to forget independent plugin makers that sell their products on their own shops. Many developers, including us – ThemeIsle – offer a wide array of premium WordPress plugins, and if marketplaces aren’t your preference, you should surely give the independent plugin shops a try!
Which WordPress plugin marketplace do you prefer – Creative Market, CodeCanyon or MOJO Marketplace? Share your views in the comments below!
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