Paid Memberships Pro: A Plugin Pricing Success Story
The Journey from Free to $100K Monthly Revenue
If you’re a new WordPress plugin developer wrestling with pricing decisions, the story of Paid Memberships Pro offers valuable lessons. When Jason and Kimberly Coleman launched their membership plugin in 2011, they faced the same uncertainty you might be experiencing now.
The Colemans stood exactly where you stand today – talented developers with a valuable plugin but unsure how to price it for sustainable success. Their journey from that uncertain starting point to building a $100,000 monthly revenue business proves that you’re not far from finding your answer. Keep reading to discover the specific steps they took that transformed their pricing strategy from guesswork into a proven growth engine.
Starting Simple: The Free Plugin with Paid Support Approach
The Colemans began with a straightforward approach: offering their plugin for free with paid support plans. This entry strategy allowed them to build a user base while testing the market’s willingness to pay for additional value. Rather than guessing at what pricing model might work, they started where they were comfortable and let market feedback guide their next steps.
What Makes Their Pricing Strategy Worth Studying?
What makes Paid Memberships Pro worth studying isn’t just their success but their thoughtful approach to pricing evolution:
- Initial Strategy: Free plugin with paid support
- Strategic Shift: Transition to annual pricing model
- Continuous Refinement: Regular testing of pricing approaches
- Patient Growth: Deliberate price adjustments based on business maturity
Rather than rushing to implement pricing changes, the Colemans went two years without a price change before carefully implementing an increase. During this transition, they respected existing customers by offering legacy pricing options.
The Fear of Raising Prices: Navigating the Two-Year Plateau
Despite the success of their initial pricing model, the Colemans faced significant fears during their two-year period without a price change. As Kim Coleman later revealed in a WP Minute podcast, “Raising prices is scary, especially when it’s going really well.” They worried about disrupting their momentum and potentially losing customers who had come to expect their pricing structure.
What ultimately gave them confidence was their commitment to experimentation. They began running controlled pricing tests before making permanent changes. As Jason shared in an Art of Value podcast, they learned that “if you are using different [pricing] methods, you will notice that certain prices become a sweet spot.” This data-driven approach helped overcome their emotional resistance to change.
When they finally raised prices in July 2015, they added a second pricing tier at $197/year (up from their original $97/year level), offering additional value with automatic updates for add-ons. The result? Not only did they maintain their customer base, but they also discovered they were able to capture an additional $100 from most customers without any significant pushback.
How They Avoided the Common Pricing Pitfalls
Unlike many WordPress plugin developers who jump straight to lifetime licenses or drastically undervalue their work, Paid Memberships Pro recognized early that sustainable growth required sustainable revenue. They avoided the temptation of quick cash from lifetime deals that would have created long-term support burdens without corresponding income.
Reaching $100,000 Monthly Revenue Through Deliberate Evolution
By 2020, this measured approach to pricing helped Paid Memberships Pro reach approximately $100,000 in monthly revenue. Their journey demonstrates that pricing isn’t a one-time decision but an ongoing process that evolves with your business. Each adjustment was made with clear intention rather than reactive panic.
What Can New Plugin Developers Learn From This Success Story?
- Start where you’re comfortable: The Colemans began with a simple free plugin plus paid support model that aligned with their initial goals of building market share. As Jason Coleman explained, they were initially “going after market share and didn’t want to hinder its initial growth,” so they started with a comfortable $97/year support plan while making the core plugin free.
- View pricing as a process: The Colemans’ journey shows how pricing evolves over time. They began with one simple tier, then added a second tier at $197/year two years later, and continued refining their approach as they learned more about their customers’ needs. As Kim shared, they’ve been “always experimenting with pricing” throughout their business journey.
- Respect your early customers: When the Colemans finally raised their prices in 2015, they protected existing users by “offering legacy pricing” to early adopters. This approach allowed them to increase revenue while maintaining loyalty from the customers who supported them from the beginning.
- Test methodically: Rather than making pricing changes based on hunches, the Colemans built systematic testing into their approach. Jason even created “an add-on to run A/B pricing tests” to determine which prices converted better, allowing them to make decisions based on real customer behavior rather than assumptions.
- Trust the data, not your fears: Despite Kim’s admission that “raising prices is scary, especially when it’s going really well,” the Colemans discovered that by adding their higher-priced tier, “they were selling more and getting a higher average revenue on sales, without any pushback from customers.” The data proved their fears unfounded.
- Align pricing with sustainability: The Colemans’ shift to annual subscriptions reflected their understanding that one-time payments wouldn’t support ongoing development. As Jason noted, they realized “it costs more than $47 to service a member,” so focusing only on acquiring more customers at low prices wasn’t sustainable for their business model.
Beginning Your Own Pricing Journey With Confidence
As you map out your own plugin pricing strategy, remember that even successful businesses like Paid Memberships Pro started with simple models before evolving to more sophisticated approaches. Your initial pricing doesn’t define your future—it’s simply your starting point on a longer journey toward building a sustainable plugin business.
The Colemans’ most valuable lesson may be this: pricing experimentation isn’t something to fear but to embrace. By regularly testing different approaches and making data-driven decisions, you can overcome the anxiety that keeps many plugin developers trapped in unsustainable pricing models.