The Automattic Inc-owned self-publishing platform WordPress.com announced price changes in its plans and that has not gone down well with the users.
WordPress.com users are expressing their confusion and frustration and calling out to the concerned authorities for clarification regarding the changed prices. WordPress.com now has a single Pro plan in place of its paid plans. There is also a significant reduction in the storage on its free plan from 3GB to 1GB. The Pro plan costs INR 1150 per month but can be billed only annually. This has made a few users upset as the previous plans had the option to spread costs out monthly.
Responding to the outburst of users, WordPress had started a thread in WordPress.com Forums to know the feedback from members regarding the new price changes. In the thread, the Forum staff has clarified that:
- The new plans will apply only to the new sites created after March 31, 2022. Those who were using the free site created before the pricing update are free to continue with the free legacy site or switch to the new Pro Plan.
- The plan and price change is intended to offer straightforward pricing, and fewer plans to make it easier for customers to make a plan selection and give access to custom plugins and themes on all paid plans which were previously available in the old $25/mo Business plan.
In its blog post, WordPress has introduced the new Pro plan as one plan with infinite possibilities. Giving the users a range of capabilities in its Pro plan, WordPress has also mentioned that the free plan will continue to stay, and users can leverage it to put up their posts. Although there are changes to the free plans, it has been said that the existing sites will not undergo changes and continue to operate as before. Only new signups and sites will be seamlessly integrated into the new Free and Pro plans.
Users still have doubts and are demanding clarification and giving feedback on the new plans and pricing models. The WordPress team is also updating the developments based on feedback in the Forum thread so that users can understand the plans better.
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