We've spent the last year building what started as an internal WordPress/Gutenberg platform for our own client projects.
The goal wasn't to build "another block plugin." It was to solve the problems that kept wasting our time.
A few of the things we focused on:
Every developer building things differently.
Rebuilding the same blocks for every project.
Small design changes turning into hours of work.
Clients accidentally breaking layouts.
Inconsistent quality across projects.
We've built solutions for those, along with things like performance improvements, automatic schema, reusable components, and a few other agency-focused features.
Now we're at a crossroads.
Our long-term plan is to build a marketplace of professionally developed blocks. That marketplace will eventually be subscription-based, but we're considering offering a small number of lifetime founding licenses to agencies that join early and help shape the platform.
Here's the dilemma...
We've reached the point where we need to decide how to take this forward.
The long-term vision is to build a marketplace of professionally developed Gutenberg blocks that agencies can install instead of rebuilding common components. The marketplace will eventually operate on a subscription model because new blocks will be added and maintained continuously.
One idea we're considering is offering a limited number of Early adopter licenses. Those agencies would make a one-time payment, receive lifetime access to the marketplace, and help shape what gets built first.
If you were in our position, what would you do?
Would you approach it differently?
I'd genuinely appreciate honest opinions from agency owners and developers. If you think this is the wrong approach, I'd like to hear why.
Top comments (2)
the internal origin is a strong signal, because it shows the blocks solved real delivery pain. before choosing lifetime licenses, i would run a small paid pilot with a few agencies and measure setup time, client edit errors, reuse across projects, and support hours. keep lifetime access tied to a clear version and support policy, then use the pilot feedback to decide which blocks deserve ongoing subscription work. this gives agencies a real test and gives you evidence for pricing.
Thanks, that's helpful. The internal origin is exactly why we think there may be value in it. It was built to solve problems we kept running into while delivering client projects.
I agree with measuring outcomes rather than just collecting opinions. Setup time, maintenance effort, client editing experience, and reuse across projects are all things we want to validate with real agencies.
One thing we're still thinking through is the Early adopter model. Our long-term vision is a subscription-based marketplace where we continuously add and maintain professionally built blocks. The idea behind the Early adopter agencies is that they'd make a one-time investment and receive lifetime access to that marketplace, while also helping us decide what should be built first.
That's the part we're trying to get right... finding a model that's fair to both the agencies and sustainable for us.