WordPress is looking a little desperate these days.
Not a week goes by without some email exhortation to upgrade my plan.
“30 percent off Cyber Monday!”
“Hello Black Friday!”
Still, I did appreciate seeing a recent commercial for WordPress on TV.
Rival Wix has dominated the airwaves in the last year, promising easy, breezy, cheesy websites with just a few clicks. It almost seemed as if WordPress was holding its nose, acting as if it was above shilling to the masses.
Now I’m starting to think everyone’s favorite platform that powers 32 percent of the Internet (and isn’t that figure oddly specific, WordPress?) is cash starved.
Consider the latest enticement that dropped in my inbox:
“Limited time offer”
Aren’t they all?
“Lock in your current WordPress.com plan prices”
Of course, the only reason you make an offer like that is if you are jacking prices, and WordPress is.
As of Dec. 19, domain registrations will no longer be part of plan renewals. So if you’re a premium plan member, to renew you’ll pay the usual $99 fee plus $26 for the domain name.
But if you renew your plan before Dec. 19, you’re covered.
A 26 percent rate increase and for what? Granted, for most people, it’s still nominal, but it’s just such a blatant cash grab, I’m disappointed in WordPress. And yes, I’m aware how ridiculous it is to have faith in any corporation these days.
But I like WordPress. I really do. As far as web platforms go, I consider it the easiest to navigate with the most features and the Best People on it. I’ve met online so many fascinating people here, all so passionate and knowledgable, from cooking to meditation to travel. I’m constantly recommending WordPress to others who are curious about web publishing and might otherwise be intimidated about staking out their own inch on the Internet.
I made it a point to chat up online one of the Happiness Engineers (now that’s a job title) about the price increase. Of course, they don’t view it that way, but the techie did confirm renewing now will not alter or reset your regular plan renewal date. You’re just paying early for your 2019 renewal at 2018 prices.
And who knows if WordPress will be so generous to users next year or if it will find some other charge to break out – maybe storage or heck, even that spam filter.
The timing is terrible – just days before Christmas. But that’s all the more reason to think somebody at WordPress is desperate to pump the books with some extra cash before the year ends.
Mark Perigard 
I shouldn’t complain, as I have used WordPress for three years at no charge.
Still, I’m disappointed that they didn’t offer the “snowflakes falling” option during December as they have in the past. Their excuse that they’re too busy doing other tasks strikes me as ridiculous. (It is offered with the premium sites, I think.)
I have encountered a few interesting people on WP, and I now maintain my site solely so I can interact with that small circle of…. can I really call them friends? And if the WP price is going up, I don’t envision myself ever upgrading.
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Brian, one of the things I do appreciate about WP is that the company is constantly innovating – granted, some of that is probably just pressure from rival companies. It is now easy to monetize your site, something that was pretty much impossible when I joined just a few years ago.
And I think you can call the folks out here whatever you want. That remains the strength of this platform – you can be as engaged as much or as little as you desire or have the time for. I appreciate the random browsing through WP that takes me to the most unusual sites.
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