As a subscriber to Elements (for over a year), I have stuck with it for the WordPress themes and plugins, and now we are told that it is only for annual payers? That’s crazy and pretty underhanded.
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The goal of pricing is to lock-in subscribers for longer periods of time. We want subscribers to sign up in the first place and see enough value in the subscription to stay for a very very long time. These goals are wins for both authors and Envato. That’s always been the goal of our pricing strategy.
Limiting access to annual subscribers seems like a step backward, though. As soon as I read the line about the required annual subscription, my first question wasn’t, “What value do I get out of this?” but instead, “How little confidence do they place in the value of their services that they require a user to commit to a year?”
I like and support Envato’s connecting me (subscriber) to content (value) — got a really well-crafted email for EnvatoTuts about a PHP course.
Let’s be real. I won’t watch that course for at least three months with my current schedule. Haven’t really used a thing from Envato Elements yet either. I’ve been holding onto the subscription because I’ll support the service knowing that one day I’ll get value out of it.
The annual lock-in though? Seems desperate. Like, my feeling looking at that update page is dang near the same as the one I’d get seeing a box of condoms and a needle in the same drawer.
Any chance Envato will drop this restriction?
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I get the ‘protection for the authors’ thing but there are MUCH better ways of supporting content authors —
- better connecting buyers/subscribers to authors (I’m much more inclined to keep supporting if it means supporting the individual I know better)
- licensing restrictions for certain WordPress items for authors that would prefer them placed onto monthly subscribers
- better ‘positive reinforcement’ options, like a “thank the author” item on the download page?
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Hey folks,
Matt here with a round of answers to some of the questions that have been raised.
It’s a fair question. At this stage, the plan for Envato Elements is to have two-tiers of pricing moving forward: a monthly price and an annual price. Whilst some item categories may exist only on the annual plan, it’s important to note that both libraries will continue to grow. Furthermore, it’s unlikely that we would migrate categories that currently exist in a monthly subsctiption into an annual subscription.
This is something that we have discussed internally. We may potentially look to roll something like this out in the futur. We don’t have a timeline around it at this stage.
Hi @tevfiksirin. Subscribers don’t get purchase codes when they download items from Elements. There are different ways in which purchase codes are used in items: we’ve deemed some uses ok for Elements items (even though subscribers can’t use them) and some not.
For example, it’s not ok for a WordPress theme or plugin to require a purchase code to unlock any functionality: looks, special features etc.
It is ok for an item on Elements to use the Envato Market plugin or have some sort of auto-update feature, even though these generally require a purchase code. You will still be able to update these items manually when they have been downloaded from Elements.
It’s probably important to emphasise: Envato is a community with two sides.
There are the customers who use the items and the authoring community that create them. The role of Envato is to provide value for both sides of the community, balancing the need to provide value for money with the authors need to be fairly rewarded for their work. This new pricing tier allows us to introduce different types of products that may not be fair to roll out under the monthly plan.
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What elements means?? just graphics, then why are you adding all site templates, themes?? are you planning to change the name instead of elements? are you planing to close themeforest??
I have installed Nex-Forms plugin and I get the following message:
WTF does this mean? Seriously. I am paying and I can not use the plugins, and even worse, I get an error message. Plugins were my motivation to pay.
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@kevinmamaqi That doesn’t look right - could you send me a private message with that item’s URL? I’ll ask our content team to take a look at it.
Okay, thank you for your interest.
I have a clear understanding of the situation.
{ Everything is possible in this world,
Perhaps one day,
Element users only have one license, and they can use this license for all products (worpress themes and plugins),
a plugin like envato-market plugin will suffice to establish the link between them 
)}
Best regards
Does Elements mean ‘just graphics’? It had just graphics when it first started, but the name was never really related to the content, unlike the names of the individual marketplaces.
As for closing ThemeForest… they didn’t close GraphicRiver, so it’s unlikely.
Many plugins and themes require licenses to be able to use it, Matt might have said is not ok, and I understand the developers, pirating is a problem and that helps solve somehow a problem but it’s not ok, many times I had the need to test the theme or the plugin and that kind of alert rubs me the wrong way, why? i need to test if it will work on my site properly, that it won’t break anything, some of those plugins don’t have a way to “de-register them” so they are like a first time use and you are screwed. many of your PREMIUM PLUGINS are like that, aren’t they like checked for best practices by a knowledgeable staff before being approved? JUUUUUST saying. nothing new there, the way i see it many things will have to be changed to make that plugins and themes section work, but at least you started something new and that’s a good thing, good luck. maybe what tevfiksirin mentioned could be used for that purpose.
I agree, I think early adopters should be rewarded with the extras.
I like many cannot afford to stump up over $200 every year but can afford the monthly fee, I got in early to avoid a higher rate later.
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You just answered the question in a way that says you might/likely will change pricing or packages later without considering your Subscribers.
At this stage, I don’t know if I will continue my subscription, like many others. This is a stab in the back to those who have been loyal and the trust we had in Envato has been*broken. I hope that you can reconcile the damage done before we leave the service for another. Many of us have brought referrals with us to Elements and we will bring them with us to the replacement of Elements.
@matthewcoxy, How can you repair the broken trust that has been caused? What assurances are there that something like this will not happen in the future to those of us that have been with you from the beginning? Why should Envato/Elements keep our business? And what is Envato/Elements going to do to keep our business?
If you don’t have answers then perhaps the community will. Unfortunately, it will likely not be the answers you hope for.
I agree. It’s BS. It would be nice if they actually responded.
Kkick’s comment was posted at 11pm Melbourne time… and it’s currently 5am Melbourne time. Just so you know.
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I agree also. I have spent a lot of money for many years with you guys. Adopted Elements from the start and now feel a little annoyed that I have to pay for a year up front to get access to stuff that was said would be added down the road in the beginning. Any new customers I could see that, but people who have been faithful for over 5 years spending money with you should not be forced to do this.
Although the Envato team edited my post 4 hours ago. They could have responded then. They removed part of my reply that was requesting alternatives to Elements from other members. This post might get removed/edited also.
Our community rules prohibit the listing of competitive marketplaces. That was why your post was edited.
Thanks!
We are still awaiting for an answer about this change for early adopters.
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I haven’t been a Elements member for as long as some of you all have but I have been using Envato in some iteration for many years. While it may seem “insensitive” if a business cannot afford an annual payment as low as the one being offered then the business should “bank” the total amount monthly then they will have it. No difference in how much it actually costs that way.
While it may be irritating to some people how things are being implemented, Envato is a business just as many people on here are. They have to protect themselves financially just as many of you do. The length of anyone’s subscription does not constitute some of the “salty” posts I have seen on here. Threatening to move just because of the way an implementation of a new service is handled says more about a person than they think. While some companies have different tiers based on subscription length expecting special treatment because of it isn’t very becoming.
The low annual price that is being offered here pales in comparison to what you would spend on themes, elements, and plugins individually. The addition that it’s unlimited as well makes this a great deal. Plus if you subscribe at the lower price that is still your price from here forward even when new people subscribe after this promotion at a higher price.
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