Hey everyone,
I want to benefit of this short week which we still have this forum and I want to ask the opinion of you guys on a new project I started.
I’m a long-time CodeCanyon author, working on WordPress plugins, and over the past year I’ve been working with my cofounder, Stefan, on a project called WPBay. It’s a new marketplace for WordPress plugins and themes, built around the things we always wished existed on CodeCanyon.
Right now it’s focused purely on WordPress plugins and themes because that’s where we have the most experience, but the goal is to keep it community driven and fair for sellers.
I’m not here to pitch, but I would genuinely like to hear your thoughts as fellow authors. If you could start from scratch and design a marketplace today, what would it look like? What features or policies would make it worth your time to join? What would make you trust it enough to list your work there instead of, or alongside, your current platforms?
I know everyone’s experiences are different: some value faster reviews, others care more about fair pricing models, better licensing protection, or stronger community engagement. For us, building WPBay has been about trying to get those fundamentals right from the beginning, but the perspective you guys, the people with experience is invaluable.
So if you’ve got a vision for what an author-friendly marketplace should be, I’d love to hear it.
Your feedback would be incredibly valuable! Give me anything: ideas, suggestions, critic or even tell me that the idea of WPBay will fail. Any feedback is welcome!
3 Likes
I don’t think the main problem is listing our work, as in the end, if someone wants to share what we made, they’ll buy it and share it for free on other platforms.
I created an account and, currently, I’d find it hard to proceed with the Verification.
What type of regulations and security details do you have in place in order to safely store our National ID and any other data-sensitive information?
I love the idea, and that’s a nice WooCommerce platform, but I’d work a bit on the regulations part.
If possible, look into some third-party companies that could do that for you, so you won’t need to process any sensitive data.
At the moment, we are working on implementing strict compliance measures to align with GDPR and other relevant privacy regulations. All data, including any potential ID verification documents, will be stored securely, with restricted access only to authorized personnel.
Also yes, integrating with custom secure storage providers is a great thing to have, i noted to look into this.
I appreciate you bringing this up, and I agree, having the right security and regulatory measures in place is just as important as building the marketplace itself. Thank you.
That’s really good to know!
The only reason I asked about this is that I want this new marketplace to work 
I’ll keep an eye on it, and maybe I’ll start adding some new stuff there as Codecanyon seems to go down.
Looking forward to review and approve your work! 
1 Like
If you’re serious about scaling a marketplace to any meaningful size, the first step is to set aside the (honourable) emotional motivations for starting it and adopt a clear, realistic business perspective.
This is a highly reactive space, and as you grow, you will need to invest continually to maintain things.
That means being realistic about resources. Even smaller marketplaces have dedicated teams of category specialists handling narrow aspects of the business. Envato, had entire teams focused on individual functions. Based on your posts and site, it sounds like initially you intend to personally manage everything from reviews to dispute resolution. That’s simply not sustainable and will lead to problems.
Avoid trying to please everyone. For example, subscription-based offerings work for marketplaces that own the products. But if a buyer pays for a year and the creator stops maintaining the service, you’ll inherit that problem immediately. This is one of the main reasons Envato, despite their size and resources, avoided individual item ans supported subscriptions.
Above all, prioritise experienced, category-specific in-house legal expertise. A few generic T&Cs will not protect you, especially when you consider complexities like financial regulations, cross-border payments, and data privacy laws, to name a few. Partnering can be a viable option, but it demands significant time and budget.
These are just a few of the many critical considerations. I understand the desire to return control to creators, but if you want to avoid the same challenges that others face, emotion has to take a back seat to strategy and operational realism.
Good luck
Thank you for these tips, I saved your message to the ideas list for WPBay, as it is valuable.
Appreciate your time writing this!
I agree with FuseScript about problem with verification.
What I first notice as problem on your marketplace is that there are no sales.
Your focus now is on authors and their priorities, you created forum for authors and that is very nice of you. But what is your strategy for marketing and increasing sales?
Honestly I think new code marketplace would get customers and sales only if and when Themeforest and CodeCanyon are closed.