No More Begging for Approval – My Goodbye to CodeCanyon

Envato Customers Web and Code
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Hello dear authors and buyers,

Over the past 10 years, many new authors may have found success on CodeCanyon… but today’s reality is very different. If you’re a new author now, rejection feels inevitable, no matter the effort or innovation you put into your product.

Let me share my story — because I’m done.

:puzzle_piece: Product 1: Easy HRM (2023)

I created and submitted Easy HRM with basic features, documentation, and structure. It was soft rejected first — fair enough. But then it was hard rejected due to an XSS vulnerability. I accepted the feedback, improved the entire project, and submitted it again.

It was rejected within 1 hour.
No feedback. No chance.

:puzzle_piece: Product 2: Easy Ticket (Mid 2023)

A complete helpdesk/ticketing solution. I had spent months on this.

Result? Rejected in just 5 minutes.
No time for a proper review. It felt automated.
That was my first real shock.

:receipt: Product 3: Invoice Generator (2025)

I worked even harder.
I asked fellow authors for feedback, improved based on every suggestion, and polished the design, code, and documentation.

Still, after 5 days — hard rejected.

:link: My Demo: https://invoice.codehunger.in/
:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: Compare With Existing Approved Items:

These approved projects offer less features, weaker UI, and incomplete documentation, yet they’re live and selling.

:bullseye: The Harsh Truth

At this point, I’m convinced:
It’s no longer about the product. It’s about who reviews it.

There’s no consistent “standard” anymore.
It feels like a game of luck, not merit.
CodeCanyon has turned into a black box for new authors, with no room for growth, learning, or fair review.

:man_raising_hand: My Goodbye

I’ve spent years building, learning, and believing in this platform. But I can’t waste any more energy trying to crack a system that doesn’t reward effort or quality.

To new authors:
:backhand_index_pointing_right: Believe in your skills.
:backhand_index_pointing_right: Build your own platforms.
:backhand_index_pointing_right: Don’t depend on a gatekeeping system.

Goodbye CodeCanyon.
My hard work deserves better.

1 Like
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@codehunger

That’s sad that you feel this way. Clearly you have been on the platform for several years and had knockbacks which have been hard to understand. However, the marketplace receives a lot of submissions every day, and yes it’s quite possible some of those items fall through and do not get approved. I wish you well on your future, but I believe that this is still the best marketplace around, and rejections are hard, but there also have been many successful authors who work hard, and continue to achieve.

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I totally agree, but sometimes those authors are just older or maybe their products got selected by chance. If I were to build any product in the future, I would definitely start by looking at already submitted products for ideas—that’s exactly what I do when working on invoice generators.

A great man once said: If you work hard, opportunities will find you. But if opportunities are never given, even the hardest work can be overlooked

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I mean, CodeCanyon traffics are a joke anyway, before, it was guaranteed that you’d have a sale at the first day, now, after a month, still no sales with lower and lower traffic everyday.

Best thing to do, start your own marketplace, you may get luckier. Good luck.

1 Like