Hey there,
I think the product review process has some major flaws. For example, you can build a well-coded WordPress plugin that’s intentionally minimal—focused on speed and aligning with WordPress’s UX—and it can still get rejected. The worst part? They don’t tell you why. Instead, you’re just told to ask other authors for feedback. But even in these forums, most replies are guesses—“it might be this” or “maybe it’s that”—so you’re left in the dark.
In my case, I suspect my plugin might have been rejected because I didn’t include a demo. But the demo field is marked as optional, and I thought reviewers actually tested the plugins themselves. If that’s not happening, what’s the point?
I also came across a post here about traffic being down, and I can’t help but wonder if the review process is part of the problem. It feels like potentially great products are being rejected before they even get a chance to shine.
I’m planning to give my plugin one last shot, maybe. I’ll tweak the design, add a couple of features, and set up a demo site. But honestly, it would make a huge difference if Envato just gave clear, specific feedback when something is rejected.
Thanks for reading—I just wanted to share my perspective.
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If it was related to demo, you should be getting a notification about adding one.
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Here’s a page about the plugin that was rejected. It’ll continue to be enhanced. I won’t be resubmitting it here since the rules say I can’t anyway. But, that’s OK. I create to share cool things that are helpful to certain people. I’m now thankful that this market didn’t want to sell it. There’s a long history of unhappy people (sellers and buyers) here at Envato/CodeCanyon. It’s for the best. To the sellers sticking it out here, I wish you the best and hope the company behind this market makes improvements for your sake.
https://wilcosky.com/collector/
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You cannot re-submit the rejected items
There’s a difference between minimal and lacking premium attributes.
Even if a demo is optional, not having it would massively reduce any potential sales
When someone creates a collection you should be offering different layout options, styling etc for the post types to add more value
It may be only because you were rejected but if you are going to be an exclusive author then you need to get rid of the page telling people to contact you to buy it
There’s several free alternative plugins that do a very similar thing and anything new needs to offer something to warrant people to pay for it
I understand your perspective and the reasons behind the decision. However, I made updates to the page after the initial rejection. When I search the WordPress plugin repository for terms like collection or collect, it’s not immediately clear that there’s a plugin available for creating collections with custom fields in the way mine does.
The review process can feel highly subjective at times. I’ve purchased items here that were buggy, clunky, or eventually removed from the marketplace. Similarly, there are free plugins that offer functionality comparable to premium ones sold here, and often, I find myself preferring the free alternatives. What qualifies as “premium” is clearly open to interpretation.
That said, I think a more open marketplace could lead to increased sales for everyone. For example, even if a free plugin exists for something as simple as creating buttons, someone might still prefer to pay for a plugin that meets a very specific need or offers unique functionality. If that’s valuable to them, it’s a win for everyone involved.
Unfortunately it is unavoidably subjective.
There will always be bad apples in any marketplace but opening up the market and lowering review restrictions would inevitably drag the standards down further, reduce sales for everyone (more crowded marketplace = harder for items to be found), increased costs/resource at envato’s end would have to be catered for somehow.
But, it could be better if they reviewed things more like the WordPress.org repository where the reviewer will reply and say something like, “you need to prefix your functions.” You fix, submit, and it’s approved. WordPress.org is able to do this will all volunteers. And probably not many volunteers.
The Envato/CodeCanyon review is more of a mystery. Why was something rejected? Could it be the simplicity? Did I forget to escape something? Do I have a security flaw? Is the reviewer having a bad day? Will a plugin similar to mine get approved next week because it’s a different reviewer? You just don’t know.
Because of all of this, I still say the review process is broken. But, if Envato has not seen declining sales and feels like the way it is works, then it is what it is.
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They do it if it’s soft-rejected. For hard-rejected items, they are not entitled to provide details for you/to you.
What you’re offering can be managed via some free plugins by the way.
Which plugins and would you need one or multiple? And would the verbiage be tailored to collection management? Would it be easy for a beginner to change verbiage and get things set up to manage a collection of items?
Existing products on CodeCanyon can many times be handled by free plugins. I don’t think that should be a review criteria if it is one.
I’m also adding the ability to search through the collection item details soon and will continue to enhance it. I’ll probably end up offering it for free to anyone who stumbles upon it.
I think my original points are very valid. If Envato employees ever read this thread I hope you at least consider a general review of the review process. Make sure you weigh whether or not more products could equal more sales.
You’re trying to sell an item that can be managed by free plugins and there’s no “proper” features with it. Don’t get me wrong but even if you upload that item to WordPress.Org for free, I don’t think you’d be able to give-away to lots of people, the logic from the “plugins” is not good.
Apart from that, just because your not good quality item is rejected, you cannot claim the review process. It’s not fair to those authors spent lots of months to build a plugin with lots of features and good design - still got the rejection.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on that. You don’t know what the quality of my plugin is. What it does isn’t done by any current single free plugin. It’s niche, and maybe wouldn’t get a ton of sales, but it’s not low quality. In my opinion, the plugins here are at times too bloated with styling and effects that the author thinks are premium. But, it’s just extra code that can slow things down. When I create things for WordPress I like to stick with how WordPress is designed as much as possible.
It’s really okay though, you don’t need to reply again because your replies are not helpful and are leaning towards rude.
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