Extensions versus plugins?

Hi @jenzgaard!

Good question! You can read more about the differences here:

https://www.codeproject.com/Questions/84928/PlugIn-Vs-Extension

Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions.

Cheers!

Hi @rynald0s , thx for the suggested link, but I’m not sure it even relates to WordPress?
Nevertheless, the differences seem to be very technical; I think users do not care about the inner workings of a plugin/extension.

But to cut through the speculations, which I should have seen myself earlier – when creating a WooCommerce developer account you agree to these terms: https://woocommerce.com/developer-developer-agreement/
I.e. it’s all about revenue sharing. How obvious is that ??

Also, it would have been nice to see your obligations (section 4) being an endorsement through collaborative testing or the like, e.g.: https://wpml.org/documentation/plugins-compatibility/ (I have no relationship to WPML).

May I suggest, either show that the plugins you put on display (not just those you have developed) in the Marketplace come with some benefits as opposed to www.ads-software.com/plugins.
And write 1 sentence in the Marketplace intro that further plugins can be searched elsewhere. Especially potential Shopify users not knowing to look for plugins will think how few plugins/extensions there are.

And to answer my question in the first posting, there is none ??

To summarize, I don’t want to mess with your pricing or go-to-market policy but from an end-user point of view, it just confuses without any explanation.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Brogaard.

Hi @jenzgaard –

If I have a choice between e.g.:
https://woocommerce.com/products/newsletter-subscription/
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/newsletter/
and we assume that they both fulfill my requirements, what does it implicate that they are on 2 different “official” WordPress sites? Is it endorsement, technicalities or what?

www.ads-software.com (the second link you shared) is a repository for free and open source WordPress plugins. Those are plugins that generally are not created by WooCommerce’s in-house developers.

The extensions listed on the WooCommerce Marketplace are extensions (basically plugins) that either WooCommerce developers or our partner developers have developed. We have a screening process for extensions submitted by our partner developers. Also, when you purchase an extension from the WooCommerce Marketplace, you receive 1 year of updates and support from the Happiness Engineers at WooCommerce.

Hi @m155y5, thx for replying.

Those are plugins that generally are not created by WooCommerce’s in-house developers.

Not so much… https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/search/woocommerce+automattic/

… are extensions (basically plugins) …

My point – it’s confusing for newcomers to call them extensions without telling your audience that Automattic happens to call them something different. Each platform has a wording for addons and they will think, is that all.

We have a screening process…

Great, but what does the screening do? What extra benefit is it compared to www.ads-software.com?

…you receive 1 year of updates and support…

No difference compared to many plugins.

Besides, again referring to the developer agreement (section 2), it says:

…that, for as long as this Agreement is in effect, we have exclusive rights to sell the Products, and you agree not to offer the Products for sale on any other site, without our approval,…

You/Automattic on the other side have all your extensions/plugins on www.ads-software.com?

Double standard?

As a long time WP user I want WC to succeed but I think Automattic has taken a confusing, an unfair and excluding approach in regard to extensions.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Brogaard.

Hello @jenzgaard

Thank you for clarifying more on the confusion between Plugins and Extensions. In most cases, the word “Plugins” is used for both Plugins and Extensions. The difference between them is a bit more nuanced though. Plugins are used to add functionality to a WordPress site. In the case of WooCommerce that is, as you know, eCommerce functionality.

An extension is technically also a plugin but has a dependency on another plugin. A good example of this is the Stripe Payment Gateway. It is a plugin that extends the core WooCommerce plugin, allowing the store to accept credit and debit card payments through their Stripe account.

We also don’t offer all of our extensions on the www.ads-software.com Plugin Repository. There are many premium plugins offered on WooCommerce.com that will allow things like Subscriptions, Memberships, and many other product types. I hope this helps! If you have any further questions please feel free to reply to this thread and one of us will get back to you. Take care!

It looks like you may have found a solution to this. I am going to mark this as Resolved at this time. If you have another issue please feel free to open a new post. ??

Thanks!