Great plugin, WAY overpriced

This is definitely a must-have plugin for my projects. Clients always ask for these features and Admin Columns is the go-to “you’ll want this”. Usually the right way to go about this is to sell your client on the plugin that you recommend and they sign up for it and pay the amount themselves for their own license. (Not sure if you’re talking about a web development shop or not)

I’m the lead developer of Pods, and I just contacted the Admin Columns team to ask if they would make the Pods add-on available for the Personal plan level. This would be fantastic for Pods because there are many people who build with Pods but only have one site. I’m not sure if your case here is for one site or more, but the pricing on this plugin is definitely worth it in terms of functionality and support.

Think of it this way — have you ever donated to or paid for Pods personally? Or at your work? It’s a free plugin — and that’s totally fine! But if you wanted to see more features developed and you are making money off of the solutions you build with Pods, you might consider donating to help support the growth of Pods. That goes for Admin Columns Pro here but you aren’t just supporting the free/pro product, you’re also getting features they work hard to maintain support for on third party plugins which all differ vastly in their implementations.

I know we spent a good deal of time going back and forth with Admin Columns support for Pods. Their team is in charge of supporting that and helping their customers do even more cool things with their features. That’s a pretty awesome deal that I love to support.

Maybe reconsider your rating here, or perhaps reconsider the way you value free over premium solutions and how those free solutions can continue to survive without time/resources from those who develop it. It means the world when people see the value in your product, and determining what is overpriced is all about the perspective you have of the work that goes into those products.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Scott Kingsley Clark.

I know the value of software development, I’m a developer myself – just not into WordPress development full time (I solved my need with code BTW). It’s not either about getting everything for free – as I said, we (at work) spend whenever is needed. Personally I like to pay for the products I use provided the price is fair: for example, I pay gladly for GeneratePress Premium (the theme, three years so far) as it offers a TON of features for a great price – and for unlimited sites.

But I can totally understand developers segmenting their products into free and paid features, I just happen to feel that paying $99 for the pro version of Admin Columns that is overly expensive. And I think I was cautious stating that the product *is* very good, but the price is not right for me. It would be better if the lower plan includes Pods compatibility, leaving the other two for several sites and unlimited sites.

And one more thing: the US is not all the world; where I live and for some of the clients I work, adding 99 bucks to a project *can* make a difference.

I will increase my review to three stars, perhaps two was a bit harsh.

@ogalinski – totally agree. I don’t think the issue is whether Admin Columns is a good(great) plugin. For me, the 2 questions I always ask are:
– is the freemium version at least usable？
– is the pro plan reasonably priced？

In the case of Admin Columns:
– the freemium version is essentially NOT usable, although it gives you a sense of what the pro plan might do.
– $49 per year (for just the personal plan) is way overpriced for a back-end function.

Consider that really powerful pagebuilders like Elementor are $50 a year and provide substantially more value than Admin Columns. And products like Duplicator provide fully usable freemium options.

Someone will see the gaping hole in this marketing plan and write a reasonable alternative.