In the continuing saga of the “did they/didn’t they” and “will they/won’t they” matter of changing WordPress plans and pricing, here is the latest.
Those of us who, over the past few days, have been trying to decipher whether or not WordPress is going to be changing from its free plan plus four paid plans to a scaled-down free plan and one relatively expensive “Pro” (for professional bloggers) plan, have been receiving responses from WordPress that have been at best, unclear, and at worst, contradictory. But it seems that the correct answer is yes, eventually.
In my latest exchange with WordPress, I asked, “So does this mean that the plan I’m on (Personal plan) will disappear and that if I want more functionality than the free plan offers (e.g., no ads, more media storage), I’ll have to upgrade from the Personal plan at $48/yr to the Pro plan at $180/ yr?”
Here is the Happiness Engineer’s response, which includes a happy face.
Yes, you are correct again! 🙂
Though, we have no timeline yet as to when we will totally remove these legacy plans: Personal, Premium, Business and eCommerce. You could still continue to renew your existing plan through the Upgrades menu on your dashboard.
Okay. That sounds pretty definitive to me. The current paid plans — Personal, Premium, Business and eCommerce — are going, going, gone, but no date has been set for their departure.
Thus, at some point down the road, you will either have a free, limited functionally option or a $180 a year profession/business option with all the bells and whistles you’d need to run your own e-commerce site.
As a hobby blogger who has no aspirations to turn my blog into a money-making machine, I have no need for most of those bells and whistles. But once my current Personal plan expires next January, I will have to decide if I want to go to a limited-functionally free plan or pay a lot of money for features I have little use for. And so will you!
I suggest that, for those of you currently on a paid plan, you should renew early, because it seems that once the folks at WordPress set their timeline for this migration, if you want to stay with WordPress, you’ll have to either lower your expectations or empty your wallet.
This, That, and the Other 
Crap. I guess that would mean they’d keep my URL alias, too?
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Your domain is a separate payment, to keep your URL. I think its 18 dollars a year for that. X
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But the new Free plan excludes domains so maybe linking back to it won’t be possible. (?)
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No you will need the pro plan I think if you want a domain 🌸🌸
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😒
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Or maybe they’ll let you pay $18/yr to use your own domain with the free plan.
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I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what they do with current users paying for existing plans.
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It seems 180 dollars is a lot. But its less than the business plan currently which stands at 300 dollars. I’m on the personal plan, and I have almost a full year left before I upgrade. I will probably end up upgrading, I know it seems pricy but if it includes all features including space to store photos and videos then it is worth it to me. xoxo
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I don’t know if I’d spend $180. It’s significant, but I can afford it. I’ve been putting out feelers re Blogger and most don’t seem too interested. Blogger is easier to use re formatting posts and such, but you will get fewer views and engagement (no likes!,) and for those obsessed with “vanity stats” (Rory’s term), that will be a big adjustment. You need to have a blogroll there and actually visit people’s pages instead of scrolling through a feed. So… I don’t know. Thanks for following up on this, F. I didn’t think the tech articles I’ve seen in the news would be wrong, and according to this latest from you, they aren’t.
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I tried Blogger when I was protesting against the imposition of the block editor here at WordPress. I wasn’t impressed and I have since fully embraced the block editor. I would like to see WordPress offer an addition option (maybe a mingling of the Personal and Premium plans) for those of us who don’t need all of the features of the Pro plan, but want more functionality than a scaled-back free plan. And, of course, for less than $180. How about $90?
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Sadly I can’t reblog this. My blog is free so it looks like mine will eventually be reduced capacity unless I want to pay for extra. Ain’t gonna happen.
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I had the same idea of early renewal.
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That’s how things work, apparently. (There was s change of orientation somewhere in the eighties.) It’s the cable television model, in my mind. I remember daughters of the younger of my dad’s two older sisters going on about this television plan, coming soon, that was going to have no commercials. You would give up your free broadcasting coming through your antenna for this. Well, cable tv had no commercials at first.
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https://www.ethics.org/resources/free-toolkit/ethics-timeline/
………….
Ethics and Compliance Program Developments
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977
Business ethics as a discipline is in its infancy
Increased discussion of ethics and the importance of being “values centered” instead of merely adhering to the law
1980s
Ethical Climate
The social contract between employers and employees is redefined. […*] Corporations downsize and employees’ attitudes about loyalty to the employer are eroded. Health care ethics emphasized.
Major Ethics and Compliance Issues
Bribes and illegal contracting practices
Influence peddling
Deceptive advertising
Financial fraud (savings and loan scandal)
Transparency issues arise
Ethics and Compliance Program Developments
Creation of the U.S. Code of Ethics for Government Service (1980)
General Dynamics establishes the first business ethics office (1985)
Defense Industry Initiative established (1986)
Some companies create ombudsman positions in addition to ethics officer roles
False Claims Act (government contracting)
1990s
Ethical Climate
Global expansion brings new risks. There are major concerns about child labor, facilitation payments (bribes), and environmental issues. The emergence of the Internet challenges cultural borders.
Major Ethics and Compliance Issues
Unsafe work practices in third world countries
Increased corporate liability for personal damage (cigarette companies, Dow Chemical, etc.)
Financial mismanagement and fraud
Ethics and Compliance Program Developments
Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (1991)
Class action lawsuits (e.g., Pacific Gas & Electric, Tobacco Master Settlement)
Professionalization of ethics function; launch of Ethics Officer Association (EOA) in 1992
Transparency International releases its first annual Corruption Perceptions Index in 1995.
ERC conducts first national survey of state of ethics in US companies.
In Caremark Delaware Chancery, court rules board members can be held personally responsible for lack of oversight of organization’s ethics.
IGs requiring voluntary disclosure Royal Dutch Shell International begins issuing annual reports on their ethical performance.
Global Sullivan Principles (1999) engage corporations in fight for human rights and social justice.
2000s
Ethical Climate
Unprecedented economic growth is followed by financial failures. Combination of excessive risk-taking and lack of effective controls destroys high-profile firms. Personal data is collected and sold openly. Hackers and data thieves plague businesses and government agencies. Acts of terror and aggression occur internationally, including 9/11 in the US. Great Recession takes a toll on faith in U.S. economy and institutions. Workers, whose parents experienced layoffs 20 years prior, are less loyal to companies and frequently change jobs, resulting in knowledge loss and increased competition from rival firms.
Major Ethics and Compliance Issues
……………
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The thing that bugs me the most is seeing my blog okay on my app but when clicking on world view the ads are all over the place even disrupting a three line haiku. I’ve tried changing my formats etc but it seems there is no way to keep this from happening and now they want to charge more?😡
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Are you saying you pay for no ads but that advertisement removal only occurs or is experienced when within the app access?
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I have a free account. I only pay for my blog name. But ads especially gross ones I see everywhere now are disturbing
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Got it. It’s certainly the case that a poem (and especially one with just three lines) shouldn’t be cut into with an ad. Plus, they do have gross ones; for sure.
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It would be helpful for them to have a lower-price option (lowered, yet, from now) to simply not be so garish with the advertising (but still have some).
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I have noticed ads have taken in gross photos and themes that are sickening on phones and tablets. I do not watch regular tv anymore either. They are a big business like any other that will do what they want for profits. It’s always about money
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Yep. Even though it’s for money (and they squeeze more and more), they wouldn’t (and don’t) likely want to blatantly admit — by offering two options with advertising at different levels of annoying — that they’re purposely selecting and placing such pictorial themes, purposely setting them in the midst of what someone would want to be reading and seeing for visiting a site in one said option. (To be more clear, really to clarify the quite unclear, in my earlier wording… the less-expensive than now would be the presentation approach they currently have as you described, and the current level (improved but with ads) could be {but, of course, it won’t be happening} a very small bit better to bring in more paying customers. But then there’s the question of how many additional paying customers would be interested compared to whatever is paid, in total, by the icky advertisers.)
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(I am apparently just too distracted to be writing, today. That still didn’t come out right.)
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Yes, it’s called capitalism.
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I’ll have to think about it and it looks like there will be some time to do that. I don’t see myself paying $180, but maybe I will go for the cheap version, pare down the peripherals, and keep it to writing with minimal graphics. Not ideal, but I’m not interested in moving to another site.
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Maybe they’ll change options yet again if enough people complain.
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Thanks for staying on top of this. They keep trying to get me to upgrade.
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Mine renewed a few days ago, and I paid £15. Not sure if it will be the same next year, but definitely this year it was fifteen.
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All I can say at this point is “ugh”. A lot to ponder before my next renewal; thank you for looking into this, Fandango.
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Mass exodus? 😡
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That’s my advice too. Renew early and buy yourself from time. Even so it is hard to know what to do. There doesn’t seem to be any company offering something similar to what we once had with WordPress. Blogger does not sound satisfactory and while you could have an independent website of your own with, for example, Wix, the community would not be there. I don’t want to lose that.
I don’t think the free plan would suit me. I use a lot of photos. Sure, I could store them elsewhere but after nearly 9 years I have a huge back catalogue stored here. What would I do with those? The $US180 would be a lot for me to manage in one hit though. I hope that WP does offer a plan inbetween the free and business as you suggested. That would work for me although I’m afraid that many of the people I follow and who follow me might not be here anyway. I also hope that they offer a monthly or at least quarterly payment option.
I don’t really know what to do now but I do know that I am not ready to stop blogging.
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It’s a shame that WordPress seems bound and determined to screw up a good thing.
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Sorry that should have been buy yourself some time.
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👍
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Just thinking some more about this… it might be possible if four or five like-minded bloggers were to come togather. Say four poets work together on a poetry site, or something.
That said, I would hate to give up 100% control on my own site. I just got burned from my other site because of this. At $50, I can shrug and write it off to experience. At $200 it’s more of a concern.
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I’m poking around other options. I don’t like either choice and frankly, I can’t afford it either.
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I guess eventually is open ended but it really does imply we are still working out the details and any changes still a ways away. I certainly implies more than 5 days from now. I am using the free level and noticed the Upgrade button changed on the My Site page so I clicked to see what was up. Now the upgrade screen only has two options Free with 1Gb storage and Pro with all the upgrade benefits and 50Gb storage for $20 a month. All the other options are gone.
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Mine still shows the legacy plans.
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Yeah, I just checked the mobile app and it still has the old plans. I don’t like the desktop app so I use WP direct from the browser, it’s the browser version showing only the two plans.
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I use ONLY the mobile app (iOS) on my iPhone.
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Decisions, decisions…
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