Paid plugins should be labeled as such in the extension manager. I don’t mind paying for extensions but the click bait needs to end. How many plugins have I installed to do a simple task only to find you have to pay to use it. Again, I have supported many developers and paid for their work but it is the bait and switch I don’t like.
SketchUp should have a standard for this and start requiring those residing in the warehouse to follow the standard. Free is free, Trial is trial version and and Paid Download is as it sounds. It’s 2022 SketchUp, you can do it!
This is not click bait, it’s a technical limitation. The EW only displays a price for extensions sold via the EW.
Trimble takes a 30% cut, so many of us sell licences outside of EW. In that case, there is no option to display a price or mark it as a trial.
The ability to do so has already been requested several times by developers.
Same here, dislike them (so called) “clickbate extention” also.
As soon as an extention offers a free trial period, it is marked as an free extention.
Would also preffer the label ListingPage or simply Payed $…, and mention the free trial period in the description, for these kind of extentions.
Just for the record the Medeek extensions (Wall, Truss, Foundation and Electrical) are paid extensions. I work on these extensions full time and revenue I receive from them is my only income source at this time.
This is a technical limitation with Extension Warehouse. Sadly only extensions sold by Extension Warehouse are currently marked as payed extensions. There is nothing individual extension developers can do to fix it, as this is how Extension Warehouse is displaying the content. Hopefully we’ll get more resources to fix Extension Warehouse one day.
Nathaniel, I really appreciate your extensions. I was referring to those you would think would be free that do one thing like flatten, you download them only to find they are not. I think most people would not expect your extensions, which you spend full time on, to be free I am not expressing the desire for all extensions to be free by no means, only there to be transparency so we can decide before installing them.
To make it even more confusing, some of those “free” extensions state that there are in-app purchases.
Outside the EW this means that you get some limited functionality with the free version and can buy some more if you so wish. But there is always something you get with the free version. No so in this case.
I agree 100%
Not only does Trimble takes 30% but worst yet takes 3 to 4 months to pay developers!
Because of this, I’m currently working on developing my own licensing system using Gumroad API for selling my SketchUp Extensions/Plugins.
Here is my wishlist for the Extension Warehouse
Pay developers faster using Stripe or Paypal (4 months too long and is a Critical FIX!)
Take less than 30% or better yet take 0% (Without some Extensions people will not use SketchUp and Trimble should reward developers rather than take from them.)
Allow for discounts (example: Cyber Mondays, Black Fridays, etc.)
I mean… The last time I checked, the Extension Warehouse requires submitting a new RBZ file & 3 days or more for approval… just for changing the price of the Plugin…WHY!?
The Analytics for Sales is just a CSV file. Do better ‘Extension Warehouse’ by presenting the data in a visual way.
Allow developers to sell subscriptions as Software as a Service (SAAS). Sometimes building an Extension require constant support and development which justifies a subscription model. This can be done with Stripe API.
And, to solve the problem of OP… Allow setting a price for Plugin even if not using Extension Warehouse licensing API.
Allow developers to sell subscriptions as Software as a Service (SAAS). Sometimes building an Extension require constant support and development which justifies a subscription model. This can be done with Stripe API.
Yes from my point of view this is critical.
the EW needs to work like an App Store.
We can install extensions through EW, so why can’t we add them to our Subscription License and pay for them each year as a bundle?
The cost of installing an extension to company involves time to:
download and test the extension (read the manual, figure out if it’s a good tool).
purchase the software (going through our Manager for purchase approval, then to our IT staff/contractor to check that it’s safe, followed by Accounts to pay the invoice).
install to numerous sketchup users
test and update formal company workflows, resources or manuals
train staff on how to use it
keep records of the license and the method of subscription/purchase, so it can be maintained each year/SKP version (with numerous sketchup users and regularly changing staff, this becomes a challenge).
For a simple extension that costs something like $20 per user this type of admin is crazy…it may cost us $500 (in time) to administer, with no guarantee that the team will adopt it as intended (or, it becomes redundant).
When you add up the myriad ways that extensions are licensed, and the fact we have 30+ extensions per user…it gets to be a headache and a half!
This is an area where Trimble could invest in the process and earn MORE MONEY from the EW! Surely you want to make it as easy as possible to BUY software!?
…and put more $$ in the pockets of Extension developers…which improves SKP through better extensions…which earns even MORE money for Trimble!
