Changes in Business Model and Pricing Structure

After the launch of the theme club back in September 2012 and offering PRO themes and top-notch theme support ThemeZee has gained over 2.000 paying theme club members so far. Although the theme club model has worked quite well and ThemeZee has become a healthy business, there were several downsides of the existing subscription model.

In order to address these downsides we’ve made some important changes to our business model and pricing structure. This goes hand in hand with a shift from our old membership software to a brand-new shop solution (Easy Digital Downloads) to be able to implement the new price structure.

Changes in Pricing Structure

In fact ThemeZee is completely turning away from its old subscription based theme club and does now offer simple single theme purchases. Of course it will still be possible to get access to all ThemeZee themes at once by purchasing bundles.

We’re now offering three different packages:

1. Single Theme Purchases

A single theme purchase includes access to download the PRO version of the purchased theme, unlimited theme updates and 12 months of support.

2. Theme Bundle

The theme bundle gives you access to all currently existing themes, lifetime updates for them as well as 12 month of support.

3. Lifetime Bundle

The lifetime bundle gives you access to all current themes and all new released themes (for a lifetime). Support is also limited to 12 months after your purchase.

Your advantages

Now let’s take a look why you as customer do benefit from the new pricing structure:

Lifetime Updates

Henceforth you will get lifetime access to theme updates for all your purchased themes and do not have to pay yearly fees for updates anymore. We do this because we strongly believe that nobody likes to pay for updates and think that free updates are the most customer-friendly way.

Please note that access to theme support forum is still limited to 12 months after your purchase.

No supscription, no recurring fees

Most users just want to spend a few bucks to get additional theme features and not purchase any subscription which involves recurring fees. Therefore we often got emails with users having concerns about the old membership model. Now that’s history and we do not offer subscriptions anymore.

Your disadvantages

While we think the advantages clearly outweigh any disadvantages we do not want to withold possible downsides of the new pricing stucture.

Increased price to get all themes

In case you only want to use one single theme the price stays the same. However, if you want to download and use all ThemeZee PRO themes at once you now have to pay a higher price compared to the theme club model.

Please note: Since updates are free of charge this higher price has already paid off after around two years.

More complex price structure

While the old club model was a simple “One Price – Get it all” thing we now have different packages which are more difficult to grasp on the first glance. We’ve updated our FAQ to give answers to all your possible questions about the new pricing structure and hope everything is easy to understand.

Our Benefit

We certainly have made these changes to have some benefits as well. As described in the first paragraph we wanted to eliminate some downsides of the old subscription model.

One downside was that every customer was charged the same price, no matter if he/she used just one or several ThemeZee themes. Since heavy users of ThemeZee themes highly benefit from our themes and often sell websites build on top of them to several customers, we think it is very fair to increase prices for the complete access to ALL themes.

To be honest, this is about money and to increase our revenue. It helps us to establish a sustainable business in the long-term and to continue our work on creating awesome WordPress themes.

We also hope that we can attract slightly more customers to purchase the PRO version which were scared away from the subscription model beforehand. Furthermore we’re now able to measure exactly which themes are the most successful ones.

Change for existing customers

If you’re already a theme club member you are certainly curious to learn how this new pricing structure affects your existing membership. It is a matter of course that you will have not any drawbacks with the change in our business model.

Your existing membership will be extended to March 1st, 2015, no matter if it would regularly expire tomorrow, in 4 months or in 12 months. This extension of existing memberships to a fixed date has technical reasons and just makes sure that everyone had access for at least 12 months. That means in case your membership would expire in 1 month you receive 11 months access for free.

During your membership you will still have access to all current themes and also get access to every new released PRO theme. You will get lifetime updates for every existing and every new theme you get during your membership, so no yearly fees anymore.

After your membership has expired in March 2015 you will not get access to new themes released after March 2015 anymore, but will still have access to download your existing themes including free theme updates. In case you want to download and use any theme launched after your membership has expired you have to purchase it by using the normal pricing details then.

If you have any questions, concerns or criticism about the new pricing structure feel free to use the comments section below. Any feedback is highly appreciated.

Have a nice weekend!

Thomas, founder of ThemeZee