PublishPress Acquires MetaSlider Plugin and MetaSlider Lightbox – WP Tavern

PublishPress, an organization that develops free and business publishing and permissions plugins for WordPress, has acquired MetaSlider from Extendify. The plugin is used on greater than 700,000 websites to construct sliders, slideshows, carousels, and galleries. The corporate’s mission is to assist publishers succeed, so it is a curious acquisition as sliders appear to have fallen out of favor on the net over the previous seven years, because of issues with search engine optimization, efficiency, and poor engagement.

“A standard slider isn’t a superb match for a information web site for a few causes,” PublishPress founder Steve Burge stated. “First, publishers need a show that they will replace simply. Second, they are often anxious in regards to the efficiency slowdown from a slider.

“We purpose to sort out these issues head-on. To unravel the primary subject, we plan to broaden dynamic content material options of MetaSlider so you’ll be able to simply pull in contemporary content material. And secondly, we’ll deal with the pace of MetaSlider, so that you don’t have to fret a couple of sluggish website.”

Burge stated PublishPress will use MetaSlider as a platform for constructing a set of picture instruments. As a part of the sale, the corporate has additionally acquired MetaSlider Lightbox, which has 10,000 energetic installs, and a photograph gallery that’s in a beta model.

“There will probably be extra [tools] to come back,” Burge stated. “Most of my favourite publishers even have lovely images with their tales. From large WordPress publishers akin to Outside Magazine to small start-ups akin to TheNarwhal, the images usually add as a lot because the textual content. We hope to construct instruments to assist publishers showcase their photographs.”

Burge stated the sale of MetaSlider began with a Twitter DM. He had by no means spoken with the Extendify staff earlier than however stated the method was “fast and straightforward” as a result of all the info was “clear and professionally organized.”

“The MetaSlider plugin is sort of 10 years previous, and in the previous few years it was maintained by a few firms,” Burge stated. “It was beforehand owned by the staff behind UpdraftPlus and WP-Optimize. You possibly can nonetheless see similarities within the orange coloration scheme between MetaSlider, UpdraftPlus, and WP-Optimize.” 

Extendify took on the plugin as a facet venture but it surely was by no means a core product for his or her firm.

“They had been enthusiastic about our need to put money into MetaSlider to make sure that it stays a fantastic plugin for WordPress customers,” Burge stated. “After some current high-profile handovers went badly, we’ve seen sellers do cautious due diligence on who they promote to.”

Burge couldn’t share any monetary particulars of the acquisition however stated the sale value was primarily based strictly on income although the MetaSlider plugin has almost 1,000,000 customers.

“In most gross sales, the variety of energetic installs is a bonus somewhat than a driving issue,” Burge stated. “It’s not unusual, significantly for older plugins, for 1% or much less of energetic installs to transform to paying prospects.”

MetaSlider has a Professional model that PublishPress will proceed promote and the plugins will stay as a standalone model centered on photographs. They won’t be included within the PublishPress plugin bundle. Burge stated customers can anticipate MetaSlider to proceed on the identical value however with extra options.

“The enterprise mannequin gained’t change and the Professional model will assist future improvement on the plugin,” he stated. “In the mean time, there’s solely a single Professional model primarily based on the variety of websites. That gained’t change in a minimum of the following few months as we deal with including extra options and giving customers extra worth for his or her cash.”