Monetized Chrome extensions as a viable business model
Hi everyone!
I was just doing quick and simple research on paid extensions on Chrome Web Store and I want to share what I have found so far.
- There are over 25,000 paid extensions on Chrome Web Store, which means you have to pay (one-time or subscription) to be able to install them
- 18 of them make over $5,000 / month, those use a subscription model so I can calculate M.R.R.
- Top paid one makes over $499,000 / month
- I find unbelievable that people are willing to pay SUBSCRIPTION for a simple theme
- Some extensions are high price, for example SquarespaceWebsites Tools PRO costs $199 but it is one-time only.
- Some makers are smart and rebrand VPN as BBC player working abroad and makes over $100,000 / month.
I'm really happy you did this research! Thanks for sharing.
I made ExtensionPay which makes it so extension developers can easily take payments for their extensions without the hassle of coding a backend. ExtensionPay is open source, works across all browsers, and is free to sign up and use.
My hope is that developers that are on-the-fence about trying to take payments in their extensions will use ExtensionPay to save them weeks of work so they can easily test out if their users will pay.
Just stumbled upon this .... just to say that I'd take the 25,000 paid subscriptions with a pinch of salt.
Most chrome extensions (including mine) use external payment providers that have more sophisticated features (tiers/licence keys etc) such as Gumroad or a WooCommerce solution.