Websites Need Plugins
Let me answer your first question: Why should you care about plugins on websites? I talk to CMS companies almost every day as a part of my work at Eager. One common thread from those conversations is the idea that their users want all-in-one, simple, solutions. They say users don’t want to choose which tools to use to solve their problems, they want it chosen for them. In response, the CMS’ generally decide they should build everything a person needs to create a website. I’m here to disagree with that.
To believe in startups is to believe the web should be a plugin-oriented place. My friends at Drift spend every day (and many nights) trying to make 1–1 chat with customers better (and they are working on some very cool things). My friends at Appcues are spending much more time than anyone at Squarespace or Weebly trying to make website onboarding better. You can believe in those companies, or the SaaS companies of your choice, but if you believe in startups you have to believe they have a shot at building tools better than the big guys.
Do you believe in ten years people will be using more SaaS tools or less?
This only works if it’s actually possible for the average customer to install these tools. They’re not going away though. It used to be you had to be technical to install Google Analytics, then CMS tools were forced to integrate it. Then you had to be technical to install Disqus, then CMS’ had to add support. Eventually website owners will begin to hear about more and more of these tools, and more and more will need to be integrated into platforms.
Don’t believe me? It’s already happening. Privy is a SaaS plugin company. Most of their growth came from their Weebly plugin. Every day we at Eager get support emails from users who are looking to install our tools on platforms which just don’t support it (cough, Wix). Eventually SaaS companies are going to get good enough at marketing that these users will know they exist, and will want to use them.
Of course, there’s also an obvious economic reason for CMS’ to support plugins.
The idea of thousands of developers working hard every day to build great products, and then gladly giving you 30% of their revenue is pretty compelling. They, in turn are happy to share that 30%. Why? Because it’s virtually impossible for a SaaS company to grow profitably with Small and Medium-sized Businesses today
Why? Because they don’t pay enough. For an enterprise sale you can afford to pay a salesperson to work with the company and for technical support to help them get the tool installed. But a small business just doesn’t pay enough money, meaning there is no way to economically deliver your software to them. A plugin marketplace changes that.
Suddenly these small business can find the best tool based on its reviews, can try it, and can get it installed without you having to spend a dime on marketing or sales. That’s Amazon.com-level revolutionary. We have a chance at a world where a developer in his or her basement can build the best new analytics or lead acquisition tool and get a million users and make a million dollars without spending a dime on marketing. That’s the future we can get if CMS’ support plugin marketplaces.
