Extensions, plugins and apps
For WordPress plugins: which listings and upsells sell Pro licences that get renewed.
A WordPress plugin grows from a free listing in the plugin directory, then sells a Pro licence by site count, renewed each year for updates and support. Tally links each licence and renewal to the visit behind it, so you can see whether the directory, an upsell inside wp-admin or a tutorial brought the buyers who renew.
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01How they sell
- SubscriptionYearly licences priced by number of sites, renewing for updates and support; renewal season follows the dates of your biggest sales.
- FreemiumThe free plugin in the directory, with Pro features enabled by a licence key bought on your site.
- One-offLifetime licences offered at launch or in holiday sales, which never renew and are worth reading apart.
02Payments it reads
- StripeShops built on Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce with a Stripe gateway charge through your own Stripe account, so those payments are read, linked by email at best.
- Lemon SqueezyLicence keys and yearly renewals through Lemon Squeezy; orders, subscription invoices and refunds are read.
- PaddleMerchant of record for plugin shops selling worldwide; renewals and upgrades between site tiers are read.
What Tally can't read
- Sales through Freemius's checkout aren't read; only Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy and Polar are.
- Active installs, downloads and ratings from WordPress.org aren't read.
- WooCommerce orders aren't read as orders: only the Stripe payments behind them are, without the cart's details, and PayPal payments not at all.
- Licences sold on a marketplace such as CodeCanyon are paid out by Envato and aren't read.
03Where buyers come from
- WordPress.orgThe plugin's directory page and support forum link to your site; wordpress.org as referrer shows how many of those visitors buy Pro.
- Upsells in wp-adminUpgrade links inside the dashboard usually arrive with the customer's own site as referrer, scattered over many domains until you tag them.
- Tutorial blogsWordPress tutorial sites and walk-through videos bring site builders who install the free version first and buy later.
- AgenciesAgencies buying unlimited-site licences come from partner pages and word of mouth, and renew for every client site.
04What Tally answers
Do the admin upsells sell more than the directory?
Tag the in-dashboard links with a UTM campaign and they get one row, with the revenue behind them, beside wordpress.org's referrer row.
Sources with revenueWhich source brings licences that get renewed?
Lifetime value counts renewals by first source, so a year after a sale you can see whether directory buyers or tutorial readers paid for the second year.
Lifetime valueWhen do sale-week buyers actually check out?
Peak hours shows sales by weekday and hour over the period you pick; set it to your holiday sale and you see which hours carried the orders.
Peak hoursWhy are our shop's Stripe sales linked only by email?
Coverage gives the reason: the shop's Stripe payments carry no visitor id. Calling tally('identify', { email }) on the checkout page, once the buyer's email is known, lets them link by email.
CoverageCan we hear when refunds land or sales drop?
Refund and drop alerts go out by email, Slack, Discord, Telegram or webhook as they happen, and a daily or weekly digest can follow by the same routes.
Alerts and digests
05Numbers worth watching
- Renewals
- Yearly renewals by first source, the number a plugin business lives on once the first wave of buyers is in.
- Refunds and chargebacks
- Refunds by source, which catch a channel that sells Pro to people who needed something else.
- Revenue by source
- The money behind wordpress.org, the admin upsells, tutorials and partners, side by side.
- Conversion
- Paying visitors over visitors per source, which shows whether the directory's traffic is ready to buy or still exploring.
06An example
Lifetime value by first source
All time: every payment since 1 Nov 2025. The period above doesn't apply.
| First source | Customers | Lifetime revenue | Average value | Renewals | Repeat rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoogleOrganic Search | 325 | $40,560 | $125 | 845 | 52% |
| ChatGPTAI Assistants | 126 | $21,071 | $167 | 391 | 61% |
| Direct | 178 | $18,216 | $102 | 374 | 44% |
| NewsletterEmail | 94 | $17,362 | $185 | 357 | 69% |
| Hacker NewsOrganic Social | 84 | $11,741 | $140 | 227 | 55% |
| x.comOrganic Social | 115 | $10,190 | $89 | 161 | 33% |
| RedditOrganic Social | 84 | $9,016 | $107 | 160 | 40% |
| PerplexityAI Assistants | 42 | $6,342 | $151 | 101 | 57% |
| Every source | 1,048 | $134,498 | $128 | 2,616 | 51% |
A customer is a visitor linked to a sale, counted under the source of their first visit. Lifetime revenue is net of refunds and chargebacks; repeat rate is the share who paid more than once (a renewal, an upgrade or another purchase). $13,167 from 426 payments not linked to a visitor is in no row.
07Setting up
- WordPressAdd the tag to your own WordPress site's header through the theme or a header-code plugin, so pricing, docs and checkout pages all count.
- Lemon SqueezyAdd tally_visitor_id to the checkout's custom data when your buy button opens Lemon Squeezy, so licences and their renewals link with high confidence.
- Tag the upgrade links in your plugin's settings screen with utm_source=wp-admin, so they stop scattering across customers' domains.
08Questions
Does Tally read Freemius sales?
No. It reads Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy and Polar. Plugins sold through Freemius's own checkout don't reach Tally, though visits to your site are still counted.
Is a renewal credited to the original source?
Yes. A renewal takes the link of the licence's first payment, so a buyer who found you through a tutorial two years ago still counts for that tutorial.
Can Tally count our active installs?
No. Installs happen on your users' sites and are reported to WordPress.org, not to you. Tally counts visits to your own site.