Important news about Currency Switcher for Easy Digital Downloads (updated June 2021)
At Aelia, we aim to offer the best quality of products and services to our customers. We review our performance on a regular basis, and prepare a strategy to ensure that the high standards we set are met, or exceeded. One of the steps of the performance review is the analysis of areas that need improvement, as well as products that, for any reason, aren’t performing as well as expected. When such products are identified, we review past performance and take one of the following course of action, for each product:
- Evaluate the market demand of the product, as well as the challenges that may arise in the future, in relation to the product support.
- Compare the demand with our available resources, to ensure that we can dedicate sufficient time, to each product, to offer consistent results in terms of quality.
- Depending on the result of #2, take one of the following actions:
- If the demand is sufficient and can be met by our existing resources, adjust their allocation accordingly.
- If the demand is sufficient, but we have insufficient resources, prepare a plan to increase our availability.
- If the demand is insufficient to cover the resources dedicated to the product, we try to transfer it to a 3rd party who might be interested in it. In some cases, we might have to retire the product altogether.
During the reviews performed between 2018 and 2020, we identified a couple of products that have been underperforming. One of them appeared in each analysis, and it’s our Currency Switcher for Easy Digital Downloads. The market demand for that solution didn’t grow as we expected, despite our efforts. In addition to that, the demand for our WooCommerce solutions grew significantly, to the point that they become the main focus of our business. As a result, we find ourselves in the difficult position of not being able to dedicate sufficient resources to Easy Digital Downloads, and the Currency Switcher we developed for it.
Future plans for the EDD Currency Switcher
Through the course of 2020, we contacted a couple of parties who showed interest in the possibility of acquiring our Currency Switcher for Easy Digital Downloads and maintain it in the future. Although we’ve been asked not to disclose their names, we’re currently discussing with them how the transfer could take place, as well as the work involved in promoting, maintaining and supporting the existing solution. We hope that we can reach an agreement soon, so that the EDD Currency Switcher can continue to exist under another brand. Of course, we also have to take into account the possibility that the negotiations might fail. In such case, we will have to retire the Currency Switcher for Easy Digital Downloads.
Effective immediately, we will no longer be able to offer new or renewal licences, for the EDD Currency Switcher. Of course, we will keep providing support to all the customers with an active licence, until the end of their subscription. We will also release maintenance fixes, but we won’t release major updates for the plugin.
This was a difficult decision to take, but we came to the conclusion that we have to focus on what we can do best, to ensure that we can keep our offers to the high standards that our customers have come to expect from us. Our business evolved almost exclusively around solutions for WooCommerce, and we would like to hand over the portion related Easy Digital Downloads to someone who can dedicate to it the time it deserves.
Update, March 2021: we will keep offering the EDD Currency Switcher for the time being.Update, June 2021: following a technical review Easy Digital Downloads 3.0, we came to the conclusion that the EDD Currency Switcher would need a significant amount of changes to become compatible with the new major release. Unfortunately, that is not a viable option, from a business perspective. Due to that, we can no longer guarantee that we will be able to update the EDD Currency Switcher to support EDD 3.0. Sadly, we had to go back to our original decision, and we suspended the sale of the EDD Currency Switcher indefinitely. You can find a summary of the reasons behind this decision and the future plans for the Currency Switcher below.
Summary (tl;dr)
- Our performance reviews indicated that our Currency Switcher for Easy Digital Downloads has been underperforming, with its sales not even covering the day to day support costs.
- Due to the low demand and resource availability, we’re no longer in the position to dedicate sufficient attention to the EDD Currency Switcher. A technical analysis of EDD 3.0 also indicated that the EDD Currency Switcher would need significant changes, to become compatible with the new major release of Easy Digital Downloads. The poor sale performance of the EDD Currency Switcher don’t allow us to allocate sufficient resources to do that.
- We’re currently discussing the possibility of transferring the EDD Currency Switcher to other developers, who could be interested in maintaining it. Should the negotiations be unsuccessful, we will have to retire the product.
- We will keep supporting the EDD Currency Switcher for customers who have an active licence. We won’t be able to offer new licences, or renew existing licences.
- For the time being, we will only release maintenance updates for the EDD Currency Switcher. We don’t plan to release any major update. The last version of Easy Digital Downloads supported by the Currency Switcher will be 2.9.x.
What to do if you’re using the EDD Currency Switcher
If you purchased a licence for the EDD Currency Switcher, the following will apply.
- You can keep using the EDD Currency Switcher. The plugin is still working fine and, as anticipated, we will honour existing licences until their expirations, and keep providing support and bug fixes. If the negotiations with the 3rd party developers will be successful, they will take care of updating the Currency Switcher in the future and provide the support service afterwards.
- You can keep using the EDD Currency Switcher, while planning the switch to an alternative solution. You can find a list of the available extensions on the Easy Digital Downloads website: https://easydigitaldownloads.com/3rd-party-extensions/
- If you have some developers who can take care of technical aspects, you can keep using the EDD Currency Switcher, and they can maintain it for you. All our code is 100% open source and documented, to make it easier for other developers to work on it. If they have any questions, they can also contact us directly. We’re always happy to share our knowledge and experience.
- Since this is an extraordinary scenario, we extended our money back guarantee for the EDD Currency Switcher. If you purchased your licence on or after the 1st of March 2021, you can request a full reimbursement until the 30 June 2021.
Of course, if you have any question about the Currency Switcher for Easy Digital Downloads, or the support plans, please feel free to contact us. We will be ready to answer and clarify any doubt you might have.
If you’re a developer and you think that could be interested in acquiring our product, we would also invite you to get in touch. We will be happy to share all the information about the product, and discuss with you the terms of the transfer. 👍
The Aelia Team
