Playbooks

Give your checkout tool away and take a small cut

Give away the main version of a tool that handles payments for website owners, such as a subscriptions plugin, and earn a small share of each payment it processes. Optional paid add-ons bring in extra money, so site owners only pay you when they earn.

The hard part: building a payment tool good enough that site owners choose it over paid ones, then getting enough of them to process real sales through it.

Setup 2 weeksRuns $10/moYour time A few hours a weekNeeds ClaudeStripe

Who pays

Site owners use the free tool to take payments. You add a small percentage fee to each payment through Stripe Connect, and you sell optional add-ons for extra features. The source describes this model but gives no fee percentage or revenue, so any percentage you pick is a suggestion.

How to build it

  1. Pick a tool where money moves

    Choose a tool that sits on a checkout, such as a subscriptions, donations, or booking plugin for WordPress. Your income depends on the payments it handles, so pick something that processes sales directly.

  2. Build the free core version

    Use Claude Code or Cursor to build the main features and keep them fully free. Publish it where site owners already look, such as the WordPress.org plugin directory.

  3. Add a small fee per payment

    Route payments through Stripe Connect and set a small application fee on each one. Show the fee clearly in the settings and on your website.

  4. Sell optional add-ons

    Build paid extras that larger sites want, such as advanced reports or more payment options. Sell them through a Stripe checkout on your website.

  5. Grow through the free listing

    Answer support questions in the plugin directory, ask happy users for reviews, and talk about the model on podcasts and in communities where site owners spend time.

Sources on X

  • remicorson · Jul 22, 2026

    remicorson describes earning from a free WordPress plugin, Milo, without putting the core behind a paywall. The poster says the free engine is on WordPress.org, revenue comes from payments plus optional add-ons, and they only earn when their users do.

Ideas are curated from public posts and untested by us. Read the full note.