ManageWP Orion Bundles

Nemanja Aleksic

 

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The idea behind the Orion pricing model was simple: scale your subscription with your business and pay only what you actually use. It’s what an honest pricing model should be, and your feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

The only problem with the per site pricing model is that the price goes up really fast. Agencies with 50 websites would basically pay 5 times more than agencies with 10 websites, so there’s no real cost scaling. So we got back to the drawing board and came up with a way to improve the Orion pricing model. This article is about the bundles and a few other changes we made in the meantime.

ManageWP Bundles

In addition to the per site pricing model, we added the bundle alternative. A ManageWP bundle gives you the ability to turn on a premium add-on on up to 100 websites for a flat monthly fee. So if you want to turn on the Uptime Monitor tool on 70 websites, you will simply take the Uptime Monitor Bundle for $25. You’ll also be able to turn on Uptime Monitor on another 30 websites for the same, fixed monthly price.

Bundles are a perfect way to keep your cost down as your business grows. Here are the bundle specs:

  • Each premium add-on has its bundled version
  • Each bundle is good for up to 100 websites
  • The break even point for most tools is 25 websites
  • The only exception is the Daily Backup, because of the high operating cost (break even 37 websites)
  • There will also be an All-in-one package, which is basically every ManageWP bundle in one with an additional discount applied
  • The bundles stack, so if you need Uptime Monitor on 200 websites, simply grab 2 Uptime Monitor bundles

Orion tools and bundles

Basically if you need a premium feature on more than 25 websites, get a bundle for that feature and save money vs. having 25+ websites with that feature individually.

The Discount

The initial pricing model was too expensive for people with hundreds of websites. We tried solving it with multiple discounts, but this only caused more confusion. Bundles solved this problem, so we simplified the discounts by keeping the only discount that matters: the Loyalty Discount. For every year you’ve been an active ManageWP subscriber, you get a permanent 10% discount, all the way up to 30%. We are also honoring all current lifetime discounts, of course, but they will not stack with the loyalty discount. The higher of the two discounts will be applied.

Stay tuned for more updates about the pricing and the launch!

Nemanja Aleksic Avatar

author

Nemanja Aleksic
Head of Growth at ManageWP. Marketing Manager at GoDaddy. WordCamp Belgrade organizer. But first and foremost, a father, a husband and a puck stopper.

81 responses

  1. contact@brockwayproduction.fr Avatar
    contact@brockwayproduction.fr

    Well, all that work you done on the fancy calculator price, to finally pivot to a really simple solution :p
    One thing is that you have a point on constantly reinvent yourself, and for that i’m sure to commit with you as soon as you launch Orion !

    Simple solutions, but great minds/jobs !

    Regards.

    Reply
  2. Win Day Avatar
    Win Day

    When do these prices go into effect?

    Reply
  3. Jamie Avatar
    Jamie

    The new backup charges seem like a bit of a money grab. The fact that I currently have a range of different backup configurations for daily, weekly and monthly is now going to cost me extra? The main reason I have this is because of the great backup configurations storing the data on external sources.

    Reply
  4. Carl Taylor Avatar
    Carl Taylor

    Well done 🙂 sounds much better for people like me

    Reply
  5. info@farbweiss.ch Avatar
    info@farbweiss.ch

    Has anything changed about “grandfathered” accounts?
    Thanks!

    Reply
  6. paul@auracreativemedia.co.uk Avatar
    paul@auracreativemedia.co.uk

    Firstly Orion looks great and I can’t wait to see the finished dashboard.

    We have a raft of websites with both live and development sites which run under sub-domains, can I ask if the final pricing model has settled on a per site or a per domain basis as paying twice for a single production site is not ideal, maybe there could be a discount on additional sub-domain / none production websites?

    Thanks

    Reply
  7. jack@jackvoorheis.com Avatar
    jack@jackvoorheis.com

    I love the new features, but I also have some concerns about the new pricing model. I guess I will use the wait and see approach. I do wish the uptime monitoring worked properly, I frequently get notices that a site went down went it is still up.

    Reply
  8. shelly@haffly.com Avatar
    shelly@haffly.com

    You know what I liked about ManageWP? ‘This’ amount for ‘this’ many websites with ‘these’ features. I also liked the interface because it was clear, no excessive and grayed out graphics and a bunch of screens. If you have to write multiple blog posts to explain your pricing model, it’s too complicated. I want what I currently have, and if I need additional features for a particular website then add a couple of dollars to add the feature. End of story.

    Reply
  9. melissa.grammatico@gmail.com Avatar
    melissa.grammatico@gmail.com

    Is the price increasing for a small number of sites? Based on the screen print it looks likes the cost per site of the premium options would be $6. This makes 10 sites $60. Right now it’s $42. Is this correct? If so, that’s quite an increase!

    Reply
  10. sam@thecreativecrowe.com Avatar
    sam@thecreativecrowe.com

    I paid for a year in advance with five sites. I only need premium for one and don’t really use all five spots. What is the best course of action for me? To I need to notify you with a requested plan? I prefer Orion to the Classic if that makes any difference.

    Reply
  11. qbuster Avatar
    qbuster

    I currently have 8 non-profit sites created and run by me on a voluntary basis. As such, I don’t have an opportunity to pass on the costs of ManageWP membership.

    In an ideal world I could like to run 2 of these sides a on the Professional Plan and the other 6 on the Standard Plan. Is that possible with the new scheme?

    If it is, how do I set it up – have two memberships, each with a different email address?

    Regards

    Will Chapman

    Reply
  12. tom@tomlegens.com Avatar
    tom@tomlegens.com

    I can’t find the link to the calculator to check pricing on the new platform. This does seem confusing without being able to apply it to our individual accounts. I think that’s were the disconnect occurs. Can you provide an updated calculator so we can make plans before July 12th? I have a lot of clients I need to re-evaluate what I’ll need to have them on so it would be nice to have the information in advance.

    Reply
  13. d Avatar
    d

    This is a cash grab. way too complicated pricing. I liked the old pricing and canceling my account and DL’ing a free backup plugin.

    Reply
  14. ben@thinkdelaney.com Avatar
    ben@thinkdelaney.com

    I have studied this and don’t understand the pricing model. I can see why people are reacting negatively but it isn’t that simple so far. I don’t mind paying for S3 storage for my backups. Are you saying that if I want to backup daily but store on my own S3, that i have to pay for that service in addition to my other charges?

    Reply
  15. cjvezeau@gmail.com Avatar
    cjvezeau@gmail.com

    I think it would behoove you to consult with an experienced business person who can provide guidance on this clusterf*ck of a pricing model. I’ll wait to see what happens after July 12, but I’m ready to pull the plug right now to be perfectly honest.

    Reply
  16. Tyler Avatar
    Tyler

    For those of us who have 500 sites (Business plan) this is a horrible deal.

    Currently it costs $420/mo for 500 sites with all of the premium(business) features.

    The article mentions a 10% discount for agencies who buy all of the premium features which would be equivalent to the business option now. For 500 sites on the new structure, this amounts to $787.50. Doesn’t seem like much of a deal at all to me.

    Reply
  17. mail@monikaorman.com Avatar
    mail@monikaorman.com

    This new pricing system is way too complicated. I have no idea what’s going on, it isn’t explained anywhere near clear. I’ve red your article on pricing and am now even more confused. Can you present some sort of pricing table or calculator? Personally I prefer your old system and old dashboard anyway and will stick to it. Your new plan is going live in a few days and it looks like half of your clients have no idea how it works.

    Reply
  18. Adrian Avatar
    Adrian

    I don’t understand how people are so confused about this pricing. It seems well explained and very simple to me. Pick whichever features you need for each account, and save money by not using all features for all clients. if you need a feature for more than 25 accounts, get a bundle for that feature and save money vs. having 25+ accounts with that feature individually.

    Am I missing something?

    Reply
  19. Vincent Avatar
    Vincent

    This is really the worst pricing table ever seen.
    Everything is going one price for all, but this makes people calculate what they have to pay?

    Luckily, a lot other companies are offering the same services.

    Reply
  20. franksdesigns@gmail.com Avatar
    franksdesigns@gmail.com

    I got a notice that I have money in my “Orion Wallet” and that I can see that in the “bundles” section. I don’t see it..

    Reply
  21. info@designer-dragonfly.nl Avatar
    info@designer-dragonfly.nl

    I paid 132.72 dollars in June for a biannual licence to upgrade my account from the “free” 5 websites to 10 websites. Now I see its free for unlimited websites!!!

    Didnt even receive a courtesy free upgrade!!
    I wonder if manageWP management will have some decency to offer me to upgrade my account to the 25 websites WITH PREMIUM ADD-ONS!!!

    Feeling rather disgusted by your service!

    Jenny Correia

    Reply
  22. daver Avatar
    daver

    Most confusing pricing I have ever seen. I am changing servers and all I wanted was to clone my sites over. Now about 5 hours later and dribble emails back and forth the only thing I have out of this so far is for 100 web site I am now paying 216.00 instead of the 120 I was paying on the classic, which they say I can’t go back too. Somehow I get a 20 % discount but that doesn’t show up anywhere, or maybe that is included in this price. Good service but at 216.00 a month US which is quite a bit more in Canadian dollars might be time to search for another service. Any suggestions out there?

    Reply
  23. Sid B Avatar
    Sid B

    Your pricing system is STILL IMPOSSIBLE to figure out. I can not figure out what it would cost to have managewp – only with backup/clone on 160 sites as a premium(? can NOT tell if it is included or not included), OR tell what that free version actually includes. And I suspect it is way over-priced anyway.

    SO we are not even going to bother to try to figure this out – it is the WORSE business model I have ever seen. We will NOT be recommending ManageWP to our list.

    Reply
  24. Adam Godsall Avatar
    Adam Godsall

    I really cannot see what all the fuss is about, the pricing modal seems fine to me. The free version is perfect for managing our client sites from one place, apart from that we have our own servers so features like Uptime monitor we already have, but I could be persuaded to move our ranking monitor to this one, but i cannot not see much information on the SEO features.

    Reply
  25. Mahesh Avatar
    Mahesh

    Say I have one website and I want it to be backed up daily and the size of the website is 1.5gb. What’s the price I have to pay per month?
    $2 only or is there anything extra that I have to pay for my backup storage on S3?

    Reply
  26. Taranveer Bains Avatar
    Taranveer Bains

    How would the pricing model work if I had over 100 websites?

    Reply
  27. Jim Hubbard Avatar
    Jim Hubbard

    Wow…this is really confusing. In one place it says you can get per site pricing for up to 25 sites. Then you can get a bundle for 100 sites. So far…so good.

    But then, the rep says in these comments that when you go over 100 sites, you have to revert back to the per site pricing for all sites over 100. What?

    Why would pricing go UP for loading more sites onto an account?

    This pricing structure is going to kill you guys. You’d be better off with a flat rate, for ALL add-ons, per site and no discounts. Web hosting businesses know what the sites cost them, and they can just add this cost per site (and add a % for their profit if they like).

    I’d much rather see a flat rate for ALL features at a single price. But, I don’t get why you think giving a % off for buying more licenses for more sites was more complicated than what you have now.

    If you have 1 to 25 sites, the WPManage add-ons (all of them in a single package – no pick and choose crap – buy it or don’t) are say $8 per site per month. If you buy 26 to 100 sites, the per site price drops to $6. If you buy 101 to 200 sites, it drops to $3 per site. Something like that is easy to understand.

    You have a good product, but your pricing/marketing is dragging you down.

    Reply
  28. Jim Hubbard Avatar
    Jim Hubbard

    More confusion in pricing…..

    “The premium backup is suited to more demanding websites and active development. The premium add-on has everything the free version does, plus:

    …..on-demand backups
    …..cloning/migration tool
    …..different backup frequencies, from weekly to near real-time (every 1h)
    …..download backup to your computer
    …..upload to your own external destination (Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, OneDrive). This feature is charged separately at $0.13/GB.
    …..exclude as well as include files and folders
    …..Starts at $2/month
    …..$75/month for up to 100 websites with a bundle. (please note that the bundle does not include real time backup, it covers daily and weekly backups only) ”

    Why would you charge someone $0.13/GB to use storage that they already pay Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 or OneDrive for?

    If the bundle does not include real time backups (“it covers daily and weekly backups only”), then why include it in the bundle list? And if real time backups are not in the bundle, where do you get them and how much do they cost?

    If the backup bundle “covers daily and weekly backups only”, then what about the “on-demand backups”, which I assume are different from the “near real-time”, “daily” and “weekly” backups? How is that billed? How much does it cost?

    Why is there a cost to upload backups to my own external destination (Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, OneDrive) but not one to download the backup to my computer? Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, OneDrive don’t charge ManageWP for access, so why the difference?

    I don’t think I can go with ManageWP at this time. In my considerable past experience, whenever pricing is cloudy and convoluted somebody is about to get screwed – and it’s usually me.

    Reply
  29. Dawid Avatar
    Dawid

    As a new user of ManageWP Orion I’me very pleased. Congratulations to the whole team for a good work. I also really don’t understand how can such a simple pricing model be confusing for some people. This is a really good deal, invested money adequate to the given value. Many features are free and the crital ones like backup are more expensive, but this is well justified taking in account its complexity. Backup system is very, very important and not so easy to mantain as it looks like. We have got also a rather good expierence with various hosting backup systems, cloud platforms (Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 etc.) and wordpress plugins (Duplicator pro, BackWPup, BackUpWordPress, UpdrafPlust, Snapshot etc.) and always we have some kind of problems. As for now with Orion everything run smoothly.

    Reply
  30. Jami Leclerc Avatar
    Jami Leclerc

    Hello, I am a bit confused about the princing of the backup bundle. All other services are 1$ for 1 site, 25$ for 25+ sites. Backup is 2$/site, 75$ for 25+ sites. It seems if I have exactly 25 sites I will end up paying 3$/site if I go with the bundle. I would need to go past 38 sites for the bundle to be a better deal than the individual prices. This seems counter-intuitive. I think pricing it 50$ (2×25) would make it consistent with the other bundles.

    Reply
  31. James Avatar
    James

    I was bought here by wp elevation, and was excited to see what it costs, but bloody hell!! how many more people do you need to tell you that this pricing system is too confusing??? I was ready to buy but now I’m just going to walk away, I have no idea how much your services cost, and i fell like your trying to hide someting… please, just make it clear how much this costs!!!!

    Reply
  32. Leo Avatar
    Leo

    This pricing isn’t confusing at all. It’s well explained and fair. People talking about the daily backups being not cost effective simply didn’t read the part that states its an exception.

    Reply
  33. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Late to the party, but I thought I’d throw in my 2 cents…

    I manage 40+ WordPress sites and was looking for a “manage sites from a central dashboard” solution. I wanted to be able to perform backup and updateS without having to log-in to each individual site. Before pulling the trigger on iThemes Sync ($46/mo for 50 sites, billed annually = $552), + BackupBuddy ($98/year for 50 sites), I researched alternatives and happened on ManageWP.

    I’m glad I did – wow, what a difference! I can now manage unlimited sites for free, and turn on premium features per site as needed. I’ll gladly pay $2/mo to backup those sites that don’t already have daily backups (those hosted on client hosting plans) I calculated approximately $96/year. No brainer compared with $65o annually with the other solutins.

    I love the simple dashboard interface, and client sites need just the worker plugin, uncluttered with multiple, separate plugins. I am now looking into the other premium add-ons and loving what I see, all for a reasonable monthly cost. The pricing structure is simple, from my perspective. No confusion at all on per site vs. bundled.

    Thanks, ManageWP!

    Reply
  34. scot Avatar
    scot

    I understand the pricing and all, but what I dislike the most is ManageWp sold out to Godaddy.

    Reply
  35. Vee Avatar
    Vee

    I don’t understand the confusion over pricing. To me at least, it appears that ManageWP have given us several great options.

    The options are designed to suit various sized WordPress businesses. A ‘one size fits all’ approach may appeal to some people, but we are all individuals with differing business models etc.

    As business owners it is up to us to work out what we want to pay:

    1. Want to pay nothing for any amount of sites? Then use the free addons only.

    2. Want to pay a small amount per site for specific addons on a few sites? Then activate the specific addons only on the sites you need it on. Each addon is clearly priced.

    3. Have a growing number of sites to manage and want to pay a fixed amount per site for specific addons? Then look at the bundle price vs what you would pay individually per addon, per site. ManageWP even tell you what the ‘break even’ number of sites is. Each bundle is clearly priced. Purchase the addon bundle and activate on the sites you need it on.

    4. Have a healthy number of sites to manage and want to pay a fixed amount so you can add all the addons to every site you manage, up to 100 of them? Then look at the All-in-one Package bundle price vs what you would pay individually, or with a specific bundle, per addon, per site. Purchase the All-in-one Package bundle and activate everything on all the sites you need it on.

    5. Have over 100 sites to manage? Pick from options 1-3 above until you are close to 200 sites and then purchase the All-in-one Package bundle and activate everything on all the sites you need it on.

    It’s an exercise in managing our own costs and I am happy to be able to choose what I spend depending on how many sites I have 🙂

    Reply
  36. Werner Avatar
    Werner

    Ich finde diesen Service mega gelungen. Werde jetzt Backup und Reporting für Wartungsverträge bei euch machen. Habe das jetzt paar Monate getestet und bin begeistert. TOP

    Reply
  37. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    I was looking at buying your bundle, then read this “​Note that activating the bundle does not activate the add-ons automatically, what it does is ‘cover’ for the cost of the add-ons when you activate them. Read more.” What exactly does that mean? I buy the bundle then still have to buy the addons.

    Reply

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