So I know that envato marketplace is practically dead at the moment, but I’m still shocked at how bad they have become. The removal of author exclusivity is just the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. It’s essentially a scheme to squeeze out a bit more money and any value left by the remaining authors. Who’s in the right mind could have possibly joined the marketplace in its current state because every sale is a big F that is shoved in your face?
Envato: Oh great, you made a sale, the customer paid $46 for it, here’s your $9!
FWIW, I joined the marketplace 19 years ago and experienced many ups and downs, but I guess this is truly the end.
PS: I know this is my fault for not setting up a system to collect customer emails, but I have this returning buyer that regularly buys my products on envato. How do I get in touch with him to direct him to other marketplaces because at this stage, purchasing on envato is straight up robbery.
A lot of us made that mistake. But before everything went to s*it, when Hichame Assi came into power, he didn’t understand the environment and treated it like a traditional business. Envato was never just a business at its core. It was a place where developers could express their creativity and freedom. Most authors genuinely loved what they did and saw the compensation as a secondary bonus rather than the primary motivation.
At this point, I don’t think there’s a way out. The damage is too great. The only real solution would be for Envato to be sold to someone who understands what made it great in the first place—perhaps a former author, like what happened with WPBay. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.
I honestly expect Envato to be completely dead within the next one or two years. Elements makes very little sense in the age of AI, where you can find or generate so much free stock footage and other creative assets.
The forced change to non-exclusivity with the abysmal rate of revenue sharing is a big fat statement to every author “We don’t f**king care anymore”. You’re right to criticize the CEO who is just too incompetent to move the market forward any way. I already knew that envato made several questionable decisions, so they can at least stay alive. But at this stage, I’m too baffled by their long-term plan and vision, or they don’t really have one at all. All I can see now is that they’re trying to drive all authors away, the sole force that helps them build the business for more than 20 years!
Yes at this point feels like this is done intentinal to completely destroy the marketplace but I doubt that is an elaborate plan by the CEO Hichame Assi, this guy has no clue what his doing, he is in the wrong bussines!
What kind of calculation is that? It is like they took more than 50%?
I understood it would be 46-12 fixed part for wp themes = 34-50%(17) = 17$ not 9.
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US based customers, so there’s this thing called 50% US withholding tax. It’s just completely absurd at this point!
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I had similar sale today, US based customer, theme priced $69 is purchased and my profit is $11.
Not sure what kind of calculation is that but in “how much will I earn” section it shows profit should be around $28. After the US taxes are applied only $11 left 
Seems that increasing prices didn’t help at least for US based customers.
Maybe authors should remove completely themes and plugins from Envato. What do you guys think? Especially authors who already have own stores?
Envato authors are not connected… this is a big issue if we would have been united thigs woudl have been different!
Is this make sense? First time I see “Texas tax”. Theme has price $69.
I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been on Envato for years as well, and it’s hard to recognize what it has become.
Also, besides the huge commission, I also see much less traffic and MUCH lower customer interest in plugins/themes from Envato.
Customers are still buying, as I spoke with many of my old customers, but they are not buying from Envato any more.
Regarding the Texas sales tax, it’s a marketplace obligation only if the marketplace itself has a tax collection requirement in Texas (if the marketplace sold over 500k USD in Texas in a year, than it needs to be registered as a business in Texas also, this is the case of Envato, probably). This is why they charge this tax…
As for your returning customer, unfortunately Envato intentionally keeps that relationship behind their platform… Nothing to do about it, we all complied to their rules, while their traffic and customer base was active and we got daily sales.
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Just sold a $29 track.
After taxes (US buyer) and fees: $5 earning.
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I guess I’m one of the lucky ones here… I didn’t get any sales on Envato this month, so the new changes affected exactly $0 of my income.
Can’t lose commission if there’s no commission to lose.
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I preffer not to t hink about it too much it makes me angry… I am focused on work and life more than ever even though things are bad I know that it willget better, those who were in this bussines just for the money will all be gone, th ose who are passionate about this will survive and thrive again int he future!
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Hooray, I just got a sale on CodeCanyon - customer paid $36.25, I got $13.58 (because the customer was US based, Jersey tax was also applied) - and because I am registered as a company, my country will substract also a local tax (20%+) from the $13 I got…
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