There are 48,624 plugins in the repository. Out of these, a mere 2% have over 10K active installs (source).

We managed to reach this goal in 3 months. Not an easy task, I can tell you that. I’ve always found it interesting to read about startup journeys, from start to success.

We thought now was a great chance for us to share some of the factors that helped us reach this goal, seeing that the next mark on the WP repository is 20K.

Of course, there are a million different ways we could have reached 10K, but I think sharing some of the crucial factors can be interesting for anyone that plans to launch a new WordPress plugin.

1. The WordPress community

Utilizing the power of the WordPress community is a must for anyone launching a new WordPress plugin. From the translators, developers, bloggers and down to the simple user, the WordPress community is a place where people genuinely want to help each other, most times without asking for anything in return.

We’ve gotten a lot of amazing feedback from users, some of which helped us decide on which features to work on first. This started as early as launch day, when our post on ‘Advanced WordPress’ got a large number of likes and supporting comments, even though it was completely unknown.

We got help not only from WordPress enthusiasts, but from leading design blogs. Elementor was shared by dozens of blogs, large and small, in various languages across the world. We see the power of blogs and newsletter to bring the word out of Elementor to all WordPress users from across the world, and thank each and every one.

2. Contributors

Translators, theme developers, add-on developers. There are many ways to contribute to Elementor’s development, and people have been very generous in suggesting their help. Elementor has already been translated to 8 different languages, and some themes have been made using Elementor as the native page builder.

We value development contributions, and encourage other developers to join the conversation on GitHub and contribute their knowledge to this open source project.

3. Support

Feedback from helpful WordPress users came from different location. We got over 150 comments on Elementor’s blog posts, 50 Facebook messages, 196 Github issues and and 148 WordPress support tickets. Whether these were bug reports, feature requests or questions how to do something, they helped us understand the interaction of Elementor with the user and to know what to put the focus on.

For us, support is not just solving our user’s problems, it’s a way we learn how to improve our product. A lot of the recent improvements, including future releases I touch on later in this post, have come from questions and requests by our users.

4. Added features

If you compare the version of Elementor today with the launch version from three months ago, you see a large difference between the two.

Besides UI and performance improvements, we’ve also added various new features and capabilities to the plugin. These features provided a good opportunity to get the news out about Elementor.

Among the new features we’ve added:

The latest addition of Library completes the evolution of Elementor, making it the page builder with capabilities to not only create single pages but supercharge the design process with the use of predesigned or personal templates.

5. Documentation

Proper documentation serves many purposes, including making it easier for new users to learn how to use your product, solve common questions, reduce and solve support issues and serve as a marketing channel. Today’s documentation is not limited to text, and should also include video tutorials and screenshot rich content.

Check out the latest documentation addition that explains about the Anchor widget.

It is safe to say that you love our video tutorials, and we are going to continue making them. If you still haven’t seen the landing page tutorials, now seen by over 5K users, go check it out. If you would like to see a certain tutorial on any subject related to Elementor, write to us and we will try and make it happen.

6. You

After all is said and done, we wouldn’t have reached this goal without each and every one of you. You are all our biggest contributors, because you have trusted us with your most basic task: designing your WordPress. Even Though we are the new kids on the block, and there are a lot of alternatives you could choose instead of us, you chose us. We are aware of the responsibility this entails, and promise to do our best to keep on delivering the best design solution.

Sneak peek of upcoming features

We get asked a lot about what out future pro version will include. 

Now is a good time to share some of the things we are currently working on for Elementor Pro, coming out in the next few months.

Mobile improvements. This is actually an addition both Pro and Free users will enjoy. We are working on adding more mobile capabilities, so you can better differentiate how different elements look on mobile and desktop.

Posts Widget. Blogging is such a basic thing for WordPress, so it shouldn’t surprise you that we’ve started working on posts widget. 

WooCommerce support. This will let you integrate your WooCommerce products into your page.

Slider widgets. As per many user requests, we will be adding the ability to add Slides of various types: testimonials, images, galleries. posts and more.

Forms. How does an integrated forms widget sound? It is certainly something worth waiting for.

Social integrations. You can expect more options for Facebook, Twitter and other social integrations.

Special Thanks

This is a great chance to thank some of the contributers that help spread the word out.

Freemius, who included us in thier article on plugin copy

Josh Pollock, who let us write a guest post on his blog about creating a contact page

Kim Doyal, who was friendly enough to interview me for her podcast (interview will be published soon I hope)

Tom from GeneratePress, who was quick to recommend Elementor (with no solicitation from us I might add)

Gina Deaton of Sideways8, who chose us as the #1 free page builder for WordPress on various WordCamps

Cloudways, who let us publish this controversial post about page builders and SEO

We also thank all design blogs like Codrops, Hongkiat, Webdesigner Depot, One Page Love and Speckyboy.

We want to acknowledge the various translators that helped make Elementor global and multilingual: Pedro Mendonça,  jhfarinha, paulocarrasco, Rami Yushuvaev, soroosh, janadams76, Oliver Lippert, Bego Mario Garde, zwitschi, albrechtboucher, WiSch, jacboy, WESLINK, weiganri, jayq1976, tmconnect, Dan Caragea, PaulSolomon, Elisa, orangeweb, Rafael Funchal, Alan Mosko, Eduardo Stuart, luizbills, macieleustaquio, weslly.h, umeeshh, gianlucasavini, Stefano Tondi, beblovers, Daniele Scasciafratte, hashshop, Andrea Barghigiani, Monaldi, emarcais, fxbenard, littleneko666, chris-kns

Finally, to the amazing YouTubers who have created video tutorials on using Elementor: WPtutz, Jordan Alexo, Alessandro Castellani