Built on Borrowed Ground: Lessons from Add-On Creators

Hosts Katie Keith (Barn2 Plugins) and Zack Katz (GravityKit) are joined by Melissa Love from thedesignspace.co, who builds and sells Kadence add-ons, to explore what it takes to succeed when your product relies on someone else’s platform. We’ll unpack the realities of building an add-on business inside another company’s ecosystem – from navigating limitations and dependencies to building relationships that help your product thrive. 🎯 Key Takeaways 🧩 1. Build Where There’s a Proven Market — But Do Your Homework The biggest insight for me was how all three guests — Melissa (Star Cloud), Zack (GravityKit), and Katie (Barn2) — emphasized that building on top of a popular platform is a shortcut to product–market fit. But it’s not enough to just pick the biggest name. Melissa shared how her team interviewed potential ecosystems (like KadenceWP, Elementor, Divi) before committing — digging into: How active and open their developer communities were Whether founders were visible and communicative If the product had technical stability and funding longevity Zack echoed this: when he chose Gravity Forms, it wasn’t just the market share — it was their developer-first culture, predictable updates, and strong backward compatibility. 💡 Actionable takeaway: Before you build, vet your platform partner like an investor. Check their roadmap, Slack groups, and developer documentation. If they don’t value external developers, move on. 🤝 2. Treat the Platform Owner as a Partner — Not a Competitor This theme kept coming up: success in an add-on business depends on having a mutually beneficial relationship with the parent product. Zack shared that Gravity Forms gives certified developers Slack access, roadmap previews, and early GitHub updates — which let his team stay compatible and confident. Katie contrasted that with WooCommerce, where early on, there was zero relationship — and she had to grow independently. Only in recent years has WooCommerce opened up to community dialogue. Melissa described Cadence as “democratic,” letting devs monetize through Cadence Cloud and even licensing APIs. 💡 Actionable takeaway: Be proactive in communication. Offer feedback, share improvements, and show how your success lifts the platform’s ecosystem. Collaboration gets you access, visibility, and smoother integrations. ⚙️ 3. Expect Platform Risk — and Outperform It by Being Excellent Every guest admitted that when you build on someone else’s product, you’re vulnerable to that platform changing direction or adding your feature into core. But instead of fearing it, they all agreed on one defense: be the better version. Melissa: “We deal with threats by being excellent.” Her team invests in documentation, training, and customer education — things most platform developers don’t do. Zack: “If Gravity Forms built a GravityView competitor, we’d just have to be better.” Katie: pointed out how WooCommerce often adds basic versions of popular plugin features — but leaves plenty of room for specialized, advanced solutions. 💡 Actionable takeaway: Don’t just rely on your integration — differentiate through support, UX, and focus. Your edge is execution quality and customer experience, not just your technical connection. ✳️ In short: If I had to summarize this episode in one line: “Add-on success = great partner choice + great relationships + relentless excellence.” It’s a masterclass in how to build with an ecosystem, not under it. Mentioned in this Episode NameURLContextWooCommercehttps://woocommerce.comDiscussed as a major WordPress eCommerce platform that many developers build add-ons for.Gravity Formshttps://www.gravityforms.comReferenced multiple times as a base plugin ecosystem for third-party add-ons like GravityKit.GravityKithttps://www.gravitykit.comZack Katz’s product suite built on top of Gravity Forms.KadenceWPhttps://www.kadencewp.comMelissa’s current platform focus; mentioned for its “Cadence Cloud” feature and developer openness.Divihttps://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/Mentioned as one of the first ecosystems Melissa built for; the first third-party marketplace she participated in.Elementorhttps://elementor.comCompared alongside Divi as a design framework with large plugin ecosystems.StyleCloudhttps://stylecloud.coMelissa’s company; builds add-ons and hosts a Facebook community.Freemiushttps://freemius.comMentioned as WP Product Talk’s “growth partner” that handles plugin licensing and sales.GiveWPhttps://givewp.comUsed as an example of a plugin ecosystem originally forked from Easy Digital Downloads.Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)https://easydigitaldownloads.comReferenced as the base that GiveWP was forked from.Fluent Product Suite by WP Manage Ninjahttps://wpmanageninja.com/Mentioned in audience question about building internal systems on top of Fluent products.FloThemeshttps://flothemes.com/Former competitor in the photography WordPress theme space, referenced by Melissa.Genesis Frameworkhttps://www.studiopress.com/genesis-framework/Cited as one of the earliest WordPress ecosystems to inspire add-on marketplaces.Foodie Pro Themehttps://feastdesignco.com/foodie-pro/Mentioned in a discussion of third-party acquisitions within the Genesis ecosystem.