News Archives - Awesome Motive

WPBeginner Growth Fund, a leading investment fund specializing in B2B software businesses backed by Awesome Motive is thrilled to announce its full acquisition of BuddyBoss, an all-in-one community and social learning platform for creators, businesses, and universities.

BuddyBoss Web platform gives you everything you need to successfully build and manage online communities using WordPress. It comes with all the important features you would expect including User Profiles, Activity Feeds, Groups, Forum Discussions, Member Connections, Direct Messages, Events, eLearning (LMS) integrations, eCommerce support, and more.

This is why popular universities like Stanford, MIT, Yale, as well as top creators like Chalene Johnson, Jay Shetty, Nathan Chan, and many more use BuddyBoss as their preferred social learning platform.

BuddyBoss App platform enables anyone to create their own custom branded native Android and iOS apps for their brand without hiring a developer. You can customize your app layout, choose your branding, upload your content, and keep it in sync with your BuddyBoss web platform & courses right from inside your WordPress dashboard.

BuddyBoss app platform is designed to help keep members engaged and connected on the go. You can translate your app in multiple languages, add gamification features to boost engagement, introduce micro-learning experiences, add in-app purchases, and more to tap into the $80 billion mobile learning market.

“Online communities have always been a critical part of the web, and I believe their role is going to be more important than ever in the future.” said Syed Balkhi, Founder of WPBeginner and CEO of Awesome Motive. “The web is going through a massive transformation, and we are excited to welcome BuddyBoss to the family, so we can help usher in a new era of online communities where independent creators and businesses have full control over their data and content distribution.”

Over 25 million websites already use the WPBeginner family of products like OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, AIOSEO, MemberPress, and others to build and grow their online presence. Now with BuddyBoss, they can add a private community with premium content and a branded mobile app to help grow their business and revenues even further.

“We are excited to have BuddyBoss join the WPBeginner family of brands, and we’re confident in the leadership that Awesome Motive provides will ensure that BuddyBoss remains the leading all-in-one open source community platform for many years to come” said Tom Cheddadi & Michael Eisenwasser, co-founders of BuddyBoss.

Like the rest of WPBeginner family of brands, BuddyBoss team will continue to operate as an independent unit and customers will see no change in service. Blair Williams, founder of MemberPress (another WPBeginner Growth Fund company), will be joining as an advisor to help guide the vision of the product.

About WPBeginner Growth Fund

WPBeginner Growth Fund is a leading investment fund focused on WordPress businesses. Created by Syed Balkhi, founder & chief blogger at WPBeginner, the fund’s portfolio boasts an impressive list of WordPress companies including MemberPress, Pretty Links, Formidable Forms, Uncanny Automator, Wholesale Suite, HeroThemes, FunnelKit, GrooveHQ, and more. WPBeginner is one of the largest free WordPress resource sites for beginners. Learn more about WPBeginner Growth Fund at wpbeginner.com

About Awesome Motive

Awesome Motive is a technology management company behind popular web apps and business tools like OptinMonster, All in One SEO (AIOSEO), MonsterInsights, WPForms, and over a dozen others. Over 25 million websites use Awesome Motive tools to get more traffic, subscribers, and sales. Awesome Motive has assembled a world-class team of industry experts (100% remote in over 50 countries) that provide unparalleled service and products to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys. Learn more about Awesome Motive at awesomemotive.com.

About BuddyBoss
Launched in 2010, BuddyBoss is an all-in-one online community and social learning platform for creators, businesses, and educational institutions. Over 50,000+ use BuddyBoss to create online communities and custom branded mobile apps to deliver superior social learning experience. Learn more about BuddyBoss at buddyboss.com.

WPBeginner Growth Fund, a leading investment fund specializing in B2B software businesses backed by Awesome Motive is thrilled to announce its recent investment in GrooveHQ, a top-rated customer support help desk software.

GrooveHQ is a trusted customer support platform serving over 2,000 businesses worldwide. It streamlines workflows, boosting efficiency and empowering businesses to deliver best-in-class customer support at scale.

Syed Balkhi, Founder and CEO of WPBeginner & Awesome Motive, expressed his enthusiasm about the investment: “GrooveHQ provides everything small businesses need to offer exceptional customer service at scale without the high costs. We value Groove’s commitment to offering a powerful & easy to use customer support software at fair prices, making it an ideal solution for small businesses across various industries, from agencies and eCommerce to SaaS and brick-and-mortar establishments.”

With over 25 million websites using Awesome Motive software like WPForms, MonsterInsights, AIOSEO, and others, the WPBeginner Growth Fund’s investment in GrooveHQ aims to leverage strategic synergies across its portfolio. This aligns perfectly with Balkhi’s mission of helping small businesses grow & compete with the big guys through superior growth tools and services.

Alex Turnbull, Founder and CEO of GrooveHQ, shared, “We’re excited to be part of the WPBeginner Growth Fund family. Their extensive experience and proven growth strategies align perfectly with our vision to revolutionize customer service. This partnership will elevate GrooveHQ to new heights and enable us to serve more small businesses worldwide.”

Balkhi emphasized the shared mission with GrooveHQ: “Our goal is to eliminate subpar customer service experiences worldwide by offering exceptional customer service tools. This partnership will allow us to combine our expertise and serve the global small business community even better. The collaboration with GrooveHQ aligns perfectly with WPBeginner Growth Fund and Awesome Motive’s commitment to empowering businesses with affordable and effective solutions, further solidifying its position as a key player in the WordPress and software business investment landscape.”

About WPBeginner Growth Fund

WPBeginner Growth Fund is a leading investment fund focused on WordPress businesses. Created by Syed Balkhi, founder & chief blogger at WPBeginner, the fund’s portfolio boasts an impressive list of WordPress companies including MemberPress, Pretty Links, Formidable Forms, Uncanny Automator, Wholesale Suite, HeroThemes, FunnelKit, and more. WPBeginner is one of the largest free WordPress resource sites for beginners. Learn more about WPBeginner Growth Fund at wpbeginner.com

About GrooveHQ

GrooveHQ, a top-rated help desk software serving over 2,000 businesses globally, streamlines workflows and empowers exceptional customer support with essential tools like shared inbox, live chat, smart workflows with automation, reporting, and integrations. Affordable and powerful, GrooveHQ is the ideal choice for businesses seeking superior help desk solutions.

About Awesome Motive

Awesome Motive is a technology management company behind popular web apps and business tools like All in One SEO (AIOSEO), MonsterInsights, WPForms, and over a dozen others. Over 25 million websites use Awesome Motive tools to get more traffic, subscribers, and sales. Learn more about Awesome Motive at awesomemotive.com.

Awesome Motive, a fast-growing software and media company with over 25 million websites using their software, today announced their acquisition of Envira Gallery and Imagely, a popular suite of photography software in the WordPress market.

Over 700,000+ photographers and smart website owners use Envira Gallery and Imagely to create beautiful photo galleries, offer image proofing for clients, sell photo prints, and more.

This acquisition further strengthens Awesome Motive’s position as the market leader in the WordPress and web presence space as they continue to deliver innovative solutions that are helping small businesses grow and compete with the big guys.

“We are excited to welcome Envira Gallery and Imagely to the Awesome Motive family,” said Syed Balkhi, CEO of Awesome Motive. “Photo galleries and media management are essential to building a beautiful website, and there is a very good reason why both Envira Gallery and Imagely are the top choice in the WordPress market”.

Over 25 million websites already use Awesome Motive growth tools like OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, AIOSEO, and others to grow their online presence. Now they can protect their online business using the powerful website backup & migration features of Duplicator.

“I’m excited to have Envira Gallery, Next Gen Gallery, Photocrati, and SoliloquyWP join the Awesome Motive family, and I’m confident that they are the best fit to take these market leading products to the next level” said Nathan Singh, CEO of Envira Gallery and Imagely.

About Awesome Motive

Awesome Motive is a leading software and media company helping shape the web for billions worldwide. Collectively, their software powers over 25 million websites and includes many of the well-known website tools such as OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, All in One SEO, PushEngage, WP Mail SMTP, SeedProd, Smash Balloon, and more. Awesome Motive has assembled a world-class team of industry experts (100% remote in over 45 countries) that provide unparalleled service and products to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys. Learn more about Awesome Motive at awesomemotive.com.

About Envira Gallery

Launched in 2014, Envira Gallery is a popular WordPress gallery plugin. Envira team is also the creators of SoliloquyWP, a popular WordPress slider plugin. Learn more about Envira Gallery at enviragallery.com.

About Imagely

Imagely is the team behind the #1 WordPress gallery plugin, NextGen Gallery and a popular WordPress theme for photographers, Photocrati. Learn more about Imagely at imagely.com.

Awesome Motive, a fast-growing software and media company with over 21 million websites using their software, today announced their acquisition of WP101, a popular WordPress training resource for small businesses.

Over 3 million users have learnt WordPress from their WordPress video tutorials. The WP101 Plugin allows WordPress agencies and service providers an easy way to offer white-labeled professional WordPress training videos to their clients.

The WP101 acquisition further strengthens Awesome Motive’s position as the market leader in the WordPress and web presence space as they continue to deliver innovative solutions that are helping shape the web for billions worldwide.

“We are excited to welcome WP101 to the Awesome Motive family,” said Syed Balkhi, CEO of Awesome Motive. “Professional training videos are critical for the success of any business, and WP101 makes it easy for companies to add WordPress training to their employee onboarding and SOPs ”.

Over 21 million websites already use Awesome Motive growth tools like OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, AIOSEO, and others to grow their online presence.

“I’m excited to have WP101 join the Awesome Motive family, and I’m confident that the strength and leadership that Awesome Motive provides will ensure WP101 remains the leading WordPress training video solution for many years to come” said Shawn Hesketh, founder of WP101.

About Awesome Motive

Awesome Motive is a leading software and media company helping shape the web for billions worldwide. Collectively, their software powers over 21 million websites and includes many of the well-known website tools such as OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, All in One SEO, PushEngage, WP Mail SMTP, SeedProd, Smash Balloon, and more. Awesome Motive has assembled a world-class team of industry experts (100% remote in over 45 countries) that provide unparalleled service and products to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys. Learn more about Awesome Motive at awesomemotive.com.

About WP101

WP101 is a trusted premium WordPress video training provider in the market. Over 3 million users have learnt WordPress from their videos. They allow WordPress agencies and service providers an easy way to offer white-labeled professional WordPress training videos to their clients. Learn more about WP101 at WP101.com.

Awesome Motive, a fast-growing software and media company with over 21 million websites using their software, today announced their acquisition of Thrive Themes, the company behind some of the most powerful small business growth tools for WordPress.

Over 200,000+ smart website owners use the Thrive Themes growth tool suite to easily build high-converting websites that lead to more email subscribers, paying customers, and raving fans. Simply put, Thrive helps you get better results!

The Thrive Themes acquisition further strengthens Awesome Motive’s position as the market leader in the WordPress and online marketing space as AM continues to deliver innovative solutions that help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys.

“Easy to use online marketing tools that deliver results is essential for small business success, especially in today’s economic environment” said Syed Balkhi, CEO of Awesome Motive. “Thrive is a well-known and respected brand that has a long-history of helping businesses improve their online marketing efforts. We are excited to welcome them to the Awesome Motive family, so we can help more of our customers create thriving online businesses”.

Over 21 million websites already use Awesome Motive solutions like OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, AIOSEO, and others to build and grow their online presence. Now they can achieve even greater results with a winning combination of growth tools available as part of Thrive Themes suite.

“We’re excited to have Thrive Themes join the Awesome Motive family, and I’m confident that the strength and leadership that Awesome Motive provides will ensure that Thrive Themes remains the leading provider of conversion-focused growth tools for many years to come and will fuel future innovation” said Shane Melaugh, co-founder of Thrive Themes.

About Awesome Motive

Awesome Motive is a leading software and media company helping shape the web for billions worldwide. Collectively, their software powers over 21 million websites and includes many of the well-known website tools such as OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, All in One SEO, PushEngage, and more. Awesome Motive has assembled a world-class team of industry experts (100% remote in over 45 countries) that provide unparalleled service and products to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys. Learn more about Awesome Motive at awesomemotive.com.

About Thrive Themes

Launched in 2013, Thrive Themes is the company behind some of the most powerful growth tools for WordPress. Over 200,000+ smart website owners use the Thrive premium plugin suite to easily convert website visitors into email subscribers, paying customers, and raving fans. Learn more about Thrive Themes at thrivethemes.com.

Awesome Motive, a fast-growing software and media company with over 21 million websites using their software, today announced their acquisition of Duplicator, a popular WordPress backup and migration software.

Over 1,500,000+ smart website owners and developers across the world use Duplicator to create secure website backups and/or migrate their websites from one location to another with just a few clicks.

The Duplicator acquisition further strengthens Awesome Motive’s position as the market leader in the WordPress and web presence space as they continue to deliver innovative solutions that are helping shape the web for billions worldwide.

“We are excited to welcome Duplicator to the Awesome Motive family,” said Syed Balkhi, CEO of Awesome Motive. “Website backups play a critical role in online security, and Duplicator makes it easy to backup, migrate, and restore websites with just a few clicks”.

Over 21 million websites already use Awesome Motive growth tools like OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, AIOSEO, and others to grow their online presence. Now they can protect their online business using the powerful website backup & migration features of Duplicator.

“We’re excited to have Duplicator join the Awesome Motive family, and I’m confident that the strength and leadership that Awesome Motive provides will ensure Duplicator remains the leading WordPress backup & migration solution for many years to come” said Bob Riley, co-founder of Duplicator.

About Awesome Motive

About Duplicator

Launched in 2011, Duplicator is a popular WordPress backup and migration plugin. Over 1,500,000+ website owners and developers across the world use Duplicator to create secure website backups and perform website migrations with ease. Learn more about Duplicator at snapcreek.com

Awesome Motive, a fast-growing software and media company with over 20 million websites using their software, today announced their acquisition of WP Charitable, a top-rated donation and fundraising software for nonprofits.

Over 10,000+ non-profit organizations and website owners across the world use Charitable to create fundraising campaigns and raise more money online.

The Charitable acquisition further strengthens Awesome Motive’s position as the market leader in the WordPress and digital eCommerce space as they continue to deliver innovative solutions that are helping shape the web for billions worldwide.

“We are excited to welcome WP Charitable to the Awesome Motive family,” said Syed Balkhi, CEO of Awesome Motive. “One of our core beliefs is that companies should be forces for good. This acquisition allows us to use our knowledge, experience, and resources to further empower those who’re changing the world for good”.

Tens of thousands of non-profit organizations already use Awesome Motive growth tools like OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, WP Mail SMTP, AIOSEO, and others to grow their online presence. Now they can raise even more money online using the powerful donation features of WP Charitable.

“We’re excited to have Charitable join the Awesome Motive family, and I’m confident that the strength and leadership that Awesome Motive provides will ensure Charitable remains the leading online donation & fundraising solution for many years to come” said Eric Daams, co-founder of WP Charitable.

About Awesome Motive

Awesome Motive is a leading software and media company helping shape the web for billions worldwide. Collectively, their software powers over 20 million websites and includes many of the well-known website tools such as OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, All in One SEO, PushEngage, WP Mail SMTP, SeedProd, Smash Balloon, and more. Awesome Motive has assembled a world-class team of industry experts (100% remote in over 45 countries) that provide unparalleled service and products to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys.

About WP Charitable

Launched in 2015, WP Charitable is a top-rated WordPress donation and fundraising plugin. Over 10,000+ non-profit organizations and website owners across the world use Charitable to create fundraising campaigns and raise more money online. Learn more about Charitable at wpcharitable.com

Today, I’m extremely excited to share that all Sandhills Development products are joining Awesome Motive.

This includes several popular WordPress plugins including Easy Digital Downloads, AffiliateWP, WP Simple Pay, Sugar Calendar, and many more.

These brands are very close to my heart because when I first started selling premium plugins in 2013, we used Easy Digital Downloads, and we still use EDD to power our eCommerce.

This is one of those rare life moments where things have come full circle, and I honestly feel like I’m living in a dream.

Introduction – Quick Overview of the Plugins

Unlike our other investments, this is an acquisition of a large portfolio of plugins, so I’ll give a quick overview of what each of them do.

Easy Digital Downloads makes it easy for you to sell digital products online such as eBooks, digital art, premium software, and just about any type of digital files.

We use EDD to manage and sell our popular premium plugins because it makes it easy for us to collect recurring subscription payments on our website, manage software licensing, protect premium file access (so only members can access it), and more.

AffiliateWP is the leading affiliate management software for WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, MemberPress, and other popular WordPress platforms. Simply put, it makes it easy for you to launch an affiliate program for your online store.

WP Simple Pay is a Stripe payment plugin that makes it easy for you to accept one-time or recurring payments on your website without setting up a shopping cart. It comes with a payment form builder and all the tools for you to securely accept payments on your site.

Sugar Calendar is a simple events calendar plugin for WordPress. It makes it easy to do event management, ticketing, and everything you need to manage / run an event. It also seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce, Stripe, and other solutions so you can sell event tickets and accept payments on your site.

Aside from that, as part of this deal, we’re also acquiring several free open source plugins such as the popular Transients Manager plugin that’s very helpful in debugging WordPress errors.

And most importantly, the entire team is also joining Awesome Motive, and we’re extremely excited because there are so many talented individuals that I have always admired for years who I’ll now get to work with on a daily basis.

Background Story

In 2013, when I launched OptinMonster, I needed a solution that made it easy for me to sell the premium plugin (digital download), restrict access & updates to only paying members, and most importantly accept recurring payments.

We ended up using Easy Digital Downloads because it helped us do all of that and more.

As we built more premium plugins like MonsterInsights, WPForms, etc they all used EDD.

Even the popular WordPress plugins we later acquired / invested in through the WPBeginner Growth Fund like Smash Balloon, SearchWP, Uncanny Automator, Formidable Forms, etc all used Easy Digital Downloads.

I can easily say that after WordPress, Easy Digital Downloads has a single largest impact on my online success.

This is why it has always had a special place in my heart.

Over the years, I became good friends with EDD / Sandhills Development founder, Pippin Williamson.

We first talked about joining forces back in 2015, but the timing wasn’t right.

After our acquisition of SearchWP in July, Pippin reached out, and we restarted the conversation.

After a few calls, we agreed that Awesome Motive will be the perfect home for Easy Digital Downloads and other Sandhills products given our vast experience in the WordPress industry.

I’m truly honored to have this opportunity to serve over 100,000+ users who use Sandhills Products to grow their online business.

What’s Coming Next?

Our work is just starting.

We will be leveraging the scale and knowledge of the Awesome Motive team to build more innovative solutions to help you grow your online business.

We have built a lot of internal tools to grow our eCommerce / digital product business that I’m really looking forward to sharing with the WordPress community.

We will be combining my vision + the vast knowledge of the Sandhills team to bring even more powerful features to you.

If you have suggestions on features you’d like to see in EDD, AffiliateWP, WP Simple Pay, or any of Sandhills plugin, then please let us know by sending us a message via WPBeginner contact form.

As always, I want to thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner. We look forward to bringing you more amazing solutions to help you grow your business.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

P.S. Want to join our team and work alongside me in helping small businesses grow and compete with the big guys? We’re hiring.

We’re a fully remote team of over 200+ amazingly talented team members across 36 countries.

With over 30,000 websites, SearchWP is the leading WordPress search plugin on the market.

Today, I’m extremely excited to share that SearchWP is joining the Awesome Motive family.

Jon Christopher (founder of SearchWP) has done a phenomenal job in building the most advanced WordPress search plugin in the market. Started in 2013, SearchWP is one of the original WordPress search plugins.

I have known Jon for years and have a lot of respect for all that he has accomplished. We have always been a huge supporter of SearchWP through our WPBeginner blog.

As he wanted to pursue the next chapter of his life, we started discussing the future of the SearchWP plugin.

Given our experience running a suite of popular WordPress plugins, SearchWP was a perfect fit for our family of products.

What does this acquisition mean for existing users?

Aside from the new ownership change, it’s business as usual. You can continue to use the plugin that you love without any interruptions.

With the exception of Jon, the entire SearchWP team will be joining Awesome Motive. This means that you are still being supported by the same talented people.

On top of that, we have added more team members from Awesome Motive that will be working on the SearchWP project (including myself).

With our experience and a dedicated team, we will be adding several new features and improvements to SearchWP in the near future.

What’s Coming Next?

Our work is just starting.

I have been in the WordPress industry since 2006 and have learnt a lot over the years. My websites get over 100 million visitors a year, and we know the importance of good site search.

We have built a lot of internal tools to improve our website search that I’m really looking forward to sharing with the WordPress community.

We will be combining Jon’s vision with our own experience, so you can literally have the BEST search plugin in the industry without the high costs!

This is truly going to be a game changer!

Our goal is to build a search plugin that’s fast and results focused.

A WordPress search plugin that a beginner, non-techy, small business owner can easily set up in less than 10 minutes to grow their business.

I sat down with the team, and we have a crystal-clear 12 month plan. A lot of exciting things are coming your way in the coming months.

I want to thank Jon for all the hard work he put into SearchWP over the last 8 years, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

I also want to thank all users who have supported SearchWP plugin so far, and I hope to earn your support for years to come.

Sincerely,

Syed Balkhi
CEO of Awesome Motive

Awesome Motive, the company that helps small businesses grow and compete with the big guys, announced today that it has acquired PushEngage.

PushEngage is a leading push notification software with over 10,000+ customers in 150+ countries who use the platform to reliably send over 9 billion notifications each month.

Awesome Motive is the company behind leading software like OptinMonster, WPForms, MonsterInsights, WP Mail SMTP, and more. Collectively their software powers over 15 million websites.

Publishers and store owners can use PushEngage’s web push notifications to send targeted personalized messages to users and bring them back to their website. These messages can include new blog post notifications, abandoned cart reminders, product announcements, and more.

The push notifications go directly to the user’s web browser or mobile device, which will help website owners increase their traffic, boost user engagement, and drive more sales overall.

“I first started using push notifications over 3 years ago and quickly realized that the click rate, engagement, and the opt-in rate is significantly higher than my email newsletter or any other engagement channel,” said Syed Balkhi, founder and CEO of Awesome Motive. “Today, our push subscriber list is larger than our email list, and push notifications consistently make the top 5 traffic sources on our sites.”

Both Awesome Motive and PushEngage share a similar commitment to helping customers succeed online and building the most user-friendly push notification solution for WordPress and beyond.

“With Awesome Motive’s vast resources and deep understanding of the marketing industry, I know we’ll be able to bring even more powerful solutions to the PushEngage platform,” said Ravi Trivedi, founder of PushEngage.

In the coming months, PushEngage will build deeper integration with other Awesome Motive products as well as popular platforms like WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, MemberPress, and more.

They’ll also be working on:

Easier workflows to set up highly personalized push notifications campaigns proven to drive results
Improved opt-in technology that’ll help you get even more subscribers
New message channels that you can use to expand your reach

The entire PushEngage team will be joining Awesome Motive.

About PushEngage:
PushEngage is one of the leading web push notifications software in the market. With PushEngage, you can reach customers instantly with targeted and personalized push messages to drive traffic and grow sales.

Learn more at PushEngage.com.