Changelog

This week we’re rolling out several improvements and bug fixes to our Checkout. Here’s what’s new.

New Feature to Control Marketing Opt-In UI

Freemius Checkout has several built-in features to make it fully compliant with GDPR and other privacy-related regulations, while providing the best possible UX for your buyers. One such feature is the Marketing Opt-In UI.

Until now, the UI would show up where relevant per regulation, and buyers had to explicitly choose whether they wanted to opt in to marketing or not. There wasn’t a way to configure this behavior.

We’ve now introduced a new configuration parameter, gdpr, to better customize this flow based on your own preferences.

• default – This is the current default behavior, where the UI will show up if the buyer has not previously opted in the past.
• opt_out – Use this to have the UI pre-select the “No” option by default, saving a click before purchase at the expense of fewer marketing opt-ins.
• hidden – Completely hides the UI from the Checkout. Use this if you don’t want Freemius to manage the opt-in consent and already have your own system in place.

You can read more about it in our documentation.

All Dates in the Checkout Are Now Localized

Freemius Checkout supports various languages out of the box.

We’ve now extended this capability to also translate and localize the dynamic dates shown in the UI based on the selected language.

Coupon UI Now Has Better Resilience Against Errors

We noticed a UI glitch in the Checkout when a coupon could not be validated due to network or similar transient issues.

We identified the root cause and made the UI and UX more resilient to such errors, helping keep the checkout experience as smooth as possible.

Better License Upgrade Flow

Last week, we saw a regression in the license upgrade flow where the flow was broken in some cases. We identified and hot-fixed it immediately.

As a follow-up, we also addressed additional edge cases, such as licenses that were manually upgraded to a higher quota by the maker. The Checkout will now always select the correct minimum pricing or quota when upgrading a license, whether the upgrade is within the same plan or across different plans.

Fix in the Review Avatar

Freemius Checkout can show reviews as a social proofing interface to help boost your sales.

We noticed a small UI bug where the fallback avatar was not being generated correctly in some cases. We’ve deployed a fix to ensure avatars are now rendered consistently across all scenarios.

We noticed a bug in our system where we did not send invoices for a subscription’s first payment when the payment value was zero. A zero-value payment can occur for several reasons, such as:

1. License upgrades with a full proration discount.
2. Purchases with a full first-payment discount due to coupons.

However, we understand that it is important to continue sending emails and invoices, as they serve as a record of the action taken by the buyer and help explain future renewal payments for the subscription.

Starting with today’s deployment, our system will now send invoices for zero-value subscription payments via the payment email buyers receive.

Clicking the invoice link will show the exact reason why the invoice amount is zero. For example, an invoice may reflect a zero value due to a 100% proration discount.

The Developer Dashboard will also begin showing these zero-value payments. In an upcoming update, the Dashboard will additionally support generating and downloading invoices for such payments, consistent with the experience for regular payments.

We are rolling out a few quality-of-life improvements to our backend system.

Fixed Long Strings in Invoices

We noticed a few edge cases where long strings in invoices could break the layout and affect readability.

We’ve identified all such areas and ensured that long text now wraps correctly onto the next line, keeping invoices clean and easy to read.

User Emails Now Included in Licenses Export

When exporting licenses from the Developer Dashboard, the CSV will now include an additional user_email column alongside the existing user_id. This makes it easier to analyze exports and better understand and manage your user base when working with the data.

We noticed a UI glitch on the Store Settings page affecting team members who are not the store owner. For security reasons, non-owners are not allowed to update any store configuration. However, the UI did not fully reflect this restriction and displayed the settings in an editable state.

While any interaction with the form was correctly blocked at the API level, the editable UI created confusion for makers and their teams.

To address this, we’ve released an update where non-store owners now see the Store Settings in a read-only state, along with a clear notice explaining why the configuration cannot be updated.

This week we’re rolling out minor UI polishing to the DKIM configuration section of the Emails page.

While enhancing the customization addresses UI last week, we noticed a few leftover UI glitches and legacy elements on this page. With this update, we’re closing that loop by cleaning up and aligning the rest of the UI for a more consistent and polished experience.

We noticed a regression following last week’s deployment of the “Weekly Report Email”. In some email clients, the banner image URL was not rendering correctly.

We have identified the root cause and deployed a fix. Starting next week, you should see the email rendered with the correct layout across supported clients. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We noticed an intermittent issue where querying Sites by version number was returning a 504 server error from the API. This typically surfaced when makers clicked the Downloaded link from the Deployment page.

After investigating, we identified the root cause and deployed a fix. Alongside this, we substantially optimized the underlying API request, resulting in a much faster experience. The Sites page now loads instantly when filtering by version, instead of occasionally timing out.

This week we’re wrapping our email rebranding with a bang. So far, we completed makers’ emails, followed by transactional and customer-facing emails—bringing their default design up to date while preserving all customization options.

However, we left one email for last because we didn’t just want to redesign it; we wanted to rebuild it from the ground up. That email is the weekly reports email.

As you can see above, this email is sent to our makers every week, highlighting the exact number of sales, first-time payments, and renewals across different plans. This gives you quick, reliable insights into which plans, pricing structures, and billing cycles are performing best.

While rebranding this email, we took the opportunity to unify and enrich the entire experience while introducing a clearer, more consistent UI.

• Data now includes a more detailed breakdown per plan and billing cycle, offering deeper visibility into weekly performance.
• The CTA now takes you directly to that specific week’s report in the Developer Dashboard.
• The email is now fully responsive, adapting seamlessly to both mobile and desktop layouts.

For our makers, we hope you’ll enjoy this grand finale to the email rebranding journey.

PS: If you’re not receiving the weekly report emails, please ensure the notification isn’t disabled in your email settings.

This week we’re rolling out a major enhancement to the product types supported in Freemius. As we expanded the platform for SaaS and App makers, we introduced two broad categories — “SaaS” and “App.”

However, after receiving feedback from makers, it became clear that these generic labels weren’t always enough to guide them toward the right setup. For example, creators of Chrome extensions weren’t sure which type to pick, and we noticed cases where products like Figma plugins were accidentally categorized as WordPress plugins — which then required manual corrections.

To address this and make the product creation flow more intuitive, we’ve expanded the new product form and backend to support a richer set of categories and product types.

Starting with a Wider Category

Makers now begin by selecting a broad category — SaaS, Apps, WordPress Products, or Bundles.

Starting with a clear category helps avoid mix-ups, such as confusing WordPress plugins with Figma plugins.

More Fine-Tuned Product Options

Next, when relevant, we ask what specific kind of product you’re building. For example, under “Apps & Software,” you can now choose:

• App (Mobile or Desktop)
• Plugin
• Extension
• Add-on

This lets makers quickly identify the exact product type. For instance, someone integrating a Chrome extension would naturally select “Extension.”

After creation, you’ll be taken directly to the Setup Checklist for onboarding.

With these improvements, we aim to make it clearer how flexible the platform truly is. No matter what kind of software you’re selling, Freemius has you covered.

Following last week’s deployment improving how DKIM-verified emails are handled, this week we’re rolling out additional refinements and addressing a few regressions identified during wider usage.

Better UX While Configuring Emails

As documented, if DKIM is not properly configured for the domain of your sending address, we automatically fall back to our generic [email protected] to prevent deliverability issues.

Otherwise the system first attempts to use your configured sender address, then your developer account email — both checked against DKIM — before ultimately falling back to [email protected].

This ensures that only authenticated domains are used for sending, and helps maintain high inbox placement.

However, the customization UI previously did not communicate this logic clearly, and placeholder text sometimes suggested a different behavior, causing confusion for some makers. This week we’ve improved the UX to clearly show which email will be used and why, including a link to relevant documentation for easy reference.

Other Fixes

• We identified two legacy email address types that were no longer functional. These have now been removed from the Dashboard.
• Fixed a regression where, if DKIM was not set, the reply-to address was occasionally populated incorrectly.
• The “Don’t Reply” email will now correctly fall back to the configured “General System Address” before using the developer’s email.

We have rolled out a UX improvement to help makers better integrate Freemius with their WordPress products. The Freemius Developer Dashboard includes an “SDK Integration” page that outlines all the steps required to connect a product with our official WP SDK.

At the end of those steps, there is a Check button that verifies whether the integration is complete.

Previously, if the integration failed for any reason, the UI did not provide any hints about common causes. This often left makers guessing what might have gone wrong during setup.

With today’s deployment, we are improving this flow. When the integration check fails, the system now presents a dialog highlighting common mistakes along with actionable next steps. It also includes links to relevant documentation to help makers quickly diagnose and resolve the issue.

We hope this update makes the integration experience smoother and significantly reduces the guesswork during setup.

This week we’re rolling out several improvements and bug fixes across the Checkout, especially around license renewals, upgrades, and payment-method updates. These updates aim to reduce friction for makers who generate Checkout links programmatically or rely on dynamic license flows.

plan_id no longer required for payment-method updates

Previously, updating a payment method required passing a plan_id. While this worked fine when using our API or the Developer Dashboard, generating these links directly in code often created confusion because it wasn’t clear where the plan_id should come from.

To simplify the process, the Checkout can now infer the correct plan automatically. All you need is the license key, making the payment-method update flow far easier to integrate.

https://checkout.freemius.com/product/<productID>/?license_key=<licenseKey>&is_payment_method_update=true

Respecting the licenses parameter in License Update flows

The Checkout supports pre-loading a quota using the licenses parameter. For example, if your pricing includes tiers for 1000, 5000, and 10,000 units, you can preselect one like:

https://checkout.freemius.com/product/<productID>/plan/<planID>/licenses/5000/

However, this didn’t previously work during license-upgrade flows, where makers often rely on preselected quantities to guide users toward the correct tier. This has now been fixed so the parameter is consistently honored.

Additional Fixes

• We identified an edge case where altering a license’s quota in the Developer Dashboard could cause the Checkout’s quota dropdown to display incorrect values. The UI glitch has been resolved.
• The legacy Checkout has now been fully removed from our platform. Passing checkout_style=legacy will no longer have any effect and the new design will load by default.

We’ve refreshed the design of our license-recovery mini-app — the small self-service tool you can share with customers to help them retrieve their license keys and download links using only their email address.

When a customer submits the form, Freemius automatically sends them an email on your behalf containing download links for their purchased products along with all associated license keys.

This lightweight recovery flow gives your buyers a quick way to help themselves, which can significantly reduce routine support tickets. To link users directly to the mini-app for a specific product, use the URL pattern below:

https://dashboard.freemius.com/license-recovery/{product_id}/{product_slug}/

You can find the product_id and product_slug in your Developer Dashboard. Here’s an example:

https://dashboard.freemius.com/license-recovery/11707/my-awesome-plugin/.

If you prefer offering a unified recovery page for your entire developer account, you can use:

https://dashboard.freemius.com/license-recovery/{developer_id}/

Your developer_id is available on your Profile page.

We pushed an update tightening GDPR compliance in specific locations following recent regulatory changes. This ensures our system remains aligned with evolving regional privacy requirements while maintaining a smooth experience for your customers.

This week we are bringing some small enhancements to our Checkout.

Fixed Coupon Discount Label Bug

We noticed an issue in the coupon discount label where absolute-value coupons would sometimes display an incorrect amount when the selected currency wasn’t USD. Since many of our makers operate in multiple currencies, this inconsistency created confusion during checkout.

In addition, the label wasn’t properly applying translation and number localization, which made the UI feel inconsistent for non-English locales.

With today’s deployment, both issues have been fixed so that currency handling and localized formatting work as expected.

Fixed Race Condition Bug in the Cart UI

In some rare cases, a race condition between parallel API calls caused the cart functionality to break—either failing to save or unintentionally disabling the cart when users interacted with the toggle.

We’ve resolved this race condition to ensure the cart state always updates reliably.