Welcome to the changelog section of Freemius, here you'll find our weekly technical update notes. You can subscribe to all posts via Newsletter or follow us on Twitter to stay updated.
Just as we were about to wrap up our data liberation project, we received an exciting request from our makers that we couldn’t ignore. In addition to exporting affiliate payments, they asked for the ability to export the list of affiliates as well.
We’re thrilled to announce the immediate availability of this feature! Simply navigate to the “Affiliates” tab under the “Affiliate Program” page, where you’ll find a Download button. This allows you to export all your affiliates along with details such as their name, email, CTR, earnings, and more.
If you haven’t already, be sure to explore our Affiliate Platform feature to grow your business.
As 2024 draws to a close, we’re ending the year with an electrifying finale! Introducing a dazzling new design, game-changing UX enhancements, and lightning-fast performance upgrades specifically for the Developer Dashboard!
Fresh New UI
Our brand and design team has delivered a new UI, focusing on readability and legibility for consuming large amounts of data.
Freemius provides you with a wealth of data and actionable insights in our Dashboard. The primary goal of the UI/UX team has been to make it as easy and seamless as possible to consume this information. With this mission in mind, we present the new UI for the Developer Dashboard.
We have introduced numerous changes to enhance your experience. Here are just a few highlights:
Improved Data View
All data tables are now consolidated within a clean white background for maximum legibility.
The primary action button to create new entities is now placed inside the toolbar on the left-hand side.
Row action buttons are aligned to the right without drawing too much attention, allowing you to focus on the data.
Most inline action elements now appear only when hovering over a row.
Consolidated Details View
We have reviewed and streamlined all detail view items (side navigations), making them cleaner.
Only the most relevant information is displayed initially, with expandable sections to show more details as needed.
Negative action buttons are now properly highlighted at the end of the details panel.
Plans Page Improvements
The action button has been moved to the top, including the “Release plans to users”.
Checkout code and links are now consolidated into a single dropdown button.
Deployment Page Improvements
Notices for SDKs and other actionable items are now clearer and more attention-grabbing.
Configuration options, such as “Add Freemius as a plugin contributor,” have been moved to the top for better visibility.
Resizable and Collapsible Sidenav
The UX of the sidenav has been improved to accommodate large data views and different screen sizes.
A drag handler allows you to adjust the width of the sidenav to suit your preference.
A collapse button enables you to hide the sidebar, letting you focus more on the data.
Unified Dialogs
All modal dialogs now feature a clear and consistent design. The primary button is always blue, providing a clear hint about the next step, and headers are sticky to maintain context within the dialog.
Dark mode along with sync to system
If you’re wondering where the dark mode is, don’t worry—it hasn’t gone anywhere! It has simply been relocated to the main dropdown menu on the far right.
Plus, there’s now a new option to sync the theme with your system or browser settings for a more seamless experience.
Performance Improvement
We saved the best for last! This release comes with a significant performance boost, making the Developer Dashboard noticeably snappier and rendering faster.
We identified the biggest bottleneck when navigating through different pages: the numerous HTTP requests made to load template files. Previously, the system had to wait until all the templates for all components were loaded, even though the data was already prepared.
So, we eliminated this bottleneck without compromising initial load time. The app now smartly makes a single HTTP request to preemptively cache all the template files.
This change results in significantly fewer HTTP requests when navigating between pages. It is clearly visible in the video below:
Contrast this with the previous experience, which was noticeably less snappy; the skeletons and components were loaded one after another before the data was finally being displayed (the traditional waterfall experience).
Additionally, we’ve removed outdated scripts that were no longer in use, further contributing to faster loading times.
We hope you enjoy these improvements! Explore the Developer Dashboard further to uncover even more changes!
This week, we’re excited to roll out updates that enhance the system emails sent by Freemius.
Weekly sales report email
Freemius sends weekly reporting emails to all our makers, highlighting new upgrades, renewals, and downgrades. These emails also compare the data with the previous week, providing quick insights into your product’s performance.
This week’s update brings two key improvements.
First, we have made the email more responsive, ensuring it displays better on smaller screens.
Second, we addressed an issue where the report included data for migrated payments and subscriptions. Freemius supports migrations from platforms like WooCommerce, EDD, and Lemon Squeezy, but since these payments weren’t processed through Freemius, their inclusion caused confusion for some makers. With this update, such data is now excluded, allowing the report to focus solely on transactions processed by Freemius.
Fixing duplicate emails
We also addressed an issue where duplicate emails were being sent in specific scenarios, such as Affiliate payouts. This bug has been resolved, and the system is now more resilient to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.
As you sell with Freemius, you have various options for your payouts, including wire transfers, where the money is sent directly to your bank account.
You can transfer earnings from different currencies to the same or different bank accounts, with the option to convert the earnings to any target currency of your preference.
However, there are certain restrictions on wire transfers that are beyond our control. For example, transferring PKR (Pakistani Rupee) to a PK business account through wire transfer is not supported by regulation.
This week, we are rolling out updates to surface these restrictions directly in the UI as you configure your payout settings. This improvement will help you choose the right currency and avoid delays in receiving your payments. As always, we strive to make the payout process as efficient and transparent as possible—after all, it’s your money.
As part of our ongoing Data Liberation Project, we’re excited to announce a new capability: you can now download affiliate payout data directly from your Developer Dashboard!
Freemius’s built-in affiliate platform helps boost your marketing efforts by tracking all sales made through affiliate links and managing calculations for affiliate payouts. This data, available under the Payouts tab on the Affiliation page, can now be exported with ease.
This feature marks the completion of our Data Liberation Project. At Freemius, we value transparency and are committed to ensuring you have full control of your data. Now, you can access and take your data wherever you need.
If you missed earlier updates on this project, check out our detailed blog post to learn more!
We identified an issue where the requested currency was not being honored during Checkout if the plan_id parameter was missing.
Historically, we recommend including the plan_id parameter when using our Checkout. When it is not provided, the system defaults to loading the cheapest visible plan.
However, in such cases, the currency parameter was not being applied correctly, even when specified.
This issue has now been resolved, and the requested currency will be respected as intended.
Freemius includes a feature that allows customers or buyers to whitelist a license, enabling activation only on selected sites.
We identified a UI regression where the requested URL occasionally failed to appear in the whitelist. The root cause has been addressed, and a fix has been deployed.
This week we are releasing a few housekeeping updates, mostly aimed at maintenance and bug fixes. Out of those, the following are noteworthy.
Affiliates Terms Page Styling Improvement
We have updated the style of the affiliates terms page, taking it at-par with the rest of the legal pages generated by Freemius. Link of such page is included automatically when a user signs up for the Affiliate Platform. The platform can significantly boost your marketing efforts and sales, so we recommend checking it out.
SDK Contact Form Bug Fix
Our maker reported some console error being shown by the SDK’s standalone contact form. While the error itself didn’t break any functionality, we understand it can be annoying, especially to our tech savvy makers. We have investigated and fixed the issue from our end.
Freemius supports setting up a special coupon to appear when a buyer is canceling their subscription. This feature is very helpful in reducing churn rates.
As a maker, you just need to set the coupon up from the Developer Dashboard. Now, when a buyer clicks the “Cancel Auto-Renew” button through the Customer Portal, the system will automatically show a pop-up like the one above.
However, due to limitations of payment gateways, sometimes it is impossible to apply the discount to the next immediate payment from the subscription.
To improve the system, we’ve made it smarter by detecting such scenarios and preventing the pop-up from showing. This, in turn, will help reduce disputes.
Recently, we introduced flags next to the language selector in our Checkout to help buyers select the language most relevant to their location.
However, we understand that many countries share the same language. For example, Spanish is spoken both in Spain and Argentina.
To make the experience more user-friendly, the UI will now display the relevant flag beside the language corresponding to the user’s location.
For instance, if the user is coming from Argentina, the Argentine flag will appear next to the “Español” language option.
Remember, you can always use the language: 'auto' option to load the Checkout in the buyer’s preferred language through the Checkout JS SDK.
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