If you're here you probably know what nulled plugins are: unofficial, pirated versions of WordPress plugins. If you are tempted to use nulled plugins, you should first fully understand the dangers of doing this.
The simple reality is: Those who spread around pirated / nulled versions of software are not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They are putting in time and effort for a reason: their own financial gain. How? Simple. They add hidden spam links in the plugin that lead to their own websites.
These links boost their SEO and Google rankings, but damage your SEO, website reputation, and ranking position.
More than that, sometimes they outright add malware or backdoors to gain direct admin access to your website. The reasons to do this are many: hijack your site, promote their products, steal your customers' emails to send them spam, steal credit card data, etc.
Again, everyone has a reason to do anything. If you believe the moderators of these forums spend many hours every day to add plugins, without any benefit to them, you are dreaming or naive.
These plugins that they claim to be "safe" are filled with various hidden malware and tricks, that the forum owners use for their financial gain.
Below is the warning in a popular forum for nulled plugins. The warning says:
"Our resources is CLEAN and SAFE. So you can use it for development or production. But sometime the antivirus will warn the JS code. It's no problem. So before downloading, you need to disable the antivirus tools!"
You can think for yourself: if the files are "Clean and Safe" original plugin files, why would the antivirus warn you? why would you need to disable antivirus software before using these resources?
These pirated plugins could do incredibly malicious things, without you ever noticing it.
We have in fact seen one of these nulled plugins (installed by a wp "agency") when doing support for one of our customers. There was a JavaScript glitch during WooCommerce checkout.
After investigating it, we have found poorly coded JavaScript code that captured credit card data entered by customers and forwarded it to an attacker's site. The only reason we ever caught it was because the script was poorly done, but many attackers have excellent coding skills, and some are even better at hiding these scripts. You could never even know it.
After hearing about this story, what do you think about the warning above in that forum, that said: "Sometimes the antivirus will warn the JS (JavaScript) code" ?
WooCommerce plugins such as B2BKing are ideal targets for attackers, as WooCommerce sites handle credit card / PayPal / payment data, an excellent source of income for attackers.
Well, no. B2BKing for example is being sold in partnership with Envato: a company worth north of $1 billion, that independently reviews our code based on strict standards, and makes sure it complies with all WordPress and WooCommerce security standards.
When using a nulled copy of a plugin, you have no idea who publishes it, and what they did to the code.
Our team is multi-national and we well understand this reality: in many countries around the world wages are poor and economies offer little opportunities. This is a simple reality. It's difficult for many to buy plugins at full prices, and nulled software can be very tempting. We understand this.
The problem is: you are not saving money
If you are a business owner, you risk damaging your site's SEO, risk an insecure checkout, and you risk infecting customers with malware. If you are serious about your business, this is no way to start it. This is not how you start a successful business. And if you don't believe your business will bring you serious profits, why even do it?
If you are a developer or agency, what kind of reputation are you building by using pirated software? What will you tell customers when they ask for updates to software, or when they tell you antiviruses are notifying them their site has security issues? If you are serious about your career, is this the way to build it?
What about sites that sell plugins, but for small $ prices?
Even with these sites, you have the same exact issues: the code is not reviewed by anyone, you have no guarantee it is not altered, and if you run into any issue, who will you complain to? There is no review or dispute mechanism.
Even if the code was safe to use, which you can never be sure of:
We understand you may be unsure about a purchase. We offer a live demo of the plugin that can be fully tested, backend and frontend.
Furthermore, we will soon release a free plugin version available on WordPress.org. Feel free to contact us for details.
At B2BKing, we pride ourselves on offering amazing support and going the extra mile for our customers. We want you to be happy with your purchase and our 5-star review average shows it.
Just read some of our reviews to see what customers have to say about the post-purchase service.
Finally, we are developers, running our own plugin business. We have the same challenges and problems you have as a developer or company, and we need your support!
Wholesale, Business-to-Business, and Website Development can be very profitable endeavors, and together we can get a lot further than each of us can do on their own. When you purchase B2BKing, we have your back! and we do everything we can to make sure your project is successful.