All rock modules are now open source (MIT)

[bernhard]

As some of you might know from my monthly newsletter I have been struggling with how to proceed with my commercial modules. It's a long story, but last year I reached a point were something had to change. The main problem is that building and selling modules for ProcessWire has never been sustainable for me. Not even close. It has been a lot of work to build the shop. It has been a lot of work to provide proper docs. It has been a lot of work to create videos about the modules so that interested people can get an idea of my modules.

That's fine. I knew it would probably not be easy. But I wanted to try 🙂 You never know if you don't try. And I've had hope that it is possible. Unfortunately I don't have this hope any more and that's why I have to draw a line under it.

That's also fine. I've learned a lot and I'm really thankful for anybody that has sent some Euros to a stranger that they have never met in person and that excludes any refund 😄 

So for me the decision was taken. It took me quite some time to get there, but here we are. There was just one problem left: My clients. They have put trust in me and I didn't want to disappoint them. Just drawing a line might be a good solution for myself but might be a terrible solution for them (and their clients as well). Just not providing updates and keeping selling them is also not my style. With open sourcing my modules I try to find the best solution for everybody involved and I want to especially thank @FireWire for helping me get there 🙂 

What does that mean?

I'm using my modules in many of my own projects, which means that I will likely keep them alive for some time. On the other hand I don't plan to develop a lot of websites any more and many modules are somewhat feature complete as @FireWire helped me to realise, so there are no bigger updates planned for any of my modules at this time. Also, none of my modules is tested with the new admin theme. If you want to help out on that front, I'll be happily merging PRs, but as I'm not using it myself I'm not going to fix any issues or adding support for it in my spare time.

So if you want to keep using my modules: Go ahead and have fun! 🙂 If you find the modules helpful it's always nice to let me know.

Hope this is a good solution for everyone! Thx for reading and all the best.

[Stefanowitsch]

Thank you very much  @bernhard! I respect and appreciate your decision. I was always a fan and user of your modules and I will be happy if the module-legacy will live on here and there.

[eelkenet]

Thank you for all of that @bernhard! Quick question, I noticed the Download button of your RockPDF module goes to a 404 on Github: https://github.com/baumrock/RockPdf
There is of course the old open source version but that has been archived and points back to the one on your site. 

Thanks!

[cwsoft]

Dear Bernhard,

unfortunatelly my fear about your future activity became true with your post today. Have realized that you almost dissapeared here in the forums after the initial release of the new admin theme and some of the debates assosicated with it. I‘ve always enjoyed your ideas and help here. I wish you all the best for your future both private and for whatever business you plan next.

Best regards

Edited January 22 by cwsoft

[bernhard]

9 hours ago, eelkenet said:

Thank you for all of that @bernhard! Quick question, I noticed the Download button of your RockPDF module goes to a 404 on

Thx! seems I forgot this one. Will fix this after my vacation 😊

Thx @cwsoft still here just not as active as before. It has always been a dream to push things forward and spend even more time with PW and provide top notch quality and support. but I realised I'm on very thin ice. Also I was really really busy with my startup which we launched last October 😊 thx for your wishes! Greatly appreciated (and needed 😅)

[maximus]

Thank you @bernhard for sharing your modules and for your open source contribution to the ProcessWire community!

When I was developing modules, I initially thought of each one as a potential source of income. But over time I realized that the real value lies in something greater than money — the support from users, their questions, the connections made, and the ability to contribute to this amazing community. That's what makes it truly worthwhile.

Your decision to open source your modules is inspiring and will benefit many developers. Wishing you all the best! 🙏

[psy]

Thank you @bernhard for all the help and support you've given PW devs, including me, over the years. I did notice drop off in your forum posts recently and wondered what was going on. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts and decisions. Wish you well in your new ventures and hope this isn't the end of your PW connection.

[Ivan Gretsky]

Good day, @bernhard!

First of all, I have to thank you for being who you are. A lone talented enthusiast trying to build a sustainable living on top of our beloved CMS. But not just making sites like the rest of us. But creating your little module-selling empire))) Taking on every hard problem ever put in front of a PW developer and solving it in no time. You have leaded the way for us for some many years. Everyone here has been following you in one way or another. And thus I feel sad about you taking this decision.

Yet in the same time I can imagine the freedom you should feel after it. I really wish you good luck in any place your future journey will take you! I sounds like I am saying goodbye to someone leaving, but I am not. I am just saying that every end is the new beginning.

What else I would love to invite you into doing is to analyze why this path of yours (creating a bunch of super cool module) didn't lead you to the place expected. Recently @kongondo, the only other prominent paid module creator I can remember, has done the same exit as you. Why is this? This question is of interest to me because I have many times thought about how I myself could build my income upon what I love and know - ProcessWire.

Could it be, that PW is so much a DIY kind of thing, that most of us want to build something of our own and are not ready to subdue to modules authors' way of doing things (other than @ryan himself)? Or does everyone here enjoys opensource so much that proprietary is something to avoid? Or is it just simply not enough of target audience?

[bernhard]

On 1/22/2026 at 8:37 AM, Stefanowitsch said:

Thank you very much  @bernhard! I respect and appreciate your decision. I was always a fan and user of your modules and I will be happy if the module-legacy will live on here and there.

Thx for your support! Hope the modules will be useful for you.

On 1/22/2026 at 1:25 PM, eelkenet said:

Thank you for all of that @bernhard! Quick question, I noticed the Download button of your RockPDF module goes to a 404 on Github: https://github.com/baumrock/RockPdf

It's public now, thx for letting me know! 🙂 

On 1/23/2026 at 3:01 AM, maximus said:

Thank you @bernhard for sharing your modules and for your open source contribution to the ProcessWire community!

When I was developing modules, I initially thought of each one as a potential source of income. But over time I realized that the real value lies in something greater than money — the support from users, their questions, the connections made, and the ability to contribute to this amazing community. That's what makes it truly worthwhile.

Your decision to open source your modules is inspiring and will benefit many developers. Wishing you all the best! 🙏

I have released my first open source PW module 9+ years ago and I have realised that nothing of what you mentioned pays my bills 😉 And all you mentioned is equally true for paid modules - the difference being that making money allows you to dedicate more time and thus provide even better solutions/docs/support. Or tackle problems that would otherwise not be possible to tackle.

I think PW and all of us would benefit a lot more if we had a working ecosystem for paid modules and a larger market to sell the modules to. I just don't see that happen and that's why I had to give up and find another way. So I have a bit of a problem calling it "inspiring". I hope it is not and others find a better way. Open sourcing my modules was really just about minimising damage (for myself and my clients).

If others benefit from that decision, that's great - but it was not the reason and I would not recommend anybody to take this as inspiration. 🙂 

On 1/23/2026 at 11:38 AM, psy said:

Thank you @bernhard for all the help and support you've given PW devs, including me, over the years. I did notice drop off in your forum posts recently and wondered what was going on. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts and decisions. Wish you well in your new ventures and hope this isn't the end of your PW connection.

Thank you 🙂 

On 1/23/2026 at 5:09 PM, Ivan Gretsky said:

Good day, @bernhard!

First of all, I have to thank you for being who you are. A lone talented enthusiast trying to build a sustainable living on top of our beloved CMS. But not just making sites like the rest of us. But creating your little module-selling empire))) Taking on every hard problem ever put in front of a PW developer and solving it in no time. You have leaded the way for us for some many years. Everyone here has been following you in one way or another. And thus I feel sad about you taking this decision.

Yet in the same time I can imagine the freedom you should feel after it. I really wish you good luck in any place your future journey will take you! I sounds like I am saying goodbye to someone leaving, but I am not. I am just saying that every end is the new beginning.

What else I would love to invite you into doing is to analyze why this path of yours (creating a bunch of super cool module) didn't lead you to the place expected. Recently @kongondo, the only other prominent paid module creator I can remember, has done the same exit as you. Why is this? This question is of interest to me because I have many times thought about how I myself could build my income upon what I love and know - ProcessWire.

Could it be, that PW is so much a DIY kind of thing, that most of us want to build something of our own and are not ready to subdue to modules authors' way of doing things (other than @ryan himself)? Or does everyone here enjoys opensource so much that proprietary is something to avoid? Or is it just simply not enough of target audience?

Hey @Ivan Gretsky thank you very much. I think your post is spot on and you are asking some very good questions. Some very important questions. The problem that I have is that I think that those questions are not only important to you but would also be important for the PW project. I'm not sure who you are asking for? If you are asking for PW and try to push it forward, I'm sorry, I can't answer that here in a public thread unless I'm asked from an official source and get the feeling that the people in charge are interested. I hope you understand, but I don't want to burn my energy 🙂 If you are asking for yourself, though, I'm happy to share anything I have learned, observed, experienced in a personal chat with you. Just drop me a line and we can meet and talk about it. Would be nice to meet you after such a long time!

 

[Jim Bailie]

Edit: Bernard's announcement here begs the question, for me at least: Why is there no centralized sales channel, a'la CraftCMS where Processwire modules can be sold? Maybe this has been discussed before, but maybe it's worth repeating.

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:05 PM by Jim Bailie

[bernhard]

@Jim Bailie I don't know and since you mentioned me: I'm not the one to ask this question.

[FireWire]

Thank you for sharing your invaluable work and contributions @bernhard! You had a lot of options with how to move forward and I believe that open sourcing your modules ensures that your work carries on into the future and continues to benefit both ProcessWire developers and users alike.

I do want to share some thoughts and contribute to what @bernhard said about "feature complete". Most of the modules you have built are indeed robust and offer a large number of features that are implemented well and will continue to bring value long into the future. Modules like RockPageBuilder offer a solid set of features and are built in a very extensible and customizable way that puts a lot of power in the hands of developers. If any are reading this and are just finding out about it or have not yet had a reason to use it yet, I highly recommend taking a look! Other modules like RockMigrations have become staples in my workflow and will continue to be. Whether new features are added or not, the utility and quality of these contributions stand on their own.

I also want to share some thoughts with the greater community.

ProcessWire is a powerful tool that is developer-focused and easy to use for beginners while being powerful enough for advanced applications and more senior developers. It's one of the reasons we all love working with this platform. It also means that this community is comprised of people of many levels of skill and creative abilities. These are the factors that make open source software work. Whether you're working with the core or a module from any developer that is open source, your contributions matter and they are a way to "pay it forward" and give back to the community that makes your work possible.

The vast majority of modules are free to download and use, and that "free" to you comes at a cost to module and core developers in both programming and support time. These are hours spent beyond our professional life. Nights and weekends, and breaks from our jobs to respond when something is urgent. Keep the developers in mind and remember that burnout is a real thing in the open source community. Greater involvement and contribution helps that greatly and also helps the developers you rely on for quality code you use stay engaged and make offering their work to the community enjoyable. Many hands make for light work.

If you're using a module and run across an item that can be improved, a bug that hasn't been reported yet, or have an idea for a new feature then please consider forking, contributing, and pushing upstream via PRs on Github. If you are able to see something, take a moment to try and find a solution- I guarantee it will always be greatly appreciated and your efforts will not go unnoticed. You'll find some of mine coming to @bernhard modules in coming weeks.

If you haven't contributed to open source before or find the process intimidating, please consider a module contribution for your first time out. The thoughtfulness and helpful attitudes here in the forums continue on module Github repositories. Those repository owners and module maintainers are the same people who are members of one of the greatest developer communities around. Never forked a repository or opened a PR before? Anyone with experience here is ready to help. You'll level up your skills, increase your confidence, and the satisfaction you'll feel cannot be overstated. These can be as simple as small changes to make a code base compatible with a new version of PHP, or a little tweak to some JS!

I wanted to take a moment to mention this here because the release of these modules, much like those that were open-sourced by @kongondo and others, have a future through contribution. I don't mean to hijack your thread @bernhard but I think what you have shared offers a great opportunity to communicate these ideas in appreciation and encouragement to others.

Thank you again @bernhard for the wealth of knowledge you openly share here and the guidance that you have offered to others. It is inspiring and, on a personal note, has immeasurably advanced my knowledge and confidence as a ProcessWire developer.

 

@Jim Bailie The concept of a paid platform for modules has been discussed by many both in public and private. I don't know that there's a single answer to that question. Hopefully that may come about one day, it would mean a lot to the sustainability of ProcessWire. When it comes to taking a shop from concept to reality from a community standpoint it always comes down to "if not me, then who?". Should Ryan take time from the core to build it? Maybe it would be better for a team to collaborate and offer help to create an official channel. I think what I mentioned above underscores the importance of not relying on one person to solve the problem. I'm sure Craft had a team of people working together to make their shop come to life and also requires work to keep it going. If one person did all of it for Craft I would be truly shocked. Hey- RockCommerce is open source... maybe it's a starting point 😎

[Jim Bailie]

@FireWire Great post. Thanks! I suppose everyone has an opinion, and if I were the one asked, I would advise @ryan to setup an ownership and operational structure VERY similar to Craft; with more reasonable price points of course. Maybe a free product, $149 with Profields and something else, and maybe a $249 price point with more bells and whistles.

Then, of course, a centralized paid module shop charging sellers a modest commission. And maybe a hosted product. All this, I'm guessing, would require some outside capital and reasonable staffing.