The plugin your business runs on just doubled its price. Or every update breaks something, support takes a week to reply, or the developer has stopped answering at all. Switching to another plugin would mean rebuilding forms, data and workflows that took years to set up.
There is another option. Most premium WordPress plugins are licensed under the GPL, which gives you the right to keep using, changing and maintaining the code you bought, with or without the original vendor. Our WordPress plugin fork service turns that right into a working, tested, maintained plugin you control. It is for businesses that depend on one plugin too heavily to replace it, agencies managing the same plugin across many client sites, and teams left behind by an abandoned product.
What’s included
- License review of every part of the plugin, including split licenses on JavaScript, CSS and images, so you know exactly what can be forked. Our guide to what you own when you buy a GPL plugin explains the rules.
- Code takeover into your own Git repository, with a clear history of every change from the original version.
- Reverse engineering of minified JavaScript and obfuscated PHP where the license allows it: reformatted, meaningfully named and documented, so developers can work on it.
- Unit and end-to-end tests with PHPUnit and Playwright that record how the plugin behaves today, before anything changes.
- Vendor lock-in removed: license checks, update servers and other calls to the vendor’s systems found and removed or replaced.
- Compatibility fixes for current WordPress and PHP versions, and a security review of the inherited code.
- A new name and identity for the fork, so it does not use the original trademark.
- Ongoing maintenance, optional, with updates released through a tested pipeline.
How it works
- Assess. We review the plugin, its license, its code quality and how your site uses it.
- Fixed quote. You receive a fixed price for the takeover, and an optional monthly price for maintenance.
- Take over. We move the code into version control and rebuild readable source from minified or obfuscated files.
- Cover with tests. We write tests for the features you rely on, so any change that breaks them fails before it reaches your site.
- Fix and modernize. We remove vendor calls, fix bugs and update the code for current WordPress and PHP, with the tests running on every change. See WordPress CI/CD with GitHub Actions.
- Switch over. We replace the original plugin on staging, check your data and workflows, then release to production with a rollback plan.
- Maintain. We keep the fork updated and secure, or hand the code and tests to your team.
What you get
- A plugin you control, in your own repository, under the GPL.
- Readable source code with documentation, even if you started with minified or obfuscated files.
- A test suite that protects the features your business depends on.
- No dependency on the vendor’s prices, servers or support queue.
- A maintenance plan that fits your budget, from security fixes only to active development.
Why Verma IT
Taking over someone else’s plugin means reading a lot of unfamiliar code fast. Our founder, Ajay Verma, has been writing WordPress code since 2010, is a WordPress core contributor, worked at Gravity Forms and is a core developer of Uncanny Automator. We have spent years inside large commercial plugins, so we know how they are built and where they usually break.
We use AI coding agents to move quickly through large codebases, but we never let them change code without a safety net. Tests come first, and every change has to pass them. That is what makes a fork safe to run on a business site for years, not just weeks.
If the plugin is tangled into a larger problem, a technical debt audit shows where it fits among the other risks on your site. Once the fork is live, our WordPress maintenance plans can look after it with the rest of your site.
Request a plugin review
Contact us with the plugin’s name, the version you have and what is going wrong. We will review the code and its license and send you a fixed quote for the takeover.
Frequently asked questions
- Is it legal to fork a premium WordPress plugin?
- If the code is licensed under the GPL, yes. The GPL lets you change the code and share your changed version under the same license. We check the license of every part of the plugin before we start, and give the fork its own name, because the original trademark is not covered by the GPL.
- Can you work with minified or obfuscated code?
- Yes. We ask the developer for the readable source first, since the GPL requires it. If that is not available, we reformat the code, rebuild meaningful names and structure, and use tests to confirm the rebuilt version behaves exactly like the original.
- Why do you write tests before changing anything?
- Tests record how the plugin behaves today. Every change after that, whether made by our developers or with an AI coding agent, has to pass them. That is what makes it safe to update code nobody on your team wrote.
- What happens to features that rely on the vendor's servers?
- We find every call to the vendor's servers, such as license checks, update checks and cloud features. We remove what is not needed. Features that run on the vendor's API, such as the premium features of Uncanny Automator or the hosted platform behind SureCart, were never part of the plugin code, so they cannot be reverse engineered. We rebuild the ones you need, either as code that runs on your own site or as an integration with another service.
- Will you maintain the fork after the takeover?
- Yes, if you want us to. We keep it compatible with new versions of WordPress and PHP, apply security fixes and release updates through a tested pipeline. You can also take the code and tests in-house at any time.
- How much does a plugin fork cost?
- It depends on the size of the plugin and the state of its code. We review the plugin first and then give you a fixed quote for the takeover, plus an optional monthly price for ongoing maintenance.