After buying the Kirki Customizer Framework plugin from its original creator Ari Stathopoulos back in 2020, David Vongries, the current developer and owner of this plugin, has decided to discontinue the development and support for this product.
In his recent announcement, David said, ‘While I had big plans for Kirki when I first acquired it and was able to execute step one of the two-step plan, it is now clear to me that I was too ambitious in taking on the project.’
When Vongries acquired Kirki in early 2020, he was able to grow the user base from the initial 400K to the current active installation of 600k. He also launched the PRO version of this plugin in March 2022. However, he stated, ‘As time went on, I lost passion for the project mainly due to the direction WordPress core has taken with Gutenberg.’
As a customizer framework plugin, Kirki allows theme developers to build themes quickly, thanks to its assortment of 30 custom controls. It has features like automatic CSS & postMessage script generation, simple sliders, and various typography controls. The block theme adoption for this WordPress plugin, however, has been a slow process, which could have led to the decision of discontinuing this product.
The Kirki Customizer Framework plugin is now up for sale. The price tag set for this plugin is $30K, which includes all assets – the website, GitHub, PRO Extensions, etc.
Vongries said, ‘I believe there’s still great potential in Kirki, and I’m looking for someone who shares that vision to take it forward. It is important to me that Kirki gets into the right hands to those who can give it the attention & love that it deserves.’
He also stated, ‘While we will no longer be actively developing or updating the Kirki plugin, we will continue to provide limited support to our users.’ However, note that no further updates are planned for either the core or paid Kirki extension.
