Envato and CodeCanyon seem to be losing momentum. New submissions feel increasingly difficult to get approved, while many developers are seeing fewer sales from existing scripts, plugins, themes, and tools. Is this mainly because of AI, declining buyer trust, reduced platform investment, or changes in how developers build software? Would you use a well-run marketplace built by and for developers, especially one focused on maintained products, reliable support, working demos, and fair treatment for authors?
4 Answers
AI is probably having a noticeable impact. Many buyers now feel they can use an LLM to create a smaller, more specialized version of whatever they need, so they browse marketplaces less often. That said, AI still requires technical judgment, testing, and maintenance, so it may reduce demand without completely replacing established products.
It is possible that the platform stopped attracting new buyers while older customers gradually stopped purchasing. Tighter approval standards may also reflect fewer reviewers or an attempt to reduce costs. A new marketplace could work, but it would need to avoid becoming a collection of abandoned plugins by rewarding updates, transparent roadmaps, and dependable author support.
Building the marketplace itself is not the hardest part—the difficult part is attracting enough buyers. Existing platforms had years of accumulated traffic and a large customer base. A new competitor would need strong discovery, secure payments, escrow, dispute handling, quality control, and a reason for buyers to switch.
The bigger issue may be trust rather than AI. Buyers need confidence that the code works, dependencies will stay current, demos are accurate, and support will be available. A new marketplace should sell maintained software and ongoing reliability, not just one-time access to source code.
Exactly. AI can generate pieces of an application quickly, but producing a dependable, polished product still takes real development time and a clear understanding of the end user.