So, ACF, one of the best developer plugins of the last century, is now part of the Delicious Brains family. What does this mean for ACF, ACF Pro and the vast ACF client base?
What are ACF and ACF Pro?
Elliot Condon, the sole developer behind ACF to date, has made one of the most goto developer-focused plugins of the last 10 years. It’s so good for WordPress that I don’t think I’m alone in saying that he has single-handedly had a major impact on the success of the WordPress platform!
ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) is a well-thought-out, feature-rich plugin that allows developers to easily manage the editing experience and data collection for custom solutions. It’s primarily used to manage custom meta fields in the postmeta table, but does a lot more. We’ve used the Pro version on many, many client websites to solve a myriad of challenges, from making it easier for clients to manage their content to extending product data on e-commerce shops. It’s incredibly stable and has evolved wonderfully over the years. I don’t think I would use WordPress anywhere near as much without it!
Who are Delicious Brains?
If you’re a WordPress developer, then it’s very likely you’ve needed to migrate or copy a WordPress database. There are a few ways to do this and in my very early days of working with WordPress, I found it so ugly migrating the database that it actually made me almost lose interest in the platform. Eventually, I found ways to work with it, such as Duplicator Pro (another great plugin), but the process became a dream (and somewhat exciting) when I started using WP Migrate DB Pro. The guys from DB had not only solved one of the shittiest chores in WordPress, they’d made it a pleasant experience – come on, those green progress bars are somehow very mesmerising!
Why is ACF being acquired by Delicious Brains?
Listening to their podcast regarding the announcement, the acquisition seems to be a perfect fit for both parties – Elliot gets to enjoy life outside his laptop (his words) and Delicious Brains get to take on one of the most goto plugins for WordPress.
What’s very clear from the podcast is that this seems like an excellent fit, as ACF has been carefully crafted and evolved over the last 10 years, but at the hands of a single, passionate developer. Whereas, with DB, which makes awesome WP plugins, it will get the expertise from the whole, growing team, whilst keeping the same attention to detail that we’ve come to take for granted from Elliot’s work.
Will the pricing change?
Who knows? At this stage Brad at DB has stated that there will be no change to the pricing structure that’s already in place, even lifetime will be honoured, and looking at how DB’s offerings are priced versus how ACF Pro is, I think they’re pretty aligned already, so would not expect any scare surprises – we’ll see.