🛒 Moodle Opens Its Own Plugin Store
On 26 February 2026, Moodle officially announced the Moodle Marketplace, an official store arriving in mid-2026 that will replace the long-running Plugins Directory. For the first time in almost twenty years, developers will be able to sell paid plugins directly through Moodle's official channel.
It is arguably the biggest structural change to Moodle's plugin ecosystem in a decade. And whether you run a platform or depend on a custom plugin, it affects you.
📦 What is the Moodle Marketplace?
Until now, the Moodle.org Plugins Directory has been a free catalogue: authors published their plugins there and monetised elsewhere (support, dual licensing, their own websites...).
The Moodle Marketplace changes the rules:
- It will be the single home for all Moodle plugins, free and paid.
- The Plugins Directory will close when the Marketplace launches.
- Free plugins will migrate automatically, with their files and metadata.
- Paid plugins must pass a review before appearing, even if they were reviewed before.
During the current onboarding phase, the Marketplace is only accepting paid plugins.
💸 The fee: 20% the first year, 25% afterwards
This is the part generating the most debate. According to the official information published by Moodle, during the first year after the public launch a promotional 20% rate applies; afterwards, it rises to 25%.
Payments are handled through Stripe Connect, and the developer acts as the Merchant of Record: the one who sets the terms of sale and handles payouts, invoicing, and tax collection (VAT, GST).
In plain terms: Moodle becomes the storefront and the payment intermediary, in exchange for a far-from-symbolic cut.
🏫 What it means if you use Moodle
If your institution or company depends on Moodle, there is a positive reading here:
- Fewer abandoned plugins. An official paid channel rewards long-term maintenance.
- Reviewed, supported plugins. Paid items go through quality control before release.
- Traceability and invoicing. Buying functionality stops being an informal email deal.
But there is homework too: it is worth reviewing which plugins your Moodle depends on before the Plugins Directory closes — to know which will migrate, which will become paid, and which might fall by the wayside.
👩💻 What it means if you build plugins
For those of us who develop custom plugins, the Marketplace opens a direct route to sell to the global Moodle ecosystem without building your own payment infrastructure. In return, you take on the fee, the mandatory review, and the role of Merchant of Record, with the tax duties that implies.
My take: it is a real opportunity to professionalise and monetise the work — as long as the plugin is designed to be reviewable and sellable, not a one-off patch.
✅ In short
The Moodle Marketplace professionalises — and commercialises — Moodle's open source ecosystem. It arrives in mid-2026, the Plugins Directory closes, and the fee starts at 20%.
If your platform depends on specific plugins, now is the time to audit your stack and plan migration or licensing before the shutdown. If you would like, let's review it together.
Sources: Moodle Marketplace (official site) · Announcement on Moodle.org News (26 Feb 2026)