Stefan SchulzRipplePop is a WordPress development service that charges a flat monthly me. They save you the legwork of finding, hiring, and managing a high-quality developer and eliminate the possibility of getting overcharged.
Let's look at the pros and cons of their service in this review of RipplePop.
See why we recommend WP Tangerine over RipplePop.
Read Our WP Tangerine Review
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An added benefit of our relationships is that we always try to negotiate exclusive discounts for our visitors.
RipplePop Overview
While technically providing unlimited WordPress development, RipplePop is closer to a contract staffing company. They match you with a WordPress developer, who then works directly for you for a fixed monthly fee.
The number of hours they apply depends on the plan you choose. You can choose to get a full-time developer or you can get a monthly flex plan where hours can be used at any time to fit your schedule.
How Does RipplePop's Unlimited WordPress Development Work?
RipplePop’s pricing starts at $199/week, which gets you 10 hours worth of WordPress Development. For $729 you can get a full-time WordPress developer for 8 hours per day, Monday through Friday. This service is primarily geared towards agencies, but they do have some SMB and blogger clients running a couple of their own websites. For detailed RipplePop pricing, read our full blog post.
Most of their developers are located in the Philippines, but their help and support team is located in Chicago. RipplePop developers will use your preferred task management system, but they also have their own ticketing system if you don't have a preference.
Who uses RipplePop?
RipplePop is used by over 250 businesses including:
RipplePop Review
In theory, RipplePop comes off as an easy, convenient, and cost effective way to update your WordPress website. We were excited to try out their service, especially since we've had great experience with other fixed business plan, mainly with graphic design services.
The process of getting paired with a developer was super smooth and I liked that we were able to invite them to our Slack channel. After that, things didn't go so great.
I delegated a PSD to WordPress project to our RipplePop developer. We've hired developers for years, so I know my average fixed cost historically for the work I delegated and I wanted to used that as a basis to see how much value I got from RipplePop's fixed service.
After about a week of little to no progress, I started getting concerned. I asked the developer that had been assigned to me for access to the backend of WordPress so I could review the work. The code ended up being a hot mess and I had to pay someone else to rebuild it from scratch. For the record, the frontend wasn't even done properly — the site looked nothing like the mockup we provided.
Once I was done with my review, I asked for an hours update to see how much time had been logged. I was completely shocked to find out that the entire month (40 hours) had been burned on just this one project.
When I reached out to RipplePop to see what we could do about this, they offered to give me half of the hours back and assign me a new developer. I didn't really find that to be suitable since none of the work that was provided to us was usable. Not to mention that 20 hours for a PSD>WP project based on the rate they were charging is more than double market value.
I pushed back and said that I would be willing to try a new developer, but I'm not paying for the 20 hours logged, especially since there was no communication on how much time was going to be logged. They never replied back to me and just refunded my account. So, that was a positive.
Based on my personal experience, I would not recommend using RipplePop. They don't do anything remarkable and the talent is up to par with what you could find on a freelance website like Upwork or Fiverr. There are also better options if you're looking for low-cost fixed WordPress rates. I'd recommend checking out either WP Tangerine or UnlimitedWP as a better alternative.
See why we recommend WP Tangerine over RipplePop.
Read Our WP Tangerine Review
Pros: Here’s what I like about RipplePop
- Unlike their competitors, RipplePop does not restrict the types of tasks their developers will do at different plan levels. You can use your developer for whatever tasks you like.
- RipplePop is the only provider with a flex plan to allow you to batch up hours for short term projects. All other providers have a set number of hours per day and larger development projects must be spread out across the month.
- You can develop entirely new websites under both of their plans. Many other providers do not support this or have restrictions at some pricing tiers.
- Upon request, you can get developers to work in U.S. time zones overlapping with your team.
- Developers will utilize your company’s preferred task tracking system like, Basecamp, Asana, or Trello. But if you don't have a preference they will use their own ticketing system.
Cons: Here are the only things I don’t like about RipplePop
- On average, plans are slightly higher than other providers, but this is because you have access to complete any task needed under any of their plans, including building a new site.
- The flex plan is affordable and okay if you want the ability to move around developer hours to fit your schedule. However, it does come at a premium over plans with similar hours but daily caps like those offered by WP Tangerine.
- They do not include business analysts or testing resources.
- No graphic design resources.
- The initial pairing is really important. If you get paired with a developer that's not a good fit, they could burn unnecessary hours and resources.
- If you don't have a project management software or communication system in place, you have to communicate via email, which is not a great solution for tracking projects.
- Slow development time.
- Poor quality assurance testing and deployment protocols.
RipplePop Promo Code – 38% OFF
The best way to determine if RipplePop makes the most sense for you and your business is to give them a try. RipplePop does not offer a free trial, but they do have a 14-day money-back guarantee, which provides enough time to dig into their services. In addition to this no-risk evaluation period, you can use our exclusive promo code: DDIY-SPECIAL.
Use promo code DDIY-SPECIAL to get 38% OFF your first month.
To get started, visit RipplePop.com navigate to their website. Then click “Try Risk Free”. When you get to the checkout page, enter our promo code in and receive a 38% discount on your first month.
Alternatives to RipplePop
If you’re looking for more options, there are a few different alternatives that we’ve evaluated:
- WP Tangerine – Read our review
- WPRunner – Read our review
- UnlimitedWP – Read our review
Also check out our Unlimited WordPress Services Comparison which breaks down each of these providers and our top picks.
