Can we talk about the "lack of 3rd-party support" complaints?
Hey everyone,
I’ve been following the discussions here for a while, and I feel like I need to get something off my chest regarding the constant requests for more third-party integrations.
First off, let’s remember what FluentCart actually is: a high-quality e-commerce framework. It provides us with a solid API and plenty of hooks, which means we have the freedom to connect almost anything we need. In my opinion, it’s not the core team's responsibility to build a native connection for every single niche product on the market. That task should fall on the third-party platforms themselves or on us as developers.
If you’re genuinely stuck because a specific endpoint or hook is missing, then by all means, submit a feature request! That’s how the framework improves for everyone. But demanding built-in support for services that only a tiny fraction of users will ever need just leads to one thing: bloat.
The whole mission of FluentCart is to stay lean and fast. We should want a system that focuses on core e-commerce functions. Things that actually drive conversions and support a healthy business, rather than a platform cluttered with bells and whistles that most of us don't use.
Let’s appreciate the lean architecture we have and focus on building great things with the tools already provided.
Just my two cents!
Great post, and I agree with 99% of it. The architecture is extremely beautiful, and so is the documentation. I really love the stack, and we already have several plugins in development for the Fluent ecosystem.
That being said, the fact that there is no public roadmap is not great, and it has made us a bit concerned.
Twenty-three days ago, we asked in the channel whether an add-on for processing fees already existed:
https://community.wpmanageninja.com/portal/space/fluent-cart/post/addon-for-processing-fee-taxes
Nobody replied.
Since we needed that functionality, we built it ourselves. and we announced our addon here:
https://community.wpmanageninja.com/portal/space/fluent-cart/post/gateway-fees-discounts-for-fluentcart
Soon after, it was expanded into “Fees & Discounts for FluentCart,” allowing users to create beautiful discount and fee groups and apply them across the shop, cart, checkout, and more.
Then, 15 days ago, FluentCart 1.3.17 was released with a Fees API included:
https://community.wpmanageninja.com/portal/space/fluent-cart/post/fluentcart-1-3-17-pdf-invoice-editor
Whether this was added because they saw our post and realized many people needed it, or whether it had already been planned internally, does not change the outcome for us. We spent a full week building a third-party plugin for a very important use case, only to see official support appear shortly after.
That is exactly why the lack of a roadmap is a real issue for developers building around the ecosystem. It creates uncertainty and increases the risk of investing time and resources into features that may be added natively right after, without any visibility beforehand.
Sander W. yes and no.
They market themself as a solution that replace the need for third party plugins, awesome for customers, a bit warry for third party contribuitors..., I agree fees should be in core but, for months it wasant, funnels too could be in core if you think it like that but, atm is not, funnels would be a great addition to the fluentcart but, guess why nobody is doing it... or at least we dont. Even if most of the developers don't speak about it, this is the sentiment we all have.
Denis - Emanuel Sandu Sorry, my original reply to you got deleted by accident, so here it is again!
You’re totally right about the roadmap. Even if it exists, it needs to be much clearer. Wasting a week on something like a Fees API just to see it added to the core right after is a huge waste of energy. We need to know exactly what’s being built so we don't do the same work twice.
At the same time, I still think the community needs to stop asking for every single 3rd-party integration to be built-in. There’s a big difference between core features like fees or upsells and niche services like Sendcloud or Print on Demand. Those markets are way too fragmented. If the team tried to support everything, FluentCart would just become a bloated mess.
If you look at WooCommerce, the integrations are built by the service providers or other developers, not the core team. That’s the culture we should have here too. Let’s keep the core lean and focus on the features that actually drive conversions and business.
Denis - Emanuel Sandu https://fluentcart.com/roadmap/
is the public roadmap
Paul Gailey that's a nice finding. unfortunately not a trace regarding the Fees API in it, so the core issue remain...
Check github and look how many PR and issues hanging there... I've personally slowed down all my development plans because things are not happening promptly... it supposed to be dev friendly but yet limited...
Vibe Code Correct me if I’m wrong, and this isn’t a personal attack against you. I don’t know your background. And I use AI myself for all sorts of things. But someone with “Vibe Code” as a username, who most likely builds their apps and plugins using AI, isn’t really someone to take seriously from a traditional developer’s perspective, right? If they want AI to check their code for errors or flag issues, they can just fire up Claude themselves and do it. And then you can only hope it’s correct. AI is awesome, but not nearly there yet.
Sander W. 100% agreed. Actually my awesome Vibe Code username is a meme - vibe coding irony. anyway... no offense taken. I'm a heavy AI user but AI is to speed up my development under my full control and precisely as I want... I still can't believe people let ai decide and do everything... but... it's a freedom of choice
It's hard to get bigger third party devs and products on board with creating FluentCart integrations due to FC being quite new and not having a large userbase yet. I've personally asked several providers, including MailerLite, if they were willing to create integrations for FC. Don't think we'll see a lot of that as it's not yet worth the time and effort from their end.
So the requests for x and y integrations are logical, but you're also right that FC can't do everything.
F. C. I understand that many companies aren’t ready for this yet. But over the past few years, I’ve delved deeply into various open-source e-commerce projects, many of which were less popular. And there, too, you see that almost all integrations with third-party service tools were built by the community. We’re just very spoiled by WooCommerce and Shopify. Those platforms have been around for quite a while now.
But I stand by my position that it’s not the FluentCart dev’s job, and this doesn’t belong in the core. Build it yourself or hire a developer. If you want a ready-made system, then open source isn’t for you, and you’re better off using a SaaS product.
Unlike FluentCommunity, FluentCart isn't that Dev friendly. I think WPManageNinja should provide more hooks, so that 3rd party developers can use for development.
I knew this, because I created a review system for Fluentcart
https://community.wpmanageninja.com/portal/space/community-meta/post/fluentcart-reviews-1
, took me 2 weeks to manipulate my way around it.
WiLson Eberechi I took a quick look at your post about your plugin, and it looks great. But why did you go to all this trouble to build this plugin when the roadmap says a review feature is coming to the core in Q2?
I don’t have any experience building a review plugin, so I can’t comment on the missing hooks. But I’ve already set up a connection with my accounting software and shipping platform, and I’ve built an order tracking feature in the FluentCart admin panel, including a working email function and a FluentCart log that links to the FluentSMTP log. So quite a lot is already possible. If other third-party services aren’t willing to cooperate, wouldn’t you just look for another one?
Sander W. does Fluentcart have a roadmap? If yes where?
And even if it has been mentioned in the roadmap, I'll still create it, because I needed it and I can't wait for WPManageNinja.
Wait Fluentcart don't have a tracking system to track shipped goods? Did should be the first thing they did when creating fluentcart that's an e-commerce