From Side Project to 700K+ Active WordPress Installs: Tobias Bäthge on the Organic Growth of TablePress

From a plugin built for a section shot squad to 1 of nan astir trusted devices successful nan WordPress ecosystem, TablePress is simply a communicative of dependable growth, organization focus, and user-first development.

Its creator, Tobias Bäthge, didn’t commencement arsenic a package engineer. He studied power engineering and stumbled into plugin improvement while helping his sports squad pinch their website. What began arsenic a broadside task has grown into a full-time business now utilized by complete 700,000 websites worldwide.

In our interview, Tobias shared lessons from astir 2 decades of plugin development—why dependable support, thoughtful features, and doing little (but better) lead to semipermanent success.

“The astir important point correct now isn’t really coding—it’s uncovering a merchandise thought and bringing it to nan people.”

Keep reference to study really Tobias turned a free plugin into a thriving business, without losing show of nan group who usage it each day.

Video Interview pinch Tobias Bäthge

If you’d for illustration to watch nan complete video question and reply pinch Tobias, past you tin cheque it retired here:

Or you tin usage nan links beneath to spot what we covered successful nan question and reply (and more):

🙋 Meet Tobias Bäthge: From Baseball Fan to Plugin Creator

Tobias Bäthge didn’t scheme connected becoming a WordPress developer. He was studying power engineering astatine assemblage erstwhile he joined a section shot squad and offered to thief pinch their website.

They needed a measurement to people schedules, stats, and subordinate info, but location weren’t immoderate suitable plugins available.

“In baseball, what do you request tables for? Schedules, rosters, statistics… nan plugin I recovered didn’t person each nan features I was looking for.”

This benignant of root story—solving a individual request without a bigger plan—is 1 we spot often astatine WPBeginner. It’s really galore of nan astir useful WordPress plugins get their start.

Tobias recovered that WordPress was easy to use, but it didn’t person a bully solution for managing tables. So he took matters into his ain hands.

That plugin became WP-Table Reloaded, and it quickly recovered an assemblage beyond nan shot field. Other WordPress users started installing it, offering feedback, and asking for caller features.

What started arsenic a individual task turned into thing overmuch bigger, utilized by thousands of group who needed a amended measurement to negociate tables successful WordPress.

It’s a shape we’ve seen crossed galore successful WordPress plugins: commencement small, enactment useful, and fto real-world usage guideline your growth.

📈 From WP-Table Reloaded to TablePress: Building for Real Users

As much group started utilizing WP-Table Reloaded, Tobias recovered himself spending much clip successful nan WordPress forums answering questions, fixing bugs, and helping users get nan astir retired of nan plugin.

When users return nan clip to springiness feedback, it’s a motion they judge successful your plugin’s potential. Tobias recognized this early and made judge to beryllium attentive to his users.

“I deliberation group weighted that they received accelerated and punctual support… I deliberation that’s really 1 cardinal constituent that group realized: if they get stuck, they tin ever attack me.”

In fact, Tobias has posted complete 50,000 times successful support forums.

That level of committedness built his plugin’s estimation arsenic a trustworthy, well-supported tool.

He besides made a conscious determination to support nan plugin focused. Instead of adding each characteristic request, he utilized his ain needs arsenic a select and cautiously weighed nan semipermanent effect of each change.

“I ever tried only doing things that I thought I would request myself… because if you adhd something, you can’t really region it later.”

Around nan aforesaid time, he besides started digging done nan codification of different celebrated plugins, studying really they utilized WordPress APIs and system their files.

At WPBeginner, we often urge this benignant of hands-on exploration. For galore developers, real-world examples are nan fastest measurement to level up.

By 2011, Tobias realized that WP-Table Reloaded needed a caller start. The original codebase had grown excessively limiting, and immoderate of nan early creation decisions were holding nan plugin back. So he started over—and TablePress was born.

“I realized it’s difficult pinch nan existent method setup of nan plugin… if I commencement fresh, I tin group up a amended foundation.

Tobias besides made judge nan modulation from WP-Table Reloaded was seamless, building automatic import devices to forestall users from losing immoderate data.

The result? TablePress kept nan clean, user-friendly acquisition group loved while becoming acold easier to maintain, extend, and support. That’s why we still judge it’s 1 of nan best WordPress array plugins connected nan market.

🚀 Going Full-Time With TablePress: Business, Balance, and Motivation

For years, TablePress was thing Tobias worked connected successful his free time. But successful 2022, he made a awesome decision: to time off his occupation arsenic a investigation adjunct astatine a assemblage and attraction connected TablePress full-time.

It wasn’t easy, particularly without a business inheritance aliases entrepreneurial domiciled models to follow. “I didn’t person a domiciled model. Everybody astir maine had jobs, nary 1 was self-employed. So I had a batch of respect for nan business side,” he said.

The modulation meant learning everything from taxation laws to payment systems, connected apical of building caller premium features and maintaining nan free version. But it besides required thing deeper: learning to opportunity no.

“Learning to opportunity nary is what helped maine to commencement doing TablePress arsenic a profession.”

That meant saying nary to a dependable job, nary to distractions, and moreover nary to definite characteristic requests, truthful that he could build thing sustainable connected his ain terms.

One of nan biggest rewards? The state to creation his time astir what really matters.

“I really return nan state of taking my kids to kindergarten first successful nan morning. It gives maine energy.”

That equilibrium is besides what keeps him motivated, on pinch nan opportunity to support learning arsenic WordPress evolves.

“What keeps nan information precocious is I tin study while working.”

For Tobias, going full-time wasn’t astir going fast. It was astir focusing connected what matters, building sustainably, and staying connected to nan organization that helped him get started.

💡 Real Talk: Advice for Aspiring WordPress Plugin Developers

Tobias didn’t build a successful plugin overnight. TablePress grew slowly, done accordant improvements, personification feedback, and a beardown instauration of trust. That’s besides wherever he thinks each plugin developer should start.

“In nan very beginning, providing fast, adjuvant support tin spell a agelong way.”

In Tobias’s case, those early interactions built momentum. Answering questions, fixing bugs, and simply being disposable created word-of-mouth buzz and trust, agelong earlier making money came into play.

We’ve seen clip and again: beardown support is often a plugin’s champion marketing.

But support isn’t nan only portion of nan puzzle. Tobias recommends starting pinch a existent need—ideally, 1 you person yourself.

That way, you’re solving a problem you understand deeply, alternatively than guessing astatine what users mightiness want.

“You person to benignant of do nan investigation first… you request thing that separates you from existing solutions.”

He besides sees nan freemium exemplary arsenic 1 of nan champion ways to build and validate a plugin business, but cautions that it requires observant balance.

“The free type has to supply worth connected its own… but you can’t springiness distant excessively galore features aliases group won’t upgrade.”

For Tobias, it’s not astir building thing flashy. It’s astir staying grounded, solving existent problems, and doing it successful a measurement that users genuinely appreciate.

💥 Related Post: Looking for much inspirational content? Check retired our interview pinch Ionut Neagu, nan laminitis of Themeisle.

🧠 Staying Focused and Productive arsenic a Solo Founder

With complete 700,000 progressive installs and nary full-time team, TablePress is simply a solo cognition astatine scale. That intends Tobias has to beryllium other intentional pinch his time, tools, and energy.

One of nan first lessons? Learning to opportunity no, not conscionable to characteristic requests, but to himself.

“Learning to opportunity no—to yourself and to others—is cardinal to mounting priorities.”

Tobias breaks up his time into blocks of clip focused connected different areas of nan business, including support, development, marketing, and documentation. That helps him debar context-switching and make existent advancement without burning out.

Another cardinal to his workflow is automation. Over nan years, Tobias has built systems that grip everything from plugin releases to syntax checks to type testing. This has freed up clip for much important work.

Many solo developers successful our organization show america nan aforesaid thing: automating regular tasks is nan only measurement to standard sustainably.

“Those tasks should beryllium automated… they conscionable activity successful nan inheritance and free you from truthful overmuch stress.”

He remembers erstwhile pushing a caller type of nan plugin was a stressful, manual process, and really that accent sometimes delayed releases by weeks.

“Now I person nan testing group up successful nan background… I tin overmuch quicker and easier say, okay, caller plugin release, click, boom.”

It’s a reminder that bully systems don’t conscionable make you much efficient. They make you much confident, too.

🔮 Looking Ahead: TablePress and nan Future of WordPress

Tobias is optimistic astir where WordPress is going, particularly pinch nan ongoing improvement of nan artifact editor and a displacement toward much interactive, browser-based experiences.

“There’s a awesome alteration happening successful nan editing experience—it’s an wholly caller programming paradigm.”

That alteration presents caller opportunities for TablePress, from improved interfaces to richer interactions wrong WordPress itself. And for Tobias, it besides brings caller motivation.

But he’s besides cautious not to alteration things conscionable to get people’s attention. In fact, 1 of nan astir important lessons he’s learned is really overwhelming updates tin beryllium for little method users.

To get his constituent across, he shared a relatable anecdote from his ain life. He talked astir seeing his grandparents, who are successful their precocious 80s, navigate caller technology. Tobias, nan observant observer, notices erstwhile they struggle pinch updates connected their smartphones.

When things move aliases alteration unexpectedly, it’s easy for users to consciousness lost. That has shaped his creation philosophy.

“Ironing retired wrinkles and making things easier to usage is sometimes much appreciated than a large caller feature.”

As WordPress continues to turn and change, Tobias is focused connected keeping TablePress intuitive, consistent, and reliable for beginners and precocious users alike.

💭 Final Thoughts

Tobias Bäthge didn’t group retired to build a business, but he did group retired to build thing useful.

Nearly 2 decades later, TablePress stands arsenic a exemplary of focused development, user-first design, and semipermanent sustainability successful nan WordPress ecosystem.

His communicative is simply a reminder that you don’t request to move accelerated aliases make a batch of sound to beryllium successful. Instead, consistency, clarity, and organization support tin return you a agelong way.

For Tobias, what matters astir is building thing reliable—something that solves a existent problem and keeps moving complete time. That intends saying nary to alteration for change’s liking and putting personification acquisition first.

“Sometimes excessively overmuch alteration is excessively much… particularly for little method users.”

Whether you’re building your first plugin aliases trying to move your broadside task into a full-time venture, Tobias’s travel is impervious that thoughtful, dependable advancement tin still thief you win.

📚 Bonus: Expert Resources for WordPress Plugin Developers

Want to travel successful Tobias’s footsteps and build your ain successful plugin? Here are immoderate adjuvant WPBeginner resources that tin thief you out:

• How to Learn WordPress for Free (Step by Step)
• Best WordPress Developer Job Sites
• How to Submit Your Plugin to nan WordPress Plugin Directory
• How to Track Plugin Engagement With Analytics
• WordPress SEO Tips for Plugin Pages
• WordPress Career Options – How to Make a Living With WordPress

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About nan Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff astatine WPBeginner is simply a squad of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi pinch complete 16 years of acquisition successful WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started successful 2009, WPBeginner is now nan largest free WordPress assets tract successful nan manufacture and is often referred to arsenic nan Wikipedia for WordPress.