Uncanny Automator is now FREE

The heading is not clickbait and there are no strings attached. Not only that, we made significant improvements before we released the new free version!

You can now get Uncanny Automator from the WordPress repository here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/uncanny-automator/. This free version replaces what we previously called “Lite”, except it’s even better than Lite: we removed the limit of 1 trigger per recipe and we even added more triggers and actions (including several previously only available in Pro).

Releasing Automator for free to the world was a hard decision for our team, but we believe it’s the right one for these 2 reasons:

1. We want more people to try it. While Automator already has a big install base, we really want to see it grow and for more sites to try it. We’re very proud of the plugin and want to see it add value to more sites.
2. Automator faced increased competition.

What is Uncanny Automator?

If you’re new to Uncanny Automator (and we know this post will attract a lot of attention from new users), it connects plugins, sites and apps together. It lets you create automations where something happening can make something else happen. These automations are what we call “recipes”. A simple example would be a WooCommerce purchase adding a user to a BuddyPress group. Of course, Uncanny Automator can do a lot more than that. 🙂 Maybe you want a form submission and an associated purchase to enroll the user in a course, register them for an event, and send their manager an email. That’s easy for Automator.

Uncanny Automator can do far more than that though. With Automator on 2 sites, you can have things that happen on one site (like a purchase) trigger things on another site (like user creation). You can also connect your WordPress site to other platforms using our webhooks and Zapier support, so other apps can make things happen on your WordPress site and the WordPress site can pass data to other systems.

Here’s a quick video explaining how it works:

Automator comes in 2 versions: the new free version on WordPress.org, and a paid Pro version (with different licensing options) available for purchase on this site. Pro does come with more powerful tools (check this list for a full breakdown; it also includes anonymous recipe support) but we promise the free version is extremely useful and capable too. We even added some features to the free version for this first public release (like a LearnDash course completion action and webhook actions) to ensure Uncanny Automator could add some value to almost all WordPress sites.

If you’re just getting started with Automator on your WP site, make sure you check out our Knowledge Base. It’s where we break down everything about using Automator. There are some video tutorials in there to help point you in the right direction too.

Changes for existing users

If you’re already an Uncanny Automator user (thank you!), things will be a little bit different for you. Lite users are being upgraded to Pro and Pro users are getting more sites (regular Pro users can now use license keys on 2 live sites, Agency will increase from 5 to 10 and 25-site users are upgraded to Unlimited). We recognize the huge role you’ve played in helping Automator grow and become a mature feedback; your feedback has been invaluable.

No manual changes to your plugins will be needed. When you upgrade the current Lite plugin it will automatically point to the WordPress repository version for your subsequent updates.

This is also a huge release

For current Automator Lite (and Pro) users, here’s what’s in the new version of the free plugin:

• Email field types in form plugins now generate tokens for email type fields in actions
• A Tin Canny verb can now generate course, lesson and topic tokens
• Global tokens (for our new users, these are basically variables that you can use in actions) are available for the current date and time
• Category and tag support is now available for recipes to more easily organize them

And for our Pro users, here’s what’s new in that add-on:

• A WooCommerce trigger for order status changing to a status you define
• New WordPress actions for creating new posts, adding new usermeta, and adding new postmeta (for user registrations and developers using Automator these could be gamechangers)
• A new GamiPress action to revoke all points in a category
• New trigger support for WooCommerce Subscriptions (the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin is required for these triggers)

We have done a lot of testing on these updates, but it’s a big release. Please let us know if you notice any issues.

A full changelog is available here for the new free version and here for Pro.

For any developers out there, not only are we releasing a free version in the WordPress plugin directory, you can now access our repository for the first time and make pull requests. Make sure you check out https://bitbucket.org/uncannyowl/uncanny-automator if you have suggestions or want to contribute.

We could really use your support

While Uncanny Automator is 1.5  years old now, we are are now playing catch-up to the copy released by another vendor. We really hope you will give our Automator plugin a try, and if you do and it adds any type of value to your site, or you like the work we’re doing, please consider leaving us a review, mentioning us on your site or social channels, and following us on Facebook and Twitter, etc. It would mean a lot to us. And in the meantime, we’ll continue producing great products for WordPress and turning Uncanny Automator into the most powerful automation plugin for WP.

If you have any questions about Automator or what we’re doing, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

We really hope you like Uncanny Automator and the changes we’re announcing today. 

Ryan Moore Director

Ryan Moore (MA, PMP, BCom) is the Cofounder and Director of Uncanny Owl, creators of Uncanny Automator and a suite of popular add-ons for LearnDash. Since 2013, Ryan has helped thousands of companies add elearning and automation capabilities to their WordPress websites.

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