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Publishing, Licensing & Monetization

Once your SitePack theme is developed, styled, localized, and thoroughly verified, you are ready to distribute it. SitePack provides a robust infrastructure for developers, accommodating both custom client themes and public marketplace monetization.

This guide outlines the differences between private and public listings, details available monetization plans, covers platform transaction fees and payouts, and provides an essential pre-publishing technical checklist.

Public vs. Private Distribution Models​

When you deploy a theme release using the CLI or publish it via the SitePack Partner Dashboard, you can configure its access permissions based on your target audience:

1. Private Themes (Custom / Bespoke Builds)​

Private themes are restricted to specific merchant stores or designated partner organizations. They do not appear in the public catalog.

  • Ideal for: Specialized agencies building custom storefronts for unique clients, or internal developers designing a proprietary skin for their company’s multi-site brand portfolio.
  • Permissions: You govern installation rights using explicit white-listed Store IDs or Organization profiles inside your partner console.

2. Public Themes (SitePack Marketplace)​

Public themes are listed in the official SitePack Theme Marketplace.

  • Ideal for: Independent developers, template studios, and design agencies looking to build scalable, recurring software-as-a-service (SaaS) revenue streams.
  • Permissions: Any merchant on the SitePack platform can discover, interactively preview, purchase, and install your theme directly on their store.

Monetization & Licensing Models​

SitePack integrates a flexible payment and licensing system. This allows you to select a monetization structure that fits your business goals.

:::info Euro-Based Billing Please note that all billing systems, merchant invoices, and developer revenue payouts are processed in Euros (€) to maintain international accounting standards. :::

You can license your theme using any of the following models:

1. Free Distribution​

  • How it works: Merchants install and use your theme on their storefronts without any charges or licensing fees.
  • Why use it: This is a highly effective marketing and branding strategy. It drives early adoption, builds brand trust, and channels merchants toward your premium themes, custom development services, or companion apps.

2. One-Time Purchase (Lifetime License)​

  • How it works: Merchants make a single, upfront payment to secure a permanent, lifetime license to run your theme on a specific store ID.
  • Why use it: Ideal for high-end, highly specialized themes designed for specific industries or containing advanced custom layout templates. It delivers fast, high-margin cash flow.

3. Recurring Subscriptions (Recurring SaaS Revenue)​

  • How it works: SitePack manages automatic, recurring billing cycles for you. Merchants pay an ongoing fee to keep the theme active:
    • Monthly Subscription: A fixed fee charged every month. Ideal for merchants who want a low entry barrier.
    • Yearly Subscription: A discounted or standard annual fee charged once per year. Excellent for securing longer customer lifetimes.
  • Why use it: This is the most powerful model for scaling your development studio. It establishes predictable, compounding Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) to support ongoing feature upgrades, bug fixes, and customer support.

Marketplace Fees & Payouts​

When you sell a theme on our public marketplace, SitePack acts as the master merchant of record, handling:

  • Secure credit card and banking transactions.
  • Automated subscription invoicing, VAT/sales tax calculations, and compliance.
  • Licensing token validation and secure file delivery.

Fees and Financial Tracking​

You can track real-time conversion statistics, active subscription counts, monthly churn, and accumulated earnings directly inside your Partner Dashboard.

Requesting Payouts​

Accumulated earnings can be requested as direct bank transfers. Detailed terms regarding our payout schedule, minimum balance thresholds, and the standard platform marketplace commission fee are specified inside your partner registration agreement.

Pre-Publishing Technical Quality Checklist​

Before running sitepack theme:publish, review this technical quality checklist to ensure your theme passes SitePack's automated compilation checks and manual marketplace review:

  • Manifest Validation: Ensure your theme.json has a unique uuid and a matching author profile. You don't need to touch the version field yourself — SitePack automatically assigns and increments it (a plain integer, not Semantic Versioning) every time you run sitepack theme:publish; see the theme.json Reference.
  • Schema Accuracy: Verify that your root theme.json settings manifest is syntactically valid JSON, that every setting's key in the "settings" array is unique, and that all static CSS stylesheets inside /assets/css/ are fully compiled and minified locally.
  • Template Hooks Implemented: Double-check that all core template hooks (such as head_after, body_start, body_end, and cart/product page blocks) are correctly embedded with {% app_block %} tags to guarantee app compatibility.
  • Performance Audit: Verify that all images inside /assets/img are compressed (preferably using WebP) and that CSS/JS files load without blocking errors.
  • Localization Completeness: Ensure files in /translations are strictly lowercase (e.g., en.json, nl.json) and contain matching nested key-value pairs for all user-facing copy.
  • Staging Proof: Run sitepack theme:watch and click through your complete checkout, cart, category, and account layouts on your staging domain to confirm everything is responsive and bug-free.

Ready to Deploy?​

Once your checklist is complete, open your terminal inside your root theme directory and publish your creation to the cloud:

sitepack theme:publish