Birkly publishes and maintains a set of official plugins on the marketplace. They are free or paid offers from the Birkly team, kept compatible with each CMS release. Third-party plugins come from independent providers with their own support and trust levels.
Official Birkly plugins — Commerce, Events, Automation, and User Management — are free marketplace offers installed in one click from Plugins → Marketplace. Additional official extensions (for example SEO Basics, Analytics Pro) may be paid or subscription offers. Third-party plugins are published by independent providers; review trust level, permissions consent, and reviews before installing. CMS downloads ship without bundled plugins — install what you need from the marketplace.
Beginner
Free official plugins
These four plugins cover common site needs and are maintained by Birkly:
| Plugin | What it adds | Install | |--------|--------------|---------| | Commerce | Products, cart, checkout, orders, payments | Plugins → Marketplace → Install | | Events | Events, RSVP, paid tickets (uses Commerce for sales) | Same | | Automation | Workflows, triggers, conditions, actions | Same | | User Management | Registration, login, tiers, permissions | Same |
No checkout, license key, or marketplace buyer account is required for these four.
Recommended install order
- Commerce first if you sell anything.
- Events next if you run ticketed events (install Commerce first for paid tickets).
- Automation when you need workflows.
- User Management when you need public registration or member tiers.
Paid official plugins
Some Birkly-published extensions are paid one-time or subscription offers on the marketplace. They show a price badge and Purchase button in the CMS Marketplace tab. Complete checkout, activate your license, accept permission consent, then install.
Third-party plugins
Community and partner plugins are published by independent providers, not Birkly. Before installing:
- Check the provider name and trust level on the offer page.
- Read reviews from verified purchases.
- Review the permission consent screen carefully.
- Prefer verified-tier offers for production sites.
Third-party support goes to the provider's contact email on the listing. Birkly platform support covers official plugins and marketplace infrastructure.
Official vs third-party — quick comparison
| | Official (Birkly) | Third-party | |--|-------------------|-------------| | Publisher | Birkly team | Independent providers | | Core four plugins | Free, one-click | N/A | | Updates | Tied to Birkly releases | Provider publishes versions | | Support | Birkly platform | Provider | | Trust | Verified by default | Community, trusted, or verified | | Pricing | Free, paid, or subscription | Provider sets pricing |
Grandfathered installs
Sites upgraded from older Birkly builds that already had plugins in plugins/ keep working. Use the Marketplace Update action to sync with registry checksums and licenses going forward.
Advanced Users
Source and release pipeline
Official plugin source is built and published to the marketplace registry on tag (plugin/{name}/v*). CMS release zips exclude plugin folders — production installs always pull artifacts from the registry API.
Marketplace slugs (official)
| Folder | Slug | |--------|------| | commerce | birkly-commerce | | events | birkly-events | | automation | birkly-automation | | user_management | birkly-user-management |
Dependencies
Events declares a soft dependency on Commerce for paid ticket flows. User Management integrates with Commerce membership tiers when both are installed. Check requires_plugins in each release's plugin.json.
API gating
Core routes that depend on a plugin return 404 or 503 when the plugin is not installed — for example automation webhooks or commerce APIs — instead of fatal errors.
Dev installs
Local development uses scripts/install-dev-plugins.sh in the Birkly platform repo to install plugin zips without the marketplace UI. Production and staging should use the CMS marketplace client.
Compatibility
Each release declares requires_birkly and requires_php semver ranges. The CMS preflight blocks install when the site core is too old. Keep Birkly updated before installing new plugin major versions.