[Editor’s note: Thank to QualPay for their support of WordCamp Denver 2018!]

Jon, What is it about WordPress that interests you and keeps you coming back to WordCamps?

I’m attracted to the proven ecosystem in WordPress. It’s one of the only platforms where if a product is not up to par, people are going to immediately know…no matter how big the developers marketing budget is. This drives the community to always challenge themselves by creating better, more impactful products.  

Most of the best plugins and platforms got their start as a small idea that filled  a need and grew organically through peer adoption. WordCamps are the perfect venue to share needs, learn about products, and solve problems. WordPress users are naturally curious, and by providing an environment in which to share ideas, users can learn as well as educate and before you know it- the next generation of products are born.

What is it about the community that draws you in?

My favorite thing about the WordPress community is the incredible amount of support expressed for one another. The resources and community are there to help each other learn. It truly is an ecosystem where everyone can find something, even if they don’t have any experience coding. It’s also the only platform I’ve been involved with where competing companies work together to help each other solve problems for the greater good. When we first set up our payments plugin three different Web Hosting providers joined in to give us insight on additional features and help with our test site. Hearing directly from people on how they would utilize our product, what they liked and what they would tweak is always invaluable.

What does Qualpay bring to the WordPress community?

Qualpay brings updated payments technology. Our Modern REST APIs make it easy to incorporate design elements while providing enhanced security. And because our payments platform is fully-integrated, all of our features are immediately available for use within WooCommerce, so there is no need for expensive add-ons or plugins. Since we utilize our own gateway technology, we remove a layer of cost and add value by providing embedded fields to securely pass credit card data creating a frictionless checkout.

We believe that ecommerce companies have different needs and it should never be a “one size fits all solution” when it comes to accepting payments. With this in mind, we have a variety of tools baked in to reduce operating costs, and help merchants grow every step of the way -from inception to enterprise.

Where can Qualpay products be found?

We have all of our plugins and SDK’s available through our developer center here. You can also find our cost-free payments plugin that supports recurring payments and subscriptions on WordPress.org.  

For someone just getting into WordPress, who are some folks in the community that have inspired you?

I’m continually blown away by people like Josh Pollack, Christie Chineros, Pippin Williamson, Zac Gordon and Matt Crownwell, people who have created astonishing platforms that arose by solving the needs of users.