Ready for Launch: Leadlotse Gets Ready for WordPress.org

This morning, Adjet took up its berth in the official WordPress directory. And because a shipyard doesn't celebrate for long while the tide is still right, here's the second piece of news right away: Leadlotse is the next plugin heading down the same path. The free version is sitting finished on the slipway, and this post explains what's inside and what happens next.

What Leadlotse is, in one paragraph

Leadlotse is our form and lead manager: you build forms without code, decide how they look, and every inquiry lands in a tidy inbox right inside WordPress — with email notifications, status management, and no third-party service sitting between you and your prospects. For many websites, an inquiry is the moment a visitor becomes a customer; that moment shouldn't get stuck in a spam folder or on someone else's server. Everything else is on the product page.

What's in the free version — and what isn't

The WordPress directory has a rule we genuinely like: what's included has to work. No locked menu items, no grayed-out buttons that only do something after you pay. That's why the free version of Leadlotse ships with the complete core:

• the form builder with templates, required fields, and privacy consent,
• the inbox with status management for incoming inquiries,
• email notifications with freely assignable placeholders in subject and body,
• and the appearance presets that make forms match your theme instead of fighting it.

Honesty belongs here too: the Pro features — event registrations, multi-step forms, and the advanced automations — aren't included in the directory version, not even as a locked preview. If you need them, they're in the Pro package on the pricing page. If you don't need them, the free version gives you a complete tool, not a hook.

Why we haven't submitted yet

Because thorough beats fast. The thirteen review rounds Adjet went through turned into a checklist every future submission now has to pass before it leaves the building. For Leadlotse, that currently means:

• The official Plugin Check from WordPress.org runs clean, with zero flags: "Checks complete. No errors found."
• Over 270 automated tests cover the core, plus a complete hands-on run in a fresh WordPress install: create a form, publish it, submit it, find the inquiry in the inbox.
• All source strings are switched to English so the international community can translate them — German and English both ship fully maintained from day one. The lesson from the Adjet review, applied from the start this time.
• The directory screenshots show the real plugin at work, not what marketing would love them to show.

What's left is the final visual check — then submission goes out. After that, the pace is no longer ours to set: the WordPress.org plugin team reviews every submission by hand, and that takes weeks by experience. For Adjet it was eight, with thirteen rounds of back-and-forth. We'll announce it here on the blog as soon as it happens.

And until then?

Leadlotse is of course already available today — as a download via the product page, running on real websites, and under active development. The directory listing doesn't change the plugin, it changes the distribution path: two clicks in the backend instead of a ZIP upload, automatic updates through the official channel. What else is happening in the shipyard in parallel is in the July workshop report.

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