The end of the year is always a good moment to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Beyond features shipped and releases published, it’s a time to ask an important question: did we do what we set out to do in 2025?
In this post, we’ll review the main goals we defined for 2025 and see what went according to plan, what evolved along the way, and what we learned in the process. Then, we’ll share the goals we’re setting for 2026, which build directly on those lessons and set the direction for the year ahead.
What Happened to the 2025 Goals?
At the beginning of 2025, we set ourselves a series of clear objectives aimed at improving our products, strengthening our workflows, and delivering more value to our users. Some of those goals were fully achieved, others took a slightly different shape than originally planned, and a few reminded us that priorities often change. So let’s see how we did!
1. Publish an average of a couple of posts per month on our blog.
❌ Failure. We set out to publish around 24 posts over the year, but ended up releasing 16. That’s fewer than planned, and (unfortunately) in line with the downward trend we also saw last year. 😕
That said, while quantity fell short, quality held strong. Nearly half of this year’s posts (7 out of 16) were in-depth case studies showcasing how our customers use our plugins in real-world scenarios. This type of content has proven especially valuable: it allows us to engage directly with our users, better understand how they find value in our tools, identify gaps, and uncover opportunities for improvement. At the same time, it gives prospective users concrete, practical examples of how our plugins can fit into (and improve) their own workflows.
In addition, we published several detailed posts covering the latest updates and improvements in our two main plugins, Nelio A/B Testing and Nelio Content, which we’ll dive into in a moment.
2. Increase Nelio’s turnover by 20%.
✅ Success. We exceeded our target and grew our turnover by 24%, which is incredibly rewarding. It’s a clear sign that the effort we put into our products and support continues to resonate, and we’re deeply grateful for the trust and support you place in us 🫶
Once again, Nelio A/B Testing was the main driver behind this growth. As our flagship product since the very beginning of Nelio back in 2013, it has matured into a robust, reliable solution that consistently delivers on its promises. Just as important, many of you have highlighted our commitment to outstanding support as a key reason for choosing Nelio. Hearing that feedback time and again means a lot to us. Thank you for being part of this journey!
3. Increase Nelio subscribers by 20%.
❌ Failure. Our subscriber base grew by 10%, which falls short of the goal we had set for the year. While it’s encouraging to see revenue grow as strongly as it did, expanding our customer base and reaching more people remains a priority for us.
We truly believe our plugins can help many more WordPress users, so this result is a clear signal that there’s work to be done. Our churn rate is still higher than we’d like, pointing to areas where we need to improve—especially when it comes to communicating the value of our products from the very beginning.
That said, even as this goal serves as a wake-up call, we want to sincerely thank every single one of you who continues to trust us and use our products. Your support means a lot, and it’s what motivates us to keep getting better.
4. Launch (at least) 4 new versions of Nelio A/B Testing with improvements requested by our users.
✅ Success. We shipped exactly four major releases, along with several minor updates focused on bug fixes and small refinements.
If I’m being completely honest, I’m surprised by how much progress we made this year with Nelio A/B Testing. Even though it’s our longest-running product (and a very mature and capable one), it still proves there’s always room to grow and new opportunities to explore.
This year’s releases are a perfect example of that ongoing evolution. We introduced new test types such as PHP tests, Popup tests, and Synced Pattern tests, expanded and refined existing ones by adding a visual editor for CSS tests (now also supporting small content changes), and made important under-the-hood improvements to make tests faster and more reliable.
On top of that, we extended integration with third-party plugins, especially form plugins, and added long-awaited support for Google Analytics 4. Listening closely to our users continuously uncovers new ideas and areas to improve and, as always, that means there’s never a shortage of work to do.
5. Launch (at least) 4 new versions of Nelio Content with improvements that our users have requested.
❌ Failure. We released three major versions instead of four… but the number alone doesn’t tell the full story! Each of those releases was packed with substantial, high-impact improvements.
Beyond the usual updates (such as support for new publishing platforms like Medium, Blogger, Plurk, or Band, to name but a few, along with finer control over what can be shared on each network), we invested a great deal of effort in taking Nelio Content to the next level as a professional tool for teams and advanced workflows.
As a result, Nelio Content now supports custom post statuses that better reflect real editorial processes directly within WordPress, offers more granular permission controls to decide who can use which social profiles, and includes a revamped analytics section that provides clearer insights into which content performs best. Altogether, these improvements move us closer to our vision for Nelio Content as a comprehensive editorial, workflow, and content promotion solution built specifically for modern WordPress teams.
6. Participate in the development of WordPress, dedicating 5% of our time (one morning every two weeks) to translations, reporting bugs, etc.
✅ Success. While it often feels like there’s always more we could do, we did meet this goal in 2025 largely thanks to Ruth’s dedication. She joined the WordPress Training Team and actively participated in all of their meetings throughout the year, contributing her time and expertise to the project, reviewing and translating documentation and videos. We see this as a solid step in the right direction. Looking ahead, we’d love to expand our involvement and contribute to even more areas of WordPress in the future.
7. I would like to make (at least) 4 PRs to the Gutenberg project.
❌ Failure. As a small team of three, growing our customer base also meant a growing workload, especially around customer support. Combined with our focus on expanding and improving our own plugins, this left us with little to no time to contribute directly to the Gutenberg project.
That said, this goal is a personal one that matters a lot to me, so not making progress here is genuinely disappointing. Hopefully, we’ll be able to carve out the time and energy to change that next year.
8. Attend (at least) 4 meetups and 1 WordCamp.
❌ Failure. Just like last year, family life with small children made it difficult to attend IRL events. As much as we value these gatherings and the opportunity to reconnect with friends and acquaintances in the WordPress community, we simply couldn’t make the time this year.
It’s something we genuinely miss, and we hope future years will give us more chances to take part in these events and stay connected beyond the screen.
2025 Summary
Looking back at the year, we fully achieved 3 out of the 8 goals we set for ourselves in 2025. On paper, that doesn’t sound very good… but the reality is far more encouraging! Several of the goals marked as failures still delivered meaningful progress and valuable outcomes, making them feel more like partial wins than true setbacks.
The area where we clearly fell shortest was our involvement with the wider WordPress community. Contributing more time to core projects, Gutenberg, and in-person events remains a challenge, especially as we balance a growing business with equally demanding personal lives. Still, this is a commitment we take seriously and one we intend to keep pushing for. Even knowing we may struggle to meet these goals, we’ll continue setting them year after year.
Progress isn’t always linear, but being honest about where we stand and where we want to go is what keeps us moving forward.
Nelio A/B Testing
Native Tests for WordPress
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New Goals
As we look ahead to 2026, we’re choosing continuity over reinvention. Rather than redefining our direction, we’re carrying forward the same set of goals we defined for 2025, with one small but intentional adjustment.
Based on what we learned this year, we’re slightly scaling back our expectations around contributions to the WordPress community—not because they matter any less, but because setting more realistic targets gives us a better chance to follow through and build momentum. Our hope is that this approach will help turn good intentions into tangible wins, while keeping us aligned with what we believe is important.
So here’s our list for 2026:
- Publish an average of a couple of posts per month on our blog.
- Increase Nelio’s turnover by 20%.
- Increase Nelio subscribers by 20%.
- Launch (at least) 4 new versions of Nelio A/B Testing with improvements requested by our users.
- Launch (at least) 4 new versions of Nelio Content with improvements that our users have requested.
- Participate in the development of WordPress, dedicating 5% of our time (one morning every two weeks) to translations, reporting bugs, etc.
- I would like to make (at least) 2 PRs to the Gutenberg project.
- Attend (at least) 4 meetups and 1 WordCamp.
Let’s see how we do 😎 As always, we wish you the best in 2026. See you soon!
Featured Image by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.
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