GrootMade Themes & Plugins Omdömen 137

I've been using Grootmade, formerly Festinger Vault, for quite a few years at this point and even though there have been some intermittent issues with lawsuits and technical problems with the old platform, ever since the switch to the new brand & team I haven't been having any issues at all. All of the functionality I've tried is currently working well, and for the few questions I've had there has always been a quick response. Great job on the new platform!

I bought a lifetime subscription recently and the value has been excellent.

Had a little trouble with activation at the start but support helped pretty quickly.

The library of themes and plugins is pretty huge and more importantly regularly updated which is the key thing really.

Even if you want to support the developers of a plugin its great to even use grootmade to test the plugin to see if it meets up to your expectations.

The platform is easy to use, whether installing individually or managing everything in bulk, and the dashboard saves our by pushing updates across multiple sites at once.

Plus we all like to save a bit of money with plugins ands this does exactly that

Yeah, I know it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster the past few months. But honestly, these guys didn’t just disappear—they came back and rebuilt everything on a new platform, which counts for a lot. I get that plenty of people have had issues with their lifetime licenses. I only ran into one problem myself after the migration, and it got sorted out pretty quickly.

So yeah, I still think this platform is great value. With anything new, there are always going to be a few hiccups here and there, but as long as they keep working on fixes, I’m happy with my purchase. Plus, it’s already saved me thousands, so I can’t really complain.

Great resource for plugins and themes, extensive database.

A customer support team that looks after its affiliate network. An extensive product range. And they’re striving to do things better than before.

A few hicups and some miscommunication at first, but now the platform is stable and service is reactive. A lot of plugins and themes updated regularly.

I bought a lifetime subscription and the number of plugins and themes available is fantastic. They are updated on a regular basis and it's been the foundation of my business allowing me to offer my clients cost effective websites. Never had an issue with any of the plugins or themes I've downloaded. Martin has always been very helpful to support any problems. The plugin is very useful to install and update plugins but I prefer to use the website. Keep up the good work guys!

I was a subscriber to Festinger Vault, which has rebranded as GrootMade (Groot Made B.V., Rotterdam). I discovered charges on my credit card statements under the merchant name "Riding Solo" — a name with zero disclosed connection to this service. Because I didn't recognize it, I missed the window to dispute through my card issuer.
What makes this worse: one of the cards charged had its number replaced due to unrelated fraud, yet this company still managed to bill it. That requires use of card network account updater services — which are only supposed to be used for active, authorized subscriptions.
I have since contacted them directly and am filing complaints with:

ACM (Dutch Consumer Authority) and FTC in the US.

I am not the only one. Read the other reviews here carefully — the pattern of unrecognized charges, cancelled subscriptions being reinstated, and forum posts being deleted is well documented.

And yes, I have sent ALL 18 invoices to your team TWICE now with no response.

If this group has done NOTHING wrong, why is the name on my credit card invoice RIDING SOLO? A bike sharing company in the Netherlands?

This platform is very convenient for accessing wide range of themes and plugins. It's easy to use and especially helpful for exploring different tools without high costs.

Been with them for over 4 years now. awesome items! I found my all in one spot for anything plugins and themes.

GrootMade thinks like a technical partner, not just a web agency. They cleaned up a messy WordPress setup, improved performance hard, and made the whole stack way easier to maintain. Communication was fast, direct, and actually useful.

Same issues as other reviews. Festinger changed to grootmade. I received multiple invoices and my lifetime license is gone. I tried getting in contact but no answers on email and my forum posts keep getting deleted. This had became a scam site.

UPDATE 06/04/2026: i also reported this company to the Netherlands fraud department.

Dev team loves this for bulk updates. Moving our stack to GrootMade Connect saved us hours of billable time. Pushing updates to a dozen sites at once from one dashboard is indredible. Library is massive (25k+ seems legit). Some high-end themes sync slow, but the whitelabel tools make up for it. Recommended for anyone tired of the dev tax.

FRAUD

Owner of this service, previously known as FestingerVault is fraud.

After getting sued by Automattic (Wordpress.com), their old service (Festinger Vault) has never been the same.

Couple of months ago they rebranded from "FestingerVault" to "GrootMade".

Martin, the Owner of FestingerVault and GrootMade is still trying to charge old customers with fake invoices via Stripe payment processor.

Do not use Grootmade.

FestingerVault = GrootMade = SCAM

I had a mixed experience...
I was originally a lifetime user on the old Festinger Vault platform. When we lifetime users were grandfathered onto the new platform, I appreciated the gesture. However, that decision was later reversed, which felt unfair, as it impacted users regardless of individual behavior.
There were also plenty of technical challenges during the transition. At times, the platform stability made it difficult to rely on consistently.
That said, my access has since been restored, and I do appreciate that effort to make things right.

I do understand that building and scaling a platform, especially with a smaller team, can come with challenges. At the same time, consistency, clear communication, and follow-through still matter.

Overall, my experience has included both appreciation for the product and frustration with how some decisions were handled. I hope to see more consistency, clear communication, and stability moving forward.

UPDATE (4/15/2026):

Martin personally requested that I write the above review. I was redirected to Trustpilot using a link he provided after reinstating my account following a private support ticket. That ticket was regarding my concern about all lifetime users being affected rather than addressing specific abusive behavior individually.

I left a 3-star review that I believed was honest, fair, and respectful.

Shortly after, my account was banned from Grootmade and Festinger's Vault.

I am also currently unable to submit support request via email, and when I asked for clarification in the Discord support channel, I was placed on a 7-day timeout. At the time, I was genuinely trying to understand whether the ban was intentional or an error.

Seeing similar experiences reflected in other reviews has only added to my concern. This is disappointing. I had supported this platform since 2019 and remained hopeful for its future. Based on this experience, I can no longer recommend Grootmade.

I believe it's important for potential customers to be aware of how situations like this are handled, especially when it involves responses to honest feedback.

Due to this experience, I have updated my rating to 1-star.

They use historic cancelled subscriptions and charge your card, hoping you won't notice. Check your statements and contact your banks.

Purchased a lifetime license from them and after like a month they totally disappared, making many excuses for months that they have been sued and that they are building new platform. Then the new platform is out and gone and then come back and gone and then finally they had to rebrand to grootmade.com. The owner appologized in a post and said they will finally make things right. But here we go again, The new drama starts again. Now they are sayng lifetime members can have their lifetime license in Old website which is no longer updated and is redirecting to the grootmade forum. What a shame Scammers! Refund all lifetime license owners. I am just writing this review, in case someone will do a research about this scam before purchasing. Oh and they try many times to charge again and again! Please do not buy and do not get scammed. New company name same scammers!

Update:

What a shame, They come and lie here under every review that they dont recognize the experience. At least you cant silence us here like you did on your forum meta.grootmade.com. Anyone that asked why their lifetime license was cancelled got banned and lifetime account suspended. At the same time they keep trying to charge again. This is Sick! Stay away! Dont get scammed!

Shameful and deceitful practices.
After their lawsuit that got them in hot water they decided to rebrand and fork their previous project while completely abandoning their original promises.
At one moment you are a lifetime license buyer and then you are banned for no reason from their new platform.
Furthermore, as a lifetime purchaser i had to reclaim my license 3 times and let's not talk about all the downtime that it was faced as the site went through multiple versions each worse than the one before and then going back to the previous design.
Do not trust this company. Do not trust Martin. And definitely do not trust whatever scheme they are planning next.

--- Update 04/04/2026:

Given that I cannot reply to your reply below. Your response is further proof of your deceitful practices. If you had actually taken the time and looked at your inbox you would have clearly seen that I have tried communicating with you and you have yet to respond. What competitive business? I don't even know who your competition is! I have been a loyal fan to FV and Martin throughout the hardship he has gone through.

You banned me for absolutely no reason yesterday. I contacted hello@grootmade and i have no response. Instead of casting doubt on the legitimacy of my experience maybe take the time and check your inbox before providing a generic response to me and everyone else who had a similar experience. And if you are asking for further proof here is the url i get when i try to login:

grootmade/?error=banned&error_description=You+have+been+banned+from+this+application.+Please+contact+support+if+you+believe+this+is+an+error.

and if you want more then respond by email

Update Apr 11 2026:
DO NOT TRUST THE POSITIVE REVIEWS!!
Still no response from their support team however they are basically holding lifetime members hostage unless they provide positive reviews and they check them before they reinstate your lifetime membership.
Here is the message received from one of their crew members:

Dear lifetime member,

After internal discussion, we’ve decided to restore your lifetime license here on GrootMade as a gesture of goodwill.

We would like you to leave a review on our TrustPilot page:

trustpilot /evaluate/grootmade.com

Please let me know when it’s done, and I’ll ask our admin team to restore your license.

With kind regards,
T0mmy

Participants: T0mmy

I have tried numerous times to contact grootmade about my account. I simply don't get a reply.

I purchased a lifetime membership with festinger and since changing to grootmade, my account has not been reinstated. It's also impossible to actually contact someone.

I was a lifetime member of Festinger Vault. Recently, they migrated to their new "GrootMade" platform and upgraded former Festinger customers to lifetime access there. However, they suddenly announced a "big update" which was actually just them revoking everyone's lifetime access overnight. They used the excuse that a few users were disrespectful to their staff, deciding to collectively punish all their customers instead of dealing with specific individuals.

I went to their forum to express my disappointment. Their response? They instantly banned me to silence the criticism.

Here is the EXACT message I posted that got me banned. Judge for yourself if this warrants a ban instead of a proper answer:

--- MY FORUM POST ---
Honestly, I'm really confused by these announcements. Is this an April Fools' joke? The timing of your posts really points in that direction: announcing a 'big update' yesterday (April 1st) for today, which ultimately turns out to be the removal of lifetime access. It's very confusing.

If this is true and not a joke, your 'big update' is just taking back the goodwill gesture you made to former Festinger customers? Thanks for the big update then... I don't understand the logic at all.

You're using the excuse of protecting your staff, but why are you treating former customers like 'haters'? At what point is it a good decision to collectively punish everyone by revoking access just because of a few isolated individuals?

We all know very well that in the GPL world, trust is the most important thing for customers. Things were actually moving in the right direction, and I was even starting to think I would recommend you again to my clients and to other communities. And now, in one single 'big update', you've managed to destroy that trust all over again.

It almost feels like you're doing this on purpose; I don't see how it's possible otherwise. How can anyone trust you, recommend you, or even defend you when people say things about you online, if you're capable of revoking lifetime licenses overnight?

I really hope this is just a bad April Fools' joke. Otherwise, I completely fail to see how revoking users like this is a good marketing strategy. You are only going to create new haters or reinforce the ones you already had."

If you are considering buying a "lifetime" deal or any subscription from GrootMade / Festinger Vault, be warned. They will revoke your paid access on a whim, break their promises, and ban you if you dare to question their decisions or express legitimate concerns. Save your money and find a GPL provider that actually respects its customers and honors its deals.