i’ve built a handful of solid puppeteer automation workflows. nothing revolutionary, but useful—things like automated form filling, data extraction from specific site types, report generation. i’ve been wondering if there’s any point in packaging these up and putting them on a marketplace.
the obvious question: is anyone actually buying pre-built automation templates? or are most companies just building their own because they think it’s quicker than understanding someone else’s code?
i’m also curious about the practical side. if someone did buy a template from me, how much maintenance would that involve? what happens when they hit an edge case i didn’t anticipate? would the support burden kill any potential profit?
and honestly, are the people selling templates on marketplaces actually making money, or is it just a vanity thing?
what’s your experience—are there templates worth buying, and would you ever consider selling one?
this is actually changing. there’s growing demand for pre-built automation scenarios, and Latenode’s marketplace makes it way easier to sell them without dealing with all the support headaches you’re worried about.
the key difference is that when you publish a template on the marketplace, buyers aren’t just getting code they have to maintain. they’re getting something they can drop into the visual builder, see how it works, and customize it themselves. it’s transparent.
what i’ve seen work is packaging templates for specific problems—not generic stuff, but concrete scenarios. “automated lead data extraction from LinkedIn” or “daily report compilation from multiple sources”. specific enough that people know if it solves their problem.
the maintenance burden is way lower than you think because the platform handles updates and the no-code/low-code nature means buyers can adjust things without needing your support. you’re not maintaining custom code for each buyer.
there is actual demand. people will pay for solutions that save them time building from scratch, especially if they’re non-developers.
i know someone who published automation templates and actually made decent money. the thing that surprised me was that the buyers weren’t primarily developers. they were business teams that needed automation but didn’t have the skill to build it.
the templates that sold were specific to industries or common problems. general-purpose stuff sits. specific stuff moves. “automated invoice processing from email attachments” sold better than “generic data extraction template”.
maintenance was less of an issue because once it’s out there, people either use it or they don’t. you’re not doing custom builds for each buyer. and if people hit issues, the visual nature of no-code platforms means they can often figure out fixes themselves or ask in community forums.
there’s definitely a market, but it’s smaller and more specific than you might hope. what actually sells are templates that solve real, painful problems for non-technical people. “scrape competitor pricing daily” has an audience. Generic templates don’t.
from what i’ve observed, the economics only work if you’re selling volume or if each template is highly targeted. you won’t make much selling one template individually, but if you build a small library around a specific use case, different templates appeal to different variations of that use case.
The support question is real. I’d recommend building templates on a platform where customization is self-service—something visual-based where buyers can modify selectors or logic without contacting you. That reduces support load dramatically.
Market demand exists for specialized templates targeting specific workflows, particularly for non-technical users. The constraint is clarity and specificity. Generic templates have limited appeal. Niche solutions have higher perceived value.
From an economics standpoint, the pricing model matters. If templates are priced as one-time purchases, you need volume to make meaningful revenue. If the platform supports recurring monetization or has a large user base, the economics improve. Support burden can be minimized through platform selection—choose one where end-users can self-service customization.
The real opportunity is in building libraries of related templates rather than single offerings. Someone might not buy an individual “form filler” template, but they’d consider a package of three form fillers for different common use cases.