This is allowable under the WPORG plugin submission guidelines. As long as the plugin itself is free, providers of 3rd party hosted serves are at liberty to charge for their services.
It is also clearly documented in https://ww.wp.xz.cn/plugins/sidekick/faq/ :
What does Sidekick for WordPress cost?
The Sidekick plugin for WordPress is and always will be free to download and use. Installing the plugin gives you instant and unlimited access to 30 Core WordPress How-To and Overview Walkthroughs.
If you would like access to the full library of Core WordPress Walkthroughs (Over 150) including Hotspots, the cost is $10 a month per URL.
Your failure to read the plugin’s documentation is not fault of the plugin or its developer.
I’m a user, I installed it and tried, and rscrobinmx99’s statements are incorrect, as noted above.
There are 30 Core WordPress How-To and Overview Walkthroughs that are FREE and EXTREMELY useful. Kudos to the developers!
Thank you Pam. We really appreciate that and I will make sure the team sees it.
WordPress dropped 3.9.2 very suddenly and we had Walkthroughs updated within 2 hours of it’s release.
Thank you.
