I don't agree that the icons are ugly, they need to stand out clearly because, as site owners, we want our users to be aware of and to use these features, resulting in better comments. The standard AtD icon is a little too small and too easily ignored. I guess there should be an option to change them to alternate icons that stand out less if a site owner is willing to have less users notice them, but these are good defaults.

I do agree that AEC is tremendous value - I have been critical of the manner in which some have approached paid plugins but AEC is a good example of how to do it right. Having caught glimpses of how much work Ronald and Ajay are doing behind the scenes, I am impressed at the level of thought they are putting into even the smallest details. This talented pair are determined to continuously improve and refine their product; each purchase funds their pursuit of that ambition.

The pricing at $10 for one year is reasonable and the developer license is a one-time fee of only $100, no further annual charges, for as many sites as you can crank out - that's the license I bought. I am sure that if you buy the $10 license, try it out and later decide to upgrade, you could get the $10 discounted off the cost of the developer license - Ronald can correct me if I'm wrong about that.

GravityForms is another admirable project but, personally, I think they have priced their developer license too high - $199 is no doubt worth it for some but, on balance, the numbers didn't work out for me and I'm probably not the only person in that boat. Pricing is tricky but I suspect GravityForms would more than double their sales if they adopted something closer to AEC's.

So, yeah, I definitely recommend purchasing AEC and, of course, using Jeffro's affiliate link will allow you to support all the hard work that goes into this website and the podcast, it would be win for all of us if he could afford to devote more time to WordPress.