Ask anyone who knows WordPress what the best ecommerce plugin is and chances are they’ll say WooCommerce. But what about all the competition? Are there any WooCommerce alternatives that offer better, or more unique, features?
Yes. Well, for some situations.
A handful of WordPress plugins, integrations, and standalone ecommerce platforms have specific features that make them more user-friendly in certain circumstances.
WooCommerce is still the best all-around solution – its popularity backs that up [1] – but what if you want to make a multivendor store or sell subscriptions? Some of the WooCommerce alternatives are quite appealing.
⌛ In a hurry? ⏩ Skip to a summary of the alternatives that provides a simple recap of the six tools and the reasons why you’d might want to use them instead of WooCommerce.
Six best WooCommerce alternatives for 2018 🛍️
Below, we’ll go through some WooCommerce alternatives that might be a better option for specific use cases. We’ll also explain why they’re better and some of the downsides in comparison to WooCommerce.
The options we’ll review are:
Let’s get started!
1. Easy Digital Downloads for selling digital downloads
Easy Digital Downloads, commonly abbreviated as EDD, is as straightforward as it sounds.
It can turn any WordPress site into a digital ecommerce store.
Different add-ons are sold for frontend submissions, software licensing, and payment gateways, but the basic plugin creates a store, accepts payments, and manages marketing.
Pricing 💰
The core plugin is free, and the add-on packages start at $99.50 per year.
What it does better than WooCommerce 👍
EDD is the simplest option for selling digital downloads. WooCommerce supports digital sales, but it has a confusing configuration process, and some of the free advanced features in EDD require paid extensions in WooCommerce (like Product Bundles). Easy Digital Downloads adds a shopping cart, discount codes, customer management, and data reporting with one installation. Furthermore, if you’re only selling digital items, your dashboard isn’t cluttered with physical product features.
Downsides compared to WooCommerce 👎
EDD is limited to virtual goods. So, if you plan on selling physical products in the future, WooCommerce is best. The EDD Simple Shipping add-on helps with physical items, but it’s limited (no variable shipping costs, no shipping company integrations, and watered down reporting).
Who should use it? 🙋
Consider Easy Digital Downloads for a quick way to sell digital products and nothing else. Music, eBooks, photography, and videos all work well with EDD.
2. MemberPress for selling membership subscriptions
MemberPress is a WordPress plugin with what seems like every membership feature you’ll need. With drip content, subscription management, and awesome pricing pages, the majority of your subscription or membership operation is set.
Pricing 💰
- Basic Plan – $179.50 per year.
- Plus Plan – $269.55 per year.
- Pro Plan – $319.60 per year.
What it does better than WooCommerce 👍
MemberPress stands out because of its premium support. Membership sites are a completely different breed compared to regular ecommerce stores. The WooCommerce documentation is fine for quick fixes, but sometimes you want to speak with a real person.
WooCommerce also requires extra extensions for full membership functionality. The WooCommerce Memberships plugin is amazing, but you’ll need other extensions for affiliate programs, pricing pages, and more.
Also, MemberPress is cheaper.
Downsides compared to WooCommerce 👎
MemberPress lacks a regular ecommerce shop for fixed-price items. Also, WooCommerce has support for more payment gateways.
Who should use it? 🙋
Anyone who needs a complete membership or subscription suite in one place.
3. Wix eCommerce for a beginner-friendly all-in-one ecommerce experience
As the name implies, Wix eCommerce is the ecommerce extension of the popular website builder Wix. You can set up an online store with Wix super easily with hundreds of ecommerce templates, tens of payment possibilities, dropshipping functionality, and many other tools that you can integrate with your online shop.
With Wix eCommerce, you can sell anything anywhere through multiple channels – be it online or via a POS system. Apart from the technical features, the builder offers marketing tools to grow and promote your business, such as social ads, product subscriptions, analytics, gift cards, and SEO.
Pricing 💰
Wix eCommerce plans start at $27 per month for basic ecommerce features. To expand the ecommerce suite, you can upgrade to the higher plans that cost $32 and $159 per month, respectively.
What it does better than WooCommerce 👍
Wix eCommerce is an all-in-one ecommerce solution. It’s more straightforward to set up and build an online store with it than with WooCommerce, which requires extra steps and configurations on your side.
Wix just builds the website for you so you can then use the drag-and-drop editor to add features and apps. Everything happens in one place, as opposed to WooCommerce, which you need to install and configure separately in WordPress, plus also find hosting and a WooCommerce theme.
Wix does most of the work for you, while WooCommerce requires some know-how to put it together. Wix is also more user-friendly than WooCommerce when it comes to the interface and design.
Downsides compared to WooCommerce 👎
Even though Wix eCommerce is more user-friendly and non-technical, it’s not as versatile as WooCommerce. The latter comes with many more options for customization in terms of layouts, design, and core functionality.
That’s because WordPress provides a lot of plugins, themes, and advanced code that let you add almost any possible feature to WooCommerce. Wix is more limited when it comes to personalization and custom functionality.
Who should use it? 🙋
Use Wix eCommerce if you want to sell or dropship online but you do not want to spend time on technicalities. If you’re looking for a platform that handles most of the logistics so you can just start selling, Wix eCommerce will build a cool online store for you rather quickly.
4. Shopify for a simpler approach to ecommerce
Both WooCommerce and WordPress are open source and self-hosted platforms. That means you must find hosting and maintain the website. That’s not a bad thing for most people, but web design beginners might find this intimidating.
That’s where Shopify comes in.
Shopify has a complete ecommerce builder, with hosting, domain names, design, themes, and marketing, all in the dashboard.
Pricing 💰
Shopify pricing is a moving target because they adjust it based on where in the world you live (or whatever your IP address says). We will share the U.S. based pricing below, but if you are reading this from another part of the world, you’ll have to go directly to the pricing page to see what the numbers look like. Finally, all prices below are for annual plans. Month-to-month plans cost a bit more.
- Shopify Starter – $5.00 per month.
- Shopify Basic – $29.00 per month.
- Shopify – $79.00 per month.
- Shopify Advanced – $299.00 per month.
What it does better than WooCommerce 👍
Shopify makes building a store less complicated, with all tools in one dashboard. You never need to worry about things like hosting, security, or updates – Shopify does all that for you.
Downsides compared to WooCommerce 👎
You can find a wider variety of themes for WooCommerce. It’s also easier to scale up with WooCommerce, since you have full website control. Finally, Shopify uses the Liquid coding language, so advanced changes are tougher.
Learn more about Shopify vs WooCommerce.
Who should use it? 🙋
Shopify is good for absolute beginners who still want a great-looking, fully-functional store.
5. Arcadier for creating a multivendor store
Arcadier generates a complete multivendor marketplace for anything from service bookings to retail goods.
It’s fully hosted with unique features like customer chat boxes, negotiation tools, and social logins.
Pricing 💰
Arcadier Marketplace offers only one pricing package at $99 per month (with a 30-day trial period).
What it does better than WooCommerce 👍
Like membership sites, multivendor stores are difficult to handle logistically. So, it helps to have a platform dedicated to multivendor selling, along with a great support team.
WooCommerce doesn’t have multivendor functionality, but some plugins allow for it to work. Even though the plugins (like WP Marketplace) have strong feature sets, you’ll notice things missing, like support for rentable goods or negotiation tools.
Downsides compared to WooCommerce 👎
Arcadier requires a somewhat high monthly fee from the start. Most reputable WooCommerce marketplace plugins have free versions with affordable add-ons.
Who should use it? 🙋
Anyone who’s creating a multivendor site from scratch. WooCommerce and a multivendor plugin might be a better option if you’re adding multivendor functionality to an existing site.
6. Magento for a high-powered ecommerce-focused CMS
If you’re missing a feature in WooCommerce, chances are an extension can mitigate that problem. However, some people would rather have every possible ecommerce feature built into their system, without having to piece together that extension puzzle.
A configuration like this can help with scaling your business, seeing as how you don’t have to research a new plugin to expand your selling opportunities.
Magento (Adobe Commerce) is a solid WooCommerce alternative for those more technically advanced and looking for something outside of WordPress.
While this product is widely known as Magento, as you see in the screenshot and previous paragraph above, you will now find it under the name Adobe Commerce. That’s because the product was acquired by Adobe in 2018.
Pricing 💰
Magento (Adobe Commerce) comes in two plans – Adobe Commerce Pro and Managed Services – but there is no predefined price to any of them. You’ll get a custom price once you submit your business details.
What it does better than WooCommerce 👍
Magento is a powerhouse ecommerce platform made for larger businesses. It’s an entire content management system with pretty much every little ecommerce feature included, without having to find plugins or add-ons.
Downsides compared to WooCommerce 👎
Magento isn’t that hard to set up, but configuring and designing usually takes an experienced developer–whereas WooCommerce is pretty easy for beginners.
Additionally, the paid Adobe Commerce version is expensive.
Learn more about WooCommerce vs Magento.
Who should use it? 🙋
Magento is a good option for larger, growing businesses with advanced ecommerce needs. The customization possibilities are legendary with Magento, but you’ll need to be a developer yourself or have the money to hire one.
Which of these WooCommerce alternatives is best for you? 🤔
Luckily, the decision of whether or not to go with WooCommerce is pretty cut and dry. WooCommerce works wonders for most ecommerce stores, but there are those random situations (like when making a multivendor or subscription site) when one of these WooCommerce alternatives might serve you better.
For your convenience, a summary of the options we reviewed in this article, along with their specific use-case reasons are below:
- Easy Digital Downloads: Simpler option for selling digital downloads compared to WooCommerce
- MemberPress: Better alternative to WooCommerce for membership or subscription-based sites
- Wix eCommerce: Easier to set up and more beginner-friendly than WooCommerce (ideal for non-tech-savvy users)
- Shopify: Offers a more streamlined, unified ecommerce experience compared to WooCommerce (hosting, tools, security, etc. are all embedded into the platform, which is not the case for WooCommerce)
- Arcadier: A better option than WooCommerce for multivendor stores (it specializes in this)
- Magento (Adobe Commerce): Ideal for large businesses with large budgets that want a high-powered ecommerce-focused CMS
Have any other questions about choosing between these WooCommerce alternatives? Let us know in the comments!
great content JOE WARNIMONT thank you!
Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)!