Most people who mean serious business make sure to compare and test eCommerce website plugins till they find what meets their requirements.
If you wish to have a good online presence, then you need to understand which WordPress plugin is best for your online business website.
We have evaluated the best ones for you and listed them here. You could read through the full evaluation of each, understand, and make the right decision.
The first thing that we tried to understand when researching WordPress plugins was to find out their important features.
Next, we focused on comparing these plugins to those available on the market. It is always good to compare and know-how these WordPress plugins stand out from the rest.
We came across few eCommerce plugins that generally had more features, while others were apt for clean, simple online stores.
Besides, there are few niche plugins that help complete specific tasks like helping online selling of digital downloads.
Once we have detailed below our analysis of each of the WordPress plugins for eCommerce website, we will let you know which plugin is best for you as per your requirement.
Having said that, do read this article to gain a better understanding of the best WordPress plugins available on the current market.
Contents
1. WooCommerce
Have you heard about this one before? Well, WooCommerce is considered to be the king among all the WordPress eCommerce plugins.
It Is true to its name as it immediately converts your existing WordPress blog to a completely operational eCommerce store.
This one is the best ecommerce plugin and commonly used if you are someone looking for such features.
We tried to go back to its roots. WooCommerce was originally created in 2011 as Jigoshop’s fork.
After Automattic acquired WooThemes, who created WooCommerce, the popularity of WooCommerce increased tremendously.
In fact, today, it is known to power around 8 percent of all online eCommerce websites and 21 percent of the best one million sites.
One more reason for WooCommerce’s marvellous growth is because Automattic operates WordPress.
If you are looking to expand your online business and wish to see it grow rapidly, then WooCommerce is the best solution available to you.
Using it, you could convert your blog to an online store having five products, or even more going up to a huge collection of 1000s of products.
You will wonder what would be the price of such a plugin. It is free. It supports unlimited visitors and products provided your infrastructure and hosting can take care of it.
Apart from hosting, most companies do pay for the integration of certain elements with WooCommerce.
One example of this would be many WordPress premium themes that work beautifully with WooCommerce – that have lovely product galleries and a shopping cart.
Some of you may also prefer an extension or more in order to improve the functionality of your online store. The great news is that WooCommerce has an extension store of its own.
Many 3rd party developers are behind the creation of these WooCommerce extensions. There are costs involved here based on what is required by your online store.
So why is WooCommerce considered to be one of the best eCommerce WordPress plugins?
- WooCommerce is free for those having a small online store on average. In this case, even the plugins and the themes are not very expensive. In other words, if you are looking to start your online store using an economical way, then WooCommerce is.
- It is one of the most known WordPress plugins. Because of Automattic being in the picture and because of its wide base of 3rd party developers, this plugin is here to stay for a long time. Also, you will keep getting many updates for the same in the future.
- Extensions are created by many developers to help solve problems faced by online store owners. You can add some advanced features to your eCommerce store by using these extensions. There is no requirement for any type of custom coding for this. For example, a simple plugin can help you commence a membership business full-fledged.
- You can sell online almost anything you wish using WooCommerce. You can sell online anything from appointments to subscriptions to digital goods.
- Some topmost gateways come with built-in payments, apart from extensions that come with many major gateways.
- The WordPress ecommerce themes are mostly designed around WooCommerce. Hence, there will be no integration problems faced by you mostly.
- Advanced users and beginners can learn WooCommerce and use it easily. Its interface is very simple that newcomers find easy to understand. The REST API, open development, anddocumentation let advanced developers make any desirable customization.
2. EDD (Easy Digital Downloads)
Easy Digital Downloads, also known as EDD, provides an intuitive and simple plugin that helps manage and sell online digital products using WordPress.
You are right; this support is provided by WooCommerce. However, EDD has many more features that focus on digital sales.
It also has a cleaner interface. People selling PDF files, audio clips (non-physical), or eBooks should consider EDD seriously over other eCommerce WordPress plugins. One reason for EDD to be very successful is that its core plugin comes for free.
On installing it on your ecommerce website, you immediately get a sales platform digitally. And, its features include activity tracking, discount codes, and control over file access.
Galleries can be made by you, and you can select from the EDD themes. When a customer buys your product from your ecommerce website, the system will automatically send an email to them with a link that they will have to download.
Remember that a full shopping cart is provided by EDD. This lets you process all payments on your ecommerce website, thus reducing the need to click multiple times.
Though we said the core plugin of EDD is free, you need to know that you can choose to upgrade to an annual subscription.
It starts from $199 annually and can go up to $899 annually if you wish to have the pass withall-access.
Whichever plan you opt for, you will receive complete customer support, updates, and site licenses.
Also, you will get a few unique integrations and extensions that will help reference payment gateways and email marketing.
In case of customer support is not needed by you, and then you can choose to purchase the extensions separately. You will find these extensions in the Library.
A large amount of solutions is available there in the form of these extensions. Just like WooCommerce, the extensions here have different prices.
For example, the MailChimpextension costs around $49, while the Recurring Payment extension costs $199. There are also few add-ons that are free.
Why is EDD considered to be one of the Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins?
- EDD is great if you wish to sell online digital downloads. It clears the features of physical products. It also has extra advanced solutions in reference to music and eBooks.
- You will find loads of add-ons in the Extensions Library. Using this, you can have a digital online store created that is more advanced. By this we mean, you could include software licensing or allow frontend submissions.
- There are many options when it comes to choosing a payment gateway for you.
- Its primary plugin comes completely free. A small business, on average, or an artist will be able to implement this easily and make the process of sales work well.
- You will find EDD being used by advanced developers also. The REST API gives them the advantage of having total control over customizations.
- You will find a large community of active enthusiasts, developers, and bloggers as part of Easy Digital Downloads (EDD). Hence you will always find a post from a blog to answer your queries or a new cool extension that could help your online store.
- Data reporting, shopping cart, discount codes, and customer management are all included in its main features. Tools for affiliate systems, mailing lists, refund tracking, and much more are also part of it.
3. Cart66 Cloud
The Cart66 Cloud plugin is a great platform that can be used by everyone. One can make this plugin operate smoothly by reducing the number of add-ons.
When you have a wide range of extensions and add-ons, your site’s performance could get complicated.
This is where Cart66 comes in. It provides an eCommerce WordPress plugin that has built-in all of its features.
Most users who have used it have left a positive review for it. Its configuration is simple. As compared to WooCommerce, yes, it is not easy to match up to it in this ecommerce space.
However, Cart66 Cloud does have a strong niche. It is perfect for those who are not looking to havetoo many add-ons and get confused. In fact, it is good for any regular person who doesn’t think that they are a developer.
There is one more interesting thing about Cart66 Cloud. This company has its own marketplace where you could come across many vendors.
Though it may not sound very beneficial for an average person who will rarely shop through this marketplace, it still could help in promoting your business by getting the word spread amongst these vendors.
In general, Cart66 is an eCommerce platform for every man. When compared to WooCommerce, Cart66 states WooCommerce to be good for developers who wish to build an ecommerce system that is complex.
This may not be completely true. The fact is that there is an advantage with Cart66. It has all its features built-in.
In terms of pricing, the core plugin of Cart66 is free. However, their premium version has the best features. These come for a monthly price of $49.
There are a 14 days free trial offered along with it. When it comes to their customer support, you will find rave reviews on the same.
Cart66 is the best solution if you are not confident in working with a complex system and need help from people to guide you well.
Why is Cart66 considered one of the Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins?
- It has a solid team for customer support which is amongst the best in this industry.
- A free plugin or a premium one with more features is a choice to be made by you.
- The plugin has built-in features. Hence, you will not have to look around for additional ones and configure them. Also, this is so simple that you do not need to learn about codes nor hire any developer.
- Cart66 team has done most of its development work by staying in the background. This is indeed a very good reason why beginners should opt for Cart66 than go for WooCommerce.
- Cart66 email marketing is very strong compared to its competitors. You conveniently receive the tools for drip campaigns, timely email follow-ups, and list segmentation from your great WordPress dashboard.
- Digital and physical products are supported by Cart66. It is possible for you to sell some shoes and eBooks simultaneously using Cart66.
- There are more than a hundred payment gateways that are built-in. Most other plugins normally need you to have add-ons installed.
- Recurring payments, subscriptions, and content restrictions are part of the Cart66 package. These are free. You would have to pay for these add-ons if you were using WooCommerce.
4. Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart
This plugin boasts about having excellent ratings, and its setup is almost similar to WooCommerce but operates differently. You can use Ecwid on any ecommerce website, and that is one of its main differences.
If you own a Drupal website using Ecwid, you could start your online store. This also applies to Facebook, WordPress, Tumblr, and many others. Unlike WooCommerce, which is only a plugin involving WordPress. WooCommerce though good, doesn’t let you work with outer site types.
Ecwid is also less expensive compared to WooCommerce, and many other ecommerce WordPress plugins.
This is simply because Ecwid’s monthly payment plan is reasonable. Also, apart from its core plugin is free, it offers you many built-in features instead of depending on a library to install add-ons.
Due to this reason, we feel most users will prefer Ecwid. Who wouldn’t like to have more built-in tools? In terms of its built-in features, it is very similar to Cart66.
The features are not scattered all over the library or don’t require to be installed by any 3rd party developers.
Its free plan for a basic online store is powerful. The shopping cart provided by it is mobile responsive. It supports a maximum of ten products. And it allows selling on various ecommerce websites.
It is true that the limitation of only being able to display ten products would shoo away some users. But that applies to its free plan.
If the users pay $15 on a monthly basis, then the support they will receive is for one hundred products. If they want more products to be supported, then they could opt to pay $35 as a monthly payment which provides support for 2500 products.
Their $99 monthly plan supports unlimited products. At first, looking at these various plans, you may think Ecwid is really expensive compared to WooCommerce.
However, it should not be, and it all depends on the type and requirement of your online store.
Expensive add-ons are needed for most online stores when using WooCommerce. In fact, there are price tags for most of the primary payment gateways.
But, look at it this way. An Ecwid user whose online store has products less than a hundred would only have to pay a monthly fee of $15.
If you choose the unlimited plan by paying the monthly amount of $99, you could still save money in comparison to the money you would spend in installing WooCommerce add-ons.
Actually, if you look at the bigger picture, Ecwid’s interface is incredibly clean, and its setup process is very smooth.
You are allowed to check out the primary free plugin and decide for yourself if you need to invest in a monthly plan.
We are of the opinion that Ecwid would be perfect for you if you are looking to have multiple sales channels. And, WooCommerce would anyway make you spend more for its add-ons.
So Why is Ecwid one of the Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins?
- Its free plan supports ten products. It offers a reasonable monthly plan that provides a beautiful interface, feature-set, and installation process.
- Though this article is based on WordPress, Ecwid is famous for being flexible. It can integrate with almost any content management systems and ecommerce website builders. This includes WordPress, Squarespace, Adobe Muse, Wix and so on.
- Some of its plans provide both chat and phone support. Also, priority support and free customizations are included in some of their plans.
- When you use Ecwid, any plugin upgrades take place automatically. This is not the case with many other WordPress plugins. These other plugins need the upgrade to happen manually.
- Stores are hosted by Ecwid. Hence it is PCI-DCC Certified. It is completely secure to make financial transactions between your bank and the gateway. Other plugins, on the other hand, have to contact your hosting provider to get this PCI compliance.
- When using Ecwid, you will realize that it strongly focuses on helping you sell quickly from various sales channels. To give an example, consider how Facebook shops are created for you through certain pricing plans. You also have options for online stores, marketplaces, mobile point of sales, Google Shopping, regular point of sales, and eBay.
- When you get Ecwid installed on one of your sites, all the stored information or data can easily be transferred and synced to another ecommerce website. When this happens, you can sell on multiple sites.
5. WP EasyCart
This plugin is one of the WordPress ecommerce plugins that you generally don’t get to hear about a lot.
But, it has slowly started to attract attention for all the good reasons. At times you may feel that basic plugins like Cart66, WooCommerce, or EDD are not the best for users owning small businesses.
Most of these business owners would love to learn about these building tools for their ecommerce website, but the question is do they have the time for this.
A WP EasyCart is apt for owners of small businesses as it helps them create their beautiful online store with no training at all. This online store or shop would still use WordPress.
However, its configuration process is stunningly fast. The tools it provides are understandable and a blessing to all the non-developers in the market.
Developers of WP EasyCartare aware of the fact that small businesses are already working with other softwares.
Hence syncing with Quickbooks along with an email marketing integration for MailChimp is made easy.ShipStation and TaxCloudare also integrated into the EasyCart system.
This is definitely like a dream come true for owners of small businesses. And that is not all.
As their user, you can sell anything from downloads to classic retail items and gift cards to subscriptions.
Also, you have the option to send out invoices, ask for donations, and sell video content.
This plugin operates more like the SaaS ecommerce platform like Wix or Squarespace. Allsimple tools needed by you are there.
The one and only difference is, you get full control over your site with WordPress and your own hosting.
Its features are highly advanced for their free version that also offers support for advanced product variants, unlimited products, and live shipping calculators.
You can go for their annual plan or $69 if you do not wish to pay transaction fees. The Free package charges for every transaction.
Their highest plan charges $99 annually. This plan includes awesome features that are great for Quickbooks integration, sell subscriptions, AffiliateWP, Stamps.com, and so on.
WP EasyCart’s basic features that include promotions, coupons, subscriptions, and B2B make it the right WooCommerce competitor.
When you add a huge range of business integrations, you get an eComm plugin that is like a powerhouse for small retailers and entrepreneurs.
Its plans commence from a free 14-day trial. This lets you test this plugin in advance before you decide to choose a particular plan.
Also, the customer support provided by them is free, which is provided using online documentation, a service center, forums, video tutorials, and much more. You can also opt for paid customer service.
So why is WP EasyCart one of the Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins?
- It provides you unlimited products for free. It also gives you many tools that can help you with product variants, sell videos, and taxes.
- Their premium plan that costs $99 per annum is perfect for small businesses. It has a lot to offer to small online business owners without being heavy in their pockets. This premium plan is not expensive when you compare it with all the extensions it provides to small ecommerce business owners.
- Each extension is clearly designed for businesses that are small. Options like MailChimp, AffiliateWP, Stamps.com, Groupon Importer, and Quickbooks are made available for you.
- Their customers support that is free is one of the best of most of the plugins available on the market. You may not get to contact someone by email or over the phone for free. But they have active forums and video tutorials that are really helpful.
- Selling of different types of distinctive products like invoices, donations, video content, and eBooks is supported by this plugin.
- Most of WooCommerce’s advanced add-ons are very expensive when you compare them to the plans of WP EasyCart that cost$69 or $99 annually.
- WP EasyCart offers the simplest interfaces to be used by owners of small businesses who would prefer to launch their ecommerce website quickly and save time for their day-to-day work.
6. BigCommerce Plugin
This plugin has its own ecommerce platform that has been operational for long. It used to provide hosting and content management system of its own.
But now, BigCommerce is trying to enter the space of WordPress using its beta developer’s early version.
Right now, in order to get access, you need to apply for it. However, this may change later.
BigCommerce’s main aim is to grab the attention of companies whose ecommerce websites are built on WordPress. A famous blogger one day may want to sell products.
These bloggers will find BigCommerceto be more beneficial than few other WordPress plugins.
Earlier it was impossible to combine BigCommerce with WordPress. The user had to choose one between these two.
At present, BigCommerce is trying to combine the beauty of WordPress content and the superior selling power of BigCommerce, just like Ecwid. Here you can sell on multiple sites using BigCommercewithout any syncing issues.
Your sales and inventory are taken care of from one single dashboard. Under BigCommerce, you also have headless commerce.
So why is BigCommerceOne of the Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins?
- When you use BigCommerce, you are able to combine the best content management system with one of the best ecommerce platforms available today.
- Most processing companies have partnered with BigCommerce. This lets users of BigCommerceget good processing rates for their credit cards.
- Your site’s ecommerce section is run on the backend, while the frontend manages the content. This helps increase the speed of your ecommerce website, which helps you save on costs of hosting and thereby save money.
- BigCommerce handles all the PCI compliance, unlike WooCommerce that would need to depend on your host to obtain one.
- BigCommerce system can be run on many sites.
Bonus WordPress Plugins for an eCommerce Website
WPForms
Customer service is important for any online business as the customer is always the king. A business should have provisions in place if a customer decides to give feedback for the product or wants some of their questions answered.
WPForms is the plugin that lets you have a contact form in place on WordPress. The setup of this form is done very quickly using an interface that is beginner-friendly.
By using the function of drag and drop, these contact forms can be easily created by you. You can even quickly create other forms like subscription forms, order forms, payment forms, and many others using a few and simple clicks.
Their Pro version gives you advanced functionality and options. These have more customization features and options.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is famous software that helps optimize your conversion rate. Your ecommerce website visitors who abandon their carts are prompted to subscribe to your email by this plugin. Not only that, but this plugin also helps in building your list of email subscriptions and increases your outreach to your customers.
Video
Inventory management requirements of WooCommerce are well taken care of by Veeqo. Its software is a whole ecommerce solution.
By using only one ecommerce platform, it lets you handle your WooCommerce online store and online stores in other places like Etsy, Amazon, and eBay.
Your orders can be managed using Veeqo. You can sync your inventories in real-time, purchase from suppliers, edit listings of your products, handle the whole shipping procedure of your product from picking it to packing it and dispatching it.
Retailers get a lot of help from this software as it prevents them from overselling and helps them keep an account of their stock to avoid out-of-stock situations. It helps create an efficient and streamlined business.
Envira Gallery
It is very important for online stores to have a gallery, if not galleries. Using a gallery, one can showcase your products for your customers to view.
Though WordPress does allow you to create a gallery with images of your products without using a plugin, it is only very basic.
You can easily create a beautiful and responsive gallery on WordPress using EnviraGallery.
This plugin lets you create many galleries, albums, and much more. You can get an image opened in the lightbox popups using Envira Gallery.
Yoast SEO
This is a very well-known WordPress plugin that was earlier known as the WordPress SEO by Yoast. It helps in optimizing your own ecommerce website on search engines.
It also helps in improving the visibility of your ecommerce website to your key audiences.
This plugin offers many features that lead to improving the SEO ranking of your ecommerce website. SEO terms are not easy to get used to if you are a beginner. Luckily, the interface of Yoast SEO is easy to use and user-friendly.
BackupBuddy
For any ecommerce business, security is always important. And an eCommerce site definitely needs it more.
Security for online stores or businesses means being able to have a backup of all customer data so that you can retrieve it if you ever lose it because of some hardware malfunctioning or if your hosting server gets attacked.
BackupBuddy is reliable. You can easily set it up and restore the WordPress website owned by you. A backup of all the data is a must.
Summary
After reading this article, you must have realized that most users choose Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce as ecommerce plugins. But, it is not definite that these two plugins are the best choice always.
Thankfully, WordPress has a lot of plugin options to offer. You can also check our article on 5 Reasons Why You Would Need A Dedicated IP.
You could choose the one that best meets your ecommerce business requirement. A beginner will have a different requirement as compared to a developer.
Most small ecommerce business owners prefer to set up their online store quickly than waste time in understanding how to set it up. They rather use this time in building their product and do other day-to-day activities.