Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins – Reviewed & Compared

Do you want to start an online store to sell products or services? And looking for Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins to create your online shop. In this article, I will review & compare the Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins available out there, based on their features, themes support, pricing, functionalities, and usability.

Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins
Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins

Well, we all know that eCommerce is buying and selling products and/or services on the internet. Electronic Commerce (a.k.a eCommerce) business is mainly operated with the help of computer software or online web application which supports product display, online ordering, and inventory management etc. and the payment could be processed via debit/credit card, master card, PayPal, Bitcoin etc. through payment gateways.

However, the question is how these websites are built and managed?

Daily thousands of customers visit the site, buy products/services, make payments, and the delivery of products, stock management etc. For the performing all these complex tasks efficiently, you need to have a proper platform.

While, big players like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba and other similar companies have their own server and software to manage all online business activities. But what other small vendors do, who cannot afford this expensive setup?

They can purchase a web host and use a website platform like WordPress to get their own online shopping website and start doing business.

However, only an ordinary website will not allow you to business online. Therefore, you need an eCommerce website with some functionalities like cart management, inventory management, payment options via gateways to start your online business.

Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins

As far as WordPress is concerned, there are plenty of eCommerce plugins and addons are available on the market. You can use them with WordPress website and add features related to eCommerce functionalities for online business.

List of Best WordPress eCommerce plugins

  • WooCommerce WordPress Plugin
  • Shopify
  • Easy Digital Downloads
  • iThemes Exchange
  • Shopp

Note: The list of plugins is not in any specific order. However, I will recommend the plugin(s) for your online store at end of this article.

Let’s explore the Best WordPress eCommerce plugins available in the market.

#1 WooCommerce

WooCommerce WordPress Plugin
WooCommerce WordPress Plugin

WooCommerce is the first plugin in the list of our Best WordPress eCommerce plugins. It is developed by Automattic (The Company behind WordPress). Perhaps, it is the most popular eCommerce plugin with over 3 million active installations as of writing this.

WooCommerce is suitable for individuals or businesses who want to sell their products and services online. Availability of a large number of themes, extensions, and add-ons makes WooCommerce one of the Best WordPress eCommerce plugins in the market. In addition to that, the plugin is free for basic use. (download the plugin from here)

Key Features of the WooCommerce WordPress Plugin

  • Unrestricted customization – almost everything is covered.
  • Seamless integration with all the themes and plugins.
  • Regular security audits by Sucuri for better protection.
  • Sell anything; including physical products and digital items.
  • Payment system supported by leading providers like PayPal, Stripe etc.
  • Inventory Management is one of the key feature – track stock levels, hold the stock after an order get canceled, get notifications for low and out-of-stock items.
  • Shipping and tax options are also there.

Pros of the WooCommerce WordPress Plugin

  • Addons and Themes Support: There is the very large number of addons and extensions are available for WooCommerce WordPress Plugin which you can use to add different sets of functionalities to your eCommerce site. This makes it highly customizable. Also, plenty of themes are readily available with full WooCommerce compatibility that helps you to build your dream eCommerce site with awesome design and layout.
  • Sell Anything You want: With WooCommerce you can sell anything ranging from physical goods to digital items (like music, software download etc.), subscriptions to digital content etc. Moreover, you can sell affiliate and external products using it.
  • Inventory Management: Through its intuitive dashboard, you can keep the track of stock, sales, store performance and assign it to the store manager.
  • Payment Gateways and Shipping: While it supports various payments options including credit/debit card, cash on delivery and online payment services like PayPal. Shipping and tax calculation options are also available for your use.
  • References, Documentation, and Support: You can find very nicely curated documentation about WooCommerce WordPress Plugin online. In addition to that, WooCommerce has evolved into a large community of users, forums and other resources about how-to topics related to the same.

Cons of the WooCommerce WordPress Plugin

  • WordPress Updates – Site Break-Ups: Though frequent updates are good from standpoint of security patches and new features. But an update may be annoying for you when it breaks your site’s functionality or design. WordPress regularly updates its core software, but sometimes it doesn’t get fit with the WooCommerce and as a result you have to manually solve the issue.
  • Can Be Expensive: However, WooCommerce is free of cost, but for adding functionalities you have to pay for extensions and addons.
  • Need Knowledge for Administration: WooCommerce is itself a plugin comes with a ton of features and it works well with WordPress. But at the same time, for the better administration of your eCom site, you need to have good knowledge of both the platforms.
  • Theme Support/Integration: Since WooCommerce works with all WordPress themes, but you must have a very good understanding and domain knowledge to make it work with any WP theme. Otherwise, you can use a WooCommerce ready theme to avoid any customization hiccup and to take benefit of all its features readily.
Pricing of WooCommerce WordPress Plugin

As I have already mentioned, WooCommerce WordPress Plugin is free and you can download WooCommerce plugin from WordPress plugin directory. But you have to pay for adding addons and extensions for additional features.

#2 Shopify

Shopify eCommerce Solutions
Shopify eCommerce Solutions

Another best WordPress eCommerce plugin on our list of is Shopify. Although it offers their own platform for the eCommerce store, you can manage to embed their buy buttons on your WordPress site. (visit the website)

Shopify can also handle both physical and digital goods. Whether you sell on social media, in-store or out of a trunk of the car, Shopify covers every online selling types. Let’s check out why Shopify is so popular.

Key Features of Shopify

  • Availability of free and paid Shopify themes.
  • Fully customizable online store.
  • Automatic carrier shipping rates and taxes.
  • Store management – customer accounts, refunds, drop shipping etc.
  • Sell on social networking – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc.
  • Inventory management.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • Level 1-PCI Compliant for security of customer’s data.

Pros of Shopify

  • Digital and Physical Goods: It can handle the goods of both types, physical and digital.
  • Complete Inventory Management: Shopify allows its users to track real-time inventory. Its inventory management provides information about stock counts like the products sold and left etc. If a product of any category is out of stock, it will automatically stop selling that product.
  • Multiple Integration: With Shopify, you can integrate various social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. So that you can easily boost up your sale by selling products on social media platforms.

Cons of Shopify

  • Shopify Charges Monthly: Spotify is not a free of cost service. You have to pay a monthly fee for using the platform.
  • Payment Platform: Shopify provides its own payment platform powered by Stripe which is good for beginners. However, for advance payment features you have to use extra addons and Spotify charges for it.
Pricing of Shopify

Shopify offers plans on monthly basis:

  • The 1st plan is, Shopify Lite: $9 – Sell on Facebook, sell and support on messenger, sell with a buy button, accept payments by debit and credit cards.
  • Second plan is Shopify Basic: $29 – Shopify lite services + the unlimited number of products, unlimited storage, manual order creation, discount codes, SLL certificates and 24/7 support.
  • The third plan is Shopify Regular: $79 – Shopify Basic services +gift cards, professional reports, abandoned cart recovery.
  • And the last plan is Shopify Advanced: $299 – Shopify services + advance reports, builder, third-party calculated shipping rates etc.

#3 Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)

Easy Digital Downloads WordPress Plugin
Easy Digital Downloads WordPress Plugin

Easy Digital Downloads is one of the best options available to sell your digital products (like music and software etc.) online using WordPress. It has 60,000+ active installations as of writing of this. Maintaining the customers’ data individually is possible by using this plugin. (download the plugin from here)

Following features makes it is one of the Best WordPress eCommerce plugins when it comes to selling digital items online.

Key Features of Easy Digital Downloads WordPress Plugin

  • Shopping Cart: Buy and add to cart button, support registered user or guest checkout, require terms of agreement acceptance before purchases.
  • Customer Management: With creating a single customer page maintaining the overall data is possible with EDD.
  • Discount Code ready: Decide your own discount rates, in percentage or a flat amount, limit the discount offer for a number of users etc.
  • Data Reporting: Filtered report for the specific product, track collected taxes by year, monitor sales, downloads, and reports.

Pros of Easy Digital Downloads

  • Perfect for Digital Products: EDD is perfectly designed for selling Digitals products and services.
  • Easy to use Interface: Easy and clean user interface makes it suitable for both beginners and professionals.
  • Themes and Extensions:  You can use it with any WordPress theme. Moreover, EDD has their own themes designed to seamlessly integrate with the plugin. And there is a variety of extensions available to get the extras done.
  • Multiple Payment Gateways: You can use multiple payment gateways by adding addons and payments can be done using debit/credit card, MasterCard or PayPal etc.
  • Documentation and Support: Although the plugin is very easy to use, also there is well-drafted documentation and resources for user reference. If your query is not covered in the documentation and resources you may contact their support team, they are quite responsive.

Cons of Easy Digital Downloads

  • Supports Digital Downloads Only: Because EDD is a platform to sell only digital goods and services, its usability is limited. Therefore, if you want to sell physical goods, you have to explore other options.
  • Furthermore, If you are willing to sell external products like affiliate products on your online store, you need to go for third party extension/addon or software to integrate with.
Pricing of Easy Digital Downloads WordPress Plugin

The EDD plugin itself is free. In addition to that for extended functionalities and customer support, EDD offers following plans on monthly basis to its customers:

  • A la Carte – $19:  Email marketing integrations, robust payment gateways, accounting and bookkeeping tools and many more.
  • Starter Package – $108: An Automatic discount of 30%, broad extension selection, strategic purchase guidance, build and save the cart for later.
  • All Access Pass – $899: All official extensions are available, unlimited license key usage, 57 extensions included and thousands of savings.

#4 iThemes Exchange

iThemes Exchange WordPress eCommerce Plugin
iThemes Exchange WordPress eCommerce Plugin

Another plugin on the list of Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins is iThemes Exchange. This is a powerful yet simple eCommerce solution for your online business. Powerful integrations and simplicity in design make it unique in the market. (download the plugin from here)

First of all, let’s discuss what is inside the iThemes Exchange plugin…

Key Features of iThemes Exchange WordPress Plugin

  • Simple interface with a powerful experience.
  • Multiple Items Cart: allows the user to purchase different items in one transaction.
  • Coupon Creation: Generate & manage basic coupon codes for users.
  • Easy Customer Management: See the product’s quantity, variant, price, payment mode, shipping address a customer used.

Pros of iThemes Exchange WordPress Plugin

  • Handle Multiple Product Types: iThemes supports both type of products (i.e. physical and digital goods) to sell online. In addition to that, you can add website’s membership subscription as well.
  • Attractive User-Interface: The User Interface is so simple that allows a user to add products and services, easily.
  • PayPal and Stripe Integration: Payments can be processed with PayPal and Stripe. For Stripe addon, other platforms charge 40-80$ while iThemes allows to use it for free of cost and for unlimited sites.

Cons of iThemes Exchange WordPress Plugin

  • Limited User-Base: iThemes Exchange is fairly new one in comparison with other WordPress eCommerce plugins, therefore they have not got user community as big as their competitors. But that does not mean they’re not growing. In fact, iThemes Exchange must be a good option if you are looking for some easy and quick WordPress eCommerce solution.
  • Supports limited Payment Gateways: It supports only two payment gateways PayPal and Stipe.
Pricing of iThemes Exchange WordPress Plugin

You will be amazed to see the no. of features comes with the iThemes Exchange WordPress plugin. And at the same time, it is absolutely free, this is one of the major reason I have included iThemes Exchange in our best WordPress eCommerce plugins list. However, there is again you have to purchase its extensions for the important features and for adding additional functionalities.

#5 Shopp

Shopp eCommerce WordPress plugin
Shopp eCommerce WordPress plugin

This is the last plugin on our list of best WordPress eCommerce plugins, but definitely not the least. Shopp eCommerce WordPress plugin claims to improve the site performance by using custom database tables. (download the plugin from here)

Following features make Shopp unique from the crowd.

 Key Features of Shopp eCommerce WordPress plugin

  • Support for Multiple Goods: Physical, digital and virtual products types.
  • Top Notch Security: PCI-DSS compliant online store to win the trust of shoppers.
  • Easy Cart Management: Easy Cart Management allows buyers to modify the cart-items on the go.
  • Automatically Taxation and Shipping: Shipping charges and taxes are applied automatically while selling a product.

Pros of Shopp eCommerce WordPress plugin

  • Cart Management: With a flexible cart, management buyer can manage item quantities, add or remove items and even can select different variants of product in the cart itself.
  • Shipping and Tax Estimates: Shoppers can specify their shipping location in the cart to get immediate access to estimated shipping and the total tax amount.
  • Promo Code:  Shopper can easily put promo code to see the available discount on the particular product or an order.
  • Security Compliances: Shopp eCommerce WordPress plugin is designed to be PCI-DSS compliant. Also, it’s McAfee SECURE. It adds two new user roles to WordPress – Merchant and Customer Service Rep for better back-end management.

Cons of Shopp eCommerce WordPress plugin

  • No Free Support Forums: Even after providing various features to its customers it cannot provide free customer support and guidance, you have to pay for it.
  • Theme Support: Shopp supports all the WordPress themes but if you think you need a specific design for Shopp then there are very limited themes available.
Pricing of Shopp eCommerce WordPress plugin

Shopp Plugin is free of cost. So, there is no charge for using the plugin but for adding features and functionality through addons, you have to pay. Apart from that for customer support is also not free and only available for paid customers. You have to buy either of their plans…

  • Merchant Support – $75
  • Developer Support -$299

Wrapping it Up

These 5 are the Best WordPress eCommerce plugins available on the market. Each of them has its own Pros, Cons, USPs, and functionalities. You should choose WordPress eCommerce plugin according to your requirements and budget.

If you are interested to sell both physical and digital products, I would recommend you to use WooCommerce plugin, as it comes with a variety of features, extensions, themes support and tones of the written resources are available for free.

On the flip side, if you want to sell digital products only, then you should go with Easy Digital Downloads. EDD is designed for digital products, it is easy to work. I would definitely recommend Easy Digital Downloads to beginners.

Furthermore, Shopify can also be an option for those who don’t want to add plenty of extra plugins and addons and want a single pack including all the features.

Do you agree with our recommendations? or you would like to recommend any other eCommerce plugin. Do let us know.

Hope you find this comparison of Best WordPress eCommerce plugins helpful. Which eCommerce plugin do you use for your online store, do let us know via comment section below?

Share the article with your family, friends and within your social circle, who knows you might trigger the spark of next Jack Ma (found of alibaba.com). 

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Shashank Singh
Shashank is a web addict and amateur blogger. His current interests include blogging, SEO, and WordPress. See his social profiles to know him even better.
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2 thoughts on “Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins – Reviewed & Compared”

  1. Avatar of Angelina N. Groves

    Hello,
    Thanks for this list of eCommerce plugins. I am interested to learn more about WooCommerce & Shopify plugins. Any suggestions?

    Reply
    • Hey Angelina,
      You can refer their documentation. Also, if have some specific query, you can always Google it.
      Thanks for stopping by.

      Reply

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