Are you looking to monetize your WordPress site on a tight budget? One of your e-commerce options is WooCommerce, a wildly popular, open-source plugin that’s entirely free. But is saving money worth going with this online store platform? We’ll tell you exactly what WooCommerce can deliver.
Article Overview
- Pros & Cons
- Key Features
- Price
- Extensions
- Customer Reviews
- How To Optimize Product Pages (Video)
- Other E-Commerce Platforms
WooCommerce
Pros
- Free to download
- No user limitations
- Customizable
- Tons of extensions available
- Nearly 75 million downloads
Cons
- Takes a learning curve to set up and optimize
- Limited tech support
- Requires many extensions to boost capability (and the cost for those can add up quickly)
- Shipping and checkout features are pretty basic
Key Features
- WordPress-based, so there are a ton of themes and plugins available to spruce up your online store
- Ability to sell products, services, digital content, memberships, tickets and much more
- WooCommerce doesn’t charge transaction fees
- Mobile-friendly for customers and on the admin side
- Ability to group products and customize product descriptions
- Built-in inventory management
- Handles multiple payment gateways
- Built-in analytics to track orders, profits, growth rates and Google Analytics integration for in-depth analysis
- Several customizable shipping options and rates (but requires extensions for real-time shipping rates from UPS and FedEx)
TIP: Make sure you have a reliable web site hosting service to keep your e-commerce site speedy with no downtime. See our web hosting reviews to find the best fit for your site.
Price
You’ll Want Extensions To Go Beyond The Basics
While WooCommerce is entirely free, most likely you’ll need some extensions to get beyond the basics of what this plugin offers. And the best extensions, unfortunately, aren’t free.
We’ve done our homework to find some high-performing and affordable options for all kinds of needs (Amazon affiliation, invoicing, advanced shipping and product filtering, etc.). See which ones we recommend in our in-depth reviews of 14 top WooCommerce plugins.
WooCommerce Customer Reviews
Positive Reviews
Woocommerce is probably the best e-commerce plugin out there plus it’s also free to use, I love everything about woocommerce. Easy to set up, Easy to use, very detailed check out form, automated billing form, works with most wordpress theme,it’s seo is very good,highly secure. – Administrator, G2 Crowd 7/27/2019
This software is so good, it’s hard to believe that its free. The comfort of running business improved significantly since I switched from EDD to Woo. I highly recommend Woocommerce because of it’s universality and a wide range of free add-ons. – AK, Trustpilot 12/24/2018
Complaints
WooCommerce integrates with WordPress for free. The software is very slow and takes too long to load the store. Consider a different product if you plan on having a large inventory. – Administrator in Human Resources, G2 Crowd 3/1/2019
Great idea in principle but it’s so complicated it results in lots of glitches and errors in in the basic WooCommerce system and because it’s free to use (you only pay for the extras which you will need) then they won’t help you. – Rob L., Trustpilot 7/9/2018
How To Optimize Your Product Pages
See these 5 quick tips to improve your conversion rates on your e-commerce product pages.
How Does WooCommerce Compare?
WooCommerce’s best selling points are that it’s free and integrates well with WordPress. Even if you need some extensions to boost its features, it could still be one of your most affordable options.
If you’re not sold on WooCommerce, see how it compares to some of the top e-commerce platforms, like Shopify and BigCommerce. Our reviews cover more than a dozen platforms and give you features, pros and cons, pricing and more.
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