When you decide to expand your website and turn it into a web store, you will need some peculiar tools that help you to accomplish this task successfully — WordPress e-commerce plugins. However, there are tons of them on the market, and you may get totally confused while picking the right one for your website. That’s why we’re here to help you out — we’ve collected the top 5 best e-commerce plugins with all their pros and cons. Read on to find the one that suits you best!
What to Look For in a Plugin?
The first thing to mention is that there are plenty of e-commerce plugins. However, not all of them have the same features suitable exactly for your site. So before choosing an e-commerce plugin, you need to consider the products you’ll be selling and what kind of plugin you’re looking for.
The most important factors to analyze while choosing a plugin are:
- design — as it is the first thing the client will see;
- payment solutions — the plugin should support the payment gateways;
- integration — such as CRM, email marketing, or accounting;
- support option.
WooCommerce
Let’s start with the king of all e-commerce plugins, WooCommerce. With an endless number of paid and free extensions, this plugin supports over 30% of all online shops. Thanks to WooCommerce, you can not only sell products online but schedule appointments, ship products, and much more.
WooCommerce Pros
- WooCommerce is an economical way to start your e-commerce store.
- Suitable for both beginners and advanced users.
- Opportunity to manipulate the design layouts.
- Ability to sell literally everything — from e-books, music, or software to physical products.
- Wide range of payment options — PayPal, BACS, cash, and others.
- Compatible with Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Stripe, Square, etc.
WooCommerce Cons
- An endless number of add-ons makes it hard to choose the one that fits your needs.
- Even though WooCommerce works with all WordPress themes, it is sometimes hard to set up the plugin with a certain theme.
- Scalability problems — in order to get your store larger, you’ll need to refer to a hosting provider.
WooCommerce is a perfect decision for any kind of e-commerce website. It is super flexible and allows you to use the most powerful CMS to run your online store.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a cloud-hosted e-commerce platform, best suited for small and medium stores. Offering seamless integration, along with powerful features, templates, and options, BigCommerce automatically creates an account, sign in, cart, and other important pages for your website. And, all of these features are completely free!
BigCommerce Pros
- Security, efficiency, and high scalability.
- Ability to trade on services like Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and others.
- Opportunity to select different payment methods.
- No transaction charges.
BigCommerce Cons
- No mobile app to manage your online shop on the go.
- Limited integration with some third-party apps.
BigCommerce is an incredibly powerful and easy-to-use e-commerce platform. It takes away all the headaches of creating your online shop and ensures you focus only on growing your business.
Shopify
Another cloud-hosted platform that contains everything you need to run an online shop is Shopify. It is quite easy to use compared to other WordPress e-commerce plugins, that’s why it’s already become a favorite tool for beginners. Shopify is perfect for creating an online store, accept payments, and manage inventory without worrying about security, cashing, web hosting, etc.
Shopify Pros
- Super easy to set up as it handles everything you need — SSL installation, payment system integration, shipping, and taxes.
- You can sell digital, as well as physical goods.
- Variety of payment and shipping options.
- Opportunity to create buyable pins on Pinterest or a Facebook store.
Shopify Cons
- A monthly fee in order to use Shopify.
- Extra fee for using the Shopify payment platform.
- Since Shopify doesn’t have a primary integration with WordPress, it may be quite challenging to use it.
If you’re looking for a plugin where you won’t need to deal with any technical issues, Shopify may be the one. While the monthly fee doesn’t sound very good, the hassle-free approach allows focusing on creating the best online e-commerce website.
Easy Digital Downloads
EDD is another top-notch e-commerce choice for your online shop. It’s well-coded, integrated with most e-commerce platforms, and comes with tons of useful features. And while EDD works impeccably with all WordPress themes, it has its own excellent themes that are designed specifically for the plugin.
EDD Pros
- Designed to sell digital goods.
- Easy-to-use interface.
- Hundreds of extensions available, such as marketing platforms, services, and payment options.
- Support — plugin documentation, support forums, tutorials.
EDD Cons
- Created only for digital goods.
- To sell external products, you’ll need to install a third-party add-on.
Easy Digital Downloads is definitely the best plugin when it comes to selling digital products online. It’s simple and intuitive to use, functional, and always up-to-date!
MemberPress
When you need to build a solid membership option for your e-commerce site, MemberPress is the perfect solution for you. It ensures flawless integration with different e-commerce options and provides you to improve the functionality of your store.
MemberPress Pros
- You can easily sell membership plans, subscription-based products, PPV content (play-per-view), or others.
- With powerful access rules, you can control user access levels and restrictions.
- Ability to integrate your online shop with multiple extensions.
MemberPress Cons
- Limited payment methods (PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net).
- Only yearly terms are available, with no monthly pricing plan.
MemberPress is the best solution if your goal is to sell courses, build a membership e-commerce website, and sell subscription-based products. It’s extremely friendly if you’re a beginner and it will surely allow you to take your website to the whole new level.
Summary
While all of these WordPress e-commerce plugins are pretty good to use for your online store, let’s see with one is best for your business.
- You’re a developer who needs lots of customization tools — WooCommerce, EDD, or BigCommerce.
- You’re a beginner at e-commerce — WooCommerce, MemberPress
- You like add-ons — WooCommerce, EDD
- You need many payment options — WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shopify
- You’re selling only digital goods — EDD is a perfect solution. You can still choose
WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce.
However, every e-commerce business requires different plugins. So, read carefully and take the one that suits you the best!