Are you looking for the best plugins for ecommerce wordpress to create your online store?
Choosing the right ecommerce plugin is crucial for your business because a better platform means more opportunities for growth. Often, users end up losing money because they didn’t do proper research when choosing the eCommerce platform to start their store.
In this article, we will compare the best ecommerce plugins for WordPress. We will also explain their pros and cons to help you find the right ecommerce plugin for your business.
Table of Contents
What to Look for in a WordPress eCommerce Plugin for Your Site?
There are a lot of WordPress ecommerce plugins on the market. But not all of them have the right set of features for your use case.
For example, some ecommerce plugins are made for selling digital products like ebooks, photos, music, etc. Others are better suited for selling physical products that need shipping.
If you want to run a drop shipping business, you will need an e-commerce solution that offers better support for drop shipping.
Basically, you need to consider what you are going to sell and what kind of features you need to manage your online store effectively.
Apart from that, the following are some of the most important factors you should consider when choosing an e-commerce platform.+
Best Plugins for Ecommerce WordPress
What Do You Need to Run an eCommerce Website?
E-commerce websites consume a lot of resources, so the first thing you’ll need is the best WordPress hosting you can afford.
If you’re on a budget, then you can start with SiteGround or Bluehost. All of their plans are e-commerce ready and come with the SSL certificate you need to securely collect payments, dedicated IP and a dedicated support line. They also offer 1-click installation options for the most powerful WordPress ecommerce plugins (as you’ll discover later in this article).
If budget is not an issue, and you want the best performance, then we recommend using a managed WordPress hosting provider like WPEngine.
Next, you’ll need to choose a domain name for your website. Here’s our guide on how to choose the right domain name for your ecommerce site.
Finally, you’ll need to choose the essential business plugins you’ll need, such as OptinMonster, which helps you reduce shopping cart abandonment and increase sales.
With that said, let’s take a look at the best ecommerce plugins for WordPress.
Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins – The Contenders
Now that you know what to look for in an ecommerce platform and what you need to get started, here are our top picks for the best ecommerce platform for WordPress users.
- WooCommerce
- Easy Digital Downloads
- MemberPress
- BigCommerce
- Shopify
- E-commerce plugins for WordPress
Let’s take a look at each of them and compare their pros and cons.
1. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the most popular WordPress e-commerce plugin. It is also the most popular e-commerce platform in the world. WooCommerce was acquired by Automattic (the company behind the WordPress.com blog hosting service) in 2015.
There are a large number of addons and themes available for WooCommerce. They also have a passionate community of developers behind it. Recently, several hosting companies have started creating specialized WooCommerce hosting solutions.
These are some of the advantages of using WooCommerce as your WordPress e-commerce plugin:
2. Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) allows you to easily sell digital downloads online using WordPress. It is very easy to use and comes with powerful features to create a beautiful and functional digital product store.
We use Easy Digital Downloads to sell our software, like WPForms and MonsterInsights, so we can easily say that it is the best e-commerce platform for your site.
With the growth of Easy Digital Download, there are now even EDD-managed hosting offers that come with EDD pre-installed.
When it comes to selling digital products online, we believe Easy Digital Downloads is the best plugin to do it. We have used Easy Digital Downloads with great success, not only on client sites, but also on our own projects to generate tens of millions each year.
You can use SiteGround’s EDD hosting to start your Easy Digital Downloads store with just a few clicks.
Note:
There is also a free version of Easy Digital Downloads that you can download directly from WordPress.
3. MemberPress
MemberPress allows you to sell digital products and services based on subscriptions. It is the best WordPress membership plugin with tons of integration options. It can even integrate with WooCommerce.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons MemberPress.
MemberPress is the perfect e-commerce plugin for selling subscription-based products, selling courses, or building a membership website. It is easy to use for beginners and can be easily extended with add-ons that allow you to take your e-commerce website in any direction you want.
4. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a fully hosted e-commerce platform that offers seamless integration with WordPress. This allows you to use a scalable e-commerce platform while using WordPress to manage your content and run your website.
It has a powerful WordPress integration plugin that makes it very easy to integrate your products into WordPress. It automatically creates login, cart, account and other important pages for you.
Let’s take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of using BigCommerce as your WordPress eCommerce platform.
BigCommerce is an incredibly powerful yet easy to use e-commerce platform. It is a SaaS eCommerce platform, but with its BigCommerce WordPress plugin, you can have the best of both worlds.
It eliminates the hassle of scaling your hosting requirements as your business grows. At the same time, you don’t have to worry about security, performance, or finding extensions for SEO and caching.
BigCommerce is a rising contender in WordPress for headless e-commerce. It takes care of the technology infrastructure, so you can focus on growing your online business.
5. Shopify
Shopify is a fast-growing e-commerce platform that takes care of everything for you. Shopify is not a plugin, but it is an all-in-one solution that is completely hassle-free. Check out our guide on Shopify vs WooCommerce for a detailed comparison of the two platforms.
Let’s take a look at the Pros and Cons of Shopify.
If you want to have a powerful platform without having to deal with technical issues, then Shopify is the solution for you. Although the monthly fee sounds bad at first, the hassle-free approach and peace of mind are definitely worth it because it allows you to focus on what you do best – your business!
Shopify does not have a native integration with WordPress. Often, business owners end up switching from Shopify to WordPress to get more features and reduce their overall cost.
Bonus eCommerce Plugins for WordPress
While the e-commerce plugins mentioned above are the best ways to build an online store, there are certain situations that don’t require a full-fledged e-commerce solution.
For example, if you want to sell 1-2 products using a simple order form or accept payments for a service business, you don’t need to set up a full-fledged storefront with a shopping cart system.
Instead, you can use these plugins to quickly accept payments in WordPress:
6. WPForms
WPForms is the best drag and drop form builder plugin for WordPress. It is used by over 5 million website owners and has an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars with over 13,000+ reviews.
WPForms comes with over 700+ form templates to easily create any type of form for your site, including order forms, event registration forms, donation forms, monthly subscription forms, and much more.
It allows you to accept online payments directly on your WordPress website using Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.net. Using drag and drop functionality, you can quickly customize your payment forms to suit your needs.
There is also a free version of WPForms that allows you to accept Stripe payments. You only have to pay 3% plus Stripe fees on payments made using the free version. To remove the 3% fee and get advanced features like recurring payments, you can upgrade to WPForms Pro.
7. WP Simple Pay
WP Simple Pay is one of the best Stripe payment plugins for WordPress. This plugin makes it quick and easy to accept payments on your WordPress site, no need to set up a shopping cart.
It installs in 5 minutes and you can create unlimited payment forms using its drag-and-drop form builder and ready-made form templates. Plus, you can embed the payment forms anywhere on your website.
WP Simple Pay offers integrated support for credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH debit payments, Afterpay, Klara, and more. It comes with powerful features like recurring payments, automatic billing, installment plan options, free trial subscriptions, and renewal reminders.
There is also a free version of WP Simple Pay that allows you to accept one-time Stripe payments. However, if you want access to recurring payments and additional payment methods, you’ll need to upgrade to WP Simple Pay Pro.
Conclusion
If you want maximum control, flexibility, and features, then WooCommerce is the best solution for you.
If you sell digital products like eBooks, software, music, or other files, then Easy Digital Downloads is the best eCommerce plugin for WordPress. You can use Siteground’s EDD hosting to get started with one 1-click.
If you don’t want to manage all the technical aspects of setting up an online store, then BigCommerce is the best option for you. It allows you to use a SaaS e-commerce platform along with WordPress as your content management system.
We hope this article has helped you find the best WordPress eCommerce plugins for your site. You may also want to check out our comparison of the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builders and our expert selection of the best business phone services for small businesses.
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Henry Sprung is an e-commerce tech blogger with several years of experience in online retail. Alex’s blog focuses on topics such as online marketplaces, payment processing, and digital marketing for e-commerce businesses. Henry’s expertise in e-commerce provides valuable insights into the latest trends in online retail and how businesses can use these platforms to grow their sales. He is a valuable resource for online retailers and entrepreneurs looking to start their own e-commerce businesses.
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