Our recommendation for most users is WooCommerce, as it’s a versatile and powerful solution for building and managing an ecommerce store. Get started with a 30-day free trial.
The best WordPress ecommerce plugins make starting and managing an online store a lot easier, but not every option out there is worth your time. The Quick Sprout research team spent three weeks analyzing top ecommerce plugins for WordPress websites and found feature-packed and high value-for-money tools that simplify common ecommerce activities, such as inventory management, customer management, and payment gateway integration.
See our top picks below.
The Top 5 Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins
After weeks of detailed research, we determined our top picks for the best WordPress ecommerce plugins. WooCommerce gives users the perfect mix of basic and advanced features that make running an ecommerce site a breeze. Get started with a 30-day free trial.
- WooCommerce — Most Well-Rounded Plugin
- Ecwid by Lightspeed — Best for Multichannel Selling
- Easy Digital Downloads — Best for Selling Digital Products
- Shopify — Best for Powering Store Back-end and Checkout Processes
- BigCommerce — Best for Intelligent Reporting and Customization Capabilities
How We Evaluate the Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins
Here’s a quick rundown of how we researched and evaluated different WordPress ecommerce plugins:
How We Qualify WordPress Ecommerce Plugins for Consideration
In our first round of research, we identified 26 options that were commonly used by ecommerce owners:
Cart Recovery for WordPress, Easy Digital Downloads, Ecwid by Lightspeed, JivoChat, MemberPress, Sendinblue, WSDesk, Shopify, Sucuri, Tidio, TrustPulse, WP EasyCart, WP eCommerce, WooCommerce, YITH WooCommerce Wishlist, WPForms, Gravity Forms, W3 Total Cache, Yoast SEO, Akismet Anti-Spam, BackupBuddy, Better WordPress Security, BuddyPress, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WP Super Cache
Naturally, not all of them were good enough to meet our standards. Our research team ruled out WordPress plugins that were either difficult to use, lacked desirable features, or didn’t meet the following core requirements any reliable WordPress ecommerce plugin should have:
- Review count and rating: We dropped plugins from our list that had an overwhelming number of negative reviews or too many 1-star or 2-star ratings.
- Web page speed impact: We eliminated plugins that slowed down our website. Our priority was to choose options with economical bandwidth.
- Customizability: We carefully chose plugins that offered tons of customizable templates and related options.
- Payment gateway support: Considering we’re talking ecommerce, it’s important to choose WordPress plugins that support popular payment gateways, either by default or through an extension.
- Update frequency: Infrequent plugin updates can lead to serious problems like security vulnerabilities or redundancy. We prioritized plugins that get routine updates.
- Support options: Our top WordPress plugins have comprehensive online documentation or an active community of users.
This helped us zero on our final ten WordPress plugins, after which we did a deep dive on each to review them inside and out.
How We Narrowed the List of Qualified Plugins
At this point, we had to make some tough decisions to eliminate otherwise well-functioning and popular WordPress ecommerce plugins based on the stated criteria, such as:
- JivoChat: The chat functionality can be confusing.
- Yoast SEO: Yoast is SEO-focused, whereas others are more versatile.
- MemberPress: This is a subscription-focused plugin, so the fact that automatic renewal is only possible via subscription payments was disappointing.
- SendInBlue: The UI could be more robust.
- BuddyPress: It requires too many plugins to be as functional as others we researched.
The Top WordPress Ecommerce Plugins Left Standing
We recommend WooCommerce for most users as it offers a robust and versatile solution for creating and managing an ecommerce store. Take advantage of the 30-day free trial to get started.
- WooCommerce — Most Well-Rounded Plugin
- Ecwid by Lightspeed — Best for Multichannel Selling
- Easy Digital Downloads — Best for Selling Digital Products
- Shopify — Best for Powering Store Back-end and Checkout Processes
- BigCommerce — Best for Intelligent Reporting and Customization Capabilities
Match Your Ecommerce Scenario to the Right WordPress Ecommerce Solution
We’ve structured our guidance in this section to offer the best possible recommendations based on what you need your WordPress ecommerce plugins to do. Let’s take a look.
If you want to create an ecommerce store
Best option: WooCommerce
WooCommerce gives you access to a host of features and tools that simplify setting up a store, managing it, and processing payments—all from a single plugin. It’ll transform your WordPress blog into a fully functional online store, plus it was recently acquired by Automattic, which is the same organization that operates WordPress.
Another great choice: BigCommerce
Aside from a similar name, BigCommerce is a popular WooCommerce alternative.
It provides web hosting, payment gateway integration, and 24/7 customer support, which are incredibly handy features for those looking for an ecommerce solution to incorporate into your WordPress CMS.
If you want to create an online store, consider these points when making a decision:
- Beginner-friendly UX: Starting an ecommerce store is already hard, so you don’t want to add understanding how to use a plugin to your to-do list.
- Payment processing systems: The prospective plugin should either have an in-built payment processor or integrate with other popular payment processing systems.
- Efficient customer support: Pick an option that offers 24/7 customer support to minimize store downtime, preventing revenue loss.
If you want to sell digital products
Best option: Easy Digital Downloads
Unlike most other ecommerce WordPress plugins, Easy Digital Downloads focuses exclusively on selling digital products online. This also means the plugin is designed to provide better experiences to those looking to sell software, ebooks, music, and other digital products.
You can give customer lifetime access to your products or set a limited time frame while built-in analytics keep you updated on all the crucial metrics.
Another great choice: Shopify
Shopify makes creating an ecommerce store for selling online digital products easier than ever. Choose from over 100 templates featuring built-in features to get started. No big budget or additional tech skills are required.
If you want to sell digital products, consider these points when making a decision:
- Digital Product Compatibility: Make sure the prospective plugin supports the sale of digital products.
- Shopping Cart Management: With this feature, you can allow customers to explore and add multiple digital products to their cart, similar to how any traditional ecommerce platform operates.
- Distribution Facility: Avoid plugins that don’t let you decide how and when customers can enjoy access to your products.
For tracking and analyzing website traffic
Best option: BigCommerce
BigCommerce recently launched a WordPress plugin allowing site owners to transform their website into a fully functional online store. More importantly, it has comprehensive analytics that will give you detailed reports of your online business, including sales, marketing, and customer engagement.
Another great choice: WooCommerce
Use WooCommerce‘s reporting and data analytics tool to manage your online store. Other desirable features include filtering and segmenting tools, data to CSV downloads, and a customizable dashboard for easy monitoring.
If you want powerful analytics, consider these points when making a decision:
- Customizable Dashboard: Plugins with customizable dashboards make monitoring the metrics that matter most to you easier.
- Excellent Reporting Capabilities: What’s the point of analytics if you cannot use the insights? Reporting will help you identify trends and patterns, helping you strategize more effectively.
- Filters and Segmentation: Ensure you can filter your analyses based on desired elements.
For offering seamless checkouts
Best option: Ecwid
The fact that Ecwid offers multi-channel selling is enhanced by the ecommerce plugin’s ability to let you accept in-store and on-the-go payments. Use it to add a shopping cart to your website and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Wix to deliver streamlined shopping experiences.
Another great choice: Shopify
With Shopify, you can create and add a Buy button to your online store, linking your Shopify store with your WordPress website. This creates a direct checkout facility, where the shopper will be directed to the checkout page after clicking the Add to Cart button.
If you want seamless checkouts, consider these points when making a decision:
- Checkout UX: Prioritize plugins that offer excellent user experience. Think easy navigation and attractive layouts and elements.
- Currency Options: Look for ecommerce plugins that let you include specific currencies. For example, the option to add € and $.
- Payment Methods: How many payment methods does the plugin support? Ideally, you want debit or credit cards, PayPal integration, Apple and Google Pay, and maybe even an interest-free credit lending option.
WordPress Ecommerce Plugin Reviews
Every WordPress ecommerce plugin should have certain features and functionalities that streamline crucial ecommerce activities. Read on to learn why we chose our top recommendations over others.
WooCommerce — Most Well-Rounded Plugin
WooCommerce works for all kinds of digital, physical, and affiliate products, so it’s one of the most versatile options on the WordPress plugin market.
It has all the crucial features to build and manage an ecommerce store. From basic features like inventory management and tax calculation to more advanced features like high-end themes and extensions, WooCommerce has you covered for streamlined online selling.
You can also access source code to create unique personalized websites, which means you have the highest permission to manage your content and data.
What Makes WooCommerce Great
With WooCommerce, you can instantly turn your WordPress blog into a fully functional ecommerce store.
It offers hundreds of extensions and themes that allow you to customize your online store to your exact needs. Use it to add features like inventory management, discount code distribution, and cart distribution. Built-in support for popular payment gateways lets you add as many payment options as you like using extensions.
Keep in mind that WooCommerce doesn’t offer dedicated customer support unless you purchase their paid products. But it has a large network of users and contributors you can rely on for help.
Ecwid by Lightspeed — Best for Multichannel Selling
Ecwid gives you the power to sell anything to anyone, regardless of where they live. You can create a new website using customizable design tools—or convert your existing website into an online store with technology that instantly mimics your current design.
In terms of customizability and app integration, Ecwid is very similar to WooCommerce. The main difference between the two is that you can use Ecwid on any website and not just WordPress—think Facebook, Wix, Instagram, Weebly, Joomla, and other channels.
This allows you to market and sell products on multiple channels easily—no need to install different ecommerce plugins for different platforms and websites.
What Makes Ecwid Great
With Ecwid, you can integrate your online store with a WordPress website and use popular social media channels as full-fledged sales channels.
Ecwid lets you import your dashboard and configuration panel directly into WordPress, allowing you to manage products, sales channels, and payment options directly from your WordPress dashboard. Here’s what an Ecwid dashboard looks like:
Accept payments in-store and on the go, thanks to Ecwid’s integration with popular payment processors like Stripe, PayPal, and Square. What’s more, the plugin also auto-updates your inventory levels in your Ecwid account, keeping all your stores perfectly in sync.
If you’re just venturing into ecommerce, try Ecwid’s free-forever plan.
Easy Digital Downloads — Best for Selling Digital Products
Easy Digital Downloads is the easiest way for WordPress website owners to sell digital products online.
From ebooks and PDF files to music and software, you can access several powerful features, such as customer and shopping cart management, to make selling digital products a breeze.
Easy Digital Downloads is highly recommended for beginners as it’s a highly user-friendly tool and can work in conjunction with nearly any WordPress theme. If you haven’t chosen a theme, Easy Digital Downloads has themes built specifically for the plugin.
Plus, you can use built-in analytics to track your business performance based on predetermined metrics, such as the number of downloads, website traffic, and earnings.
What Makes Easy Digital Downloads Great
Easy Digital Downloads offers out-of-the-box features that make selling digital products super simple.
Customers can simultaneously purchase multiple downloads using the seamless shopping cart. You can then allow them to either download purchased files whenever they want or restrict downloads by time and/or the number of attempts, as Easy Digital Downloads doesn’t limit you when distributing digital products.
Another advantage is that you can easily create discount codes to boost purchases (at flat or percentage rates) and set up recurring payments when accepting credit card payments through flexible options like Stripe, Google Pay, and Apple Pay.
We highly recommend Easy Digital Downloads’ Professional plan that gives you everything to run a marketplace and improve average order value to encourage more sales.
Shopify — Best for Powering Store Back-end and Checkout Processes
While Shopify is a powerful standalone web store builder, it also offers a separate WordPress plugin that allows you to merge WordPress and Shopify and sell digital and physical goods.
You get an inventory editor and bulk importer, complete with an order tracker, to seamlessly manage inventory. You also get the ability to accept credit cards both online and in person using Shopify’s built-in support for popular payment gateways and can integrate with popular providers like USPS for shipping.
The result is a powerful solution that lets you manage inventory, calculate taxes, accept payments, and set up shipping easily.
What Makes Shopify Great
The Shopify and WordPress websites you own are separate, where WordPress is the front end and Shopify is the back end.
You can create a Buy button to connect your online store with your Shopify account using Shopify’s WordPress plugin. Once you add the button, all you have to do is link it to a product on the Shopify store, and you’re all set to sell.
Additionally, Shopify allows direct checkouts. Replace the Add to Cart buttons with a link to direct the shopper to the checkout page. This is a great feature if you don’t want to offer shoppers a cart experience and want users to pay you directly.
Get the Shopify Buy button to start selling on your WordPress website or blog at just $5 per month.
BigCommerce — Best for Intelligent Reporting and Customization Capabilities
BigCommerce is one of the most popular WordPress ecommerce plugins—for good reason.
It’s packed with several out-of-the-box features that allow you to create a beautiful and functional online store from scratch. Even if you don’t know how to set up an ecommerce website, you can easily make one with BigCommerce without involving experts.
Some of these features include responsive ecommerce templates, bundled discounting and segmentation tools to drive sales, and integrations with tons of useful services like Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign.
What Makes BigCommerce Great
BigCommerce remains unparalleled when it comes to its reporting and customization facilities.
It offers comprehensive analytics reports to give you a detailed view of your online store’s performance, including the number of orders, sales taxes, and storefront metrics. You can also use the plugin to keep a tab on customer behavior and general ecommerce analytics.
Other features include a secure checkout with SSL, access to order and catalog management tools, and integration with popular payment gateways.
Quick Sprout WordPress Ecommerce Plugin Related Content
To help you identify the best ecommerce plugin for your WordPress website that meets and exceeds your expectations, check out more related content:
WordPress Ecommerce Plugin Guides and How-Tos
- How to Create An Ecommerce Website in 7 Simple Steps
- How to Start an Online Store in 6 Simple Steps
- 9 Popular Ecommerce Products to Sell Online
- Ecommerce Website Design Starter Guide: Learn the Basics
WordPress Ecommerce Plugin Comparisons
WordPress Ecommerce Plugin Related Top Lists
- Compare The Best Ecommerce Platforms
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Source: quicksprout
Compare the Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins