WordPress is the most popular website builder in the world and powers around 43% of all websites!
And while WordPress is best known as a blogging platform, it is also a popular option for selling online but due to the popularity of WordPress, there are a number of different options when it comes to building an online store with WordPress but which ones are the best?
Well, that is what we are going to be looking at in this post as we have been through and tried all of the most popular options to see which ones we think are the best based on:
- Price
- The features they offer
- How easy they are to use
- How well they integrate with WordPress
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SureCart topped our list due to:
• A good selection of features
• Only requires one plugin
• Works with all themes
Ecwid topped our list due to:
• Only requiring one plugin
• Having a good set of features
• Having a fully-hosted, secure checkout
If you are looking for a flexible plugin to customize or create different ecommerce stores then WooCommerce is the best plugin for the job.
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1. SureCart
Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugin
While SureCart is a relative newcomer to the world of WordPress ecommerce, they certainly have made an impact!
SureCart was originally designed for digital products but a combination of listineing to what their users wanted and developments, the plugin can now be used to sell physical, digital and subscription based products.
But what makes SureCart stand out from traditional WordPress ecommerce plugins is that it uses headless ecommerce technology, which allows you to manage your store through your WordPress dashboard but all the processes, such as the checkout are all managed on SureCart’s secure servers, which provides a more secure experience for your customers.
Other advantages of a headless ecommerce setup is less bloat on your site, which with SureCart means faster loading times and it also works with every theme and page builder, which is great if you already have a WordPress site up and running.
SureCart comes with a good selection of features, including
- Fully-hosted, secure checkout
- Sell Digital, Service and Physical products, including subscriptions
- Discount Coupons
- Works with any theme and page builder
- Product bundles
- Customizable checkout form
- Payment gateways including PayPal and Stripe
SureCart Pricing
SureCart offers three plans on a subscription basis and they are:
| Launch | Grow | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $0 | $29 | $59 |
| Number of Products | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Turnover Limit | None | None | None |
| Transaction Fee | 1.9% | None | None |
If you pay for your subscription annually, you also get a discount, which is the equivalent to $10/m.
SureCart Pros & Cons
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Who Is SureCart Best For?
SureCart is a great option for all types of WordPress ecommerce sites due to it performing well in all areas.
It comes with a good selection of features, responsive support along with the other advantages of being a headless ecommerce plugin.
If you want to learn more, then check out our Full SureCart Review.
2. Ecwid
Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugin for Features
One of the biggest problems with using WordPress for an ecommerce website is checkout security as most sites are using shared hosting (which isn’t great for security!) or managed hosting (which is better but still the best for ecommerce sites) and that is where Ecwid comes in as it offers a fully hosted, secure checkout for your site.
And best of all, Ecwid fully integrates with WordPress meaning that you can manage everything from one dashboard and you can also use it with ANY WordPress theme, so no need for a full site redesign if you are already up and running.
There is also a very good selection of ecommerce features that come included with Ecwid including:
- Secure PCI-compliant checkout
- Sell Physical & Digital products
- Discount Coupons
- Gift Cards
- Facebook Messenger live chat
- Social Selling (Facebook and Instagram)
- Large Selection of Payment Gateways
Ecwid Pricing
Ecwid offers a total of 4 plans, which include a free plan that allows you to sell up to 5 products but is quite limited when it comes to features and most businesses will need to use one of the paid plans, which are:
| Venture | Business | Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $25 | $45 | $105 |
| Number of Products | 100 | 2,500 | Unlimited |
| Turnover Limit | None | None | None |
| Transaction Fee | None | None | None |
Another feature that you get with Ecwid is access to support. This is limited on the free package but on the paid packages it does include live chat and email support, with phone support also included on the Business and Unlimited packages.
Just to be clear, this support is just for the Ecwid platform, not for WordPress in general.
Ecwid Pros & Cons
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Who Is Ecwid Best For?
Ecwid is best for site owners who want a single, feature-rich plugin that offers great integration and a fully hosted, secure checkout.
It also offers the flexibility of multi-channel selling, which can all be managed through 1 dashboard.
If you want to learn more, then check out our Full Ecwid Review.
3. WP EasyCart
Best Free Plugin
A relatively unknown name in the world of WordPress ecommerce is WP EasyCart but if you are planning on building an ecommerce website on WordPress, then this plugin is something you do want to consider.
Unlike its counterparts WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, WP EasyCart comes loaded with a range of features as standard and they are all built into the plugin, so no need to install lots of additional plugins but the learning curve for the plugin is a little steeper due to the number of options that the plugin offers.
WP EasyCart also works with most WordPress themes, which gives you a lot of choices when it comes to the design of your site.
WP EasyCart offers a free to use plugin but if you opt for this, you will pay a 2% transaction fee on top of your payment gateway fees but this is waived on the paid options, which also include additional features such as digital downloads and subscriptions.
WP EasyCart Pros and Cons
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Who Is WP EasyCart Best For?
WP EasyCart is best for WordPress sites that want a free but feature-rich plugin as no other free option comes close.
The paid plans are also reasonably priced and offer a cost-effective, self-hosted plugin option.
If you want to learn more, then check out our Full WP EasyCart Review.
4. WooCommerce
Best for Flexibility
The most popular ecommerce plugin for WordPress is WooCommerce, which has effectively become the official ecommerce plugin since it was acquired by Automatic who are the owners of the WordPress platform.
In its standard form, the plugin is pretty limited in terms of functionality the plugin is designed to be used as a base that can then be built from. Due to the popularity of the plugin, the development community has created a huge selection of plugins (over 1,000 free ones alone!) and this means that a variety of different ecommerce websites can be built, such as:
- B2C Ecommerce Websites
- B2B and Trade Only Websites
- Membership Websites
- Subscription Websites
- Multi-vendor Marketplaces
WooCommerce Pros & Cons
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Who Is WooCommerce Best For?
WooCommerce is best for sites that want a flexible plugin that can be customized and also used for a variety of different types of ecommerce store.
While it lacks features as standard, the amount of additional Woo plugins soon makes up for it.
If you want to learn more, then check out our Full WooCommerce Review.
5. Shoprocket
Best Embeddable Store
So this isn’t a plugin but it is still a viable ecommerce option for WordPress as Shoprocket allows you to easily create and embed a storefront into your WordPress site and from a security perspective this is one of the safest option because nothing is stored or accessible from your WordPress dashboard.
So should your site gets hacked, they aren’t going to get access to any of your customer’s personal information, this is because you create your store using the Shoprocket platform and then simply copy and paste the HTML code into one of your site’s pages.
You then have a fully hosted store, including a checkout that customers can easily use and they wouldn’t know that the store isn’t built into your site.
The tech behind Shoprocket also helps to ensure that any pages where the Shoprocket code is added load quickly, so your customers aren’t waiting around for pages to load and along with speed, Shoprocket includes a good selection of features, including:
- PCI compliant checkout
- Sell physical, digital or service products
- Discount codes & coupons
- Multi-currency and language support
- Sell unlimited products
- Good customer support (24/7 on larger plans)
The only thing that is currently missing from the Shoprocket platform is a customer account section.
Shoprocket Pros & Cons
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Who Is Shoprocket Best For?
Shoprocket is a great option for businesses looking to add a simple, easy-to-use and fully hosted store to their WordPress site that doesn’t require a plugin.
It is also good for security-conscious owners as no data is stored or accessible through your WordPress site.
If you want to learn more, then check out our Full Shoprocket Review.
6. Shopify Buy Button
Best Buy Button
Ok, so this isn’t a plugin BUT you can sell on WordPress using Shopify and in my opinion, it is a very good way to sell on WordPress, especially if you only have a small number of products that you want to sell.
The way Shopify works does require a bit more work on your part but it works really well. This is because you create a product and/or collection within Shopify, then create a Buy Button for it and then simply copy and paste the HTML code onto your chosen WordPress page (if you want to know more about this, then check out my How to Use Shopify with WordPress post).
With the Shopify Buy Button, your customers can also check out without leaving your site as the Shopify checkout appears as a pop-up. You then manage your orders from the Shopify dashboard, meaning that none of your customer’s data is stored on your site or server.
To use Shopify with WordPress, you only need to use the Shopify Lite package, which is $9/m but also has a 2% transaction fee for any payment taken not using Shopify Payments. Even though it is called the Lite package, you do get a good selection of features, including:
- PCI compliant checkout
- Social Selling via Facebook
- Discount codes
- Sell physical or digital products
- Multiple payment gateways
- Customize button to fit your business/brand
- 24/7 customer support
Shopify Pros & Cons
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Who Is Shopify Best For?
Shopify is best for WordPress sites that just want to add a simple buy button and don’t have a large number of items that they want to sell.
It is also good for security-conscious owners as no data is stored on your WordPress site.
If you want to learn more, then check out our Full Shopify Review.
7. Bigcommerce
The next option on this list of from one of the biggest names in the world of ecommerce (no pun intended!), Bigcommerce. This might be a surprising option for some but the team at Bigcommerce recognized the popularity of WordPress and felt that their platform could work very well on a WordPress website.
Integration between Bigcommerce and WordPress falls somewhere between what Ecwid and Shopify offer, this is because they do have a plugin that imports all of products and categories and displays them within your WordPress site, the checkout also works using iframe, so that you have a secure checkout seemingly on your WordPress site, even though it is actually on the Bigcommerce servers.
But you actually manage your product listings, categories and order from the Bigcommerce dashboard, not the WordPress dashboard. This means that less sensitive data is stored on your site/server.
Unfortunately, Bigcommerce is the most expensive option on this list as they haven’t created any WordPress specific plans, the plans they offer are:
- Standard $29.95/m – Up to $50k annual turnover
- Plus $79.95/m – Up to $180k annual turnover
- Pro $299.95/m – Up to $400k annual turnover
As these plans aren’t WordPress specific, you may find that you are paying for features that you aren’t going to use, such as the website builder. But you do get a good range of features with Bigcommerce, including
- Product Ratings & Reviews
- Promotions & Special Offers
- Multi-Channel Selling (inc Facebook & Instagram)
- Discount Codes & Coupons
- Social Sharing
- PCI Compliant Servers
- Large Selection of Payment Gateways
- 24/7 Support
Bigcommerce Pros & Cons
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Who Is Bigcommerce Best For?
Bigcommerce is best for WordPress sites that want to use a full headless ecommerce setup, without missing out on features.
While it is the most expensive option, the headless offering from Bigcommerce offers something that none of their competition currently does.
If you want to learn more, then check out our Full Bigcommerce Review.
Unsupported or Removed WordPress Ecommerce Plugins
If ours isn’t the first post you have read on the best WordPress ecommerce plugins, you may have noticed that some options mentioned on other lists aren’t included in ours and there is a reason for that.
This is because many of the other lists include plugins that are no longer supported/being developed or have been removed/deleted, these include:
- WP Ecommerce – once the main competitor to WooCommerce, WP Ecommerce was last updated over 3 years ago and the website confirms that the plugin is no longer active
- Cart66 Cloud – another popular WordPress ecommerce plugin in the past, this was bought by WP EasyCart and the two plugins have been merged into one
- Jigoshop – one of the first freemium WordPress ecommerce plugins but one that was closed in 2020
So if you were interested in any of these, unfortunately, you are a few years too late but there are still some really good options when it comes to building an ecommerce store with WordPress.
Conclusion
So there they are, our pick of the best WordPress ecommerce plugin, which all have their own unique take on adding an online store to a WordPress site and while we can make our recommendations, ultimately, you need to decide which one is right for your site.
The best thing about all of the options we have listed is that they either have a free plan or a free trial, meaning that you can test them out for yourself to find the right one.
Editors Pick – Ecwid
Out of all the plugins we tried, Ecwid came out on top for use due to it offering:
- A single, Easy-to-Use Plugin
- Great Integration
- A Good set of Features
- A Fully-Hosted, Secure Checkout
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Hi, I'm Paul, the Owner and Founder of EcommerceGold.
I ran my own Ecommerce Business for over 7 years and now help others start their own online retail empires!