The Best WordPress Shopping Cart Plugins

Comprehensive comparison of WordPress e-commerce plug-ins: Five best choices and FAQs

The WordPress platform is powerful and versatile, and one of the most popular (and rapidly growing) applications is building an e-commerce website. With some excellent plugins, you can build an online store at a relatively low cost while enabling professional website design and functionality.

This article will introduce five best WordPress shopping cart plugins, including its front-end design and most important features. Each plugin has its own advantages and disadvantages, so you will find the pros and disadvantages of each plugin.

Overview of key points

• WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce plug-in for WordPress, which provides a range of features and has a huge and active developer community. However, it relies heavily on expensive extensions, which can significantly increase its overall cost.
• WP eCommerce was once the most popular e-commerce plug-in, which provides a wide range of features and is maintained by a large number of developers. It's more community-driven than WooCommerce, but has limitations in terms of functionality and payment gateways.
• Cart66 is available for an unlimited number of websites and is the most expensive plugin on the list. It offers subscription and membership features, professional support and a detailed feature set, making it a great choice for store owners with less technical capabilities.
• MarketPress is provided by WPMU DEV and allows you to run multiple store networks with clever features. It costs $19 and can be used for an unlimited number of websites, but requires expensive monthly plans to get extended support and updates.

1. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is by far the most popular WordPress e-commerce plugin. It has become a perfect alternative to Magento, the current leader in open source e-commerce software.

WooCommerce was originally a branch of Jigoshop, a free plugin maintained by WooThemes, a very popular WordPress theme store with strong marketing capabilities. Penetration is one of the reasons why WooCommerce is successful, but in the long run, it is not enough to be popular. More importantly, WooThemes has invested a lot of energy in its product development and relied heavily on it to keep the business running. WooCommerce is also supported by a large and active developer community, including its own conference of developers and store owners.

WooCommerce has proven to have many powerful features that make it a very competitive candidate on this list. It contains important tools to start your online store right away (even its basic theme is pretty good). But ultimately you'll want to extend the default feature set, and that's the main drawback of WooCommerce: pricing.

WooCommerce relies heavily on extensions. If you want to use tiered shipping, you will need to pay $199 for a single site license. The same goes for subscriptions. Want to add one or more payment or shipping gateways? An additional $79 per gateway. And these are one-year licenses. It's easy for you to spend hundreds of dollars a year on subscriptions to make it no longer free.

These are the prices of plugins supported by WooThemes. There are also some independent developers, but since WooThemes makes it very attractive to sell through them right away, you won't find a lot.

WooCommerce Advantages – Easy to use, you can complete the store’s setup in just one hour. – Built and actively maintained by one of the leaders of the WordPress community. – WooCommerce offers mobile apps to manage your store.

WooCommerce Disadvantages – Vendors lock in risks, products and their extensions are run by one company. – Extensions for some basic features are very expensive. – Not all themes are WooCommerce compatible, so check it out first.

2. WP eCommerce

Once the most popular e-commerce plug-in (now surpassed by WooCommerce), WP eCommerce (WPEC) provides a large number of features and is actively maintained by a large number of developers.

It's so community-driven than WooCommerce that it's not even clear who you're paying for when you decide to buy premium plugins or support. But if you are a developer yourself, WPEC may have fewer restrictions than WooCommerce.

WPEC provides a lot of features, but not all of them are well implemented. Coupons are a great example: you can use them, but only at the cart level, and have limited settings (which makes tracking harder and allows abuse).

You can pay for premium support, but it's quite expensive, and a support ticket costs $47. They also offer Gold Cart Plugin ($47). It contains some basic options that should be included (like grid views), but also opens up many new payment gateways (some of which are unknown or very specific). It also comes with a support voucher and offers extremely high value.

WP eCommerce Advantages – Built-in tiered shipping costs and integrates with many shipping companies. – Many free or low-priced add-ons. – Works perfectly with almost any theme or plugin.

WP eCommerce Disadvantages – Payment Gateway Limited (basically PayPal only). – Feature-rich, but insufficient functional details. – Many minor bugs take some time to fix.

3. Cart66

Cart66 comes in two different versions: Cart66 Pro (WordPress plugin) and Cart66 Cloud (hosted version, based on plugin, but modified in many ways). I'll take a look at the WordPress plugin.

Cart66 is available for an unlimited number of websites and is the most expensive plugin on this list. But it does offer both subscription and membership features, and other plugins usually charge extra for this. It also comes with professional support. They spend a lot of time and effort to make the plugin as safe as possible and truly perfect its functionality.

Cart66 outperforms other plugins in payment and shipping gateways. It also comes with a very advanced coupon system, such as allowing custom newsletter links. You can even use your Buy Now button in various ways, such as on your social media account.

Combining a wide range of features with professional support is a golden combination. The price is quite high, but especially for store owners who are not very familiar with the technology aspect, Cart66 can be a very good choice.

Pros of Cart66 – Works with almost any WordPress theme and plugin. – Includes professional support and useful payment/shipment gateways. – Feature-rich and detailed.

Cart66 Cons – For WordPress plugins, the price is quite high. – The companies behind Cart66 are increasingly focusing on its cloud-based solutions (but currently fully support the plugin). – Very messy sales website, mixing plugin and cloud version features, and they aren't always the same (but that's probably just me...).

4. Shopp

Shopp takes the same approach as WPEC, combining free plugins with paid professional support. It's just that in this case there's a recognizable company behind the plugin, which makes it more certain who you deal with.

Shopp's sales page is absolutely brilliant, showing off its vast array of features in a convenient way. These features are indeed worth showing. Each feature is well thought out. I like to use coupons as examples because these coupons can be easily compared to each plugin.

Shopp provides a lot of configuration possibilities. Not only can you apply discounts to your product or your entire shopping cart, you can also offer "Buy X Get Y Get Y" or other offers for specific customer types such as wholesale. The same goes for shipping, it has many ways to set it up, basically whatever you need. You can connect several large shipping companies (using paid add-ons) to allow real-time rates.

What is a bit disappointing is its integrated payment provider. By default, it has some major providers, but its add-ons do not allow adding more useful providers. Given that the plugin provides a high degree of flexibility for other features, this limits your choice, which is strange.

Shopp Advantages – Features are very extensive and detailed. – The annual support fee per site is $75, and the price is moderate. – Add-ons are reasonably priced.

Shopp Cons – Limited number of supported payment providers. – Updates are provided with the support license and require annual renewal. – There is a limited number of topics available.

5. MarketPress

MarketPress is provided by WPMU DEV and is a powerful company in WordPress plugins and themes. Get a license for an unlimited number of websites for $19, which is pretty cost-effective, but to get support and updates you need to upgrade to a more expensive monthly plan (which does open up the full library of the WPMU DEV plugin).

One of its main functions is the ability to run a store network. You can run multiple stores yourself, allowing unified checkout. You can even give third-party vendors the option to run a store on your own network, from which you get a portion of their sales to become a “mall owner” role.

MarketPress has some very clever features such as inventory notifications for product variants and custom personalized fields. You can also track coupon codes or specify maximum usage.

It works with any theme or plugin and has a considerable number of well-known payment providers. But when it comes to transportation, it lacks flexibility, has limited rates, and provides a limited number of transportation gateways. Currently only UPS and USPS are supported, and they are working to add FedEx.

MarketPress is definitely worth a try, and the $19 price also includes a month of support. This is more cost-effective than the plugin itself.

Pros of MarketPress – Run your own network of stores, even like a mall. – Inexpensive, including one month of support. – Ingenious features make the product unique.

MarketPress Disadvantages – Limited number of supported transport providers. – Extended support and updates require expensive monthly licenses. – Add-ons cannot be used to add features.

Other shopping cart selection

If you don't believe in WordPress as the foundation of an e-commerce store, you may want to consider some alternatives. Fortunately, I have written about this before:

• Test 3 hosted shopping carts
• Self-hosted shopping cart: Comparison between Magento and WooCommerce
• More hosted shopping carts: BigCommerce and Volusion
• Self-hosted shopping cart: Prestashop and OpenCart
• Magento and X-Cart (screenshot)

Conclusion

Running an e-commerce store on WordPress can be achieved in a variety of ways. Each plugin has many common features, but each plugin takes a different approach. You can try all of these, even Cart66, which has a 30-day refund policy.

Please tell me which WordPress e-commerce plugin you prefer in the comments.

WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin FAQ

What are the key features that need attention when choosing the WordPress shopping cart plugin?

When choosing a WordPress shopping cart plugin, be sure to consider the specific needs of the online store. Key features to look for include a user-friendly interface, mobile compatibility, social media integration, SEO features, customer reviews and ratings, a secure payment gateway, and customizable design options. Additionally, it is also beneficial to choose plugins that offer strong customer support and regular updates to ensure your online store runs smoothly and efficiently.

Does the WordPress shopping cart plug-in support mobile devices?

Most WordPress cart plug-ins are designed to support mobile devices. This is crucial as more and more consumers are shopping using mobile devices. Mobile-enabled plugins ensure that your online store is accessible to all users, regardless of the device they use.

How does WordPress shopping cart plugin affect website speed?

The speed of your website will seriously affect your conversion rate and SEO, and the shopping cart plugin will affect your website speed. Some plugins have more code efficiency than others, so it is important to choose an optimized shopping cart plugin that does not slow down the website.

Can I customize the style of my shopping cart using the WordPress plugin?

Yes, many WordPress cart plugins allow you to customize the style of your checkout process to align with your overall website design. This may include changing colors, fonts, and layout styles.

Does WordPress shopping cart plugin support SEO?

Most WordPress cart plugins are designed with SEO in mind. They often include features like meta tags, sitemaps, and SEO-friendly URLs, which can help improve visibility of your online store in search engine results.

How is the security performance of WordPress shopping cart plug-in?

Security is a key aspect of any online store, and most WordPress cart plugins offer powerful security features. This may include SSL certificates, secure payment gateways, and regular security updates.

Does WordPress shopping cart plugin provide customer support?

Yes, most WordPress cart plugins offer customer support. This can be in the form of live chat, email support, or online forums. It is important to choose a plugin that provides strong customer support to help you solve any issues that may arise.

Can I integrate social media with WordPress cart plugin?

Yes, many WordPress cart plugins allow you to integrate your online store with your social media platform. This can help improve store visibility and reach a wider audience.

Does WordPress shopping cart plugin provide analysis and reporting?

Yes, most WordPress cart plugins offer analysis and reporting capabilities. This can help you track sales, understand customer behavior and make informed decisions about your online store.

Can I use the WordPress cart plugin for the multi-vendor market?

Yes, some WordPress cart plugins are designed to handle the multi-vendor market. These plugins allow multiple vendors to sell their products through your online store, each with its own independent storefront.

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