5 Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins Compared 2024

Are you looking for the best WordPress eCommerce plugin for building your online store?

WordPress is the most widely-used content management system, powering over 45% of all websites online today. It’s famous for its ease of use, flexibility, and strong community. With the help of plugins, WordPress can easily be extended to create any website, including a full-fledged eCommerce store.

Building an eCommerce website can be complex, as multiple components contribute to a seamless online shopping experience. You must consider order management, product listing, payment processing, security, product delivery, notifications, and more.

Thankfully, integrating these eCommerce features into your WordPress site is a breeze with a WordPress eCommerce plugin.

In this article, we’ll explore some of the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress. We will carefully evaluate their features, pros, and cons to help you make an informed decision for your business.

What are WordPress eCommerce Plugins?

If you’re looking to build an eCommerce business, a WordPress eCommerce plugin can be a valuable tool to extend the functionality of your WordPress platform.

With this plugin, you don’t need coding or programming experience to start selling products on your website. It provides all the necessary components for managing orders, customer management, payment processing, inventory, shopping cart, notifications, and other eCommerce features.

Additionally, some eCommerce plugins offer advanced features like external integrations, automation, tax and shipping calculations, and multiple payment gateways, providing you with more flexibility and customization options to create your eCommerce website.

Features of an eCommerce Plugin

There are a bunch of WordPress eCommerce plugins out there, and choosing the right one can be a big dilemma. When choosing an eCommerce plugin, it is essential to choose the one that offers the features that suit your specific needs.

For example, some plugins are best for selling digital products, while others are better for selling physical products. So, to make the right decision, you need to understand your type of product and the features you need to sell it.

To help you make the right decision, below are some key features you should look out for when choosing the best eCommerce plugin for your business. These features include:

• Multiple Payment Methods
• Third-party apps and integrations
• Full shopping cart
• Regular updates, tutorials, and support.
• Design and customization

These features are the basic things you will need to build a successful eCommerce business, so please ensure you are on the lookout for them before choosing a WordPress eCommerce plugin.

Let’s look at some of the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress.

5 Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins

After understanding the functions of eCommerce plugins and the key elements to consider, it’s time to explore our Top 5 recommendations for the finest eCommerce plugins designed for WordPress websites. Our selection criteria included evaluating usability, functionalities, constraints, and cost-effectiveness.

1. ProfilePress

ProfilePress is an eCommerce and WordPress membership plugin that allows you to build powerful eCommerce websites. This plugin will allow you to sell digital products, physical products, membership plans, and anything else on your WordPress website.

ProfilePress allows you to accept one-time or recurring payments via PayPal, Stripe, Paystack, and more. It supports email notifications, social login, email marketing, user management, and integration with other plugins such as Woocommerce.

ProfilePress is the perfect tool for building a highly customized eCommerce website. It allows you to customize every aspect of your WordPress website, from customer registration to customer login, emails, user profiles, payment processing, tax collection, and much more.

It supports sales of digital and physical products, and its eCommerce functionality can be further enhanced by integrating it with Woocommerce, one of the most popular eCommerce plugins.

Critical features of ProfilePress: 

• Inventory management
• Multiple payment gateways
• Reporting and analytics
• Support for physical and digital products
• Coupons and discounts functionality

Pros of using ProfilePress:

• Customer support from developers.
• Easy setup
• Extensive documentation and tutorials
• Free core plugin
• Flexibility and customization

The main drawback of ProfilePress is its additional features that you may not need on an eCommerce website, especially if you are looking at building a simple site.

ProfilePress pricing: Free with premium plans starting at $129/year.

2. Woocommerce 

If you want to sell physical products on your WordPress site, Woocommerce is a top choice for an eCommerce plugin.

As for digital products, ProfilePress may be a better fit, as it offers excellent support for those types of sales.

Woocommerce is a powerful and flexible plugin that can transform your website into a fully functioning eCommerce store. Plus, it’s free and has many features, such as support for multiple languages and currencies, shipping options, and many customization choices. It’s user-friendly and has everything you need to get started with selling on your WordPress site.

Key Features of Woocommerce:

• Inventory management
• Support for popular payment gateways
• Shipping and taxes calculations
• Physical and digital products support
• Extensive addons library

Pros of using Woocommerce: 

• Flexibility and customization options
• Free core plugin
• Plenty of addons and integrations
• An active community of developers

The biggest drawback of Woocommerce is its scalability. Your hosting or server will also need to grow as your store grows in traffic and inventory.

MailOptin integrates with WooCommerce, so you can email your WooCommerce customers and subscribe customers to your email marketing list.

Woocommerce Pricing: Free with premium themes, extensions, and add-ons.

3. Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads, a widely used WordPress eCommerce plugin, is ideal for selling digital products such as ebooks, software, and training.

With this plugin, you get all the necessary tools to manage your customers, set up subscription plans, generate purchase receipts, and more. While other eCommerce plugins may also offer digital product sales, they are often loaded with features you may not need, unlike Easy Digital Downloads, specifically designed for this purpose.

Key features of Easy Digital Downloads:

• Unlimited digital products
• Ease of use
• Excellent support system
• Third-party integrations
• Multiple payment gateways
• Analytics and Reporting

Pros of using Easy Digital Downloads:

• Integrates with all themes and other plugins
• Easy to setup
• An active community of users
• Extensive documentation and tutorial

The major drawback of Easy Digital Downloads is its focus on digital products. If you plan to sell physical and digital products on your site, then Easy Digital Downloads is not a suitable choice.

MailOptin integrates with EDD to send emails to your customers in Easy Digital Downloads and subscribe customers to your email marketing list.

Easy Digital Downloads Pricing: Free with premium plans starting at $99.50/year.

4. Ecwid eCommerce Shopping Cart

Are you looking for a way to connect your online store seamlessly with WordPress and social media platforms? You can look no further than Ecwid eCommerce Shopping Cart.

This SaaS eCommerce platform will host your store’s data on their servers, removing the worry of software updates and maintenance. Plus, with Ecwid eCommerce Shopping Cart, your store is not limited to a single WordPress site – it can be easily integrated into multiple websites and marketplaces.

Key Features of Ecwid eCommerce Shopping Cart:

• Complete Ecwid panel integration into WordPress
• Built-in support for Google Ads
• No transaction fees
• Social eCommerce integration

Pros of Ecwid eCommerce Shopping Cart:

• Sell on multiple marketplaces
• eCommerce mobile app for store management

The significant drawbacks of the Ecwid eCommerce Shopping Cart are limited products for the free plan (10 products), the configuration panel is not beginners friendly, and you get limited features based on your subscriptions.

Ecwid eCommerce Shopping Cart Pricing: Free with premium plans starting at $19/month.

5. WP EasyCart Shopping Cart & eCommerce Store

WP EasyCart is the perfect eCommerce plugin for small business owners. It’s powerful, easy to use, and covers all the technical details so you can start selling quickly.

WP EasyCart lets you quickly sell your products on social media platforms and accept payments through multiple gateways. Furthermore, the plugin offers limitless product listings, order management, and seamless integration with any WordPress theme.

Key features of WP EasyCart:

• Support for multiple product types
• Social media integration
• Store management with desktop and mobile app
• Subscription and recurring billing.

Pros of using WP EasyCart: 

• Easy to setup
• Low learning curve
• Integrates with other plugins and themes

The significant drawbacks of WP EasyCart are limited basic features for the free plan and a 2% application fee for each transaction. To get the most out of this plugin, you must buy a premium plan.

WP EasyCart Pricing: Free with premium plans starting at $69/month.

Conclusion

If you want to set up an online store using WordPress, a reliable eCommerce plugin is your best bet. With its comprehensive toolkit, you’ll have everything you need to manage and operate your eCommerce website with ease. Using eCommerce plugins, you can build a top-notch online store without coding skills or the added expense of hiring a programmer.

If you are looking for the best eCommerce plugin for your WordPress site. In that case, we recommend ProfilePress because it is flexible, allowing you to sell any product and collect payments in multiple ways on your website.