WordPress is without a doubt the most popular platform to build a website. You can build 100s of different kinds of websites using WordPress or maybe 1000. But the kind which is gaining a lot of popularity these days is e-Commerce. Everyone wants to sell something online. And WordPress provides the cheapest and most professional way to do so.
Lets talk about the 3 Most Popular eCommerce Plugins for WordPress
WooCommerce
Started independently a few years ago, and now has been acquired by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress. WooCommerce is by far the most popular option to create a store with WordPress. Some of the most useful features of this plugin include:
- Easy Integration with WordPress
- plugins to remove image backgrounds
- Works with Most no. of Payment Gateways
- 1000s of Free & Compatible Themes
- Completely Open source
- Lots of 3rd Party Integrations Possible
- Free to use
There is no paid version of WooCommerce, but if you visit the official store which lists plenty of useful plugins for WooCommerce. Most of them are paid, and can increase cost of development if you need complex features in your store. If you want to create a website that doesn’t sell products but provides a service like Computer repair services then you would need some extensions to convert a typical e-commerce store into a portal for online repair shop.
WP e-Commerce
Powering 20,000+ stores, WP eCommerce is the 2nd most popular store plugin for wordpress. It lags behind a lot as compared to woocommerce, but perhaps its simplicity is what encouraged the 20k stores to use this plugin. Like woocommerce its also free and open source. Here are some details about this plugin.
- Free
- Limited Userbase
- Less no. of themes
- Supports only Popular Payment Gateways
- Less 3rd Party Integrations
- Completely Open Source
- Moderately Easy Integration with WordPress
Conclusion
Its obvious that WooCommerce is the king of all e-commerce plugins. The are no 3rd or 4th positions in this race. WooCommerce has over a million installs as compared to the 20,000 installs of the 2nd position holder. Also the huge community means excellent support from users all over the world.
So if you are planning on starting a venture go with WooCommerce.