WooCommerce Review

If ease of use is important to you and you’ve never used WordPress in the past, you’ll want to stay away from this eCommerce solution. However, if you’re ready to deal with a little learning curve, WooCommerce can provide you with one of the best online store environments available online. Users who have experience using WordPress won’t find this tool any more difficult than any other plugin. The amount of features and functions available on WooCommerce is impressive. You’ll be able to browse through thousands of available extensions and WooCommerce compatible plugins, allowing you to really make the most out of your online store. Overall, WooCommerce is one of the most feature-packed eCommerce solutions online and while it’s a little more difficult to use than other similar tools, it remains quite simple and loaded with great options.

Ease of Use

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use platform that allows you to quickly set up an entire online store within minutes, WooCommerce isn’t for you. You will have to know the basics of setting up WordPress sites and you’ll have to go through a few additional steps when using an all-in-one eCommerce solution. However, it’s all very simple and in the end, you will get to benefit from a much more customizable and scalable platform. When launching a WooCommerce store, you will first have to get yourself some hosting and purchase a domain name. Then you will need to install WordPress and build the main site on which you wish to host your online store. From there, you will need to install WooCommerce. Many tutorials are available online and it sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. Just keep in mind that WooCommerce isn’t for complete beginners and it’s not as intuitive as some other platforms.

Functionality

One of the main reasons most people choose to go with WooCommerce is due to its massive amount of functions. Powered by WordPress, you will get to enjoy thousands upon thousands of plugins, themes, and other tools that allow you to really make the most out of your website. Numerous SEO tools are available via third-party plugins and loads of customization options are available. You can easily edit the actual code behind your website or you can choose to control everything via the user-friendly dashboard. Almost everything can be controlled by the user, from URL structures to the way your website behaves. Along with a ton of functionalities, WordPress is also quite easy to use once you understand the backend. Once you get to know how plugins, widgets, and basic WordPress functions work, you will easily be able to make your online store look and behave any way that you want.

Being able to add custom plugins is a great way to enhance the functionality of your online store. Based on WordPress, WooCommerce has a ton of plugins that you can install in order to enhance your website. You’ll find a massive variety of plugins ranging from SEO tools to live chat support plugins and even floating social sharing sidebars. WordPress is loaded with plugins because just about anyone can create plugins and you can install third-party apps with ease - simply upload the zip file and activate the plugin of your choice. There are thousands of free plugins to choose from and you’ll usually be able to find a plugin that does what you need without having to spend any money. However, if you can’t find a quality free plugin for your needs, you’ll most likely be able to find a paid plugin that can get the job done. Just like with WordPress themes, the best way to find quality WordPress plugins is with a quick Google search.

The amount of themes available on WordPress is absolutely amazing. You’ll easily be able to find loads of WordPress themes from within your WordPress backend. However, you can also download third-party themes with a quick Google search. Best of all, there are tons of free themes that offer quality features and their paid themes are usually under $100. Actually, most premium WordPress themes hover around the $50 to $70 range, which is much cheaper when compared to other platforms that charge almost $200 per the theme. The quality of premium themes varies from one developer to another, but generally, you will be able to get tons of built-in features and speed optimizations. With so many high-quality themes to choose from, you will be able to find niche-specific themes with ease. Simply type in something like “best WordPress eCommerce themes” in Google and you will find tons of articles comparing the top options. Overall, WordPress is one of the best eCommerce solutions when it comes to theme variety.

Overall, WooCommerce is well optimized at its core. Still, you will have to ensure that many other areas are also well optimized to get the most benefits from this eCommerce solution. With WooCommerce, you get more control over the behavior of your online store - you get to pick a fast hosting provider, a solid CDN network, you can implement speed optimizations manually, and so much more. With the freedom to control everything yourself, you can easily get your WooCommerce site to load fast, experience great uptimes, and deal with few incidents. However, to achieve these excellent results, you will have to put in way more effort than you normally would with other all-in-one eCommerce platforms.

Uptime

Uptime is an important factor to consider when searching for an eCommerce platform. It determines how often your site will experience downtimes. However, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, so it does not affect your uptime directly. The uptime of your online store will be dependant upon your hosting provider. Depending on which hosting you choose to host your WordPress site, your uptime will vary. We recommend using a good-quality hosting provider that specializes in hosting WordPress sites. For instance, managed WordPress hosting providers such as WP Engine can provide you with excellent uptime ratings and also help you manage your entire WordPress site from assistance with CDN networks all the way down to caching.

Incident Frequency

As a whole, WooCommerce is actually a highly dependable plugin. They provide ongoing updates on a regular basis, allowing you to constantly benefit from superior features and better reliability. Just like with other plugins on WordPress, WooCommerce is incredibly easy to keep updated. Minor bugs occasionally appear after major updates and new releases, but this isn’t a common occurrence and most bugs get resolved quickly. Most issues arise when using third-party extensions that are built by the actual team behind WooCommerce. Overall, they have a great reliability score due to the fact that they very rarely have major issues.

Speed

The speed of your website will greatly affect sales and user experience while using your online store. When running WooCommerce, the speed of your website will depend mostly on other factors. For instance, how well your WordPress site is optimized will have the largest impact on your website’s speed as a whole. Another major factor is the hosting you choose - this is why we recommend using a quality hosting provider. Using a content delivery network (CDN) and implementing effective optimizations will allow you to get the best speed from your website. One thing to keep in mind is that WooCommerce is a plugin and you will most likely install other WooCommerce plugins in order to make the most out of your online store - having lots of WordPress plugins installed on your site can cause slower loading times.

The availability of a solid support team is incredibly important when running an online store. You’ll want to be able to quickly get assistance for the issues that arise on your eCommerce platform in order to provide your customers with a smooth experience. Fortunately, WooCommerce is one of the most popular plugins on WordPress and one of the most used eCommerce solutions online. This allows you to quickly find all sorts of information with a single Google search. WooCommerce is discussed in forums and reviews all over the internet, plus WooCommerce has its very own community forums. You will also be able to find loads of useful information and tips within their extensive documentation. When it comes to actual support channels, WooCommerce isn’t the best. They only offer email support via a ticketing system. Response time usually takes a few hours, but it’s quality answers that should help you resolve issues quickly. WooExperts is another type of premium support offered by WooCommerce, that allows you to hire expert coders to make customizations to your online store. Overall, WooCommerce has a great support community online with loads of information and even though they don’t provide live chat or phone support, you should always be able to quickly find the assistance you need via the community of other users.

Support Availability

WooCommerce does not provide any type of phone or live chat support. However, you can get assistance via email by requesting a support ticket. They provide extensive documentation so you can find out a lot about their plugin and they also have support forums so you can connect with the community. Although WooCommerce does not provide loads of direct support channels, their platform is very popular and a simple Google search can provide you with all of the information you need. There are tons of online reviews, tutorials, and chat rooms that discuss WooCommerce in-depth making their official support channels much less necessary.

Speed of Response

Speed of response when asking for support at WooCommerce isn’t quite the best. With only email support available, this support channel tends to get filled up rather quickly and most responses tend to take a few hours. If you’re looking for rapid assistance, their direct support channels are not the best - your best bet in time-sensitive situations would be to search online. As one of the most popular eCommerce solutions online, you will easily be able to find the information you need via Google. Additionally, many webmaster forums are packed with useful information and up-to-date reporting so you can check up on the latest updates.

Friendliness & Helpfulness

When contacting WooCommerce support via their email channel, they were always very helpful. They were able to resolve most of the simple issues we had immediately with a single email response. More complex issues would require a few emails back and forth, but most issues always ended with a resolution. One of the premium support services that they offer called WooExperts, allows you to get personalized customizations by some of their expert coders. This comes with a price, but you will be able to get expert assistance which is incredibly useful if you want to perform complex customizations of your WooCommerce store. Overall, WooCommerce support is great at dealing with all sorts of issues and they have experts available for custom modifications.

Email Support

As their sole support channel, WooCommerce has a very backed-up email support team. If you require immediate assistance, this is definitely not the option that you’ll want to consider. Most email responses will take a few hours, but when you do get a response, you can expect accurate and useful information. When dealing with pressing issues, your best bet would be to search online and within the community forums. Chances are, others have already been through the issue you are dealing with, so you should be able to find the answers you are looking for pretty quickly. Overall, the WooCommerce email support team is solid, but since it’s their only way that you can contact them, you will have to expect a longer waiting time than with other similar platforms. Fortunately, there is loads of useful information online and on webmaster forums.

Overall, the cost of running a WooCommerce store online can become a very affordable solution. It could also end up costing a lot more than other similar platforms. This truly comes down to how you deal with other fees such as hosting, themes, plugins, and domains. You could spend thousands of dollars on a domain name alone and you could end up spending hundreds per month in hosting - you could also keep these costs down to just a few dollars per month. This will vary according to your specific needs and traffic. Overall, WooCommerce provides you with more freedom to choose from a variety of hosting companies, domain name providers, and more, while most eCommerce solutions limit you to what’s offered by their platform.

Plans Pricing

The cost of owning a website on WooCommerce is different when compared to all-in-one site builders. Most eCommerce platforms include the price of hosting, themes, and everything combined into the pricing plan. However, with WooCommerce you will need to compare most fees separately. For instance, you will need to figure out the cost of your own hosting plan. Depending on the type of hosting you pick, you could end up spending just a few dollars per month or as much as $200 per month. It really varies according to your specific needs - the more traffic you get, the higher your hosting needs will become in order to ensure you keep fast servers. For instance, shared servers will cost less than dedicated servers, but could result in slower speeds if you end up getting hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors. The WooCommerce app itself is free to use, but you may need to install WooCommerce apps, which often come at a monthly price. Overall, it’s worth looking into all of the additional fees before considering WooCommerce a more affordable solution.

Transaction Fees

One of the nice surprises of using WooCommerce is its lack of transaction fees. Most eCommerce platforms either have transaction fees or limit the number of products you can sell per pricing plan. WooCommerce doesn’t limit you to any of these, so you won’t end up paying any type of fees for every product you sell. This makes WooCommerce is much more affordable option for people who sell lots of small-price items.

Other Fees

Unlike other eCommerce solutions, there will be many other fees to calculate into the final price of running WooCommerce. While WooCommerce is free to use, you will need to add the cost of hosting, the price of your domain name, the cost of premium themes, premium plugins, and any other services that you wish to pay for in order to get a fully functional website.

WordPress is one of the largest and most popular content management system (CMS) platforms online. This free platform allows you to easily build stunning websites with tons of customizability. WooCommerce is seamlessly integrated into WordPress, allowing webmasters to quickly and easily integrate online store capabilities. With just a few clicks, this free plugin can be installed and activated within minutes.

Once active on your WordPress site, you will instantly be able to build your online store within moments. Best of all, WooCommerce adapts to your existing WordPress theme, so you can very easily keep the same web design. This fully-featured eCommerce platform is one of the most popular options for building an online store on the internet due to its ease of use and its simple integration with your existing website.

As an open-source plugin, you can easily customize this eCommerce solution to your specific needs as long as you know how to code. This plugin was first launched in 2011 and it now has over 50 million downloads. It has over 1,000 different plugins and more than 300 extensions that all work along with WooCommerce in order to provide merchants with their ideal eCommerce platform. With so many extra WooCommerce integrations, it’s easy to build the online store of your dreams.

Many different tools are available such as WooCommerce Bookings, WooCommerce Memberships, and many more. All of these extra integrations allow you to customize the experience with ease - all without knowing how to code. As one of the most popular eCommerce solutions online, WooCommerce is definitely worth looking into if you’re serious about selling products online.

WooCommerce is a platform that is powered by WordPress. You have no choice but to run a WordPress site if you wish to use WooCommerce. This eCommerce solution is ideal for merchants seeking maximum amount of freedom without compromising on ease of use. While this platform has a steeper learning curve than other similar platforms, it’s still pretty simple to use. Once you get the hang of this platform, you will enjoy the freedom of being able to choose your own hosting company, being able to pick from hundreds of thousands of themes and plugins and being able to optimize the site to your liking. WordPress sites can be incredibly fast and well-built, so you definitely enjoy great scalability and growth opportunities. While support is limited, WooCommerce is one of the largest and most popular eCommerce platforms online, so you’ll be able to easily find tons of information about it with a quick Google search. Overall, WooCommerce is a great way to build an online store if you want more flexibility and customizable features.