It’s 2016, and it’s time that you opened up your online business. You’ve decided to work with WordPress, but you’re curious if you have options any other than WooCommerce. I mean, WooCommerce is great and all, but wouldn’t it be better if you had more options?
Fear not! You’ll find those options here. In this post, we’re going to cover some of the most popular WordPress e-commerce plugins in 2016.
WooCommerce: The One That Everybody Knows
Seriously, has anybody not heard about WooCommerce?
With a market share of 29% among all e-commerce systems (not just WordPress plugins), WooCommerce is–by far–the most popular e-commerce solution out there. In fact, it’s so popular that last year Automattic acquired WooThemes (the company behind WooCommerce).
WooCommerce wasn’t the first e-commerce plugin for WordPress, but people surely liked it the most. WooCommerce brings a legion of developers together with hundreds, maybe thousands of themes and loads of WooCommerce extensions. As Fuel Themes, we also have a few WooCommerce-ready themes for you. Plus, we’ve recently published an in-depth guide to WooCommerce, be sure to check it out as well!
Easy Digital Downlads: The One That Most People Know
Another successful, popular and quality e-commerce plugin is Easy Digital Downloads, created by Pippin Williamson.
It works just like WooCommerce: It’s a free plugin with free & premium extensions. It works (or it says it works) out of the box, meaning that you can use it with any WordPress theme–providing that the theme you’ll use is coded properly.
This plugin was my number one choice when I started planning to start my own business, but eventually I decided on Cart66. More on that below.
MarketPress: The One That Some People Know
MarketPress from WPMU DEV is another powerful paid solution for your e-commerce needs.
WPMU DEV is one of the most famous companies that develop WordPress products, yet they don’t seem to market MarketPress. Sadly, they don’t even show up in the e-commerce statistics, but being unpopular doesn’t necessarily mean that MarketPress is a bad choice. Personally, I would have loved to try it out… if the pricing structure of WPMU DEV wasn’t so complicated.
Cart66: The One That We All Should Know
This one’s my favorite, yet it’s the most unheard product in this little list.
Cart66 takes a different approach to e-commerce, and handles the things in the cloud, instead of in your own server. It makes the whole process a lot more streamlined and secure, and of course, a lot easier than setting everything up yourself. The pricing is currently $95/year, with a 14-day trial period before any payment. It’s actually a lot cheaper than its competitors like WooCommerce and EDD, since you have to purchase paid extensions in order to get the same features as Cart66 offers.
You should check out these two reviews of Cart66: Chris Lema’s review and Matt Cromwell’s review. There’s also a comparison between Cart66 and WooCommerce in Cart66’s blog.
Conclusion
I don’t know about you, but I’m certain that it’s very hard to decide. All of them have great features and while WooCommerce dominates the “WordPress e-commerce” market, they all could be great candidates for your next e-commerce project’s foundation.
What’s your take on this? Let us know what you think by commenting below. And thanks for reading–if you liked the article, don’t forget to share it with your friends!