Best WordPress e-commerce plugins

Starting your webshop with WordPress? Then you need an e-commerce plugin. These plugins add shopping cart, checkout and payment processes to your website. But which plugin do you choose?

In this article we compare the best WordPress e-commerce solutions. From fully equipped webshop platforms to simple payment buttons. This way you'll find the right tool for your situation.

WooCommerce: the standard for webshops

WooCommerce is by far the most popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress. More than 5 million webshops run on this platform. The plugin is free, but you often need paid extensions for extra functionality.

What you get (free):

• Complete webshop functionality
• Manage products and categories
• Shopping cart and checkout
• Basic payment methods (bank transfer, cash on delivery)
• Calculate shipping costs
• Stock management
• Coupon codes
• Basic reporting

Why WooCommerce:

• Largest plugin ecosystem
• Thousands of free and premium extensions
• Works with any WordPress theme
• Huge community and documentation
• Free basic version suffices for starters

Disadvantages:

• Can become slow with many products
• Extensions are often not cheap
• Setup requires some technical knowledge
• Maintenance takes time

For a professional webshop with many products, WooCommerce is the logical choice. Combine it with good webshop hosting for optimal performance.

Paid extensions you often need

WooCommerce is free, but for a complete webshop you often buy extensions:

Payment methods (€0-79/year):

• Mollie (free) - iDEAL, credit card, PayPal
• Stripe (free) - Credit cards worldwide
• MultiSafepay - All Dutch payment methods

Shipping (€0-79/year):

• PostNL - Official integration
• DHL for WooCommerce
• Table Rate Shipping - Flexible shipping costs

Marketing (€99-299/year):

• WooCommerce Subscriptions - Subscriptions
• Dynamic Pricing - Discounts and price rules
• Product Add-ons - Extra options per product

Performance (€79-249/year):

• WooCommerce Pre-orders
• Product Bundles
• Composite Products

Budget €200-500/year extra on top of WooCommerce for a serious webshop. That seems like a lot, but you get professional functionality that custom work would cost thousands.

Easy Digital Downloads: for digital products

Selling software, e-books, music or courses? Then Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is a better alternative than WooCommerce. This plugin is specifically built for digital products.

What you get:

• Download management and security
• Automatic delivery after payment
• Generate license keys
• File version management
• Download statistics
• Shopping cart and checkout
• Basic payment methods

Advantages over WooCommerce:

• Lighter and faster (no shipping/stock)
• Better security for downloads
• License management built-in
• Software update system

Prices:

• Free basic version
• Personal Pass: €99/year (all extensions for 1 site)
• Extended Pass: €199/year (all extensions for 5 sites)
• Professional Pass: €299/year (all extensions unlimited sites)

For digital products EDD is often the better choice. It's lighter, faster and has everything you need. WooCommerce can do it too, but then you carry a lot of unnecessary features.

Hosting tip: EDD requires fewer resources than WooCommerce. Good WordPress hosting with 512MB PHP memory is usually sufficient.

WP Simple Pay: for simple payments

Want to only accept payments without a full webshop? Then WP Simple Pay is ideal. This plugin creates Stripe payment forms with which you can collect one-time or recurring payments.

What it can do:

• Stripe payment forms
• One-time payments
• Subscriptions and recurring payments
• Donations
• Coupon codes
• Custom amounts
• Embedded or popup forms

What it cannot do:

• No product catalog
• No shopping cart
• No stock management
• No shipping costs
• Only Stripe (no direct iDEAL, but through Stripe)

Prices:

• Lite (free): Basic forms
• Personal (€49/year): Subscriptions and coupon codes
• Plus (€99/year): Multiple forms and custom fields
• Professional (€199/year): All features

WP Simple Pay is perfect for:

• SaaS subscriptions
• Courses and workshops
• Donations and crowdfunding
• Service payments
• Event tickets

Not suitable for webshops with product catalog. Then use WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads.

Cart66: secure hosted solution

Cart66 is a unique solution. Instead of running everything on your WordPress server, the checkout runs on secure Cart66 servers. This saves you PCI compliance worries.

How it works:

• Product management in WordPress
• Checkout runs on Cart66.com servers
• Payment via Stripe
• Customer is returned after payment

Advantages:

• PCI compliant without extra work
• More secure (checkout not on your server)
• Fewer server resources needed
• No SSL certificate required (but recommended)

Disadvantages:

• Monthly costs from $19/month
• Less control over checkout process
• Only Stripe payment method
• Dependent on external service

Prices:

• Basic: $19/month - Unlimited products
• Standard: $49/month - Subscriptions
• Plus: $99/month - Extra features

Cart66 is interesting for websites where security and compliance are important. Think medical products, financial services or high-value items.

Comparison: when which plugin?

Feature	WooCommerce	Easy Digital Downloads	WP Simple Pay	Cart66
Physical products	Excellent	Not intended	No	Yes
Digital products	Good	Excellent	Not intended	Yes
Subscriptions	Yes (extension)	Yes (extension)	Yes	Yes
Payment methods	Everything	Everything	Only Stripe	Only Stripe
Setup complexity	Medium	Low	Very low	Low
Monthly costs	€0+	€0+	€0+	$19+
Hosting resources	High	Medium	Low	Low
PCI compliance	Your responsibility	Your responsibility	Via Stripe	Automatic
Extensions	1000+	100+	Limited	Few needed

Hosting requirements per plugin

E-commerce plugins demand more from your hosting than a normal website. Especially with many products and orders.

WooCommerce minimum:

• 2GB PHP memory (4GB for large shops)
• PHP 7.4 or higher (8.0+ recommended)
• MySQL 5.6 or higher
• HTTPS/SSL certificate
• Good caching (Redis or Memcached)
• Regular backups

Easy Digital Downloads minimum:

• 512MB PHP memory (1GB recommended)
• PHP 7.4 or higher
• MySQL 5.6 or higher
• SSL certificate
• Basic caching

WP Simple Pay minimum:

• 256MB PHP memory
• PHP 7.4 or higher
• SSL certificate (required for Stripe)

Cart66 minimum:

• 256MB PHP memory
• PHP 7.4 or higher
• SSL recommended (not required)

For WooCommerce shops we always recommend specialized webshop hosting. This prevents problems during growth.

Which plugin to choose?

Choose WooCommerce if you:

• Build a complete webshop
• Sell physical products
• Find flexibility and control important
• Have budget for premium extensions
• Are willing to invest time in setup

Choose Easy Digital Downloads if you:

• Only sell digital products
• Offer software or courses
• Need license management
• Want a lighter solution than WooCommerce

Choose WP Simple Pay if you:

• Don't need a product catalog
• Only want to accept payments
• Collect subscriptions or donations
• Seek the simplest solution

Choose Cart66 if you:

• Have security and compliance as priority
• Don't want to become PCI compliant yourself
• Have no problem with monthly costs
• Only Stripe is sufficient

Most webshops choose WooCommerce. It's the most complete solution with the largest ecosystem. For digital products Easy Digital Downloads is lighter and better tailored.

Combinations with other plugins

E-commerce plugins work well together with other tools:

WooCommerce + Elementor:

• Elementor has WooCommerce widgets
• Build custom product pages
• Nicer checkout designs

Easy Digital Downloads + MemberPress:

• Sell memberships and downloads together
• Protect content for members
• Courses with downloadable materials

WP Simple Pay + WPForms:

• Payment forms with extra fields
• Registrations with payment
• Custom checkout flows

All plugins + Mailchimp/ActiveCampaign:

• Automatically add customers to mailing list
• Abandoned cart emails
• Product recommendations

Security for webshops

E-commerce sites are popular targets for hackers. Take security seriously:

1. SSL certificate - Required for all payments. Costs nothing anymore (Let's Encrypt)
2. Two-factor authentication - For admin accounts
3. Regular updates - Keep WordPress, plugins and themes up-to-date
4. Security plugin - Wordfence or Sucuri
5. Backups - Daily, keep minimum 30 days
6. Firewall - Web Application Firewall (WAF) on server or via Cloudflare
7. Spam protection - Against fake orders and registrations
8. Payment gateway - Use reliable providers (Mollie, Stripe)

Many managed WordPress hosts have built-in security. Ask your hosting provider about it.

Performance optimization

Slow webshops lose customers. Every second of load time costs conversion:

1. Fast hosting - Specialized WooCommerce hosting
2. Caching - Object cache (Redis) and page cache
3. CDN - Images via content delivery network
4. Image optimization - WebP format, lazy loading
5. Database cleanup - Clean up old orders and logs
6. Minify CSS/JS - Smaller files
7. Lazy load products - Don't load all 1000 products at once
8. Disable cart fragments - WooCommerce AJAX can be slow

Regularly check your speed for improvements.

Cost overview

Budget realistically for your e-commerce setup:

Starter webshop (WooCommerce):

• Hosting: €10-30/month
• Theme: €0-60 one-time
• Mollie plugin: Free
• SSL certificate: Free
• Total: €120-360/year

Professional webshop:

• Hosting: €30-100/month
• Theme: €60 one-time
• Premium extensions: €200-500/year
• SSL: Free
• Backup service: €50/year
• Total: €610-1750/year

Digital products (EDD):

• Hosting: €10-30/month
• EDD Personal Pass: €99/year
• Theme: €0-60 one-time
• Total: €220-480/year

Simple payments (WP Simple Pay):

• Hosting: €5-15/month
• WP Simple Pay Pro: €99/year
• Total: €160-280/year

Count on minimum €500/year for a serious webshop. Cheaper is possible, but then you miss important functionality.

Support and documentation

Good documentation is crucial for e-commerce:

WooCommerce:

• Extensive official docs
• Huge community forums
• Many YouTube tutorials
• Numerous blogs and courses

Easy Digital Downloads:

• Good official documentation
• Active support forums
• Developer friendly

WP Simple Pay:

• Clear getting started guides
• Email support for paid versions
• Smaller community

Cart66:

• Personal support
• Smaller user base
• Good docs but less content

For beginners WooCommerce is easiest due to the many tutorials. Easy Digital Downloads also has good resources.

Test before you choose

Test plugins before you commit:

1. Install demo - All plugins have free version or trial
2. Create test products - Check how it feels
3. Test checkout flow - From customer perspective
4. Check speed - Measure load times
5. Read reviews - What do other users say?
6. Test support - How fast do they respond?

Take at least 1-2 weeks to test. A wrong choice costs a lot of migration work later.

Also compare different hosting providers specifically for webshops. Not every host is suitable for e-commerce.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to implement this?

Implementation time varies per situation. Simple configurations can be done within an hour, more complex setups may take several hours to a day.

What are the costs?

Costs depend on your hosting provider and package. Many basic features are included for free, advanced features may incur additional costs.

Do I need technical knowledge?

You need little technical knowledge for the basics. Most hosting providers offer extensive documentation and support to help you.