WooCommerce pricing - How much does it cost?

If you use the free WordPress plugin WooCommerce, you may want to consider possible costs. Although the plugin is free to install, creating a user-friendly online store does incur charges. Fees for hosting, website design, SSL, and paid plugins for added functionality should be considered.

While Shopfiy focuses on online stores and Magento is aimed at medium-sized and large eCommerce companies, WooCommerce is a strong online store creation solution for beginners, start-ups, small and medium-sized online retailers as well as large eCommerce businesses. The advantage of the WordPress plugin is that installation and integration with WordPress are free. Another advantage of WooCommerce is that it’s open source and can be customised. Many available extensions provide user-friendly interfaces, modern themes, and flexible features.

If you want to create a WordPress online store with WooCommerce, bear in mind that there may be some costs involved even though the platform is technically free. You may wish to set aside some budget for an optimised customer experience, higher security, efficient payment processing, and better shipping connections. A WooCommerce store should be included in calculations when configuring WordPress pricing. But which ‘hidden’ WooCommerce prices are we referring to here?

The term ‘hidden costs’ doesn’t really apply in the context of WooCommerce. The plugin is definitely free and offers a high degree of scalability and beginner-friendly flexibility for online store creation. Realistically, however, this is not always sufficient for a multifunctional store.

Actual WooCommerce costs are follow-up costs, which may include the items below:

WooCommerce store pricing depends on your ideas and the scope of your project. You can stick with free plugins, add-ons, tools, and templates for designs, themes, and extensions. WooCommerce also provides free options for shipping and payment processing, which usually suffice for small businesses. Fixed costs include web hosting, domains, transaction costs, SSL certificates, and security tools.

WooCommerce can only be used with a WordPress site. To install it you will need web space including web hosting. Hosting costs depend on how extensive and sophisticated you want your store to be. The more content and offers you include, the more hosted web space is needed. Some hosts offer inexpensive pricing models for beginners and discounted multi-year plans.

The costs of hosting or migrating WordPress to a different server depend on the following:

• Does a shared hosting plan suffice for your websites?
• Should your web host offer 24/7 customer service and does it cost extra?
• Does the hosting include secure servers, backups and protection against malware and spam?
• What capacities in terms of performance, resource allocation, and storage volume does the host provide?
• Do you need web hosting for easy scalability and quick growth?

What’s most important for any online store is that shoppers can find it online. This, in part, depends on the store having a distinctive, catchy domain name and a reputable, popular domain ending like .com, .net, .org, etc. Domains are often included in web hosting packages or can be purchased through hosts or third-party domain name providers. Entry-level prices and discounts for multi-year plans exist. The cheapest option is to use a domain directly in conjunction with hosting.

Once customers can find your online store, you want them to browse your products and hopefully make a purchase. A shop owner’s goal is usually to motivate customers to make a purchase on their first visit. The more appealing the design of your store, the better. Just like WordPress, WooCommerce offers free themes like Storefront that can be customised as needed. A distinctive theme is important to create an appealing store page and present offers and products.

A suitable theme also means that you can integrate WooCommerce plugins, WordPress widgets and website builders and develop a responsive layout. If you choose a paid theme, you should ensure that it comes from experienced WooCommerce developers, is updated frequently, and is compatible with the latest WooCommerce version.

One of the most important aspects of an online store is efficient shipping. WooCommerce offers free shipping features for flat rate shipping, free shipping, and local pickup. The free WooCommerce Shipping add-on, for example, lets you print labels from the dashboard and use shipping discounts. However, this only makes sense for smaller stores with a limited portfolio. Paid WooCommerce plugins like ShipStation Integration and Table Rate Shipping offer significantly more features for scalability, fulfilment, shipment tracking, automatic notifications, and international shipping conditions. Other shipping options include WooCommerce dropshipping plugins or connecting your own WooCommerce store to the warehouse and transport logistics of your chosen fulfilment service providers.

Payment processing via payment gateways that provide secure credit card processing is just as important. WooCommerce comes with the free WooCommerce Payments Plugin for payment processing and a dashboard that provides an overview of your payment processes. WooCommerce takes a 1.4% sales cut (plus around £0.20 in transaction fees). However, there are no setup fees or monthly charges. When selecting a payment gateway, be sure to use a reputable, well-known gateway provider such as PayPal and, if possible, one that processes payments without redirection. This boosts customer confidence in your shop and payment processes.

Ongoing store costs not only include necessary functions such as ordering, payment, and shipping, but also tools for improved functionality, reach, and security. These include tools for email marketing, social media integration, analytics, customer data analysis, and interest-based advertising. Tools for SEO, mobile optimisation and security features for malware defence and SSL certificates are essential for a professional appearance.

WooCommerce and third-party providers offer various plugins and add-ons to provide the best possible user experience. Depending on which features you choose, you could boost sales. Feedback plugins, last-minute upselling tools, social media logins, and an improved checkout process will come in handy here. Using navigation tools and product filters, customers can more easily find the offers they’re looking for. For individual extensions, it is also possible to program your own plugins and features, which in turn requires significantly more time/cost.

The cost of a WooCommerce store depends on the scope of your online store and desired functions. If you’re designing your own small store, you’ll be sure to save costs by making use of free WooCommerce functions. The costs of a professional WooCommerce store can range from £200 to £3,000, but actual costs will depend on the size of your store and can add up to £10,000 for large-scale, professional eCommerce websites.

If you hire a web agency to design and create a high-quality WordPress site and online store you should expect to pay between £1,000 and £10,000 or more.

The free WordPress plugin is aimed primarily at small and medium-sized businesses that value a good balance between cost savings and functionality. Even if your investment is small, WooCommerce provides a chance to build a powerful, modern online store that can be scaled flexibly using plugins.