Ecwid is an ecommerce platform that allows users to easily create online stores and start selling products across various channels.
On the other side, WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin designed for WordPress, allowing small to large-sized online merchants to create and customize their online stores.
It offers a range of features such as customizable storefronts, optimized shopping cart experiences, modular product blocks, and support for physical and digital goods, subscriptions, bookings, and memberships.
Both Ecwid and WooCommerce are great options if you’re looking to start your ecommerce business.
In this article, we will evaluate these two platforms helping you to find what offers what and whether it’s a good idea to consider them for your needs.
Let’s get started.
Introduction
Ecwid
Ecwid is an ecommerce platform that simplifies online store setup for businesses.
It offers a user-friendly interface, multichannel selling capabilities, and mobile-friendly design to simplify the process of starting an online business.
Ecwid’s key features include product management tools, analytics, customization options, and support for various payment methods.
Ecwid’s scalability allows for up to 10 million products and unlimited orders per month, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Additionally, it provides apps and integrations with popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Wix, and Joomla, enhancing its flexibility and ease of use.
Also read: Ecwid vs Adobe Commerce
Ge free FOREVER plan. Set up your free account once, and keep it as long as you like.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a powerful and versatile open-source ecommerce platform that offers a wide range of features for businesses of all sizes.
The key features include secure checkout, shipping calculators, product management, coupon codes, customer reviews, and robust reporting.
It is free to download and use, with the only necessary expense being web hosting.
One of the key advantages of WooCommerce is its tight integration with WordPress, allowing users to combine world-class commerce with content management.
WooCommerce has a large and active community of users and developers worldwide. It also offers thousands of extensions and plugins, both free and premium, to enhance the functionality of your online store.
With its user-friendly interface and no coding skills required, even people with less proficiency can start an online store using WooCommerce.
Check out: Shopify vs Lazada
Ease of Use & Setup
Ecwid
Ecwid is known for being extremely easy to set up and use, making it a great choice for beginners looking to start an online store.
Here are the key points:
- The interface is very intuitive and user-friendly, with a short learning curve. The dashboard has a vertical menu on the left to access key functionality.
- Setting up an Ecwid store is incredibly simple and only takes a few minutes. The onboarding process provides a to-do list to guide you through the initial setup.
- Adding products, creating categories, setting up shipping and payment methods is all very straightforward. Ecwid provides suggestions and templates to help design your store.
- Customizing the look and feel of your store is easy with Ecwid’s themes and color options, without needing any coding experience.
- Ecwid integrates seamlessly with many dropshipping suppliers, making it easy to import products in just a few clicks. This allows beginners to quickly set up an online store with a wide product catalog.
- The mobile apps for Android and iOS allow managing your store on-the-go, with high ratings from users.
Ecwid’s simplicity and ease of use are major advantages, especially for new entrepreneurs looking to start an online business with minimal technical skills.
Explore: Best 8 Ecwid Ecommerce Templates
Ge free FOREVER plan. Set up your free account once, and keep it as long as you like.
WooCommerce
Setting up WooCommerce is a straightforward process that involves a series of steps to configure the plugin for your online store.
- Installation: To install WooCommerce, access your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New, search for “WooCommerce,” and click on Install Now. Once installed, activate the plugin to launch its setup wizard, which guides you through the initial setup process.
- Basic Information: During setup, you will be asked to provide essential details about your store, such as its location, currency, and the types of products you plan to sell (physical, digital, or both).
- Payment Gateways: Configure payment options like Stripe, PayPal, and offline methods. You can also add more gateways through plugins.
- Shipping Configuration: Set up shipping zones, rates, and measurements. Additional shipping options can be added through plugins.
- Store Customization: Choose a theme for your store, configure tax settings, and personalize your store’s appearance. You can also add features and extensions through plugins to tailor your store to your needs.
- Additional Steps: After the initial setup, you can further enhance your store by adding extensions, themes, and plugins to meet specific requirements. WooCommerce provides complete ownership of your store and integrates with various services for secure data accessibility.
WooCommerce’s user-friendly interface, extensive customization options, and scalability make it a popular choice for ecommerce businesses of all sizes.
Read this too: Shopify vs Instamojo
Website Integration & Compatibility
Ecwid
Ecwid is a versatile ecommerce platform that offers seamless website integration with various popular website builders like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace.
It allows you to embed your Ecwid store into an existing website or create a new one using Ecwid’s site builder.
Additionally, Ecwid supports selling through multiple channels, including social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, and in-person sales with POS integration for events, markets, or brick-and-mortar stores.
Moreover, Ecwid provides marketing and SEO tools to help promote your store, such as social media integration and SEO optimization features
Ecwid works s great for businesses wanting to add online sales to their current sites without redoing everything.
You can add Ecwid to your site easily, whether through a widget, app, or custom setup. This way, your site’s design flows well from information pages to the online store section.
Also read: Ecwid vs Squarespace
WooCommerce
WooCommerce offers seamless integration with WordPress and a wide range of features and customization options. Here are some key benefits:
- WooCommerce works with dozens of payment gateways and has extensions for nearly any type of ecommerce functionality you can think of, allowing you to build a highly customized and feature-rich online store.
- To ensure compatibility, it’s important to keep your WooCommerce plugin updated to the latest version. This not only enhances security and stability but also enables you to leverage the newest features and improvements offered by WooCommerce.
- WooCommerce supports a variety of product types including simple, variable, bundle, and composite products. It also integrates with external/affiliate products.
- WooCommerce offers a user-friendly admin interface for managing your store, products, orders, coupons, and more. It also provides tools for customizing the look and feel of your store.
- By default, WooCommerce creates a “Shop” page on your WordPress site where your store is displayed.
WooCommerce’s compatibility with various payment gateways, product types, and third-party extensions makes it a popular choice for creating unique and feature-rich ecommerce experiences.
Check out: Shopify vs Shopware
Customization & Design Options
Ecwid
Ecwid offers a wide range of customization and design options to help you create a unique and personalized shopping experience for your customers.
You can change the look and feel of your Ecwid store by creating a custom CSS theme, using the Ecwid JavaScript API, choosing from dozens of ready-made themes, or enabling Color Adaptive Mode to automatically match the colors of your Ecwid store to your website theme.
You can also customize various elements of your storefront, including changing the look of category and product thumbnails, organizing product page content to optimize for conversions, and customizing navigation elements like the footer menu, breadcrumbs, and sorting options.
Ecwid allows you to customize the checkout process by adding custom fields, validating VAT IDs via a third-party service, and choosing from over 150+ integrated payment methods.
Ecwid also offers custom development services to help you achieve your desired store design and functionality.
Explore: Ecwid vs Shopify
Ge free FOREVER plan. Set up your free account once, and keep it as long as you like.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an outstanding platform for customization and design. Thanks to its seamless integration with WordPress, you can use any WordPress theme with Ecwid.
This means you can create a custom homepage or shop section easily. You can make your category pages, product lists, and product pages look just like your WordPress site.
With Ecwid, you can also change the colors of buttons, text, and more. This lets your online store match your brand’s look.
Plus, it helps your customers have a smooth experience. Whether you want to stand out with your website design, or use WordPress themes and the Gutenberg editor, Ecwid’s customization tools have you covered.
Read this too: Sellfy vs Gumroad
Customer Support & Resources
Both Ecwid and WooCommerce offer help, but they do it in their own ways.
Ecwid shines with several support options, like live chat, emails, and phone calls (for high-tier plans). Their support team is quick to respond and very useful in solving any problems you have.
Ecwid’s docs library, forums, and guides and tutorials are also there. These are perfect for figuring things out on your own and learning about Ecwid’s tools and features.
WooCommerce, as a WordPress plugin, taps into the big WooCommerce docs, WordPress forums, and a huge collection of WooCommerce extensions. These resources help you make your online store unique and powerful.
In the end, either choice gives you solid support and many resources for your online store. How much help you can get and what kind of support each offers might shape your decision. This is especially so as you figure out which one fits your business best.
Also read: Sellfy vs Stan Store
Product Management
Ecwid
The product management feature of Ecwid includes various tools and functionalities to help users effectively manage their online store.
Users can easily add products, edit descriptions with custom fields for sizing, quantities, and colors, and enhance product galleries with images and videos.
Ecwid offers automated marketing tools to grow the audience and increase brand awareness. Additionally, Ecwid also provides a mobile store feature to sell from anywhere,.
Moreover, users can unify their offline and online business by integrating their physical store with Ecwid, receive 24/7 support, and access new features added monthly to streamline the online sales process.
Also read: Ecwid vs Prestashop
WooCommerce
With WooCommerce, you can organize products into categories, set attributes for filtering, and manage product variations easily. Here are key aspects of WooCommerce’s product management feature:
- Product Categories: Categories help organize products into groups like tops, bottoms, etc., making it easier for customers to find items in the same category.
- Attributes: Attributes like size, color, and material help customers filter products based on specific properties, aiding in product search and selection.
- Adding New Products: When adding a new product, you can provide a short description, assign categories and tags, upload images, and publish the product to make it live on your site.
- Managing Products: Managing products involves tasks like editing, duplicating, deleting, and featuring products. You can perform bulk operations and easily duplicate or edit products from the Products Page.
- Plugins: There are plugins available to enhance the product management process in WooCommerce. These plugins can streamline tasks and improve efficiency in managing products on your online store.
WooCommerce’s product management feature offers a user-friendly interface for adding, categorizing, and managing products on your e-commerce site, providing essential tools for effective online store management.
Check out: Shopify vs mijndomein
Pricing
Ecwid
Ecwid offers diverse pricing plans designed to cater to businesses of all sizes:
- Free Plan: With the free plan, you can easily check out the features available from Ecwid. The Free plan allows you to add up to 5 products to your catalog. It comes with basic tools to get started with your online store. This is an ideal plan for merchants with a very small number of products or those looking to test the platform before upgrading.
- Venture Plan: Priced at $25 per month (or $21 per month if billed annually), this plan is a great option for stores up to 100 products. This plan allows you to sell digital products like e-books, audio, and video on Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, it also provides mobile app access to manage your store on the go.
- Business Plan: This plan will cost you $45 per month (or $39 per month if paid yearly). It comes with all features of the Venture plan and supports 2500 products, multi-lingual store and up to 2 staff accounts.
- Unlimited Plan: Priced at $105 per month (or $89 per month if paid annually), this plan is the right choice if you intend to include unlimited number of products in your catalog. It includes all features of the Business plan and provides a mobile app called ShopApp® for customers to place orders directly from their devices.
While Ecwid does not charge any transaction fees, you may incur additional costs for payment processing, themes, and plugins depending on your specific needs.
Also read: Ecwid Coupon Code – How To Get Discount On Ecwid?
Ge free FOREVER plan. Set up your free account once, and keep it as long as you like.
WooCommerce
Here are the key pricing details for running a WooCommerce online store:
Necessary Costs
- Hosting: $6.95/month to $12.95/month
- Domain name: $15/year
- SSL certificate: $8/year
- WooCommerce plugin: Free
- WordPress theme: Free or $35-129 for a professional theme
Optional Costs
- Payment processing fees: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
- Shipping extensions: $227/year
- Email marketing (e.g. Omnisend): $192/year
- SEO plugin (e.g. Yoast): $79/year
- Product recommendation plugin: $79/year
- Bookings plugin: $249/year
- Subscriptions plugin: $199/year
Developer Fees
- Hourly rate: $10-100+/hour
- Full site design & build: $1,000-6,000+
The total cost can range from about $110/year for a basic site with free themes and plugins and up to $1,500+/year for an advanced site with premium themes, extensions and developer fees.
The flexibility of WooCommerce allows you to start with essentials and expand as your business grows.
Explore: Shopify vs Fourthwall
Conclusion
As you can see, both platforms are good at what they offer.
If you are looking to establish a large store with extensive customization options and are willing to invest time in setup, WooCommerce might be the better choice.
On the other hand, if you prefer a simpler setup, cost-effectiveness, and ease of use, especially for smaller businesses or startups, Ecwid could be more suitable.
