Setting up an online store is tricky enough without having to decide which plugins to add to your WordPress site. You know you need a payment gateway, shipping options, maybe an email marketing plugin, and definitely a contact form. 

In this article, we will explore some of the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress. Whether you’re a seasoned online retailer or just starting out, these plugins will provide you with the tools you need to create a seamless and successful eCommerce experience. From inventory management to payment processing, we’ve got you covered. 

TL;DR: The most crucial plugin for an eCommerce store is a security plugin because it protects customer information from cyber attacks. Without it, the store is vulnerable to hacking, phishing, and malware, which can result in revenue loss, reputational damage, and legal consequences. MalCare is a best-in-class security plugin with malware scanning, firewall protection to prevent attacks, and one-click malware removal. Create a safe shopping environment for your customers, which will increase trust, loyalty, and drive business growth. 

In this article, we’ll cover anything eCommerce-related that you can think of. From building a storefront to managing backups or security, we’ve got you covered. With the sheer number of WordPress eCommerce plugins that we’re talking about in this article, we’ve categorized them so you can find what you’re looking for quickly.

Best WordPress plugins for eCommerce store content and customisation

1. WooCommerce 
2. Easy Digital Downloads 
3. MemberPress 
4. SeedProd

Best WordPress plugins for eCommerce transactions

5. WooCommerce Payments 
6. WooCommerce Multilingual and Multi Currency
7. WooCommerce Tax

Best WordPress plugins for eCommerce shipping, delivery and fulfilment

8. WooCommerce Shipstation 

Best eCommerce plugins for marketing and sales

9. AIOSEO
10. MonsterInsights
11. OptinMonster
12. WPForms 
13. HubSpot 

Best eCommerce store essentials plugins

14. BlogVault
15. MalCare
16. Really Simple SSL 
17. Airlift 

Best eCommerce plugins for WordPress

We’ve ranked the WordPress eCommerce plugins with four factors taken into consideration: support, features, free versions, and active installations. These are all signs of good plugins.

Note: Check out the reviews and plugin details before you install them. Make sure you have the right WordPress version and that the plugin is not incompatible with the other themes or plugins you’ve installed. This can cause your site to crash. In fact, we recommend you backup your site with BlogVault before you install any other plugins because it takes real-time backups of your eCommerce store.

1. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce WordPress plugin. It has everything you need, out of the box. It is also fully customizable and integrates with extensions for added functions like memberships, subscriptions or payment gateways. WooCommerce gives you the opportunity to create whatever you wsnt. 

What do they do?

• Creates custom storefronts
• Optimiszes shopping experience
• Edits pages with block editor
• Sells digital or physical products

Why do we recommend it?

• Integrates easily with extensions
• Lots of features out of the box
• Great documentation and support

Price: Free

2. Really Simple SSL

Have you ever noticed the “Not Secure” warning next to the URL of a site? It will almost always deter visitors. You need to install an SSL certification to encrypt the communication to and from your site, to get rid of that warning and provide a secure experience. If that sounds complicated, relax. Just download the free plugin Really Simple SSL to help you out. Follow the onscreen instructions, and you’ll be good to go.  

What does it do?

• Migrates HTTP to HTTPS
• Offers site health monitors
• Helps with site hardening
• Detects mixed content
• Offers protection for visitors
• Helps control privacy features

Why do we recommend it?

• Essential for security
• Popular for its ease of use 

Price: Free

Alternatives: WP Encryption

 3. WooCommerce Payments

You need a payment gateway to help you accept payments from a customer. With payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal, you need a plugin that integrates the gateway to your site. WooCommerce Payments has become a popular plugin for users in the US and EU. It’s backed by Stripe and supports over 100 currencies. It has a great interface and fraud prevention tools. 

What does it do?

• Monitors payments 
• Manages refunds
• Handles disputes
• Tracks all deposits
• Supports subscriptions
• Manages payments from WP Admin

Why do we recommend it?

• No monthly fees
• One dashboard for everything

Price: Free plugin but there are transaction fees.

Alternatives: Stripe or PayPal

4. AIOSEO

Speed, content, and user experience can all impact SEO and how you rank on Google. A big chunk of technical SEO entails optimising the site to help googlebot understand your site. An eCommerce SEO plugin can help you with those tasks and provide suggestions on how to improve your content. AIOSEO is one of the best SEO plugins on the market and has great features for eCommerce stores. 

What does it do?

• Creates brand categories
• Adds basic product information
• Generates sitemaps automatically
• Includes product descriptions
• Suggests meta descriptions
• Uses AI for content analysis

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy to use
• Has great WooCommerce-specific tools

Price: Plans start from $124 a year. 

Alternatives: Yoast SEO

5. MalCare

Security is complicated but necessary for a site. You need to scan the site for malware and vulnerabilities, be able to remove any malware as soon as possible, and install a firewall to prevent future attacks. MalCare does all of this automatically, in seconds, and with minimal effort from you. 

While MalCare has a powerful free version, the pro version is chock-full of features that help you with backups, migration, and so much more. So, it’s a complete maintenance solution for your online store.

What does it do?

• Blocks attacks with a real-time firewall
• Limits login attempts
• Conducts daily malware scans
• Monitors for vulnerabilities in plugins and themes
• Provides personal support
• Blocks bad bots
• Removes malware with one-click
• Tracks actions with an activity log
• Takes incremental backups
• 1-click staging
• Monitors performance
• 1-click migration

Why do we recommend it?

• Packed with features
• Complete solution for site management

Price: Depending on the plan you choose, the price can be anywhere from free to $299 a year per site. 

6. WooCommerce Multilingual and Multicurrency 

The WooCommerce Multilingual and Multi-Currency plugin helps you reach a larger audience. You can expand your online store to sell in other countries. The plugin helps you translate your content to other languages so your customers understand it. It also offers other currencies so they can pick the right currency for their location.

What does it do?

• Translates site content
• Displays currency options
• Adds currency switchers
• Enables multiple currencies during checkout

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy-to-use plugin
• Aids with international transactions

Price: Free

Alternatives: Weglot Translate and CURCY

7. Easy Digital Downloads

While WooCommerce also allows you to sell digital downloads, it doesn’t protect them. Easy Digital Downloads is a complete tool for such sites. It prevents visitors from downloading your products without paying for it. This is because it restricts access to content depending on the type of consumer. It also offers a direct checkout functionality that helps with customer experience.

What do they do?

• Creates product catalogues
• Adds cart functionality
• Offers custom checkouts
• Accepts payments
• Monitors customer details
• Adds discount functionality

Why do we recommend it?

• Complete documentation
• Compatible with payment gateway plugins

Price: Free

Alternatives: Digital Download Goods Checkout for WooCommerce

8. Airlift

Site speed can make or break a customer’s shopping experience. You also want a fast page load speed to rank better because even Google knows that nobody wants to visit a slow site. Generally, optimising for speed is a backend job that requires coding experience. A plugin like Airlift can be your perfect performance solution. 

What does it do?

• Offers caching 
• Optimises images 
• Includes CDN
• Improves CSS 

Why do we recommend it?

• Quick results
• Visible improvement in minutes

Price: Free

Alternatives: W3 Total Cache

9. WPForms

Forms can be a helpful way to gain information from or interact with your customers. Whatever the requirement is—billing details, shipping details, contact forms, etc—WPForms can help. They offer amazing pre-designed form templates that you’d love. It’s an easy plugin to use and creates forms with no effect on your site speed. 

What does it do?

• Creates custom files
• Provides instant notifications
• Creates high performance forms
• Creates multi-page forms
• Offers smart captcha functionality
• Offers pre-designed templates
• Helps with entry management
• Adds functionality to upload files

Why do we recommend it?

• Drag-and-drop builder
• Easy-to-use

Alternatives: Contact Form 7

10. MonsterInsights

Google has a lot of very helpful tools like Search Console, Google Analytics, Ads, PageSpeed Insights, and Tag Manager. They each have their own dashboards and integrations, which can be inconvenient for analysis. MonsterInsights is a plugin that collects all that data from across all those tools and puts them together. It makes it easy to access and analyse all the data in one spot.

What does it do?

• Consolidates data
• Simplifies data
• Provides metrics

Why do we recommend it?

• One dashboard for many tools
• Easy to set up

Price: Free

Alternatives:  Exact Metrics

11. HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing tool for your eCommerce store. It helps with email and social media marketing. It also consolidates data and provides reports on your revenue and return on investment. It’s the only plugin you will need to manage your campaigns and encourage conversions. 

What does it do?

• Provides revenue reports
• Monitors return on investment
• Helps with email marketing
• Adds calls-to-action on blogs
• Helps with content strategy
• Monitors customer interactions 
• Adds live chat functionality

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy to use
• Great for marketing on multiple platforms

Price: The plugin can be free or go as high as $3600 a month for an enterprise.

Alternatives:  OptinMonster

12. BlogVault

Backups are recommended for the same reason as health insurance. You never want to be in a position to need to restore a backup. But, if anything goes awry, you will be grateful to have a reliable backup. Backups are copies of your site that get stored for a rainy day. With eCommerce stores, we recommend BlogVault because it takes real-time backups. This offers security against ever losing any amount of customer or order data. 

What does it do?

• Takes daily automatic backups
• Stores 90-365 days of backups
• Includes free staging feature
• Monitors site’s uptime
• Helps with easy migration
• Offers visual regression tests
• Auto-updates for WordPress, plugins, and themes
• Personal support for customers
• Includes site security features
• Easy backup restore functionality

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy backup and restore
• Necessary for every site

Price: Depending on the plan you choose, the price can range from $89 a year to $299 per site.

13. SeedProd

We’ve talked about how to set up a basic WordPress eCommerce store. SeedProd is the key to taking it to the next level. It is especially compatible with WooCommerce and helps you create beautifully functional product, cart, and checkout pages. But it also has stunning pre-designed templates and themes for different kinds of sites that save you time and effort. 

What do they do?

• Creates pixel-perfect pages
• Customises responsive pages
• Offers pre-designed templates
• Designs pages in real-time
• Can globalise colours and typography
• Adds text, images, or buttons etc

Why do we recommend it?

• Doesn’t affect speed
• Easy to use
• Great WooCommerce-specific widgets

Price: Plans start from $79 a year

Alternatives: Divi, Beaver Builder, WPBakery, & Gutenberg

14. OptinMonster

In an era where a lot of people shop off of their social media accounts, it’s important to be able to sell on those platforms seamlessly. Instagram and Facebook have become really popular spots for buying and selling. OptinMonster helps you share on multiple platforms easily and from one place. 

What does it do?

• Shares posts on multiple platforms
• Controls how much is shared 
• Optimises hashtags based on tags
• Shares posts on a repeated cycle
• Shares posts as soon as published

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy setup and install
• Full control over shares

Price: Plans start at $9 a month.

Alternatives: Sassy Social Share

15. WooCommerce Tax 

Understanding how much tax you owe and/or need to collect can be painstaking. WooCommerce Tax, another plugin in the WooCommerce ecosystem, helps you do just that. As long as you live in the US, Canada, Australia or UK, this plugin can be a boon. 

What does it do?

• Collects sales tax
• Calculates sales tax

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy to use
• Well-reviewed

Price: Free

Alternatives: EU/UK VAT Compliance Assistant for WooCommerce

16. MemberPress

MemberPress helps you to monetise exclusive content or courses that can be sold to viewers. You can also build communities focused on a shared interest, encouraging engagement. You can also do other things like creating coupons and help you tease content. 

What do they do?

• Helps you sell courses
• Helps create community
• Sets access rules
• Helps create coupons
• Customises pricing pages
• Offers paywall power
• Helps tease content

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy setup
• Integrates well with plugins
• Great reviews

Price: Three plans ranging from $179.50 to $319.60 a year

Alternatives: Simple Memberships

17. WooCommerce Shipstation

Shipping involves a lot of things: understanding what your customer wants, recognising which carriers offer that experience, print labels that offer the correct order information, and tracking the order till it reaches your customer. While a plugin can’t do the packing or actual delivery, it can do everything else. This is why we recommend WooCommerce Shipstation. 

What does it do?

• Syncs orders across platforms
• Offers custom shipping options
• Provides product information
• Adds customer notes functionality
• Provides shipping updates 

Why do we recommend it?

• Tie-ups with carriers
• Easy to use

Price: Costs range from $9.99 to $299.90 a month, depending on the number of monthly shipments. 

Alternatives: ELEX WooCommerce USPS Shipping Plugin

How to pick the best eCommerce plugin for a WordPress site?

Besides the features and price, what else do you need to consider when picking the best eCommerce plugin for a WordPress site? The following list will work for any kind of plugin and is a great rule of thumb:

• Compatibility: The plugin needs to be compatible with the WordPress version, the active theme, and all the other plugins you’re using. Additionally, check WordPress support forums and/or Reddit to see reviews. What do people have issues with? You’ll often find people talking about a plugin not being compatible with another.

• Rate of updates: How often a plugin is updated is a good sign that the developers haven’t abandoned it. Updates have bug fixes and address any vulnerabilities. We mentioned earlier that a vulnerable plugin can be used to hack your site. We can’t reiterate enough the importance of installing a plugin like MalCare that can constantly scan and warn you of any problems. 

• Support team: Sometimes, a plugin can have personalised support or a community based support team. Depending on how much help and what kind of help you want, these could be very helpful. Sometimes you will get a response in hours and other times it can take about a day. 

• Documentation: If you’re the kind of person that follows the instructions on a manual before you build furniture or set up a device, documentation is going to be helpful. It contains information about how to install, how to use features, etc. 

• Active installations: This is the number of active users that are using the plugin. This information may not be readily available with premium plugins. But if it is available, we definitely recommend using plugins that have a higher number. It’s a good bet that the plugin is good. 

Why use WordPress eCommerce plugins?

Can you build your eCommerce store without plugins? Sure. WordPress is an open source software. So, you can definitely do with it as you wish. Do we recommend it? No. The following is a list of reasons why:

• Requires no coding: Plugin files have all the code it requires. Just buy and/or install it on your site. You’re all set. The plugin is now ready for you to start using. 

• Helps save time: While you could easily write code to add forms to your site, installing WPForms is definitely faster. If you can install plugins that take care of most of your tasks, you have more time to spend on other things like growth and strategy. 

• Avoids human error: You don’t have to manually scan each line of code for malware. MalCare can do it automatically. You don’t have to backup your site manually. BlogVault can do it. 
• Adds functionality easily: There is so much a plugin can do. You can use it to accept payments, to calculate taxes, to add a storefront, and more. All you need to do is install it and take a few minutes to customise it to your site. 

• Avoids edits to core files: A plugin essentially plugs into the core filters with hooks. They use actions and filters to determine how a site acts when an event occurs. This allows plugins to be installed and removed, with no effect on the core files. 

Final thoughts

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we’d like to reiterate the importance of security plugins. MalCare is the best way to protect you and your customers from letting important data fall in the wrong hands. 

That’s a wrap on our best eCommerce plugins for WordPress. We hope you’ve found this list helpful and wish you all the luck with your eCommerce site. 

FAQs

What is the best eCommerce plugin for WordPress?

The best WordPress plugins for eCommerce store are:

• WooCommerce 
• Easy Digital Downloads 
• MemberPress 
• Elementor 
• WooCommerce Payments
• WooCommerce Multilingual and Multi-Currency
• WooCommerce Tax
• WooCommerce Shipstation 
• RankMath 
• Site Kit by Google
• Revive Social 
• WPForms 
• HubSpot 
• BlogVault
• MalCare
• Really Simple SSL 
• Airlift 

What plugins do I need for the WordPress eCommerce store?

You need the following plugins for a WordPress eCommerce store:

• WooCommerce 
• Easy Digital Downloads 
• MemberPress 
• Elementor 
• WooCommerce Payments
• WooCommerce Multilingual and Multi-Currency
• WooCommerce Tax
• WooCommerce Shipstation 
• RankMath 
• Site Kit by Google
• Revive Social 
• WPForms 
• HubSpot 
• BlogVault
• MalCare
• Really Simple SSL 
• Airlift 

How do I integrate eCommerce into my WordPress site?

Install and set up WooCommerce to integrate eCommerce functionality with your WordPress site. It may be basic but you can use extensions and plugins to add more functionality to your store.