Every online business needs an effect ecommerce software product for the proper functioning of the platform for the users as well as for the company in the backend. The two most popular ecommerce software solutions at present are Ecwid and WooCommerce. The reasons for popularity are their robustness, simplicity of use, and advanced features. It can be quite confusing for business persons to choose one from the two as they score great overall considering all aspects. Therefore, to ease out the decision, we are providing you a complete comparison between Ecwid and WooCommerce that is relevant in 2019.
Overall Features and Strengths –
Let us first get an overall of the two ecommerce solution providers before going into the comparison part.
Ecwid – The user interface is very simple and therefore, it boosts the shopping experience for the users. All the processes are quite seamless, and the checkout is quite easy without any hassle. Besides, it can do language detection and provide translation service. You can maintain a customer address book perfectly and fetch it instantly. The users can save their favorite products for future purchase. Moreover, there is an exclusive smart shipping calculator available.
For the backend team, they can track the inventory and manage everything of different products perfectly. They can define the shipping options, sell digital goods, and customize the design as per requirements. It lets the businesspersons sell items on multiple sites.
WooCommerce – The user interface is modern and quite clean. It has worked extensively to improve the experience of the users as well as store owners. However, it is only applicable to WordPress websites, and there are many pre-installed payment gateways available which are commonly used. The user can have total control on the checkout process, and you can also set default current as per geo-location. Moreover, there is provision for automatic taxes, and you can moderate the cart behavior to ease out the process for the users.
One can add and manage products effortlessly, and inventory management will be perfect. On top that, there are cart calculator, automatic shipping calculation, geo-location based taxes, discounts and coupons codes all available and applicable. In many ways, WooCommerce is more complete than Ecwid.
Differences and Comparisons –
Integration – The drawback of WooCommerce is that for now, it is only compatible with WordPress website. On the other hand, Ecwid is compatible with WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, Tumblr, Wix, Weebly, Freshbooks, Facebook, and what not. This is why the reach of Ecwid is much more than WooCommerce though, in popularity terms, WooCommerce is ahead of Ecwid. But the integration process of Ecwid is smoother and seamless. As for WooCommerce, the integration is manual, and some technical knowledge is required which is why you may have to hire an expert.
Free Plan – For a startup or even for a business, trying out the free version is important before moving on to the paid version. In fact, some of the startups start with the free version to reduce the expenses. As far as the free version goes, Ecwid offers more features. WooCommerce has limited features in the free plan, and therefore, you have to opt for the basic paid version sooner than later.
Overall – Ecwid focuses more on streamlining the entire store management process with different options to cater to all needs. WooCommerce focuses more on flexibility and dynamic aspects. This is why WooCommerce is extremely popular among large enterprises. WooCommerce provides real-time inventory management, and there are options for report generation sales optimization, SEO aspects, and even marketing capabilities.
Ecwid has limited customization options, and you have to use APIs for extensive customization which can increase the load. On the other hand, WooCommerce provides more options as it is an open-source solution. There are many ready-made themes and color schemes available to get your desired designed.
If you have a WordPress website, WooCommerce is an automatic choice. However, if you are opting for the free version, Ecwid is better. However, if your website is not based on WordPress but any other type of CMS platform, Ecwid is the only choice you have. Both are great in terms of performance, controls, customizations, and effectiveness. In short, Ecwid helps in simple and streamlined ecommerce while WooCommerce is more for dynamic ecommerce.