Choosing the right ecommerce platform can make or break your online business, and with so many options available, it can be overwhelming to know which option is the better fit for your venture.
In the debate of Ecwid vs WooCommerce, both platforms provide powerful tools to help you sell products, accept payments, and manage shipments—but their features, pricing, and usability vary.
In this detailed comparison, we’ll break down everything you need to know about Ecwid and WooCommerce to help you determine which platform is best for growing your online store.
Overview of Ecwid and WooCommerce
Before discussing the main points of our comparison, let’s review the two platforms and how they have become the go-to solution for entrepreneurs and store owners.
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid (short for Ecommerce Widget) is a cloud-based ecommerce platform that allows businesses to add online stores to their existing websites, social media platforms, or marketplaces.
Unlike regular ecommerce platforms that require you to build a store from scratch, Ecwid easily integrates shopping cart features into your existing website without overhauling it.
Pricing Structure
Ecwid has several pricing tiers that cater to different business needs, including –
- Free Plan: Allows you to list up to 5 products and access basic features, perfect for very small businesses or individuals just starting out.
- Venture Plan ($25/month): Supports up to 100 products and includes features like discount coupons, social media integration, and automated tax calculations.
- Business Plan ($45/month): Allows up to 2,500 products, offering advanced features like product variations, abandoned cart emails, and more payment options.
- Unlimited Plan ($89/month): Removes all product limits and unlocks premium support, additional staff accounts, and customization capabilities.
- Transaction Fees: One of Ecwid’s major advantages is that it doesn’t charge transaction fees, even on its free plan.
Quick Statistics for Ecwid
- Ecwid powers 202, 132 websites in over 175 countries.
- Ecwid stores experienced an 8.0% quarter-over-quarter growth in Q3 2024 (Store Leads, 2024).
- 46.9% of all Ecwid stores use Instagram and Facebook to promote their business.
- 25.2% of Ecwid stores are located in the United States, which makes it the leading country globally.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce plugin specifically designed for WordPress websites. It turns any WordPress site into a fully functional online store handling everything from selling physical or digital products, managing inventory, accepting payments, and shipping orders.
It’s known for its massive ecosystem of plugins, and customization flexibility; which makes it a go-to solution for businesses looking for complete control over their online store.
Pricing Structure
WooCommerce is free to use, but that doesn’t mean it’s cost-free. Here’s a breakdown of potential expenses –
- Hosting: Since WooCommerce runs on WordPress, you need to pay for a web host, which typically costs between $3 and $30 per month, depending on the provider.
- Domain Name: Expect to pay around $10 to $15 per year for a domain name.
- SSL Certificate: Some hosts provide this for free, but it can cost up to $100 annually if purchased separately.
- Themes: WooCommerce works with free themes, but premium themes can range from $30 to $100 or more, depending on the level of customization you want.
- Plugins and Extensions: While WooCommerce offers a lot of features out-of-the-box, additional functionality may require premium plugins, which can range from $25 to $299 per plugin.
- Transaction Fees: WooCommerce doesn’t have built-in transaction fees, but your payment processor may charge a small percentage per transaction.
Quick Statistics for WooCommerce
- WooCommerce stores experienced a 42% year-over-year growth in Q3 2024 (Store Leads, 2024).
- WooCommerce powers about 6.6 million websites as of 2024
- WooCommerce holds around 20.1% market share of all ecommerce sites on WordPress.
Check out this blog on WooCommerce Statistics to learn more about the state of the plugin.
Ecwid vs WooCommerce: A Complete Comparison
Now that you understand how each platform operates, let’s examine its offerings closer to find which option is the best fit for your online store. Below are the topics we will be covering in this comprehensive comparison –
- Ease of Use and Setup
- Customizations and Ecommerce Features
- Scalability and Performance
- Security and Maintenance
- Customer Support
- Payment Option and Transaction Fees
1. Ease of Use and Setup
Setting up your online store is one of the first steps in building your e-commerce business. Let’s see how each platform performs against this criterion.
Ecwid
Installation and Setup Process
Ecwid has a straightforward setup process that’s designed to be as user-friendly as possible. As it’s a cloud-based solution, you don’t need to worry about hosting or installing third-party tools on your server.
Start by signing up for an account on the Ecwid website, and follow the steps given to set up your online store. After answering some basic questions about your store and preferences, Ecwid will generate a default storefront.
To integrate Ecwid with your existing website, navigate to Ecwid Admin > Sales Channels > Website > Add your store to one more website > Pick platform > Other platforms and site builders > Copy and paste the Ecwid store widget code onto your website.
If you don’t already have a website, you can find a free customizable storefront that you can build from scratch without any additional software.
Dashboard and User Interface
Ecwid’s dashboard is intuitive and clean, so you can manage products, orders, payments, and customers with just a few clicks. The layout is designed for non-technical users, so you won’t need extensive coding knowledge to navigate the platform.
WooCommerce
Setup as a WordPress Plugin
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, meaning that to use it, you’ll need to have a WordPress website. If you already have WordPress installed, you can simply download the WooCommerce plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory and install it.
Once installed, WooCommerce will guide you through a step-by-step setup wizard to configure essential settings like currency, payment methods, shipping options, and tax settings.
Its self-hosted nature works like a double-edged source, which means that you need to handle hosting and security, as well as theme customization.
Dashboard and User Interface
Since WooCommerce is built into WordPress, its dashboard integrates with WordPress’s admin panel. Once installed, you’ll find new WooCommerce tabs in your dashboard for managing products, orders, coupons, and reports.
If you’re familiar with WordPress, the learning curve is relatively short. However, for newcomers, WooCommerce might seem a bit more complex than Ecwid due to the sheer number of options available.
Its deep customization ability also means you’ll encounter more settings and configurations. WooCommerce provides detailed product management tools, including product variations, stock levels, shipping classes, and categories.
Winner
Ecwid is the winner in terms of ease of use and setup, as its cloud-based system requires no hosting or technical knowledge, with a simple setup and easy website integration.
WooCommerce, though powerful, requires more technical expertise due to its self-hosted nature and integration with WordPress.
2. Customizations and Ecommerce Features
The features and customization ability for Ecwid vs WooCommerce greatly affect the performance of your store. This section will compare the types of features you will get with each platform and how they can benefit your business.
Ecwid
Store Design and Layout
Ecwid provides a user-friendly interface to customize the design of your online store. You can choose from a selection of pre-designed themes that cater to different business types or create your own by adjusting colors, fonts, and layouts.
The drag-and-drop editor allows you to easily rearrange elements like product listings, banners, and navigation menus to fit your branding. However, there are some customization limitations compared to WooCommerce.
Ecwid’s customization primarily revolves around adjusting pre-set themes rather than extensive modifications. It also does not support custom themes developed by third-party designers, which can limit the ability to create highly specialized designs.
Product Management
Ecwid lets you manage a catalog of up to 10 products for free, while paid plans offer significantly more. You can add product titles, descriptions, images, and categories, and even offer digital products like downloads or services.
For inventory, you can manage stock levels, track products, add variations, and set automated notifications when stock runs low.
Sales Channels
Ecwid’s multi-channel selling capabilities are one of its biggest selling points. You can directly integrate with popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to sync your product catalog and sell directly on these platforms. This also applies to marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
You can find third-party integrations from the Ecwid App Market. These integrations can be managed from Ecwid’s unified dashboard, allowing you to track and manage sales from multiple channels in one place.
Marketing and SEO Features
Ecwid has several built-in marketing tools to help store owners drive traffic and increase sales. You can create discount codes, and promotional pricing, and manage abandoned cart recovery, directly from the dashboard.
It also integrates with Google Shopping, allowing you to list your products on Google’s marketplace and get more visibility. For SEO, Ecwid automatically generates clean URLs, meta tags, and alt text for images to help optimize your store for search engines.
Shipping and Fulfillment
Ecwid offers real-time shipping rates from major carriers like USPS, UPS, and FedEx. You can set fixed shipping fees, offer free shipping, or customize rates based on order total or weight.
It also supports local delivery, and pickup options, and integrates with dropshipping services like Alibaba and Printful.
WooCommerce
Store Design and Layout
WooCommerce is compatible with thousands of WordPress themes, many of which are specifically designed for ecommerce.
You can choose from a wide range of free and premium themes, and modify them using the built-in WordPress Customizer or Elementor Editor. You can change colors, fonts, layouts, and more with the help of Elementor.
Advanced users can also add custom CSS or PHP code to change how the store functions. WooCommerce Elementor builder plugins like CoDesigner let you seamlessly optimize your store for mobile devices to reach a larger and more diverse audience.
Product Management
WooCommerce excels at product management, as it supports unlimited products. You can create customizable product types, including physical, digital, or affiliate products, and add extensive product variations, including options for size, color, and pricing adjustments based on product attributes.
WooCommerce also supports advanced features like grouped products (bundling multiple products together), variable products, and subscriptions. The inventory management is also advanced, allowing you to track stock levels, get low-stock alerts, and automate backorders.
Third-Party Integrations and Plugins
WooCommerce benefits greatly from the extensive WordPress ecosystem. You can integrate WooCommerce with thousands of third-party tools and services, including accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero), CRM systems (HubSpot, Salesforce), and marketing platforms (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign).
You can also get specialized features like multi-language support or advanced analytics, all of which can be added through plugins.
Marketing and SEO Features
WooCommerce has built-in marketing tools like discount codes, coupons, and product reviews to help promote your store.
And because it’s built on WordPress, you can access a wide range of SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO, which help optimize your site’s search rankings. You can easily control meta descriptions, SEO titles, and product URL slugs.
Shipping and Fulfillment
WooCommerce provides real-time shipping rates and supports multiple carriers. It offers extensive customization options, including flat rates, free shipping, and variable rates based on order weight, total, or destination.
Local delivery and pickup are fully supported, and shipping labels can be printed directly from the dashboard through integrations with services like ShipStation. WooCommerce also connects to dropshipping platforms via plugins like AliDropship.
Winner
WooCommerce is the better option for users who want flexibility and extensive customization, while Ecwid offers an easier setup with advanced multi-channel selling tools.
3. Scalability and Performance
Once you’ve created your website, you need to know how to effectively scale your business when the time comes. This section explores how well the platform of your choosing handles scalability and performance.
Ecwid
Performance for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses
Ecwid is designed primarily for Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) that want a simple, easy-to-implement solution. As it’s a cloud-hosted platform, Ecwid itself will manage the performance of your store.
Everything from fast load times to high availability and security is handled by the platform’s infrastructure without any technical configuration. For SMBs with moderate traffic, this offers a highly reliable experience with minimal maintenance requirements.
Hosting and Server Performance
Since Ecwid is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, hosting and server performance are fully managed by Ecwid. This means you don’t need to worry about managing servers, optimizing databases, security patches, updates, or scaling infrastructure.
However, you may have limited control over server configurations and performance optimizations compared to self-hosted solutions.
Scaling Limitations
While Ecwid excels for small to medium-sized businesses, its scalability for larger enterprises is somewhat limited. Businesses looking to expand, or those with large inventories (thousands of SKUs), may encounter performance bottlenecks or limitations in Ecwid’s system.
Ecwid has an unlimited plan, but even with this, advanced scaling options (such as detailed performance monitoring, custom server configurations, or dedicated hosting resources) are unavailable.
Tip: Use third-party logistics (3PL) integrations that scale with order volume, reducing manual intervention as your business grows.
WooCommerce
Scalability Based on Hosting Provider
Unlike Ecwid, WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform, which means its scalability and performance are highly dependent on the hosting provider and infrastructure chosen by you.
WooCommerce can scale to support small businesses with minimal traffic, as well as enterprise-level stores with thousands of daily visitors. For smaller stores with low to moderate traffic, WooCommerce can function well with basic hosting packages.
However, as your store grows, you need to upgrade to premium hosting or dedicated servers to keep performance running smoothly. You can use hosting providers that are optimized for WooCommerce (like SiteGround, and Kinsta), as these have features like automatic scaling, CDNs, and caching mechanisms.
Performance for Businesses
WooCommerce’s performance is largely influenced by the hosting environment, caching solutions, and server optimizations. For small businesses, it can handle traffic seamlessly with shared hosting environments. As businesses grow, you can switch to more powerful hosting setups to handle increased demands.
For medium to large businesses, you can implement performance-enhancing features like advanced caching, database, and image optimization using plugins like ThumbPress.
Tip: Minimize the number of active plugins on your WooCommerce store to reduce the risk of slowdowns.
Handling Large Inventories
Stores with thousands of products, including those with complex variations, can rely on WooCommerce’s extensive plugin ecosystem for performance optimization.
Plugins such as WP Rocket (for caching) or Query Monitor (for database performance tracking) can help maintain performance as the business scales. That being said, WooCommerce does require manual configuration to perform optimally at scale, as poorly managed stores can suffer from significant slowdowns.
Winner
Ecwid is better for small businesses that want simplicity and managed performance, while WooCommerce has higher scalability and control for businesses that are willing to invest in the right infrastructure and performance management tools.
4. Security and Maintenance
Security breaches can lead to data loss, damaged reputations, and financial losses, while poorly maintained stores can experience downtime or performance issues. Below is a detailed comparison of Ecwid vs WooCommerce in handling security and maintenance.
Ecwid
Hosting and Security (SSL, PCI Compliance)
Ecwid is a fully hosted solution, meaning that it manages all aspects of hosting and security on behalf of its users. However, there are some features you need to be aware of in terms of security, including –
- SSL Certificates: Ecwid automatically provides SSL encryption for every store. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates are in charge of protecting sensitive information such as credit card numbers and customer details.
- PCI Compliance: Ecwid is PCI DSS Level 1 certified (the highest standard of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) and it stores its data on Amazon Web Services. This certification ensures that Ecwid handles customer payment information securely and meets all industry requirements for online payments.
- Automated Fraud Detection: Ecwid also includes built-in fraud detection features, which monitor transactions for suspicious activities, such as unusually large orders or mismatches in billing and shipping information.
Tip: Stay updated with Ecwid’s security updates and recommendations. If they release a patch or update related to security, apply it immediately.
Maintenance and Updates
One of Ecwid’s primary advantages is that all maintenance and updates are handled by the platform itself. So, you don’t need to worry about applying security patches, updating software, or managing server configurations.
WooCommerce
Security Considerations
Unlike Ecwid, WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform, which means that the responsibility for security lies with you, the store owner. So, there are a couple of steps you need to take to ensure security –
- SSL Certificates: Just like Ecwid, WooCommerce requires an SSL certificate to secure transactions and protect customer information. However, due to its self-hosted nature, you need to obtain, install, and renew the SSL certificate.
- Hosting Provider: WooCommerce’s security is closely tied to the hosting provider. Look for a reliable hosting provider that offers free SSL certificates, automatic backups, and malware scanning. Keep in mind that installation may require technical knowledge or support from the host.
- Regular Updates: WooCommerce and WordPress are both open-source platforms, which means that they rely on regular updates to patch security vulnerabilities. You need to update the core WooCommerce plugin, WordPress itself, and any additional plugins or themes used on the site.
Note: You need to download third-party security plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri to scan for malware, and monitor any vulnerabilities.
Winner
Ecwid is a better choice for store owners who want an all-in-one solution with minimal technical involvement in security and maintenance, while WooCommerce is ideal for businesses that want more control and flexibility.
5. Customer Support
Technical issues can arise without notice, and often they require quick resolutions. Without access to proper support channels, these issues can disrupt your business and impact customer satisfaction.
Below is an overview of the customer support options available on Ecwid and WooCommerce.
Ecwid
Available Support Options
Ecwid offers a range of customer support options that vary based on the package you’ve chosen to purchase. The plans and options include –
- Free Plan: Limited to email support, which may take longer to get responses.
- Paid Plan: Business and Unlimited plans offer live chat and phone support which provides direct and immediate assistance. But these are only reserved for top-tier plans.
Help Center and Community Support
Ecwid has a comprehensive Help Center with detailed guides, tutorials, and FAQs on how to set up and manage stores. You can also access a community forum, where you can ask questions and find answers from other Ecwid users or Ecwid support staff.
WooCommerce
Free Support Options
WooCommerce’s support relies heavily on its open-source nature and large user community.
- WordPress and WooCommerce Forums: You can find help from official WooCommerce forums, where users and developers discuss common issues and solutions. Similarly, the WordPress community is massive, and WooCommerce, being a popular plugin, benefits from this wealth of user-generated support.
- Documentation: WooCommerce offers extensive official documentation, including setup guides, customization tips, and troubleshooting steps.
Paid Support Options
If you’re looking for more hands-on help, you can avail premium support options from either your hosting providers or WooCommerce experts.
- Hosting Providers: Many WooCommerce-optimized hosting services (e.g., SiteGround, or Bluehost) offer technical support specifically for WooCommerce-related issues while some include it in their plans or as add-on services.
- WooCommerce Experts: You can also hire WooCommerce experts or agencies for personalized support, which includes everything from development to ongoing maintenance.
Winner
Ecwid provides a more structured and accessible support system for users, especially on paid plans, while WooCommerce gets you detailed community resources and third-party support.
6. Payment Options and Transaction Fees
The choice of payment gateways and associated transaction fees are major determinants when selecting an ecommerce platform. This section shows the comparison of Ecwid vs WooCommerce in terms of available payment methods, transaction fees, and ease of setup.
Ecwid
Available Payment Gateways
Ecwid supports over 100 payment gateways globally, including popular options like –
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Square
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
Ecwid’s built-in integration with these services makes it easy for businesses to offer both credit card and alternative payment options.
No Transaction Fees on Paid Plans
One of Ecwid’s benefits is that it does not charge additional transaction fees on top of the fees imposed by the payment gateway itself, especially for users on higher-tier plans (Business and Unlimited).
For users on the Free Plan, however, certain limitations may apply in terms of available payment methods.
WooCommerce
Available Payment Gateways
WooCommerce offers extensive payment gateway options through its open-source nature and integration with numerous third-party services. By default, it supports popular gateways such as –
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Square
- Authorize.net
WooCommerce also provides a wide range of additional gateways via plugins, allowing you to integrate regional or industry-specific payment processors.
Potential Transaction Fees
While WooCommerce itself doesn’t charge transaction fees, the payment gateways you use may impose fees. For example, PayPal and Stripe typically charge a percentage of each transaction (e.g., 2.9% + $0.30).
Winner
Ecwid is better suited for those who want a hassle-free payment setup with standard options, while WooCommerce is perfect for businesses looking for greater flexibility in choosing and configuring payment processors.
Ecwid vs WooCommerce – Final Verdict
While there are no obvious winners in the debate of Ecwid vs WooCommerce, the perfect platform for you is ultimately the one that best suits the needs of your business.
If you’re looking for flexibility in customization, security, payment gateways, as well as, higher scalability potential, then WooCommerce is a better option. On the other hand, if you want hassle-free hosting, setup, security, instant support, and most importantly, multi-channel selling, then Ecwid is undoubtedly your go-to solution.
Follow this blog to learn all the details of each platform and how they match up to the needs of your business. Happy selling!