Sometimes when we talk about online stores created with WordPress it seems that WooCommerce is the only option to make this type of eCommerce website with WordPress, but this is not the case, since WooCommerce is not the only option for this, some plugins serve as alternatives to WooCommerce.
Yes, WooCommerce indeed offers something that very few alternatives offer, and that is that for WooCommerce many plugins allow us to expand its functionalities to unimaginable limits.
Unfortunately, your competition does not have as many specific plugins nor does it have as many specific themes as WooCommerce does.
But it is important to know that WooCommerce has competition in the field of wooCommerce plugins for WordPress and that there are good alternatives such as Jigoshop, the father of WooCommerce (yes, you have understood correctly, the father of WooCommerce ).
In this article, we are going to try to list a series of alternatives that, like WooCommerce, are used to create an online store or an eCommerce site with WordPress, although some of the alternatives presented are aimed at specific audiences and needs, such as EDD ( Easy Digital Downloads ).
As I said before (no, you have not misunderstood me) Jigoshop is the father of WooCommerce, I say this because WooThemes developed WooCommerce in 2011 using the Jigoshop fork as a base since at that time it was the best that existed to create online stores with WordPress.
If we currently compare the Jigoshop and WooCommerce interfaces we can still find quite a few similarities between the two.
Jigoshop also has many plugins to increase its functionalities, although as it has had less promotion and dissemination than WooCommerce, it has lagged somewhat behind in that aspect where it depends a lot on the developers of the community.
Jigoshop, like WooCommerce, is a completely free plugin, but we will find less documentation and help on the internet about it, since as I said before, it is less popular among the community.
What we must take into account is that we will also be much more limited when using external providers since there are fewer implementation plugins, we will notice this with woocommerce payment gateways or even with integration with email marketing services such for example Active Campaign or Get Response.
It is difficult to find a variety of themes compatible with Jigoshop, although since WooCommerce is a fork of Jigoshop (or at least it was), many well-known and popular themes advertise full compatibility with both e-commerce plugins for WordPress .
You can find more information about best woocommerce hosting for WordPress in the official repository of WordPress:
Easy Digital Downloads as an alternative to WooCommerce
EDD is well known among the plugins available for WordPress since it allows you to easily create a store of digital products, downloadable, or services using a WordPress installation as a base.
Although WooCommerce also serves to sell digital products, Easy Digital Downloads is specialized in this it does not serve to sell physical products, since it has been developed specifically for digital products.
Easy Digital Downloads has spread rapidly since its appearance in 2012 and currently has many plugins to increase its functionalities and to integrate with other systems, almost at the same level as WooCommerce, making it an interesting alternative for online service stores or digital or downloadable product stores.
The Easy Digital Downloads shopping cart is very powerful, it uses Ajax as in the case of WooCommerce, its system of records reports is also quite powerful and it is integrable with much external payment gateway and email marketing systems.
All of this makes Easy Digital Downloads a powerful yet customizable set of tools for any online sales project that does not require shipping.
You can find more information about Easy Digital Downloads for WordPress in the official WordPress repository at the following URL: https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/easy-digital-downloads/
WP eCommerce as an alternative to WooCommerce
WP eCommerce is a solid alternative to WooCommerce to create online stores with WooCommerce, although it has the same problem as Jigoshop, it is not such a widespread alternative and therefore it is less compatible as there are fewer integration plugins with external platforms or to add new functionalities.
Another disadvantage of WP eCommerce for WordPress is that it does not have a Spanish translation at the moment, but it has the advantage of being in continuous development, at least for the moment.
If you want to use a plugin other than WooCommerce and Jigoshop, perhaps WP eCommerce is a good option for your project, but don't expect miracles, since you must bear in mind that it is a much less mature project (at least for now) than the two previously mentioned.
Also, there is a Premium version of WP eCommerce that includes many more functionalities (many of them are free in WooCommerce ) and that is necessary to have an online store to match. The bad thing is that this Premium version has a cost of 800 dollars, something expensive to start an online store and also, that for that price there are many more interesting options than WP eCommerce.
You can find much more information about WP eCommerce for WordPress in the official WordPress repository: https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-e-commerce/
iThemes Exchange as an alternative to WooCommerce
iThemes are the developers of the well-known iThemes Security plugin, they also have a plugin to create online stores, although it is more oriented to creating digital or downloadable product stores, and if we buy the Pro Pack or Plugin Suite, we can also create membership sites with iThemes Exchange and WordPress.
iThemes Exchange is very customizable, but we must go through the box to do this since natively the plugin in its free mode is quite "light" and there are many more powerful alternatives such as Easy Digital Downloads.
Perhaps the only advantage that iThemes Exchange has over its alternatives is that its configuration is much simpler, but its disadvantage is that it is not translated into Spanish.
I think that iThemes Exchange is only viable for membership sites, since for online stores it is preferable to use any of the other options, at least in the free version.
You can find more information about iThemes Exchange for WordPress in the WordPress repository: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ithemes-exchange/
TheCartPress as an alternative to WooCommerce
TheCartPress is another alternative to WooCommerce, an ecommerce plugin for WordPress that allows you to create a fully functional online store.
I honestly believe that TheCartPress is a very powerful system, almost at the level of WooCommerce, but with the problem that other similar plugins have, which is that they are not as popular as WooCommerce and that means that the community has not developed so many integration plugins and compatibility as in the case of WooCommerce.
Even so, TheCartPress is very powerful, it includes a lot of functionalities natively that in WooCommerce and Jigoshop it is necessary to install an additional plugin (and often paid) to have them.
On the other hand, one of the reasons why I love TheCartPress is because it includes catalog mode natively, which allows us to create product catalogs without the need for additional plugins.
You can find more information about TheCartPress for WordPress in the official repository of plugins for WordPress: https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/thecartpress/
MarketPress as an alternative to WooCommerce
MarketPress is a complete tool to create online stores with WordPress, although it is a powerful tool, it does not reach the level of WooCommerce or Jigoshop and as it is a little extended tool, it does not have too many plugins to expand its functionalities and connect to other services external.
MarketPress is developed by wpmudev, a group of well-known developers with a good reputation in the development of themes and plugins for WordPress.
I can't talk much about MarketPress as I don't know it as well as the other WooCommerce alternatives I've talked about above.
You can find more information about MarketPress for WordPress in the WordPress plugin repository: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-ecommerce/