If you use WordPress to power your websites, you have undoubtedly heard of the eCommerce WordPress plugin WooCommerce. The plugin powers millions of shops online. It is so popular that it is used for 12% of all online shops.
Recently, many WooCommerce customers have voiced their disappointment at WooCommerce raising renewal costs from 50% to 100% without warning. Many customers noted on WPTavern
Without a doubt, the company handled the whole situation very badly. They did not speak to customers about the issue or give them a fair warning about the cost of using WooCommerce extensions in the long-term doubling.
Despite a flood of complaints, WooCommerce store owners are effectively at the mercy of Automattic’s pricing policy for WooCommerce. They are tied into the WooCommerce system and there is no viable alternative for shop owners to use.
We Need a Good Alternative to WooCommerce
Donnacha MacGloinn wrote a fantastic article on WP Mayor calling the recent price increase of WooCommerce “The Biggest Opportunity in WordPress History“. He notes that this is a chance for a company to come in and offer better support. Perhaps someone could even fork WooCommerce and its extensions in the same way that WooThemes forked JigoShop to create WooCommerce.
I am not sure what the best solution to this is, but I do believe that it is not good for the WordPress community to have one plugin dominate the market so much. WooCommerce effectively has a monopoly on the WordPress eCommerce market. It has over 3 million active installations and alternatives such as Jigshop and WP eCommerce only have 7,000 and 30,000 installations respectively.
I discuss this issue in great detail in the video below.
What Say You?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue.
Do you agree that the WordPress community needs a viable alternative to WooCommerce?
Please leave a comment below or on YouTube for the above video.
Thanks.
Kevin