The open-source ecommerce engine for WordPress. Turn any site into a store you fully own.

WooCommerce turned WordPress — the world's most popular CMS — into a full ecommerce platform. Launched in 2011 and acquired by Automattic in 2015, it now powers millions of online stores. In 2026 it remains the go-to for anyone who wants to sell from a site they actually own, with no platform lock-in and no per-transaction rent.

Who it's for: WordPress site owners who want to sell without renting their storefront from Shopify. Bloggers, content sites, small brands, and developers who need full control over checkout, data, and hosting. Anyone who values ownership over convenience.

Key features

Open Self-hosted & open

It's a WordPress plugin — you own the code, the data, and the hosting. No monthly platform fee, no 'your store violates our terms' risk. Extend it with 1,000+ official and third-party extensions.

Products Every product type

Physical, digital, subscriptions, memberships, bookings, variable products, and affiliate items. WooCommerce Subscriptions and WooCommerce Bookings turn a store into a recurring-revenue machine.

Payments Flexible checkout

WooPayments (native), Stripe, PayPal, and 100+ gateways. Customize the entire checkout flow — something hosted platforms lock down.

Blocks Block-based editing

The new block-based product and cart editors let you design storefronts with Gutenberg. Pair with a block theme and you control every pixel without code.

The honest take

✓ What works

You own everything — code, data, hosting, and your customer relationships
Free core with a massive extension marketplace (pay only for what you need)
Deepest WordPress integration — your blog, SEO, and store are one system
Unlimited products, variants, and custom fields with no per-item fees
Huge community, endless tutorials, and developer talent available everywhere

✗ What doesn't

'Free' is misleading — hosting, security, backups, and key extensions add up fast
You're the DevOps team: updates, compatibility, and performance are on you
Can get slow at scale without caching/CDN tuning (10k+ products)
The block editor is powerful but still maturing — some flows feel rough

Verdict

WooCommerce is the right call if you already run WordPress and you value ownership over hand-holding. It's free, infinitely extensible, and owns your data. Budget for hosting and a few paid extensions, and be ready to manage the stack. If you want 'sign up and sell in 10 minutes' with zero maintenance, Shopify is the easier path — but you'll pay rent for it forever.

💡 Transparency: This review contains affiliate links. If you sign up through our link, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. We only recommend tools we use ourselves. Full disclosure.