# WooCommerce is free. Running a WooCommerce store isn't. > WooCommerce is free, but running it is not. Plugin conflicts, paid add-ons, security patches. Shoprocket embeds into your WordPress site - no WooCommerce required. Plugin conflicts, paid add-ons, security patches, performance hits. The real cost of “free” adds up fast. There's a simpler way. [Start Free Trial](https://app-v3.shoprocket.io/signup)[See the real cost](#real-cost) 14-Day Free Trial No Credit Card 0% Fees 4.9★ Trustpilot 0% Platform fees Any Website 200+ Payment methods 21 Languages ● The honest answer ## WooCommerce or Shoprocket? Here's when to pick which. WooCommerce is genuinely powerful, when you have the team and tolerance for it. If you don't, it's a tax. Here's how to tell which one you are. 01 ### You have WordPress developers on staff. If your team already lives in WP, maintains custom plugins, writes Gutenberg blocks, knows Action Scheduler, WooCommerce's PHP codebase is a playground. You can modify anything. 02 ### You need a headless WordPress setup. WooCommerce with a decoupled frontend (WP GraphQL, Faust, Frontity) is a legitimate architecture if your stack is already React/Next. For those, WC is the path of least resistance. 03 ### You need zero platform cost, forever. WooCommerce core is free. If you genuinely never need a paid add-on, your setup is lean, and you can absorb the dev hours, WC at $0/mo is real. ● The better fit ## Then there’s everyone else. You wanted to run a shop, not a plugin patching operation. You wanted your site to stay fast. You don't have 10 hours a week for maintenance. 01 ### You want checkout that just works. Every WordPress core release, theme update, or plugin bump risks breaking your checkout. We patch our infrastructure. You never see it. 02 ### You want your WordPress site to stay fast. WooCommerce loads 1–3 MB of CSS and JS on every page, even pages that have no shop on them. Our widget loads async, after your content. Core Web Vitals stay green. 03 ### You don't want to be a sysadmin. No database tables added. No server hardening. No security plugin subscriptions. No 3am alerts when a vulnerability hits the WooCommerce plugin list. ● The real cost ## The real cost of “free.” WooCommerce the plugin is free. WooCommerce the business rarely is. The add-on stack ### The shopping list every WooCommerce store ends up buying. Subscriptions, memberships, reviews, shipping, multilingual, security, email marketing, affiliates. Any real WooCommerce store needs ten-plus paid extensions before it's sold a single product, and that's before you pay for managed hosting or the hours spent patching. The “free” plugin is the cheapest part. The Shoprocket answer ### One flat plan. No shopping list. Hosting, security, backups, a payments plugin, a subscriptions plugin, a speed plugin, a page builder. On WooCommerce they quietly add up all year. On Shoprocket, one plan from $29/mo covers the lot, with 0% transaction fees and the essentials included. The plan you pick is the whole bill. - ✓ Same price at any sales volume - ✓ 0% transaction fees on every plan - ✓ Hosting, security, and essentials included Side by side ## WooCommerce vs Shoprocket. Every row below is a real difference, not marketing spin. WooCommerce Shoprocket Core cost WooCommerce Free plugin. You pay for WP hosting, domain, SSL, dev time, and 10+ paid add-ons on top, easily $100–500/mo all-in. Shoprocket Four tiers from $29/mo up. Hosting, SSL, and the commerce essentials included on every plan. Setup WooCommerce Install WordPress, install WooCommerce, configure 15+ settings, install 10+ plugins, theme config, then launch. Shoprocket Paste two lines of HTML into the WordPress page you already have. Page speed WooCommerce Adds 1–3 MB of CSS and JS to every page, even pages without shop content. Shoprocket Async widget loads after your content. No Core Web Vitals impact. Security WooCommerce You patch WordPress core, your theme, and every plugin, forever. WC is the #1 attacked WP plugin. Shoprocket Shoprocket runs on managed infrastructure. No plugins on your server, nothing to patch. Checkout reliability WooCommerce Plugin conflicts routinely break checkout after updates. The blame game is yours. Shoprocket Managed checkout on our infrastructure. Zero dependency on your WP plugins. Subscriptions WooCommerce WooCommerce Subscriptions extension, $239/yr. Shoprocket Recurring products built in (Business plan). Product reviews WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro, $79/yr (or 3rd-party Judge.me / Yotpo). Shoprocket Built in, free. Every plan. Email marketing WooCommerce MailPoet ($149+/yr) or Mailchimp plugin integration. Shoprocket Built-in campaigns via Amazon SES (Business plan). Affiliate programme WooCommerce AffiliateWP, $149/yr. Shoprocket Built in (Business plan). Live chat widget WooCommerce Separate plugin or 3rd-party (LiveChat, Tidio), $20–90/mo. Shoprocket Built-in live chat on every plan. AI auto-translates between you and customers. Multilingual WooCommerce WPML plugin, $99/yr. Manual translation of every product, page, string. Shoprocket 21 languages auto-translated by AI. Slugs translated too. Automated tax & nexus WooCommerce WooCommerce Tax (Avalara bundle) or TaxJar plugin, $$/mo. Shoprocket Auto tax across 90+ jurisdictions + nexus monitoring, built in. Uptime & reliability WooCommerce Depends on your host, your plugins, your WP version. All your problem. Shoprocket Managed infrastructure. Our problem when something breaks. Maintenance WooCommerce Roughly 5–10 hours/month minimum. More when WP or PHP major version releases hit. Shoprocket Zero. We handle the infrastructure; you sell. Time to launch WooCommerce Days, minimum. Often weeks once you're plugin-shopping. Shoprocket Minutes. Paste the snippet, add products, start selling. ● Switching ## Migrating from WooCommerce is almost too easy. Keep your WordPress site. Deactivate the WooCommerce plugin. Paste our embed. Done. What comes with you ## Nothing gets left behind. 01 ### Your products. Full catalogue, variants, inventory, images, descriptions, SKUs, exports from WooCommerce as CSV and imports into Shoprocket in a single pass. 02 ### Your customers & orders. Customer list with past orders, addresses, and tags moves with you. Order history stays intact. 03 ### Your WordPress site. Keep your theme, your pages, your blog, your plugins, your comments, your SEO. Only WooCommerce itself gets deactivated. 04 ### Your payment setup. Keep the Stripe or PayPal account you already have. Nothing to re-verify, no lost processor history. 05 ### Your domain. No DNS changes. Shoprocket embeds into your existing WordPress pages on the domain your customers already know. 06 ### Your page speed. Bonus: deactivating WooCommerce and its add-ons usually makes your WP site measurably faster the same day. The switch · 4 steps ### Export. Import. Embed. Deactivate. WooCommerce has built-in CSV export for products, customers, and orders. Drop the files into Shoprocket and everything comes with you. Paste our embed into the WordPress pages where you want to sell. Deactivate WooCommerce and its add-ons (MailPoet, WPML, AffiliateWP, et al). Your WordPress site gets lighter the moment you turn them off. 0.4s WIDGET LOAD 0% TRANSACTION FEES 28 LANGUAGES 15 MIN TO GO LIVE ● Switching questions ## Common questions from WooCommerce sellers. The honest answers. Do I need to leave WordPress? + No. That's the whole point. Shoprocket embeds into your existing WordPress site. You keep your theme, your blog, your pages, your SEO. Only the WooCommerce plugin (and its add-ons) get deactivated. How do I migrate my WooCommerce products? + WooCommerce has built-in CSV export for products, customers, and orders. Drop the files into Shoprocket's importer and everything comes with you, variants, inventory, images, SKUs, past customer history. Most stores migrate in under an hour. Will my existing WordPress theme still work? + Yes. Your theme, non-commerce plugins, content, and SEO all stay intact. If your theme was using WooCommerce template overrides, those'll be deactivated along with WooCommerce, but your non-shop pages are untouched. What about my subscription customers? + Recurring subscription customers need re-authorization when moving between platforms (this is a payment-processor constraint, not a platform limitation). We can help you design a re-auth flow that preserves as much MRR as possible. Will my site actually be faster without WooCommerce? + Usually, yes, noticeably. WooCommerce and its add-ons load 1–3 MB of CSS and JS on every page of your site, even pages that have no shop content. Deactivating them typically gives you a measurable Lighthouse score bump the same day. What about the WooCommerce plugins I paid for? + Most of them, Subscriptions, Memberships, Reviews Pro, Advanced Shipping, MailPoet, AffiliateWP, WPML, are replaced by built-in Shoprocket features. You can stop renewing them at the end of their licence year. Can I keep my WPML translations? + Your existing translated WordPress content stays. Shoprocket handles product translations separately, auto-translated by AI into 21 languages with translated URL slugs included, so no manual translation workflow. Is Shoprocket really 0% transaction fees? + Yes. Your payment processor (Stripe, PayPal, etc.) still charges their standard fee, that's the cost of moving money, but we add nothing on top. 0% platform fees apply on every Shoprocket plan, including Starter. Does Shoprocket handle variable products? + Yes, full variant support with per-variant prices, inventory, SKUs, images, and weight. Same model you're used to in WooCommerce. Why not just stick with WooCommerce if it works? + If it truly works for you with no maintenance burden, stick with it. Most WooCommerce sellers we talk to aren't in that bucket, they're patching plugins, paying for add-ons they'd rather not, and losing a few conversions to the next plugin-conflict checkout bug. If any of that sounds familiar, this page is for you. ## Stop patching. Start selling. 14-day free trial. No credit card. Keep your WordPress site, drop the WooCommerce maintenance tax. [Start Free Trial](https://app-v3.shoprocket.io/signup)[Compare the fees](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ecommerce-fee-calculator.md) --- - HTML version: https://v3.shoprocket.io/woocommerce-alternative - Language: English (en) - Also in: [العربية](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ar/woocommerce-alternative.md), [Deutsch](https://v3.shoprocket.io/de/woocommerce-alternative.md), [Ελληνικά](https://v3.shoprocket.io/el/woocommerce-alternative.md), [Español](https://v3.shoprocket.io/es/alternativa-a-woocommerce.md), [Français](https://v3.shoprocket.io/fr/alternative-a-woocommerce.md), [עברית](https://v3.shoprocket.io/he/woocommerce-alternative.md), [हिन्दी](https://v3.shoprocket.io/hi/woocommerce-alternative.md), [Bahasa Indonesia](https://v3.shoprocket.io/id/alternatif-woocommerce.md), [Italiano](https://v3.shoprocket.io/it/alternativa-a-woocommerce.md), [日本語](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ja/woocommerce-alternative.md), [Lietuvių](https://v3.shoprocket.io/lt/woocommerce-alternatyva.md), [Norsk](https://v3.shoprocket.io/nb/woocommerce-alternativ.md), [Nederlands](https://v3.shoprocket.io/nl/woocommerce-alternatief.md), [Polski](https://v3.shoprocket.io/pl/alternatywa-dla-woocommerce.md), [Português](https://v3.shoprocket.io/pt/alternativa-ao-woocommerce.md), [Română](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ro/alternativa-la-woocommerce.md), [Русский](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ru/woocommerce-alternative.md), [ไทย](https://v3.shoprocket.io/th/woocommerce-alternative.md), [Türkçe](https://v3.shoprocket.io/tr/woocommerce-alternatifi.md), [中文](https://v3.shoprocket.io/zh/woocommerce-alternative.md)