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Can you build a multi vendor marketplace with WordPress?
What is the best WooCommerce multi vendor plugin?
When do you pick Easy Digital Downloads over WooCommerce?
Today, I'm looking at 7 different plugins for WordPress marketplaces to help you pick the best one:
Even if you're new to WordPress, you probably know that WooCommerce is the most popular ecommerce plugin for WordPress.
WooCommerce lets you turn your WordPress into an online store and currently powers around 7% of the entire ecommerce landscape.
Alternatively, you can use Easy Digital Downloads, which isn't quite popular as WooCommerce and is aimed primarily at (you guessed it!) digital stores.
However, these plugins alone aren't enough to run a WordPress-powered marketplace with vendors.
You need something more – a multi vendor plugin for either WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads to create a two-sided platform and pursue a sustainable marketplace business model.
That's exactly what we'll be looking at today – multi vendor plugins for WordPress marketplaces:
- WC Marketplace
- Dokan Multivendor Marketplace
- WCFM Marketplace (WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace)
- WC Vendors
- YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor
- WooCommerce Product Vendors
- Frontend Submissions for Easy Digital Downloads
- Conclusion: the best WooCommerce multi vendor plugin?
(This blog post is part of our series on online marketplace software.)
1. WC Marketplace
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WC Marketplace is a WooCommerce multi vendor plugin for WordPress by The Grey Parrots.
The free version of WC Marketplace is available on WordPress Plugins, has 10,000+ downloads and 261 reviews with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 (pretty good!)
WC Marketplace pricing and features
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The core version of WC Marketplace is completely free and can be downloaded from WordPress plugins.
I'll go ahead and say this: it packs an outstanding set of features for a free WordPress marketplace plugin (and isn't just a "free-but-useless-pay-for-everything" money grab). The plugin's description confirms it:
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The free version of WC Marketplace can be extended with paid addons that cost between $20 and $250 per year. These usually offer more advanced features like Stripe payments, memberships and invoicing.
As of March 2019, a bundle of 10 paid WC Marketplace addons is available for $369 (with 12 months of support).
WC Marketplace themes
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WC Marketplace doesn't include a theme out of the box, but provides a list of 22 compatible multi vendor themes from ThemeForest.
These are some of the WC Marketplace recommended WordPress themes: XStore, Rigid, Milano, REHub, Aqua, ShopMe, Techmarket, Flatastic, Zorka, Claue, Branchy, Jewellery, Orson.
WC Marketplace examples
The official demo of WC Marketplace is available at https://wcmpdemos.com/WCMp/.
Additionally, these are a few examples of live marketplaces powered by WC Marketplace:
2. Dokan Multivendor Marketplace
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Dokan is a WordPress multi vendor marketplace plugin for WooCommerce by WeDevs.
The free version of Dokan has 10,000+ downloads and 207 reviews on WordPress Plugins with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5.
Dokan pricing and features
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Dokan comes in 5 different plans, from $0 to $999/year:
- The Free version includes the core vendors system, but no product publishing for vendors and no vendor management
- The $149/year version comes WordPress.org support and also includes: marketplace commissions, front end product publishing, vendor management, reporting and social logins
- The $249/year version also includes: vendor reviews, ticketing system, seller verification, Stripe, PayPal & Moip payments and subscriptions
- The $499/year version also includes support for WC Booking, vendor geolocation, imports/exports, staff management and auctions
- The $999/year version also includes 1 hour of theme compatibility and installation services as well as priority live chat support
The main difference between Dokan plans is in the features/modules included and the number of domains the license covers.
Dokan themes
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Dokan includes the default Dokan marketplace theme out of the box, which I think looks pretty neat.
Additionally, Dokan supports and endorses 11 third party WordPress themes from ThemeForest: REHub, Marketo, Electro, Marketica, Lecraft, Gon, Media-center, StoreMate, UniCase, Yozi, Revo.
Dokan demo and live marketplace examples
You can find an on-demand demo of Dokan at https://wedevs.com/in/dokandemo
The WeDevs website also lists a number of marketplaces powered by Dokan:
3. WCFM Marketplace (WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace)
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WCFM Marketplace (or WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace) is a multi vendor WordPress plugin by WC Lovers.
The free version of WCFM Marketplace is available on WordPress Plugins and has 6,000+ downloads and 53 reviews with an average rating of 5 out of 5 (great job!).
WCFM Marketplace pricing and features
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Just like WC Marketplace, the core version of WCFM is available for free and, too, offers quite a lot in terms of features.
WCFM core offers both the basic vendor management you usually expect as well as more advanced features like reverse withdrawals, seller verification and multiple sellers offering a single product.
Additionally, WCFM core can be extended with a number of addon packages that cost from $11 to $299 depending on the license.
WCFM Marketplace themes
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There is no official list of supported WCFM Marketplace themes, but the developers claim it does support all WooCommerce themes.
Additionally, according to a number of discussions on WC Lovers forums, some of the recommended themes are ReHub, Electro, MartFury and regular WooCommerce themes like Flatsome and Avada.
WCFM Marketplace demo and live examples
You'll find the official demo of WCFM Marketplace at http://wcfmmp.wcfmdemos.com/
4. WC Vendors
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WC Vendors is a WordPress marketplace solution for WooCommerce by Jamie aka digitalchild.
The free version of WC Vendors is available on WordPress Plugins and has 10,000+ downloads and 110 reviews with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5.
WC Vendors pricing and features
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WC Vendors comes in 4 different plans, from $0 to $599/lifetime:
- WC Vendors Free: basic features, no front end management (not too useful for a marketplace)
- WC Vendors Pro ($199/year): all features including front end dashboards, shipping, coupons and more
- WC Vendors Pro ($349/2 years): same features, biennial renewals
- WC Vendors Pro ($599/lifetime): same features, lifetime license
The Pro version includes all features so the three paid plans only differ in terms of renewals.
WC Vendors themes
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WC Vendors does not include a theme out of the box, but officially supports a number of third party WordPress themes from ThemeForest.
Free WordPress themes supported by WC Vendors: Bento, Best Commerce, Easy Commerce, GeneratePress, OceanWP, Shopper, Storefront
Premium WordPress themes supported by WC Vendors: Flatastic, Hanata, Handy, MarketHub, REHub, Rigid, UX Shop, Xtocky, Zass
WC Vendors demo and live marketplace examples
You can find the official demo of WC Vendors at https://www.wcvendors.com/home/demo/
We reached out to Jamie, the founder of WC Vendors, and he shared a few live marketplaces powered by WC Vendors:
5. YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor
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YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor is a WooCommerce marketplace plugin by YITH.
The free version of YITH can be downloaded from WordPress Plugins and has 1,000+ active installs and 25 reviews (average rating 3.9 out of 5).
Note: most YITH Multi Vendor reviews on WordPress are from 2 years ago and older so it's not too actively reviewed.
YITH Multi Vendor pricing and features
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YITH Multivendor plugin itself comes in three different plans depending on the number of sites you'll install it on:
- Single site ~$100/year (€89,99/year)
- 6 sites ~$180/year (€159,99/year)
- 30 sites ~$300/year (€269,99/year)
The plugin itself provides all of the core multi vendor features while the extra functionality is offered as paid addons.
YITH offers 30+ compatible addons costing anywhere between $100 and $300 per year.
YITH Multi Vendor themes
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There is no official list of supported themes available on YITH website.
ThemeForest has two WordPress themes listed as compatible with Yith Multi Vendor: ShopMe and Flatastic.
Further references to compatibility questions with SW Max Shop, Flatsome, Kupon and Avada themes can be found in YITH knowledge base.
YITH demo and live marketplaces
An official public demo of YITH Multivendor is available at https://plugins.yithemes.com/yith-woocommerce-multi-vendor/.
Unfortunately, we couldn't find any live marketplaces powered by YITH and didn't hear back from YITH after reaching out to them either.
6. WooCommerce Product Vendors
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WooCommerce Product Vendors is the official multi vendor plugin developed and maintained by WooCommerce.
It is not available on WordPress Plugins and can only be purchased from WooCommerce in 3 different subscription plans (depending on the number of sites):
- Single site: $79.00/year
- 5 sites: $99.00/year
- 25 sites: $199.00/year
WooCommerce Product Vendors offers all of the basic vendor functionality, but unlike the rest of the plugins I covered here requires vendors to use the main WordPress dashboard to manage their stores.
There is no official public demo or examples of live marketplaces powered by WooCommerce Vendors available.
7. Frontend Submissions for Easy Digital Downloads
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This isn't WooCommerce, but I thought I'd cover it nevertheless.
Frontend Submissions is an official Easy Digital Downloads plugin that brings digital marketplace features to WordPress stores.
If you're building a digital marketplace with WordPress (like a software marketplace or the next ThemeForest competitor), this will be first plugin to look into since EDD is specifically designed for digital downloads.
It is the only multi vendor plugin for Easy Digital Downloads I could find out there.
Frontend Submissions pricing and features
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Just like other Easy Digital Downloads plugins, Frontend Submissions comes in 3 different pricing plans depending on the number of domains you plan to use it on:
- Single site: $199.00/year
- 2 - 5 sites: $329.00/year
- Unlimited sites: $419.00/year
Alternatively, Frontend Submissions can be purchased as part of Easy Digital Downloads extension bundles:
- Professional pass: $299.00/year
- All access pass: $499.00/year
And just like the WooCommerce multi vendor plugins, Frontend Submissions offers most of the core marketplace features you'll be looking for, such as vendor dashboards, order and product management, finances and buyer-vendor communication.
Frontend Submissions themes
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Frontend Submissions is designed to be used with the Vendd theme – a marketplace theme by Easy Digital Downloads.
Additionally, it should be compatible with the rest of the official Easy Digital Downloads themes: Themedd, Vendd, Shoppette, Lattice and Quota.
The Easy Digital Downloads team also recommends over 40 premium community themes from ThemeForest, including: Mayosis, Marketify, Webify, Market, Themeshop, Digital Download, Noor, Dew, DigiCraft and others.
ThemeForest itself has 2 WordPress themes listed as compatible with Frontend Submissions: Mayosis and Marketify.
Frontend Submissions demo and live marketplaces
There is no public demo of Frontend Submissions available, unfortunately.
However, we managed to get hold of one marketplace project powered by Frontend Submissions from the Easy Digital Downloads team: https://www.planmarketplace.com/
Conclusion: the best WooCommerce multi vendor plugin?
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So, unless you're building a digital marketplace you'll most likely go with WooCommerce over Easy Digital Downloads.
This leaves you with the following options:
- WC Marketplace
- Dokan Multivendor Marketplace
- WCFM Marketplace (WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace)
- WC Vendors
- YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor
- WooCommerce Product Vendors
How do you choose the best WooCommerce vendor plugin for your WordPress marketplace?
I'd suggest the following steps:
- first, give all free plugins a try (fortunately, all 4 offer free versions)
- then, see which paid extra features you'll need
- finally, pick the plugin that suits your requirements the best
I also recommend getting in touch with the developers to get to know them better before you commit to a particular WooCommerce marketplace plugin.
Finally, a quick disclaimer - I personally wouldn't build a multi vendor marketplace with WordPress.
Why? Because WordPress isn't really designed for ecommerce, let alone two-sided marketplace ecommerce.
The thing is, to build a marketplace with WordPress, you need:
- a WordPress setup
- an ecommerce plugin (WooCommerce)
- a theme that's compatible with your WooCommerce
- a multi vendor plugin for WooCommerce that's also compatible with your theme
So, you need a plugin for a plugin on top of a CMS. Not saying it's not possible, but each extra layer adds more complexity to your project.
What's the alternative? A dedicated marketplace platform like Sharetribe, a self hosted marketplace system like CS-Cart or MultiMerch or an ecommerce system like Magento or OpenCart with a multi vendor extension on top.
If you're curious about the whole spectrum of marketplace software, you'll want to check out our blog post covering all the different marketplace solutions.
The post 7 WooCommerce Multi Vendor Plugins for WordPress Marketplaces appeared first on MultiMerch Marketplace.