Top 20+ must-have WooCommerce plugins
If I was starting a new online store with WooCommerce today, then these are the plugins I would install every single time, no matter what I’m planning to sell.
Today I’m going to share with you a hand-curated list of the best plugins you need to effectively run a WooCommerce web shop. Obviously with thousands of options available it’s nearly impossible to choose what’s best, so I hope our list will serve as a great starting point. It will act as a “base layer” for you to build upon.
There are 4 main areas I’ll focus on today:
- Payments and checkout
- Design and customization
- Marketing and Inventory
- Shipping
There are also 3 additional categories I want to highlight towards the end as “honorable mentions”.
Disclaimer: Every plugin mentioned will be linked below in the video description, including some affiliate links. But I want to clarify that we were not paid upfront by any company to include their product on this list, and we’re only including plugins that we genuinely believe are the best in their class.
Now obviously, as a plugin company, Barn2 develops and sells WordPress plugins. More specifically, we have developed over 15 plugins just for WooCommerce. Today, I’ll be mentioning a few of our plugins wherever we genuinely believe it’s the best tool for the job. However, there are plenty of competitor plugins on this list too. And don’t worry, I made sure to include quite a few free plugins for those of you on a budget.
So with all of that said, let’s get started with the list. You can either watch the video, or read the transcript below.
Payments and checkout plugins
First up, let’s talk about Payments and Checkout optimization. When you want to sell anything online, it’s critical that people are able to pay for your products, ideally without any hassle or confusion. So for this category, I’m sticking with the basics.
For the main payment gateway, I would go with Stripe, but don’t bother with Stripe’s own plugin, instead, there are 2 integrated options you should consider.
1. WooPayments
The first one is WooPayments. Built in partnership with Stripe, it’s designed to integrate closely with your WordPress website. It does this by displaying all your transaction data, deposit records, Capital loan details, and other information right within your site’s dashboard. This means you don’t need to leave your site’s admin interface to perform common business tasks.
If you sell your products to customers in multiple countries, you can use the multi-currency features in WooPayments to receive payments in various currencies. It can also give your customers a choice of currencies to pay in.
It’s available in a large number of countries, with some notable exceptions being India, Brazil, Mexico, and Malaysia.
2. Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce
Alternatively, you can try Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce. This is the highest rated plugin to integrate Stripe on your site, it offers all the same benefits as WooPayments, with the backing of over 200 5-star reviews. The same company also makes a plugin to accept Paypal if that’s something you need as well.
Both plugins are easy to install using the WordPress plugin directory, just search for and install either plugin, as you would with any other free option on this list.
3. WooCommerce Fast Cart from Barn2
If you’re happy with your payment gateway options, but still want to have a slick and professional checkout experience, then give WooCommerce Fast Cart a try.
This is one of the best plugins for simplifying the WooCommerce checkout process. The plugin adds a popup checkout mechanism to your existing WooCommerce store, and you can set it up in minutes. You can choose from the popup and floating cart options and can further customize them to fit your store’s design. Even though the cart hosts multiple elements, the design is simple and straightforward to avoid any distractions from the checkout process.
To increase the order value, you can enable upsells by cross-selling related products in the popup cart. One example of an effective cart cross-sell could be displaying shoe cleaning products when the customer has a pair of shoes in their cart.
With the WordCommerce Fast Cart plugin, you can set up one-click checkouts to further accelerate the checkout process. Fast Cart also supports popular payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, Amazon, Braintree, and more. You can select the one you want, and your users will be able to place orders without leaving the product page in just a few clicks.
4. PeachPay
Another option is PeachPay. This free WooCommerce plugin that offers a payment gateway can connect with Stripe, Paypal, or 20 others. And it eliminates the usual multi-step checkout hassle by loading the checkout window right on the product page.
While first-time users need to enter their necessary information to complete the order, the process is still faster and simpler than the default WooCommerce process. Meanwhile, returning customers. can choose to check out with just one click.
If you are looking to minimize cart abandonment rate, and increase conversions, then this plugin is definitely worth looking into.
Design and customization plugins
Next we’re moving on to our second category, design and customization for WooCommerce.
This category could have easily been its own video, as there is so much to cover. In any case, here are the top picks we’d recommend always having installed.
5. WooCommerce Social Login by SkyVerge
Every customer is sick and tired of having to create new accounts for every website or service they interact with, but the benefits of having customers login to your website are too numerous to ignore. So by giving customers the option to login or create their account via their main social media profiles, they’ll be much more likely to sign up in the first place.
WooCommerce Social Login by SkyVerge makes account creation easy and secure. Customers can log into your site using their Facebook, X (Formerly Twitter), Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, PayPal, Disqus, or VK accounts instead of creating new user account credentials.
The only downside is that it’s a paid plugin, so I also have a free option for you to consider.
6. Nextend Social Login and Register (Free option)
Nextend Social Login is a very highly rated and free WordPress plugin. It also lets your visitors register and login to your site using their social profiles.
It seamlessly integrates with your existing WordPress login and registration form. Existing users can add or remove their social accounts at their WordPress profile page. The only real limitation is that for free, customers can use Facebook, Google or X (formerly Twitter), as the only 3 options, but I suspect that will be enough for more than 90% of users.
Page design plugins
Now let’s talk about page designers. First of all, I am not talking about themes, like Shoptimizer or Astra, but you’re welcome to check out our analysis of the 6 fastest themes. And I’m also not going to get into full page builders like Elementor or Divi. Instead, I have chosen plugins that work within the WordPress core and have free versions for basic page customizations.
7. ShopLentor
ShopLentor is a versatile WooCommerce plugin designed to streamline the creation of a functional and attractive eCommerce website. With over 100,000 active installations, this plugin demonstrates its reliability and popularity among users. However, its effectiveness lies in consolidating multiple features into one tool, reducing the need for additional plugins.
ShopLentor allows users to effortlessly design stunning websites using over 125 Elementor widgets and 62 Gutenberg blocks without requiring any coding knowledge.
The plugin includes advanced features like product comparison, wishlist, quick view, and WooCommerce email automation, making it a versatile tool for enhancing store functionality. Additionally, the popup builder lets you create engaging popups for lead generation and special offers.
Plus, there's a free version available, offering flexibility to enhance your site without extra cost. If you're looking for even more customization options and advanced features, you can easily upgrade to the pro version.
8. Spectra
Built on top of WordPress core, Spectra is a more professional addition to the WordPress block editor, Gutenberg. It comes with layouts as well as dozens of handy blocks that can be used to create pages with a lot more flexibility and functionality than the options available in the WordPress core. It’s compatible with all themes, and is mobile friendly, which is key for SEO performance. And speaking of which, spectra is fast, and they claim that it won’t slow down your site.
There is a free and a pro version, and thankfully both are feature rich and easy to use. You’re welcome to completely redesign your store and product pages from scratch, or you can optionally add the CartFlows plugin, which includes some free page templates which you can use to get started. This was not my idea, I have to give credit to the Rank Math SEO channel for this workaround.
9. ProductX
ProductX was the first Gutenberg WooCommerce Blocks plugin, and it continues to be the most popular plugin of its kind. It’s similar to Spectra as it works seamlessly with Gutenberg, but adds a plethora of new blocks and layouts. There are also free and paid page templates, to create entire pages with just one click.
The plugin boasts awesome reviews from happy users, and is fully compatible with all major themes and plugins.
10. WooCommerce Product Filters (essential)
I firmly believe that no online store is complete without filtering and search options. As always, there are a multitude of choices available (I even made a top 10 video just for filter plugins!). So shop around if you feel like it, but I’m more than comfortable recommending our WooCommerce Product Filters plugin.
You can let customers narrow down products by category, attribute, color, tag, custom taxonomy, price range, ratings, stock status, and sale items.
But it doesn't stop there. You get multiple styling options for those filters too - dropdowns, checkboxes, radio buttons, visual tag clouds or even image and color swatch filters for a more engaging experience.
When it comes to layout, you can display the filters above the product listings or tuck them into sidebar widgets. There are visibility controls as well, letting you hide filters until clicked or allow toggling them open and closed. You can even optimize for mobile with a slick slide-out filter panel.
Under the hood, it offers both instant AJAX filtering or a traditional "Apply Filters" button mode after making selections. No matter which you choose, you'll have a high-powered filtering system running in just 5 minutes!
11. Product Options (optional)
Okay let’s move on to some optional, but still very useful plugins, that nearly every online store could benefit from. Up first, is a product add-ons plugin, this is for creating and displaying variable product options such as size and color. In this niche I’ll recommend both a premium option, and a free one.
The premium plugin is WooCommerce Product Options, also from Barn2. This plugin is packed with features including 16 custom product option types that can be used by customers to order the exact thing they’re looking for. From basic stuff like color swatches and checkboxes, to pricing calculators and custom image upload fields, you can use the plugin to offer endless customization and upsell opportunities. For example, you could offer gift wrapping for a small fee, and you can even let the customer specify which wrapping paper to use.
12. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce (Free option)
If you need something free, while it does lack a lot of great features, the Variation Swatches for WooCommerce plugin is a nice alternative and in my opinion, is a bare minimum requirement for any store offering variable products.
13. Quick View Pro (optional)
The final plugin in this category is also optional, but again, comes highly recommended. And that’s WooCommerce Quick View Pro.
Give shoppers the ability to preview a product, without loading the entire product page, which is a waste of time, and can be a major distraction for shoppers who just want to compare the features of one product against another.
Quick View Pro is lightweight and can be purchased as a part of a discounted bundle along with Fast Cart, which we talked about earlier.
Marketing plugins
If you’re still with me this far into the video then please do me a favor and hit the like button so more people can find this channel. Thanks, now let’s move on to marketing!
There are many ingredients to success in ecommerce, but none more critical than getting your products in front of customers, and converting their attention into sales.
Of course, this could once again deserve its own video, so I’ve done my best to narrow down the endless selection to just 4 plugins (and don’t worry, I’ll talk about SEO at the end of the video).
14. WooCommerce Discount Manager
Dynamic pricing rules aren’t really a thing in WooCommerce. There’s limited options to even create discounts or sales, and you can forget about planning a sale in advance or creating unique offers like “buy one get one free” or “buy 3 for $20”.
To do this, you need a plugin, and while free options exist, their best features are locked behind a paywall, so in this case, I’m going to recommend our own solution.
WooCommerce Discount Manager is an “all in one” discount solution for Woo stores
- There are 6 types of discounts you can create, including free giveaway offers and bulk discounts.
- You can set storewide discounts or limit offers to categories, and of course, single products.
- You can also limit a discount to selected users or roles (this is great for wholesale stores).
- It's possible to set up and schedule offers ahead of time which makes big events like Black Friday and Christmas a breeze.
- And you can set up sale banners and badges to be displayed on your product pages for promotional purposes.
15. Retainful - Cart Abandonment recovery
Cart Abandonment is a huge problem for ecommerce merchants, but you can mitigate your losses with the right email sequence.
Retainful is the (self-proclaimed) best email marketing plugin for WooCommerce to automate your email campaigns, and increase your sales. It’s easy to create and launch email campaigns with their pre-built email workflow templates.
These include:
- Abandoned cart recovery emails – Helps you recover abandoned carts.
- Order follow up emails – Automate your woocommerce follow up emails.
- Thank you emails with Next Order coupon – Drive repeat purchases.
- Win back emails – Re-engage with inactive customers through automated follow-ups.
- Welcome emails – Create a great first impression by welcoming your first time buyers.
- Referral / Refer-a-friend campaign – Drive word-of-mouth sales.
- and more….
It’s free to install and use, with a number of features, such as email capture pop-ups, that are only available in the pro version.
16. AffiliateWP
The great news is that you don’t have to do all the hard work of marketing your products on your own. For a share in revenue, you can have independent affiliates recommending your products and sending people to your store.
Here at Barn2 we have an extensive list of affiliates. Many of them have earned thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars just because they recommend our plugins on their websites, blogs etc.
To keep this process running smoothly we use AffiliateWP. We’re happy to recommend them because of how much money our business has earned as a result of the affiliate program.
Its top features include customizable affiliate registration and login forms, comprehensive tracking of referrals and commissions, integrations with popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, and detailed reporting so you can monitor your program's performance. You can set up one-time or recurring referral commissions, as well as manage coupons and creative assets for your affiliates to promote your products.
17. YITH Wishlist
Having a wishlist is an incredibly valuable tool for any online store. With the YITH Wishlist plugin, customers can easily save their favorite products to reference later or share with friends and family. It's perfect for making wish lists for birthdays, holidays, and special occasions.
But wishlists aren't just convenient for shoppers - they also benefit merchants. When customers share their wishlists on social media, it essentially acts as free advertising by exposing your products to their networks. Plus, wishlists keep people engaged and drive more sales when they ultimately purchase those items.
With over 900,000 active installations, the YITH Wishlist plugin is clearly a trusted solution in the ecommerce space. There’s a free version, with the option to upgrade for additional features and priority support.
Inventory and shipping plugins
Out of the box, WooCommerce does support some basic inventory and shipping calculation features, but they are fairly limited and full of gaps. Which is why I’m including these next few plugins. For those of you just getting started, this may be less applicable to you, but as you grow and scale your operations, inventory and shipping plugins will become the backbone of your business.
18. ATUM WooCommerce Inventory Management and Stock Tracking
For online store owners in need of powerful stock management, ATUM is a standout solution for WooCommerce. This free inventory management tool offers an intuitive dashboard and "Stock Central" interface that provides complete control over product inventory, suppliers, SKUs, locations, weights, and pricing.
The user-friendly layout seamlessly integrates with the WordPress admin, making it easy to quickly edit all aspects of your WooCommerce stock. ATUM's dashboard displays key business statistics and allows customization of widgets for personalized insights.
Developed by Stock Management Labs, a team with over 25 years of combined inventory expertise, ATUM aims to optimize time and resources so merchants can focus on growing their ecommerce business.
With its intuitive design, robust features, and developer pedigree, ATUM positions itself as an unrivaled inventory solution tailored for the needs of serious online store owners.
19. WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips
The next plugin provides a much needed solution for order confirmation, and it’s also free!
Streamlining order fulfillment, the WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips plugin automatically generates PDF invoices and packing slips to include with WooCommerce order confirmation emails sent to customers. While it comes with a basic built-in template, additional premium templates are available from WP Overnight.
Key features include the ability to download or print invoices and packing slips directly from the WooCommerce order admin for individual orders or in bulk.
Customers also have the convenience of accessing and downloading their order invoices from the website's My Account area. The plugin assigns sequential, custom-formatted invoice numbers to keep orders organized.
With flexible templating, efficient bulk processing, and customer invoice access, this PDF invoice solution provides professional order documentation to enhance your WooCommerce store's operations and customer experience.
20. Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce
The last plugin for this category pertains to shipping. This recommendation may not be perfect for every case, as shipping solutions vary a lot based on location and what kind of products you sell. However, it’s a great starting point regardless.
Advanced Shipment Tracking is a free plugin that optimizes the WooCommerce order fulfillment workflow. Key features include renaming the "Completed" order status to "Shipped", adding a "Partially Shipped" status, and easily adding tracking info when editing orders.
The plugin lets you include multiple tracking numbers per order from over 300 predefined shipping providers. When adding tracking, you can fulfill orders and send shipping details to customers via a customizable tracking widget in emails and their account page.
For further efficiency, Advanced Shipment Tracking offers shipment tracking API integration with third-party services. You can also import tracking numbers in bulk via CSV for orders from warehouses or dropshippers.
By automating shipping updates, reducing customer inquiries, and providing transparent order tracking, this plugin streamlines the post-purchase experience for customers while saving you time and effort.
Highly recommended honorable mentions
Before we finish, I wanted to give a shout-out to some honorable mentions. I left these plugins out of the earlier categories, but they still deserve a place on this list.
Notifications
21. SMS Alert Order Notifications – WooCommerce
For enhanced notifications I recommend SMS Alert Order Notifications for WooCommerce. This performs the basic, but very handy job of setting up and sending SMS notifications to customers regarding their purchases. It’s free, and comes highly rated based on user feedback.
Speed Optimization
Every site needs to be optimized for speed, and in ecommerce this is even more crucial, as it can mean the difference between making sales or losing them!
22. WPRocket
There are plenty of options, but we’ve had great success with WPRocket. This is a premium plugin, but for the low price tag, it’s 100% worth it to ensure your pages maintain the fastest loading times possible.
SEO
I know, I know, SEO is part of marketing, so why didn’t I talk about it earlier? Well I didn’t want to get too far off track as I have been focusing mainly on WooCommerce specific plugins.
But let’s face it, every site needs to utilize Search Engine Optimization to rank well online.
23. YOAST SEO
Yoast SEO is our pick as it features a WooCommerce SEO addon. This allows merchants to optimize product pages, descriptions, and other ecommerce content for better visibility in search engines.
The plugin enables editing key metadata like titles and descriptions to align with target keywords. It also provides content analysis guidance to follow on-page SEO best practices across product listings and other commerce pages.
Just note that proper configuration of the general WordPress SEO settings is required before fully utilizing the ecommerce-specific features.
Conclusion
If you’re still here, thank you so much for watching! I hope you learned something new, or found a better solution for your website’s needs. Please let me know what you thought about our list in the comments.