The 11 best WooCommerce variation swatches plugins, compared

If you have multiple products with variations on your WooCommerce store, variation swatches can significantly help you retain customers and boost overall conversions.

Displaying product options in swatches can help your store customers easily visualize the available options for a product. This can reduce friction points and accelerate conversions significantly as customers can choose the exact variation they want.

In this article, we’ll cover the best plugins that let you display WooCommerce variation swatches on your online store.

By the time you’re done reading, you’ll know how to display WooCommerce swatches in different parts of your store and use them for different purposes:

What are WooCommerce swatches?

WooCommerce swatches are essentially a better way to display extra product options on your online store. Product variation swatches can be displayed in place of the usual WooCommerce dropdown fields to make your product pages more interactive and easier to navigate.

For instance, instead of displaying a dropdown that lets customers select their desired color when purchasing a product, you can display color swatches that offer a better visual representation and help customers differentiate between the available product options.

Depending on your brand and the type of WooCommerce site you run, you can use WooCommerce swatches in multiple ways.

For starters, you can showcase product options better without having to create variations on your online store, so it’s easier for customers to make quick, informed purchase decisions. You can also use WooCommerce product variation swatches as attribute filters. This makes it easier for your customers to quickly find the products they need. In addition, WooCommerce swatches can transform your product pages by neatly displaying variations using image or color swatches.

Why add variation swatches to WooCommerce?

Adding variation swatches is a great way to enhance the shopping experience and boost conversions on your WooCommerce store. Swatches makes it easier for customers to get an idea of different variations of the same product.

For instance, if a product has a lot of color options, you can display an image or color swatch to visually represent variation options better. As a result, you increase clarity for your customers. It gives them a better idea of what they’ll get if they select a specific product option.

Adding WooCommerce variation swatches helps you enhance the end-user experience tremendously on your website. With product variations, customers can make a visual connection with what they’re looking for instead of reading through dropdown lists. This makes it easier for customers to decide quickly on what they want to purchase.

Benefits of adding variations swatches to WooCommerce products:

• Increases store conversions. If you’re offering an easy way to let customers select product options, there’s a better chance more customers will be encouraged to shop from your online store. As a result, it can increase store conversions and help your business generate more revenue.
• Simplifies the shopping experience. You want to consider all types of users (even people who aren’t very tech-savvy) when thinking about what the shopping experience on your online store should be like. Using variations swatches, you essentially simplify the shopping experience on your online store. In return, this encourages more users to shop from your online store and helps your brand cater to all types of customers.
• Displays product attributes and options visually. Ideally, you want to make sure your product pages look professional and are easy to navigate. A great way to do this is by displaying product attributes and options visually using WooCommerce swatches on your online store.

Best WooCommerce swatches plugins for WordPress

1. WooCommerce Product Options

The WooCommerce Product Options plugin lets shoppers customize products before adding them to their cart. This way, customers can select the correct product options while making a purchase instead of sending you the details later manually.

Benefits of using the WooCommerce Product Options plugin:

• You can automate everything: Customers won’t have to send you personalization or customization requests after placing their orders. They can select the correct options directly from the single product page.
• An alternative to product variations: Product variations aren’t ideal for all kinds of products. For example, if you have an online cake shop, you can add multiple options for cakes. You can add the option to select the flavor and icing color, enter a message, or upload a photo. In this case, product options are more suitable than product variations.
• Display upsells: You can display upsell offers directly on your online store with product options. Following our example, customers will be more likely to pay a bit extra for a personalized cake than a regular one.
• Add visual options to products: Product variations take a lot of time to create, and they’re even more difficult to manage. The product options plugin lets you add visual options to your WooCommerce products – like images and color swatches – without having to create product variations.

The swatches on the single product page will appear under the variation dropdowns and above the add to cart button. WooCommerce Product Options lets you charge extra for any of the product options you create. If the customer selects a product option with a cost attached to it, they’ll see the total cost of the product appear above the add to cart button.

What’s more is that you can use the WooCommerce Product Options plugin with other Barn2 plugins like:

• WooCommerce Product Table - product options appear in the ‘Buy’ column
• WooCommerce Quick View Pro - product options appear in the quick view lightbox

How to set up swatches with WooCommerce Product Options

Here's what you need to do to set up swatches with the WooCommerce Product Options plugin:

Step #1: Install WooCommerce Product Options

Get the WooCommerce Product Options plugin and install and activate it on your WordPress site.

Next, head over to the plugin's settings page by navigating to Settings → WooCommerce Product Options and enter the license key given to you in the confirmation email. Click on the Activate button to proceed.

Step #2: Create a product options group

Go to Products from the WordPress dashboard and click on the Product Options tab. Click on the Add Group button to create a product options group.

Next, set the display parameters and adjust its settings based on your preferences. Once that's done, click on the Add group button to continue.

Step #3: Add product options

Now that we've created a product options group, we can start adding the different options to it. Click on the Manage option group link to get started.

Enter a name for the product option and select the field type of option you want to add. WooCommerce Product Options lets you choose from a variety of options including:

• Radio buttons
• Checkboxes
• Dropdowns
• Text
• Paragraph
• File upload
• Images
• Color swatches
• HTML

You can also add prices to each product option you add to the group. The plugin lets you add a flat price or set variable pricing.

Once that's done, you can add the choices for each product option and choose to select specific options by default or leave all options unselected. The plugin also gives you the option to display the option name and description on the front-end.

Finally, you can choose to make the product option Required.

With the WooCommerce Product Options plugin, you can add advanced attributes to the product options you create. The available options include:

• Quantity rules - limit the number of product options a user can choose
• Character limit - limit characters for text and paragraph options
• Conditional logic - show certain options when the user makes a particular choice from the 'parent' option

Step #4: Add options to products

Once you're done creating an option, click the Add option button to add it to the product options group. Repeat this step to add multiple product options to the group.

2. WooCommerce Product Filters

WooCommerce swatches aren’t just for displaying on product pages. You can also use them as product filters. The benefit of doing it this way is that it lets customers click on an image, text label, or color swatch to quickly refine the product catalog by their selection(s).

Filtering products is a more visual way for customers to find the type of products they want to see and, ultimately, add to their shopping cart.

The WooCommerce Product Filters plugin is perfect for this. It comes with attribute color swatches and image filters based on an attribute, category, or taxonomy that customers can click to filter the list of products. In addition to this, it also lets you add image labels (like a tag cloud) that you can use for categories, attributes, taxonomies, and tags.

Best WooCommerce variation swatches plugins

While we’ve gone over other types of swatches plugins, all the remaining plugins in the list are more traditional WooCommerce swatches plugins. They replace the standard WooCommerce variation dropdowns on product pages with image, color, or text swatches. You can use one of these “traditional” swatches plugins if you need to add swatches to variable products.

All of these plugins work great with the WooCommerce Product Filters plugin. This way, you can showcase the attribute filters on the main shop page or category pages while using the variation swatches plugin to display swatches instead of generic-looking dropdown menus on single product pages.

This is a great combination as it lets you offer customers an easy way to find the products they’re interested in quickly. At the same time, you’re showcasing visual product options on your product pages, so it’s easier to differentiate between the available options. As a result, it helps enhance the shopping experience and helps shoppers on your online make quick, informed purchase decisions.

1. WooCommerce Attribute Swatches

The WooCommerce Attribute Swatches plugin by Iconic is a professional solution for displaying product variations better on your online store.

You can use the plugin to visualize product options on single product pages and give your WooCommerce site a modern look and feel. For instance, you can let customers select product colors by using a color picker or use image swatches to display the product’s material and texture to describe how it looks in real life.

In addition, the plugin also lets you display product variation swatches on the main shop page. This way, customers can select variation options for multiple products at once using attractive-looking swatches without having to navigate to each product page one by one.

Iconic’s WooCommerce Attribute Swatches is the perfect solution for displaying product variation options and also works with other popular WooCommerce plugins, including the WooCommerce Product Table and WooCommerce Quick View Pro plugins. This way, you can display the variation swatches in product tables and quick view lightboxes.

2. Variation Swatches Module of ShopEngine

ShopEngine is a complete WooCommerce builder add-on featuring a versatile Variation Swatches Module.

ShopEngine’s Variation Swatches Module lets you easily add attributes to your product. By using this module, you can customize and show off your product’s color or size variations. You can add radio images, labels, and colors into the product variation option fields. This will allow your customers to quickly find their desired product.

ShopEngine offers a free version of their plugin. They also offer a Pro version with multiple pricing options to suit different types of users.

3. Variation Swatches and Photos

Variation Swatches and Photos is a simple yet robust plugin for WooCommerce that lets you replace the default-looking dropdown fields for variable products.

The plugin is simple to use and lets you showcase image and color swatches to represent variation options for any product on your online store. This helps you enhance the visual aspect of your product pages and encourage more sales on your online store.

4. WPMozo Variation Swatches

The WPMozo Variation Swatches for Woo plugin is great if you want your online store's customers to be able to interact with the product and discover everything about it. This plugin makes it simple to display product colors, sizes, and views from multiple viewpoints. Another option is to use hover tooltips, which can show both text as well as images of the products.

You can display the variation swatches separately on the product and shop pages using WPMozo swatches. Use Inline and Separate layouts to appropriately arrange the product variation swatches. Use the styling options to add a unique touch to the variation swatches.

5. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce

Variation Swatches for WooCommerce is a free WooCommerce swatches plugin that offers an all-in-one solution for creating visually pleasing variable products on your online store.

Using the plugin, you can replace the default WooCommerce variation options display with attractive-looking color, images, and text variation swatches. This way, you make it easier for your customers to differentiate between product attributes or extra options when shopping from your online store. As a result, you improve the shopping experience on your online store and enhance customer satisfaction.

6. Swatchly

Similar to other plugins in this list, the free Swatchly plugin also lets you display beautiful variation swatches on your online store.

Using the free plugin, you can add multiple types of swatches to your variable products, including label swatches, color swatches, or image swatches. The best part about Swatchly is that it lets you auto convert all default WooCommerce variation dropdown menus into swatches.

This can save you a lot of time and hassle in adding swatches to all of your variable products, especially if you have a lot of variable products on your online store. In addition to this, you can also override global swatch settings for each product individually. This makes it easier for you to manage variation swatches on your WooCommerce site.

7. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce

Variation Swatches for WooCommerce is a fully responsive plugin designed to help create an interactive shopping experience for your store. In addition to that, the plugin makes your product pages look more appealing with beautifully designed swatches.

The plugin makes it super simple to display variation swatches. You get options such as color, image, radio button, or label button swatches and customize how swatches look on the front-end.

8. WooSwatches – WooCommerce Color or Image Variation Swatches

The WooSwatches - WooCommerce Color or Image Variation Swatches is a premium plugin. The plugin is designed to help you add image or color variation swatches to your product pages.

This way, you can replace the default variation dropdowns WooCommerce creates with beautiful-looking swatches that help enhance the shopping experience on your site. Your customers will have an easier time differentiating between product variation options while being able to quickly select product options and add the product to their shopping cart.

9. Product Variations Swatches for WooCommerce

The Product Variations Swatches for WooCommerce offers an effective solution for displaying variation swatches on your online store.

With this free plugin, you can customize your store’s global product attributes easily. It also gives you full control over the look and design of your variation swatches. The great thing about the plugin is that it’s fully responsive and displays product variation swatches beautifully, even on responsive devices.

Easily add product variation swatches with WooCommerce Product Options!

Adding product variation swatches to WooCommerce is a great way to enhance the shopping experience on your online store. This way, you make it easier for customers to differentiate between product attributes and select their desired options quickly. As a result, it helps you increase conversions and makes your product pages look more professional.

You can use WooCommerce variation swatches on your online store in a number of ways. You can showcase variation swatches as product filters, display product options without creating variations, and display variation options better on your store. This ultimately creates the ideal user experience on your store and encourages customers to make informed purchase decisions.

Our recommendation

Here’s our recommended list of WooCommerce variation swatches plugins to help you create the ideal shopping experience:

• WooCommerce Product Options. This plugin works great for when you want to offer extra product options on your online store.
• WooCommerce Product Filters. This plugin is ideal for displaying attribute swatches as clickable filters so customers can quickly find products they’re interested in.
• WooCommerce Attribute Swatches. This plugin is the perfect solution for displaying variation swatches on your online store.

Ready to start displaying extra product options using WooCommerce swatches? Get WooCommerce Product Options today!