Ecwid vs WooCommerce Comparison 2026
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin with no platform fee and no cut of sales, but the real cost is hosting, which its own page puts at $25 to $350 a month depending on traffic, plus extensions from $29 to $299 a year each. Ecwid charges a flat, predictable subscription instead, from $5 a month for a small catalogue to $29 for a hundred products and digital goods, and it bolts onto a site you already have, WordPress or otherwise. WooCommerce can end up cheaper at real scale, since no percentage is ever taken. Ecwid is the one with a bill you can state in one number rather than a range.
A store that bolts onto a site you already have
A free store plugin that takes no cut at all
At a glance
- Only WooCommerce has a free tier.
Side by side
Ecwid | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $5 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
Ecwid
A store that bolts onto a site you already have
Ecwid adds a shop to a site that already exists rather than asking anybody to rebuild on a new platform, which is what makes it the answer when the site is fine and only the selling is missing. It will also stand on its own with an included site builder and a free subdomain. Plans are separated by product count first: ten on the cheapest, a hundred on the next. Selling through Instagram and Facebook, the mobile management app and automated tax all start one tier above the entry plan.
Our note
Count your products before choosing, because the jump from ten to a hundred is the whole difference between the first two tiers and it is not a soft limit. If the shop is going to be the main event rather than an addition, pay for Shopify or BigCommerce now instead of migrating in a year.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
WooCommerce
A free store plugin that takes no cut at all
WooCommerce turns a WordPress site into a shop and states plainly that it charges no platform fee and takes no share of sales. The software is free and open source; the money goes on hosting and on whichever extensions a shop actually needs. That makes the total cost a range rather than a number, and the range depends on traffic more than on features. Running it means owning the hosting, the updates and the security, which is the trade against a platform that does all three and bills monthly.
Why people weigh these two
- WooCommerce instead of Ecwid
- WooCommerce also adds selling to a site you already run, as a free plugin with no cut at all, when that site happens to be WordPress.
- Ecwid instead of WooCommerce
- Ecwid bolts a store onto a site you already have instead of requiring WordPress specifically, at $5 with no free tier, hosted rather than self-run.
Which one should you pick
Ecwid is the pick for predictability and for anybody who does not want to own hosting, updates and security personally. Starter is $5 a month for up to ten products, and the whole cost is a flat, known number every month regardless of traffic.
WooCommerce is the pick for somebody already on WordPress who wants the shop to belong to them and is comfortable maintaining it. The plugin itself is free with no platform fee and no revenue share ever, but hosting realistically runs $25 to $350 a month depending on traffic, and a shop that is actually busy will sit at the higher end of that range rather than the lower one.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper?
- It depends on traffic and how many extensions a shop needs. WooCommerce charges no platform fee at all, but hosting realistically costs $25 to $350 a month plus $29 to $299 a year per extension. Ecwid is a flat, predictable subscription from $5 to $119 a month with no separate hosting bill to budget.
- Does Ecwid work on a WordPress site the way WooCommerce does?
- Yes, Ecwid can bolt onto an existing site including one built on WordPress, rather than requiring you to run WordPress at all. WooCommerce only works as a plugin inside WordPress specifically, so it assumes that platform as a starting point.
- Does either take a percentage of sales?
- Neither does, by their own account. WooCommerce's comparison table states its platform fee as $0 with no revenue share. Ecwid's pricing is also a flat subscription with no percentage cut described in its listing.
- Who should own the hosting and security for the shop?
- With WooCommerce, you do: the data and the uptime are yours to hold, which is the trade for not paying a subscription or a percentage. Ecwid keeps that responsibility off your plate, since the platform itself is the thing you are paying the monthly fee for.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.