{"id":742,"date":"2026-03-12T10:53:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/payhip.com\/hub\/?p=742"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:14:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:14:36","slug":"what-is-woocommerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/payhip.com\/hub\/what-is-woocommerce\/","title":{"rendered":"What is WooCommerce?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WooCommerce was founded in November 2007 when Mark Forrester, Magnus Jepsen, and Adii Pienaar joined forces to create a WordPress theme. The early days of WooCommerce were spent building themes for WordPress customers. Eventually, the product evolved into a WordPress plug-in for creating a storefront.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_77 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/payhip.com\/hub\/what-is-woocommerce\/#What_is_WooCommerce\" >What is WooCommerce?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/payhip.com\/hub\/what-is-woocommerce\/#How_does_WooCommerce_work\" >How does WooCommerce work?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/payhip.com\/hub\/what-is-woocommerce\/#What_you_need_to_know_about_selling_on_WooCommerce\" >What you need to know about selling on WooCommerce<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/payhip.com\/hub\/what-is-woocommerce\/#Is_WooCommerce_the_best_platform_to_sell_products\" >Is WooCommerce the best platform to sell products?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_WooCommerce\"><\/span>What is WooCommerce?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>WooCommerce is a WordPress plug-in that allows you to turn your WordPress website into an ecommerce site. You\u2019ll have all the functionality to fully customize your website however you like. This ecommerce plug-in includes themes, features, and even extensions that let you build a more customized online store. Customers choose WooCommerce for its built-in content system, which lets them build a blog and run an online store simultaneously to drive organic search traffic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_does_WooCommerce_work\"><\/span>How does WooCommerce work?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. WordPress is an open-source website builder. WooCommerce is a plugin that integrates with WordPress to deliver a shopping cart and storefront experience on a platform that doesn\u2019t have this functionality by default.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To set up WooCommerce, you\u2019ll need to create a WordPress website first. After you set up your WordPress account, you\u2019ll need to set up the WooCommerce plug-in. In addition to setting up these two parts, you\u2019ll also need to register for a hosting plan, SSL certificate, and potentially other plug-ins to create a website that\u2019s truly your own. The setup process is a bit complicated; many sellers hire a third-party developer to handle it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_you_need_to_know_about_selling_on_WooCommerce\"><\/span>What you need to know about selling on WooCommerce<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While WooCommerce is a free plug-in, that doesn\u2019t mean that running a store on this platform will be free. Since it\u2019s a self-hosted platform, you\u2019ll need to pay for your own hosting through a third-party provider. You\u2019ll also need to pay for your own domain registration, SSL certificate, premium themes, extensions, and transaction fees through WooPayments. When you add up all these costs, they can run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>WooCommerce is also a very technical platform. It isn\u2019t an intuitive, easy-to-set-up platform to sell products. The average person will likely need to hire someone to help set up their store, unless they\u2019re technically savvy. There\u2019s also a lot of separate parts, like domain registration, hosting, and an SSL certificate, that you\u2019ll need to connect as they\u2019re not automatically added or created during sign-up. This can feel a bit tedious or overwhelming for a beginner who hasn\u2019t built an online store before. WooCommerce tends to be a platform for more experienced online retailers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Another challenge you\u2019ll face is managing the technical maintenance of your online store. For example, managing backups of your website, updating all plug-ins and security elements, managing and upgrading your hosting as needed, and more. Since there are many moving parts, there\u2019s more maintenance required.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Some sellers run into issues when parts of their website break due to outdated or out-of-service plug-ins that no longer work with updated versions of WordPress. Not all plug-in creators continue to upkeep all of their products. This can be problematic if your website depends on that plug-in for a specific aspect.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Most ecommerce platforms include all the features you need on one platform. WooCommerce is just one plug-in of many. Unfortunately, most sellers will need to add multiple plug-ins to add all the features and components they need to build their online store. However, plug-in bloat can cause your website to lag or load slowly. A slow website can hurt your conversion rate as a seller.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_WooCommerce_the_best_platform_to_sell_products\"><\/span>Is WooCommerce the best platform to sell products?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>No, WooCommerce isn\u2019t the best platform to sell products. The best platform is Payhip, a <a href=\"https:\/\/payhip.com\/woocommerce-alternatives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WooCommerce alternative<\/a>, which offers a Free Forever plan with only a 5% transaction fee. You\u2019ll also get many advanced marketing tools that let you add unique components to your website without the bloat. You can also access a marketplace on this platform to sell both physical and digital products online with ease. To start building your website, <a href=\"https:\/\/payhip.com\/auth\/register\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sign up today<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"FAQPage\",\n  \"mainEntity\": [{\n    \"@type\": \"Question\",\n    \"name\": \"What is WooCommerce?\",\n    \"acceptedAnswer\": {\n      \"@type\": \"Answer\",\n      \"text\": \"WooCommerce is a WordPress plug-in that allows you to turn your WordPress website into an ecommerce site. You\u2019ll have all the functionality to fully customize your website however you like. This ecommerce plug-in includes themes, features, and even extensions that let you build a more customized online store. 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WooCommerce is a WordPress plug-in that allows [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-platforms"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is WooCommerce? - Payhip Resource Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thinking of starting a WooCommerce store? 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