Etsy or WooCommerce – An Overall Outlook
WooCommerce vs Etsy – which is your best platform to start making money? We’ll leave you some clues here and let you be the decision-maker.
While WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce platform, Etsy is a niche online marketplace. What does this mean for online merchants like you?
- First, you get to take complete control of the customer shopping experience if you choose to sell with WooCommerce. But it indicates that you will be responsible for all tasks from building websites to making sure your customers can check out with ease.
- Secondly, selling with Etsy means you likely tap into a whole dynamic community of people who are looking for creative goods. Without a doubt, Etsy vast audience can benefit your business so much. Yet, prepared to compete against millions of other sellers and strictly follow Etsy’s rules for sellers.
Those are two prominent points from the WooCommerce vs Etsy comparison. However, they are not the only key points made. In the following sections, let LitCommerce walk you through 8 key differences, including:
- User-friendliness
- Pricing
- Customization possibilities
- Marketing
- Inventory management
- Template and store design
- Shipping and fulfillment
- Customer support
Let’s tap into them! Speaking of Etsy vs eCommerce platform comparisons, you may want to check out Etsy vs Shopify comparison. Click here to read!
WooCommerce vs Etsy Comparison through 8 Key Differences
Ready to dive deep into the detailed comparison of WooCommerce vs Etsy yet? We will now walk you through 8 key aspects as mentioned. Here they go!
WooCommerce vs Etsy: User-friendliness
Everybody likes a simple-to-use yet effective system, especially when it comes to choosing a platform for your online store. No matter if you’re tech-savvy or a newbie with little to no technical skill, a user-friendly platform can help to dramatically improve your productivity by cutting off tons of time spent on certain tasks.
But what exactly is the ease of use? Let’s take a look at some criteria below:
- Simple installation process;
- Even non-technical users can learn how to use it with a breeze;
- The user interface is straightforward, modern, and intuitive;
- Many complicated parts are automated and help to reduce repetitive tasks;
- Doesn’t have a steep learning curve, and is easy to get from the basics to the advance;
- Clear and detailed instructions.
So between WooCommerce and Etsy, which one will be a better option in terms of ease of use? Let’s go into detail.
WooCommerce ease of use
As an Open-Source eCommerce platform, the installation process of WooCommerce might be a bit overwhelming for new beginners. Basically, it includes some steps:
#Step 1: Get hosting and a domain for your website.
#Step 2: Install WordPress and WooCommerce.
#Step 3: Find a new theme and start setting up your store.
It’s quite straightforward but for someone who doesn’t have much experience, it could be a bit challenging. However, WooCommerce has tons of detailed guidelines and instructions for you to follow. Furthermore, some hosting providers like GoDaddy even make it super easy with the 1-click WooCommerce and WordPress installation which saves you time and effort.
Let’s take a look at the main dashboard of WooCommerce after successfully setting it up. As you can see, everything you need is on the sidebar, from adding a new post/page or customizing your theme, to managing inventory as well as customers. You can easily navigate through the system and find what you need in just some simple clicks.
Compared to Etsy, WooCommerce is not easy to use. It does take time for you to master WooCommerce and take full advantage of these massive and rich features systems. But once you know what you are doing, the possibilities to level up your store are limitless.
Let’s hear WooCommerce customer review
It’s not perfect, but nothing comes close to the versatility and ease of use. We rely on WooCommerce for several of our web stores. Updating all of the plugins can be a bit of a hassle, but they are improving that with every new release.
– Sašo Kastelic (Slovenia)
Besides WooCommerce, you might want to check other Etsy competitors for more references.
Etsy ease of use
Unlike WooCommerce, Etsy is an online marketplace that allows merchants to create a new store in just some simple steps.
#Step 1: Register for an Etsy account
#Step 2: Create a new shop
#Step 3: Set your shop preferences and choose a name
With Etsy, you can have your store up and running in just a few minutes. The process does not take long because it’s all there.
Indeed, Etsy provides merchants with everything they need from hosting, domain, themes, and much more. Even more than that, they also create an amazing streamlined process from start to finish so you can easily navigate and bring your store online. That being said, online merchants should take special care of these steps from the very beginning because they are super important.
Setting up the preferences and choosing your shop name play vital roles when it comes to getting new customers for your store.
Just like the WooCommerce dashboard, you can find all the needed functionality of your store from the left sidebar of the dashboard. Also, you can get an overview of your store from the center such as total view, visits, orders, and revenue…
Let’s hear Etsy customer review
Great company and fantastic service. Ease of listing, handling finances and postage makes them my 1st choice as a selling platform. With the implementation of optional free US delivery my market virtually got doubled in the span of a couple of weeks. I admit their new star seller program still has some niggles and flaws but sure in the long term these will be sorted out. Great company!
– Forshelovedwool (United Kingdom)
The verdict: Etsy is definitely the winner in terms of ease to use since you don’t need any technical experience to master this platform.
Sell with WooCommerce or Etsy – Why not Both?
If you already have a store on WooCommerce, integrate it with Etsy to benefit from this dynamic marketplace as well. In this case, LitCommerce would be more than happy to support you
WooCommerce vs Etsy: Pricing
Let’s continue by exploring the answer to your burning question: How much does it cost for a new Etsy store or a WooCommerce store? We will walk you through some of the most important expenses you need to spend so you can get your new online business up and running yet still minimize the cost.
WooCommerce pricing
As a self-hosted eCommerce platform, the cost of opening a new store on WooCommerce is quite reasonable and suitable, especially for new beginners. If you’re about to open a new WooCommerce store, there are three main costs including hosting and domain fee, theme cost, shipping, and payment gateway fee. Let’s go through each of them.
- Hosting and domain fee: To get a new website up and running, you need a server to store your data. Hosting fees can be as little as $3.95 per month and as high as $5,000. You can make it cheaper by purchasing for 1-2 years.
- Theme cost: WooCommerce has tons of free and paid themes for you to choose from. For a paid template, you might need to spend somewhere from $20 to $100 per year.
- Shipping fee: For shipping, you can use an extension to connect with your favorite service. Depending on the quality of your provider, the price can vary from $9-$100 per month.
- Payment gateways fee: Payment gateways allow you to accept payments online with a high level of security. Here are a few popular options for you:
– WooCommerce Payments: Free to set up and no monthly fee. Nevertheless, You pay 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction made with U.S.-issued credit or debit cards.
– Paypal: There’s no monthly fee if you’ve already had a basic Paypal account. Also, each time you have a sale, you need to pay 2.9% + 0.30 cents.
Etsy pricing
Etsy is quite famous for being an affordable platform. Its pricing structure is quite easy to get, there are four main parts including listing fee, transaction fee, payment processing fee, and advertising cost.
- Listing fee: this is the cost you will need to pay every time you add a new set of products or create a new listing.
– Auto-renew sold fees: 20 cents for each new listing.
– Multi-quantity listing fee: Each time an item on your listing is purchased, you will still be charged the standard 20 cents.
- Etsy transaction fee: Etsy takes 5% of the total cost for each product in your designated listing currency.
– The fee will be automatically posted to your current payment account.
– In case you charge buyers a separate shipping fee, you also need to pay 5% of the total shipping charges.
- Etsy payment processing fee: Depending on your country, the typical fee is 3% + $0.25
- Advertising cost: Etsy provides two types of Advertising services for merchants, namely Etsy Ads and Offsite Ads. However, merchants only need to pay Offsite Ads fees when the item results in a sale. With a threshold of $10.000, the fee will be 15% if your revenue for 365 days is more than $10k. Otherwise, you only need to pay 12%.
If you need any additional information about Etsy pricing and fee structure, come and check out our latest topic right here!
The verdict: Etsy is much cheaper than WooCommerce since this E-marketplace doesn’t require any initial expense to set up and also, the listing fee is super cheap.
WooCommerce vs Etsy: Customization possibilities
Customization is an important factor, especially for businesses of medium or large scale. Let’s check if WooCommerce or Etsy is doing a better job at this aspect.
WooCommerce customization possibilities
WooCommerce is one of the best options among all shopping cart solutions if you’re looking for a powerful tool to get your website running just like you want.
As an open-source platform, WooCommerce allows you to freely tweak its source code to change the appearance and the core functionality. You can use HTML, CSS, and Javascript… to change the color of a section, add a button, adjust the content, and much more.
Moreover, you can also go the extra mile and integrate your store with third-party apps or add-ons to get a special function that helps to level up your store.
Etsy customization possibilities
As mentioned above, Etsy provides mostly everything an online store owner needs such as theme, store layout, and product page… so even a newbie can easily master its system.
However, Etsy doesn’t allow you to modify the source code to put your own style into your store. It’s possible to change the colors, fonts, and photo styles in your store nevertheless. But in general, Etsy doesn’t bring merchants lots of flexibility.
That being said, there’re still some aspects that you can gain more self-control over with Etsy if you register for Etsy Plus:
- Banner customizations: For Etsy Plus, users can have the Carousel Banner which allows them to add up to 4 different images for shoppers to scroll through. Additionally, users can also add a banner image that links to a specific listing or a shop section.
- Layout customizations: They also feature a mixed grid option for sellers that have Etsy Plus subscriptions. There are 5 listings or store divisions in the mixed grid. The layout consists of one main listing or shop section on the left and four smaller items or shop sections on the right.
The verdict: In terms of customization, WooCommerce is definitely the winner compared to Etsy.
WooCommerce vs Etsy – Marketing features and toolkits
Your marketing efforts on an eCommerce platform will be different from those on a marketplace. In our case, it is WooCommerce vs Etsy in terms of marketing tools for your store.
Without any delay, we’ll now get you straight to the main points.
WooCommerce marketing features and toolkits
Let us clarify something: Going for WooCommerce means self-promotion.
But what does the house have to offer you to do self-promotion, especially if you decide to choose WooCommerce over Etsy? Let’s take a look at it:
- Discounts and coupons: WooCommerce allows you to create discounts and coupons (namely percentage-based discounts, fixed-amount discounts, free shipping, or buy-one-get-one deals) to boost customers’ purchase power.
- Email marketing integration: Popular email marketing integrations like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and others are available, letting you collect customer email addresses and send targeted email campaigns.
- Product reviews and ratings: Customer reviews and ratings build trust and credibility for your products. As a website builder, WooCommerce enables customers to leave reviews and ratings on product pages, which can influence purchasing decisions and improve search engine visibility.
- SEO optimization: Built-in tools and features to optimize your online store for search engines are included. WooCommerce supports integration with popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack, and Rank Math for more advanced optimization capabilities.
- Social media integration: This platform offers social media integration features, allowing you to connect your store with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Does WooCommerce marketing support stop there? We highly doubt that since WooCommerce is an open-source platform. The more technical expertise you’ve got, the more potential you may get out of WooCommerce.
However, we can’t help saying dealing with an open-source platform to enhance your store marketing efforts and functionality to its finest would be a big challenge.
Etsy marketing features and toolkits
Opposite WooCommerce, Etsy has a massive source of built-in traffic thanks to its reputation. However, selling on Etsy means you’ll compete against many sellers who list the same products and target the same customers.
Beyond this point, while selling with WooCommerce is all about building your own reputation, choosing Etsy may let you borrow some credibility from the house. On this ground, brand recognition may be limited to a certain extent as well.
So to promote your shop better, what marketing tools can you use on Etsy? Here they are:
- Etsy ads: Onsite and Offsite ads on Etsy can help you promote your listings effectively on or beyond Etsy. Surely, they come at a cost.
- Shop updates: This feature enables sellers to share engaging content, such as behind-the-scenes photos, product demonstrations, and announcements, directly within their Etsy shop.
- Etsy SEO tools: Built-in SEO tools for optimizing product listings are available. Speaking of Etsy search, you can utilize Etsy’s search analytics to understand how shoppers are finding your listings and make data-driven decisions.
- Shop analytics: Etsy provides detailed analytics and insights into shop performance, including views, visits, favorites, and sales data.
- Etsy Share and Save program: Etsy launched this program to encourage sellers like you to share your listings with potential buyers. As encouragement, Etsy will deduct 4% from your bills for every successful purchase.
The verdict: Are WooCommerce and Etsy supportive of online merchants with all their provided marketing tools and features? Yes, they certainly are! In terms of marketing features and tools, we believe it is an even match. Yet, if you wish to leverage WooCommerce’s full potential, we suggest that you and your team perform some technical expertise!
WooCommerce vs Etsy: Inventory management
Is inventory management a vital role for your business? if you don’t sell digital products, we would be convinced this is one key player. That’s why we’ve chosen to compare WooCommerce vs Ets inventory management aspect in this article.
WooCommerce inventory management
WooCommerce offers merchants an amazing inventory management center with tons of useful features that helps to effectively monitor all products in just one place. Some of the notable functionalities include bulk editing, creating inventory reports, product attribute modification, and much more.
Also, you could find an extension to expand the power of your management center. The WooCommerce app store gives you thousands of options to choose from.
Manage Your Inventory More Effectively with LitCommerce
Managing inventory across WooCommerce and Etsy smartly and effectively with LitCommerce using our features including QuickGrid, Templates, and Recipes. Learn now!
Etsy inventory management
You can see all of your listings by going to Listings right from the dashboard. Etsy allows you to filter listings by expiration date, status, or channel.
Furthermore, you can even edit your listings right here with the Quick Edit mode.
Although it’s not the primary mode, you can still modify some of the most important aspects of the listing, from quantity, price, SKUs, and section to shipping and tag as well. With just some simple clicks, you can easily customize your listings just like you want.
The verdict: It’s a tie. Both platforms bring great inventory management systems that could help merchants easily keep track of and effectively manage their stores.
Also, you can easily connect Etsy and WooCommerce to LitCommerce and sell on both platforms. This way, it will be so simple and effective for you to manage both stores by synchronizing products from the two sources.
WooCommerce vs Etsy: Template and design
What will make your customer pay attention to your online store for the very first time? There’s no doubt that the store’s appearance is one of the key elements to gaining the trust of your customers at first sight.
With that in mind, let’s move on to find out which one between WooCommerce and Etsy will be the best choice when it comes to template and design.
WooCommerce templates and designs
You can easily find an amazing theme for your WooCommerce web pages at the WooCommerce theme store. Application development services provide users with a huge number of options (1000+) in many categories such as food and drink, toys and games, beauty, fashion, etc.
Moreover, if you need something more special and personalized for your store, you can visit another independent theme store such as Theme Forest. With more than 1300 WooCommerce themes, you can freely find a stunning look for your store.
With prices ranging from $20 to $100 (from WooCommerce’s theme store) per year, a paid WooCommerce theme is sure to make your store look appealing and stand out from the crowd.
Additionally, the power of customization is the main reason that merchants around the world prefer WooCommerce themes. From changing the layout, and sections to modifying or creating a new core function for the theme, you can easily create an amazing store that fits your own sense of style with a few technical skills required.
Etsy templates and designs
Unlike WooCommerce, Etsy is not a website builder platform but an online marketplace with a rich customer base. Plus, Etsy is focusing more on simplicity and optimization for selling as well as marketing features. That’s why with Etsy, you only have the default theme that every Etsy store owner uses.
As you can see, Etsy is quite restricted in terms of store appearance. Your store’s banner will be the biggest highlight when a customer gets into your shop. Hence, take special care of your Etsy store’s banner so you can set yourself apart from the competition.
The verdict: WooCommerce is the winner when it comes to template and design. With a huge amount of free and paid themes available, you will have so many options to make your store look stunning.
WooCommerce vs Etsy: Shipping
Both WooCommerce and Etsy bring merchants great service for shipping products.
WooCommerce shipping is quite a powerful system. If you offer free shipping, local pickup, or flat-rate shipping, this self-hosted solution has built-in features for you. Shipping configuration can be accessed by navigating from your main dashboard: WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping.
Here, you can set up your shipping zone by giving your location as well as the zip codes. Also, you can set up the shipping methods to shipping zones by choosing to Add Shipping Method. You can choose between Flat Rate, Free Shipping, or Local Pickup, and select the options and pricing you’d like for each one.
For E-marketplace merchants, shipping is one of the most important aspects. Therefore, the Etsy team brings store owners many efficient ways to handle shipping. They allow you to create your own shipping profile and then apply it to your orders. You can set up the location, processing time, and price… which helps your products safely and quickly come to your customers.
Furthermore, you can follow your shipping status with Etsy shipping. Hence, you can always stay up to date with your process.
The verdict: Etsy is slightly better than WooCommerce since you can easily use the built-in features of Etsy and keep track of your order all the time.
WooCommerce vs Etsy: Seller support
We believe support is an impactful factor for new or individual sellers. This can also apply to small-scaled businesses. Here we go!
WooCommerce seller support
Due to the platform’s open-source nature, the WooCommerce team doesn’t offer much for merchants to keep in touch with them by email or live chat. Instead, the self-host solution provides store owners with an enormous WooCommerce Documentation that covers all the important parts of WooCommerce.
Another way to get help is by connecting with millions of other sellers just like you with the community forum. You can freely ask questions, and interact with other merchants to get the best solution to your problem.
It has never been easier to sell on Etsy and WooCommerce With LitCommerce you can sync your Inventory, Prices, and Orders in real time, all can be tracked in one central dashboard |
Looking for more comparisons like WooCommerce vs Etsy? We’ve got you right there. Come and check our comparison of Etsy vs Wix. If you are a small business owner, that might be more relevant to you.
Etsy seller support
Etsy provides all kinds of support services for its users. You can reach out to the Etsy support team and they will help connect you with the type of support that’s the best fit for your specific question: chat, phone, or email.
Just like WooCommerce, you can also find answers to your common questions at the Etsy help center or get into the Etsy community to find sellers with the same problems as yours.
The verdict: Etsy’s customer support is better than WooCommerce. They offer a wide range of customer services, from email, live chat, and phone to forums and community–everything you need to solve your problem.
WooCommerce vs Etsy: FAQs
Yes, you can sell on both WooCommerce and Etsy and link the two platforms together using multichannel selling tools. The tool will help you synchronize your products, and listings including price and stock quantity between both selling channels. You can also list your products in bulk from WooCommerce to Etsy and manage all orders from one place. WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform in the world, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best. If you are looking for a platform to build your standalone eCommerce store, there are several options that may suit your needs including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and more. It highly depends on your business goals, model, and scale. If you are just an individual seller, using Etsy instead of a website may benefit your business more. Such benefits can refer to are built-in traffic, seller tools, and solid seller protection. However, if you are running a business of medium to large scale, and you’ve got your customers on hand and a whole in-house team devoted to coding, go straight for a functional website and kick off your selling game! In terms of user-friendliness, seller support, selling fees, and shipping, Etsy can have some winning points over WooCommerce. However, when it comes to seller freedom, store functionality, store design, and inventory management, WooCommerce is likely to win!
Etsy vs WooCommerce – Which One is Right for You?
WooCommerce is a super impressive system for someone who is looking to build a business website with high capability and endless possibilities to customize their shop just like they want. On the other hand, you should go with Etsy if you’re trying to find an E-marketplace with a wide customer base and amazing marketing and selling features.
Here is our last note on this WooCommerce vs. Etsy comparison: Take your long-term business growth into consideration. You have complete control over WooCommerce, and your long-term business targets are less likely to be impacted. But the case is not the same for Etsy. The online marketplace can alter its policies at times. This is quite a point to consider. And that’s all we’ve got for Etsy vs. WooCommerce.
By any chance you are looking to integrate WooCommerce into Etsy, LitCommerce will be your accompany. We are proud to be the most simple and affordable multi-channel selling tool. Leave us a message if you need more information.
Last but not least, follow our Retailer Blog for more exciting eCommerce news and tips. Good luck!
