WooCommerce (US, Automattic) is the world’s most widespread open-source commerce platform, built on WordPress. The core plugin is free; revenue comes from extensions, themes and services. Whoever hosts it owns the data and can extend the code.
What it does
- Build a full store inside an existing WordPress site
- Control code, data and hosting without SaaS lock-in
- Customize any flow with plugins and PHP hooks
- Sell physical, digital, subscriptions and bookings
Products
The core adds catalog, cart, checkout and orders to WordPress. Around it: an official marketplace with hundreds of paid extensions (payments, shipping, marketing), its own gateway, Woo Express (hosted) and mobile app integration. A community and local agencies complete the ecosystem.
Public pricing
- Core is free and open-source (GPL)
- Real costs: hosting, domain and the paid extensions your store needs
- Woo Express offers monthly plans for those who don’t want to self-host
Strengths
- Content and store in one place — the best of WordPress
- No platform subscription or SaaS transaction fees
- Huge ecosystem of agencies and plugins
Points of attention
- Security, backups and performance are your responsibility
- Plugin quality varies — scope grows fast
- Requires continuous maintenance (updates, conflicts, cache)