In this day and age, creating a functional and effective travel booking website has never been easier, thanks to the best travel booking WordPress plugins specifically designed for this purpose. These plugins facilitate smooth booking operations and offer versatile features such as booking management, payment integrations, customizable layouts, and more.

As travel companies, if you find creating and managing your website nerve-wracking, worry not! One thing you should remember is that your travel website will perform at its best when equipped with the best travel themes and travel plugins. 

In this article, I have listed the 9 best travel booking WordPress plugins to make your website journey smooth yet fully functional. 

List of the Best Travel Booking WordPress Plugins

As mentioned earlier, travel booking plugins facilitate you with all the necessary tools for creating and functioning a travel website. These plugins will make it easier for travel companies to sell tour packages while fully supporting the needs of their customers. 

All in all, a brilliant travel company will utilize all the functions of a great travel plugin. But do you know which is the best in the oceans of choices? 

Now, you will now know about the top 10 travel booking WordPress plugins. 

1. WP Travel Engine

If you have ever felt overwhelmed while trying to create a perfect travel booking website, let me tell you a secret: WP Travel Engine.

So, what is WP Travel Engine?

It’s a brilliant WordPress plugin specifically designed for travel and tour businesses. You might be thinking, “What makes it so special?” Buckle up because you’re about to find out.

WP Travel Engine has incredible features that make it one of the best in the business. The first standout feature is its customizability. You can create and showcase unlimited travel packages, tours, and destinations precisely as you want. Intriguing, right?

Moreover, WP Travel Engine integrates seamlessly with renowned payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and more. That’s a big sigh of relief.

And it gets better. It simplifies booking management, maintaining detailed logs and automatically generating invoices. So, say goodbye to unnecessary stress.

The best part? Despite its advanced features, it’s user-friendly. Even beginners can navigate it with ease. So, if you’re looking to skyrocket your travel business and deliver an outstanding booking experience, WP Travel Engine is your one-stop solution. And, hereon, you will find out why the WP Travel Engine Plugin is the best plugin for you.

Here is some quick stats about WP Travel Engine:

• Used by 10,000+ travel business owners 
• More than 100 reviews, average rating of 4.8
• Step-by-step video tutorials and documentation
• Active Facebook community of users 

Build SEO-friendly Travel Websites in Minutes | WP Travel Engine Plugin

Key Features of WP Travel Engine

• Unlimited Trip Information
• Multiple Payment Gateways
• User-friendly Booking Management
• Flexible Pricing Options
• Email Notifications
• Quick and Friendly Support 
• Customizable Booking Form
• Travel Information Form
• Extension and Add-Ons Support
• Multilingual Translation Ready
• SEO Friendly for Improved Search Engine Ranking
• Advanced Search Option
• Compatible with Many Themes
• Added Blocks for Enhanced Performance

Best Add Ons and Extensions

The WP Travel Engine Plugin offers a variety of extensions and add-ons to enhance the functionality of your travel website and provide unforgettable experiences to your website visitors. These add-ons are designed to help you sell more with less effort. Here are some of them:

• Social Proofs Add-on

Social Proof aims to boost customer confidence and conversions on your travel website. It allows you to display real-time notifications of customer activities such as trip bookings, inquiries, and reviews in delightful little popups lending credibility to your website.

• WooCommerce Payments Add-on

It is a handy add-on for the WP Travel Engine plugin that enables trip payments through various payment gateways supported by WooCommerce. This add-on makes the payment process seamless and efficient.

It supports all WooCommerce-supported payment gateways, including popular ones like Stripe, Paypal, and Authorize.net. 

• Group Discount Add-on

You can provide discounts based on the number of travelers that book a trip, using the Group Discount extension for the WP Travel Engine plugin. It is a flexible tool for all kinds of travel packages as it lets you define a discount range for adult, child, and infant groups separately. 

• Trip Fixed Starting Dates Add-on

With this add-on, you can specify the available spots and set a recurring time for each trip. The add-on automatically determines the number of remaining seats following each reservation, guaranteeing that the availability of your trip is constantly updated. 

• Advanced Itinerary Builder Add-on

The Advanced Itinerary Builder is an extension of the WP Travel Engine plugin that allows you to create engaging, informative, and interactive itineraries with rich photos. It will enable you to add unlimited itinerary days, each with a description, gallery, and altitude chart.

• Partial payment Add-on

This add-on provides a flexible payment option for travellers. It allows travellers to book a trip or tour package on an installment payment basis, making it more affordable and accessible. This feature enhances the user experience and can lead to an increase in sales or conversions. 

• Currency Converter Add-on

It is an extension of the WP Travel Engine plugin that brings the convenience of currency conversion to your travel website. This add-on allows your customers to efficiently convert trip prices between multiple currencies, making it easier for international customers to understand the cost in their local currency. 

Themes Compatible with WP Travel Engine

As mentioned earlier, extraordinary features and additional extensions make WP Travel Engine plugin the best tool to create and enhance your travel booking website. But is that all? 

Prepare for another great feature of WP Travel Engine. Well, its compatibility with various WordPress themes is one of the reasons it stands out as a top-notch plugin for travel websites. 

The compatibility with WordPress themes ensures versatility, consistency, easy access, and many other qualities to make this plugin one of the best. It allows you to choose a theme that aligns with your brand’s aesthetic and functional requirements.

WP Travel Engine’s compatibility with different themes makes it a versatile, reliable, and user-friendly solution for building a travel website that meets your needs and preferences.

The following are some themes compatible with WP Travel Engine Plugin:

1. Travel Agency

Travel Agency WordPress theme is the perfect solution for travel and tour operators, hotel chains, and other businesses wishing to build a dynamic, user-friendly travel booking website.

You can utilize this user-friendly theme without writing a single line of code. 

With the WP Travel Engine plugin, Travel Agency may be used to create custom journeys with comprehensive itineraries and FAQs. This feature significantly enhances consumers’ booking experiences by allowing them to book the holiday they want directly.

2. Travel Booking

Travel Booking is a terrific free WordPress theme compatible with the WP Travel Engine plugin for travel and tour operators, hotel chains, and other organizations looking to construct a travel booking website. 

Tour operators can publish trip itineraries, highlight nearby attractions and lodging deals, and, most importantly, enable direct booking on the website. Its stylish and user-friendly design boosts sales.

The functionality of this theme is continuously being enhanced. It is speedy, responsive to mobile devices, schema-friendly, and SEO-optimized, so your site will rank highly in search results and provide a top-notch user experience across all platforms.

3. Travel Monster

The WordPress theme Travel Monster, developed by WP Travel Engine, is designed for anyone involved in the travel industry, including lodging establishments, tour operators, and travel blogs. 

The WP Travel Engine plugin, a powerful and feature-rich tool for planning and promoting vacation packages, works with the theme. You may create and offer detailed itineraries, price information, booking forms, and more. 

Additionally, Travel Monster is search engine optimized, ensuring that people can find your website and that it ranks highly in search results. As a result, it helps increase your online visibility and organic traffic, attracting more potential customers and bookings.

Blocks

WP Travel Engine never fails to serve its users with significant updates. Here are some newly-updated blocks adding more options for users to enhance their website. 

1. Trips

The Trip Blocks feature in WP Travel Engine allows users to add different trips to their blog posts or page with a single click. This feature is designed to make it easier for users to display various trip packages on their travel booking websites. The block offers a range of settings for customization.

2. Destinations

The Destinations Blocks feature in WP Travel Engine provides a flexible and user-friendly way for users to display and manage their trip packages based on different destinations on their website.

3. Trip Types

This WP Travel Engine plugin block allows travel websites to categorize and display their trip packages based on various types. It can include categories like budget-friendly, child-friendly, or dog-friendly trips. 

The block provides settings to organize and display the trip types in a user-friendly manner. It also includes options to show the number of trips associated with each type and a “View More” button for detailed information. 

4. Activities

The Activities block in the WP Travel Engine plugin is a tool that enables travel websites to categorize and present their trip packages based on various activities, such as hiking, paragliding, or peak climbing. 

This feature enhances the user experience by allowing travelers to find trips that align with their preferred activities. 

5. Trip Search

The Trip Search block in WP Travel Engine is a powerful feature that enhances the user experience by allowing travelers to search for their ideal trips based on various parameters. 

These parameters include destination, activities, trip types, duration, price, date, difficulty, and age group. This block can be integrated into any page or post, making it easier for visitors to find trips that best suit their preferences.

Pricing of WP Travel Engine

You can access the free and premium versions of the WP Travel Engine Plugin. While the free version carries no charge, the premium version comes with different plans. 

• Personal: $99.50 (For one site)
• Travel Agency: $199.50 (For one site)
• Software Company: $299.50 (For ten sites)

2. WP Travel Engine – Elementor

The WP Travel Engine Widgets-Elementor plugin integrates WP Travel Engine with the famous page builder, Elementor. It allows you to use Elementor to create a travel booking website, offering a seamless way to display trips, destinations, activities, trip types, and advanced searches. 

As travel entrepreneurs, you can combine the power of two popular plugins to create feature-rich travel websites without writing any code. 

Not to mention, you should install the parent plugin, WP Travel Engine, before installing WP Travel Engine-Elementor.

Key Features of WP Travel Engine – Elementor

• Integration with WP Travel Engine
• Easy Installation
• Elementor Widgets
• Gutenberg Blocks
• Dedicated Support and Community.

Pricing of WP Travel Engine – Elementor  

You can download this plugin for free. However, it offers additional paid upgrades and support.

Compatible Themes

WP Travel Engine – Elementor is compatible with all the themes its parent plugin supports.

3. Yatra

You can use Yatra, a free, SEO-friendly, and scalable WordPress travel booking plugin, to create travel and tour websites as a travel agency. This plugin is incredibly user-friendly, making it easy to create trips, itineraries, and trekking packages. 

It supports various payment gateways, making it convenient for customers to make payments. 

One of the standout features of Yatra is its availability calendar, which allows you to modify pricing and other options. 

You will also get a setup wizard, making the setup process straightforward. With regular updates and excellent support, Yatra is a reliable solution for your travel booking needs.

Key Features of Yatra

• Unlimited Trip/Tours
• Custom Attributes
• Unlimited FAQs
• Activity
• Unlimited Itinerary
• Multiple Pricing
• Destinations
• Advanced Tabs
• Easy to Use

Pricing of Yatra

While there is also a free version, the premium version is available at different prices:

• Starter: $79
• Essential: $149
• Growth: $299
• Master: $599

Compatible Themes

This plugin is fully compatible with the WordPress theme Resa, so your website looks informative and attractive at the same time.

4. WP Travel

WP Travel is a comprehensive and powerful plugin for WordPress explicitly designed for travel and tour operators. This plugin allows you to easily create, design, and launch your own travel website. 

With WP Travel, you can build your travel tourism business website in minutes. It’s a well-conceived and well-executed plugin updated frequently with new features. 

The plugin is intuitive and fits well into any theme, with the flexibility to use different shortcodes. It’s perfect for travel tour booking, making it easy for clients to book through your website.

Key Features of WP Travel

• Travel Site Ready
• In-built Booking System
• Easy Payment Processing
• Translation Ready
• WP Travel Login Dashboard
• Coupon Feature for Promoting Discounts
• Google Maps Zoom Level Setting
• WP Travel Tour Extras

Pricing of WP Travel

The premium version of this plugin is available at the following prices:

• Personal (1 Site): $99.99
• Plus (5 sites): $199.99
• Expert (25 sites): $599.99

Compatible Themes

This plugin is compatible with various travel themes, making your website experience smooth and hassle-free. The following are some important travel themes compatible with WP Travel:

• Travel Master
• Travel Base 
• Travel Ultimate

5. WP Travel Blocks

WP Travel Blocks is a free plugin that integrates seamlessly with the WP Travel plugin and the popular page builders Gutenberg and Elementor. 

This plugin allows you to display your trips and tour packages flexibly and attractively. With WP Travel Blocks, you can build a new trip page by adding different blocks from the plugin. 

It has a collection of ready-to-use custom blocks specially designed for travel agency sites. This plugin is built simply, allowing you to select multiple layouts without touching a single line of code.

Key Features of WP Travel Blocks

• Showcase featured trips
• Put up Search Forms
• WP Travel Map Add-on
• Filter Trips
• Dedicated Support and Documentation
• WP Itinerary Add-ons
• Showcase Sales Offers

Pricing of WP Travel Blocks

 You can download and install WP Travel Blocks for free.

Compatible Themes

This plugin supports all the themes that work with its parent theme WP Travel.

6. WooTour

WooTour is a WordPress plugin designed to facilitate creating and managing tour, travel, appointment, and event bookings. It integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, allowing for easy order management and various payment options.

The plugin offers a range of features, including extra options for each event, tours by special dates or days, multiple payment modes, email notifications, user history booking, and more. 

This theme is compatible with WPML for multilingual sites and provides various display options through shortcodes. As a result, you can customize your website with different fonts and colors. The plugin is regularly updated for optimal performance and user experience.

Key Features of WooTour

• Numerous discount codes for scheduling bookings and appointments
• PDF Invoice Support
• Automatic email creation
• Customization options for color, font, and thumbnail size
• Options for custom ticket categories

Pricing of WooTour

This plugin costs $49 as a one-time payment.

7. Tour Master

Tour Master is a premium WordPress plugin for comprehensive tour and room booking management. It’s tailored for tour operators, travel agencies, ticket sellers, hotels, resorts, and more. 

You will have access to key features such as multi-currency support, a membership system, online and offline payment options, seasonal pricing, and the ability to add bookings from the admin backend manually. 

The plugin provides a powerful room search function, multiple location support, a customizable enquiry form, social login, and transaction CSV exporter. You can also support integration with third-party systems and offer a coupon code system.

Key Features of Tour Master

• Tour Configuration Dashboard
• Additional Tour Services
• Automatic Reminder Function
• Price Management
• Comprehensive Front-end Management
• Administrative Backend Dashboard
• CSV Data Export
• Month-wise Tour Search

Pricing of Tour Master

This plugin is available at $43 per month.

Compatible Themes

The plugin is compatible with the Travel Tour WordPress theme. In fact, this theme is specially designed for Tour Master.

8. Tour and Travel Booking Manager

Tour and Travel Booking Manager is a WordPress plugin designed to streamline the creation and management of travel and tour packages for tour operators and agencies. It offers a comprehensive travel management system with a multitude of features. 

Key features include support for all payment methods available in WooCommerce, cross-browser support, responsive and SEO-friendly design, multilingual translation support, and shortcodes for customization.

You can use it to manage ticket types, prices, categories, and organizers, and it also provides additional services for managing costs and quantities. 

You can use the plugin’s location feature with Google Maps, add start and end dates, and view registered guest info from WooCommerce order details. 

Key Features of Tour and Travel Booking Manager

• WooCommerce Integration
• Cross-Browser Support
• Responsive Design
• Multilingual Translation Support
• Location Feature
• Date Management
• Theme Compatibility
• PDF Tickets
• Custom Registration Form
• Automatic Email Confirmation

Pricing of Tour and Travel Booking Manager

The premium version of this plugin is available at the following prices:

• Starter: $75
• Business: $199
• Bundle Package: $225

Compatible Themes

The plugin is compatible with any theme that works with WooCommerce.

9. Travel Booking Toolkit

The Travel Booking Toolkit is a comprehensive WordPress plugin that provides additional functionality to your travel booking website. This toolkit is designed to enhance the user experience and the overall performance of your website, leading to improved user satisfaction.

You can easily install and activate this plugin. You can upload it directly in your WordPress dashboard or use FTP to upload the toolkit directory to your plugin’s directory. Once uploaded, you can activate the plugin in your Plugin dashboard, making it ready for use.

One of the key features of the Travel Booking Toolkit is its open-source nature, which allows for continuous improvements and updates. 

Furthermore, the toolkit has been designed to be compatible with a wide range of themes and plugins, making it a versatile addition to any travel booking website. 

Key Features of Travel Booking Toolkit

• Enhanced Customizer and Widgets Functionality
• Improved Website Performance
• Easy Installation and Activation
• Open-Source Software
• Regular Updates
• Compatibility with WP Travel Engine
• Translation Fixes
• Theme Compatibility

Pricing of Travel Booking Toolkit

 You can download and install the Travel Booking Toolkit for free.

Compatible Themes

This plugin is compatible with the Travel Booking theme. 

Final Thoughts

Alright, let’s wrap this up, shall we?

The landscape of travel booking WordPress plugins has significantly evolved in 2023, offering many options to cater to diverse needs. These plugins have made it easier for businesses to manage bookings, enhance user experience, and streamline operations. 

These plugins have revolutionized how travel businesses operate online, from comprehensive booking management systems to specialized features like automatic reminders, price management, and advanced search options. 

As we’ve explored the top 9 travel booking WordPress plugins, it’s clear that each one brings unique features and capabilities. Choosing the right one will depend on your specific needs, budget, and the nature of your travel business. 

Remember, the best plugin for you is the one that fits your business model seamlessly and helps you deliver exceptional service to your customers. 

So, go ahead. Choose your plugin. And watch your travel website take off!

Even a slight delay can be enough for potential customers to click away in search of a better alternative. With this in mind, it’s vital that your WooCommerce store is fast, responsive, and fully optimized for easy navigation.

In this article, we’re going to explore how to optimize your WooCommerce store. These help to maximize your chances of conversion and turbocharge your store for quick and reliable performance.

These easy-to-implement tips range from choosing the right theme to streamlining your plugins and cleaning up your WooCommerce database.

How Does Website Speed Affect Conversions? 

But first, let’s look a little deeper into why speed matters when it comes to your WooCommerce store. We’ll learn how to measure your site’s current performance as every second is important for keeping visitors’ attention at your WooCommerce store.

Slow loading times increase your bounce rate, with each additional second bumping your bounce rate percentage up. Bounce rates are important because they indicate the percentage of visits in which users viewed only a single page before clicking away.

If bounce rates are high, search engines will lower your rankings. They are a strong indication that your website performance is poor or your content is not useful.

This matters because a low search engine ranking means that fewer visitors will find their way to your store in the future.

Ideally, you want to keep your WooCommerce store loading times no longer than around the two-second mark—that’s where bounce rates begin to increase exponentially. Research has found that one out of every four visitors abandons a website that takes more than four seconds to load.

What’s worse is that if potential customers have a disappointing experience with your store, they are unlikely to ever return again. 

Website speed becomes even more important on important eCommerce holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With competition at its highest and a whole range of tempting offers to choose from, customers are even less likely to stick around on clunky and inefficient websites in this crucial period.

Always make sure that your WooCommerce store is fully optimized before the holidays to maximize your conversions and gain an edge over the competition.

How to Measure the Performance of Your WooCommerce Store

So how to check the performance of your WooCommerce store? And how to measure if your adjustments are having the desired effects?

The next step is measuring the performance of your WooCommerce store. When you’re trying to check the performance or measure if any adjustments made are working out, you can turn to website speed tests. An example of such a site is Pingdom.

This free performance testing tool is one of the most popular among WooCommerce store owners. It’s often given praise for its ease of use and simple, graded results.

Pingdom also gives actionable insights on the areas that can be improved for faster speeds, making it easy for you to identify your problem points.

To test things like WordPress Plugins, themes, and other functions, use Query Monitor.

Query Monitor helps to quickly identify problematic plugins, as well as any themes or functions that are not compatible with each other.

It also enables:

• Debugging of database queries
• PHP errors, hooks, and actions
• Block editor blocks
• Enqueued scripts and stylesheets
• HTTP API calls
• And more

Query Monitor is free and saves time that you’d otherwise spend manually uninstalling and updating plugins while trying to search for the culprit.

The kind of technical information that Pingdom and Query Monitor provide is useful as it provides clear and actionable data on how to improve to boost site performance.

However, be careful not to rely on numbers alone—the actual user experience is far more important than your performance score. Always test the usability of your site by visiting it frequently yourself and don’t be afraid to ask for the opinion of other visitors too.

How to Optimize Your WooCommerce Store

We’ve gained some insights on how to measure your store’s performance—now we need to address improving it.

Naturally, there are quick and simple methods you can utilize to improve your conversions. For example, implementing cart abandonment measures that reach out to customers leaving your site early.

While this optimizes your customer’s journey and experience, there are other ways you can optimize your store in general. Let’s check out a few easy and effective tips that you can implement immediately.

Check Your WooCommerce Settings

The most obvious place to start is by ensuring that your WooCommerce settings are properly adjusted to the needs of your store.

A few effective changes you can implement here include:

• Disable pingbacks: Pingbacks are unique, automated comments that are created when you link to another blog post. While linking to other sites can be somewhat beneficial to your SEO, pingbacks are often abused by spammers and only serve to clutter your site with low-quality links and unnecessary queries that slow down your site.
  
  
• Limit the blog post’s number on your feed: Keep the blog posts on your feed down to a reasonable number. For example, 10—just like this article. While it might seem a small detail, fewer blogs to load leads to faster loading times. These kinds of small tweaks can add up to the better overall performance.
  
  
• Change login page URL: WordPress provides a site login URL by default, which is domain.com/wp-admin/. Bots, spammers, and other shady characters know this, so it’s a good idea to change it to avoid attacks.

Explore your WooCommerce settings and set limits for any unnecessary features that might slow down your loading times. As well as blog posts and pingbacks, you can also consider implementing limitations on your site. For example, how many reviews and images do you choose to display on your pages? 

Don’t Go Overboard With Plugins

There are thousands of WordPress plugins to choose from. Many of these are useful, which is why many WooCommerce merchants load up on plugins as the answer to all their store’s problems.

However, not all plugins are created with the same quality and compatibility. Some can cause problems and affect your store’s performance.

The more plugins you install, the more likely you’ll see conflicts arise. More plugins make it difficult to keep an eye on their functionality and whether they need any updates.

Think carefully when choosing plugins for a clear and specific purpose. Research plugins thoroughly beforehand and ensure that the benefits outweigh any potential negatives.

One way to lessen compatibility issues is by utilizing WooCommerce Extensions. These are tailor-made for your eCommerce store and are much more likely to work seamlessly together.

There are many different extensions for virtually every need. This includes:

• Marketing automation
• Shipping
• Inventory
• Analytics

These allow you the freedom to select the areas of added functionality that best fit the needs of your business.

Compress Your Images

High-quality images are vital for any ecommerce site that you should not compromise on. However, images are also your site’s largest element in terms of data. This means they drastically affect your performance if they aren’t properly optimized.

Start by choosing your images carefully, including only those that serve a clear purpose. When you’ve done this, reduce the file size of your chosen images using a tool such as Imagify, Optimole, or Shortpixel. These handy plugins compress your images without sacrificing too much in terms of quality.

WP Rocket is another handy option, especially if your site requires a lot of images. It allows you to introduce lazy loading, meaning that an image will only load when the user scrolls down to it, rather than downloading them all at once upon opening. This will make your initial loading time much shorter, as your site only needs to load the images at the top of the page.

A quick checklist for image optimization includes:

• Choose your images in the correct format (JPEG, PNG, etc)
• Compress your images using suggested plugins
• Make sure your images are responsive to fit mobile devices
• Use lazy loading on images that require scrolling to reach

Choose the Right WooCommerce Theme

There are thousands of different themes to choose from. It’s tough to settle on the one that best represents your personal taste and the character of your store.

Looks can also be deceiving—your chosen theme might look great, but it may come with several negatives. For example, it might come packaged with unnecessary functions and features that dramatically affect the speed and performance of your site.

The key is to choose a theme that looks great and fulfills your particular business needs, yet is lean and fast enough to keep your loading times down.

To help you make your choice, check out the 10 fastest WooCommerce WordPress themes in 2021 as tested by WP Rocket. Start by listing all of the features that you need for your store (multiple languages, one-click checkout, quick view functionality, etc.) and choose a fast theme that best meets your requirements.

These fast themes are flexible in terms of design, so you should have no problem customizing them to an aesthetic of your choosing.

If you can settle on a fast, reliable, and suitable theme from the very beginning of your eCommerce journey, you’ll avoid many of the most common website performance issues and will drastically cut down on the number of plugins you’ll need to install in the future.

Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

We’ve looked at some pretty useful ways to directly optimize your store so far, but none of these things solve the problem of distance. If you’re based in the UK and someone is opening your page in Australia, there’s always going to be some performance lag.

This issue can be solved by delivering from a server that’s closer to the user’s location. That’s why it’s useful to invest in a WordPress CDN.

WordPress CDN is a global network of servers that can cache and deliver resources wherever your customers are located. This includes images and JavaScript for faster loading times.

A CDN automatically determines the closest server to the user’s location and delivers your site’s content from there. This results in decreased loading times of up to 50%.

It’s generally better to choose a CDN with a wide variety of server locations spread evenly across the world, especially if your store caters to an international audience. StackPath is a fast and popular CDN that has servers across the world, including:

• The United States and Canada
• Australia
• Spain
• France
• England
• Germany
• Poland
• Belgium
• Sweden
• Italy
• The Netherlands
• Singapore
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• South Korea
• The Philippines
• Brazil

Investing in a CDN is essential for global eCommerce businesses. It helps deliver a fast, consistent experience for their customers—no matter where in the world they are located. However, if you have a very localized audience, your optimization efforts would be better directed elsewhere.

Cache Your WooCommerce Store’s Resources

You can temporarily store pages on your site that look the same to all users on the server or user’s device for quicker loading on the next visit. For example, with similar-looking product pages.

This is known as ‘caching’ and is one of the easiest and most effective ways to speed up your WooCommerce store.

Caching essentially reduces the amount of work that WordPress has to do every time someone browses certain static pages on your site. In fact, frequently visited pages with no dynamic content can be loaded almost instantaneously when they have been effectively cached, drastically improving the browsing experience for the user. 

You should try to use caching as much as possible on your WooCommerce store. It helps with load speeds and reduces the strain on your web server. Some hosting providers and CDNs provide caching capabilities, which automatically implement bytecode cache, object cache, and page cache at the server level.

However, if your hosting provider doesn’t handle caching, you’ll need to find third-party solutions in the form of plugins. Cache Enabler is an excellent free option for those on a budget, providing reliable and fast caching for a full range of image formats and with easy-to-use settings. For more advanced options, WP Rocket is again a premium service, but it does come with a price.  

Optimize For Mobile Users

With more than half of all internet traffic now shopping from mobile devices, it’s surprising to find (and annoying for consumers) that many eCommerce retailers have still not optimized their websites for mobile users. 

Check that your store is mobile-friendly by entering your URL into Google’s mobile-friendly test tool. This enables you to see your site as a mobile user would and will list any inconsistencies or issues that you might have. This is the ideal place to start when optimizing your store for mobile devices, in addition to exploring your store with your own mobile device.

A few tips to streamline your store for mobile users include:

• Choosing the right theme: Not only should your theme be fast, lean, and look great, but it should be responsive for mobile devices too. Take this into consideration when choosing your theme.
  
  
• Keep pages simple: Endless scrolling to find a product isn’t fun, so keep your pages as simple as possible. You can include an easy search function to help customers quickly find what they need.
  
  
• Make checkout an easy process: Checkout on mobile devices can be difficult if there are too many fields to enter, so eliminate steps where possible. Consider adding WooCommerce extensions such as WooCommerce Social Login and One Page Checkout to simplify the process.

Regularly Update Your Store and Plugins

Both WooCommerce and WordPress receive regular updates that improve speed and security, as well as all kinds of useful features. Keep an eye out for these updates and make sure that you install them when they become available. This is an easy and effective way to improve the performance of your site.

Your theme, extensions, and plugins will also receive updates from time to time, so keep on top of these too. If you find that one of these third-party additions to your store has become obsolete and is no longer supported by its developers, make sure you properly uninstall it and find a suitable replacement.

That being said, we’ve all had experiences with updates that were buggy, slow, or less useful than what came before. With this in mind, it’s useful to check out some reviews on WordPress forums first. This is especially true if you rely heavily on third-party plugins—it only takes one malfunctioning or incompatible element to disrupt your entire site.

Remember to keep a recent backup close at hand—just in case something goes wrong with your updates.

Keep Your Database Clean

Your WooCommerce database is growing all the time. It includes things like order history, user account data, product information, and much more. If you leave your database unchecked, all of this information can quickly begin to affect the performance of your site.

Manually removing certain aspects of your database is time-consuming and risky—you could quite easily delete vital information and cause all kinds of problems for your store. Fortunately, there are some handy database optimization plugins that can do the job for you, keeping your database lean and efficient by safely removing unnecessary clutter.

Check out WP Sweep and WP Optimize for database optimization, these are both great options that deliver results quickly and easily.

WP Sweep is the simpler of the two. It’s a smaller plugin that is focused only on cleaning your database. WP Sweep focuses on old revisions, expired transients, and database tables, as well as disabling non-essential features that can slow down your store’s performance.

WP-Optimize also offers these cleaning services as well as a few other optimization features. These include regular scheduling and more granular control of which items you’d like to remove. 

Invest in Quality Hosting

You can optimize everything from your side, but things can still run slowly. With so much of your site’s performance depending on the quality of your server, it’s time to check your hosting provider to make sure that it’s up to scratch.

Shared hosting arrangements, which divide a server’s resources between a number of users, are popular and cost-effective, particularly for eCommerce retailers who are just beginning their journey. This is a reasonable solution if you have relatively low traffic to your growing store and are hosted by a well-known and reliable provider.

However, as your business grows, you’ll need to upgrade your hosting to manage the higher number of visitors to your store. A common step up from shared hosting is via an optimized eCommerce hosting, Virtual Private Server (VPS), which allocates server resources to each individual user according to their needs, rather than sharing a common pool. This gives you more control and customization of your settings and allows you to pay for better plans with faster speeds if needed.

Taking it a step further, dedicated hosting enables you to have exclusive access to your own server. This is a much more expensive option but gives you the best flexibility in terms of choosing your own configuration and enjoying the best possible performance.

High-traffic stores that experience considerable spikes over busy periods should consider dedicated hosting, but most other businesses should manage well with a high-quality VPS arrangement. Whichever you choose, make sure you do your research and choose a reputable provider—good hosting is one of the best investments you can make for your WooCommerce store.

Wrap Up

With website conversion rates dropping by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time, time is literally money when it comes to the speed of your WooCommerce store.

By taking the time to test, adjust, and optimize your website, you’ll maximize your chances of conversions. Ideally, it should load within two seconds. This way, you’ll make sure that users are getting the shopping experience that they expect.

Not only that, but search engines are much more likely to give you a high ranking if your site is quick, responsive, and has relatively lower bounce rates. 

Run through the tips provided in this article to find areas of your store’s performance that you might be able to improve. Remember, good technical scores and percentages aren’t the only goals here—test your results on real-life users as well as the testing tools suggested.

Ultimately, there are all kinds of different things to consider when running a successful eCommerce business. However, by getting the basics right and offering a fast, reliable WooCommerce store, you can move forward with confidence—safe in the knowledge that you are building on firm foundations.

Are you looking for the perfect WordPress BackUp plugin? With many options available out there with different use complexity, we have selected a list of well-tested WordPress Backup plugins that we have used personally over the years on our WordPress centric projects.

So, without further ado, here are the top backup plugins you can try out for your new or existing WordPress projects.

Top Backup WordPress Plugins for 2022

●     UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

●     Duplicator Backup Plugin

●     BlogVault – Backup & Staging

●     BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin

●     Backup Guard – WordPress Backup and Migrate Plugin

●     All-in-One WP Plugin

UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

Image Source: WordPress.org

When it comes to free backup plugins, none of the other options mentioned in this article come close to what UpdraftPlus has to offer.

Image Source: WordPress.org

With over 3 million active installs and a 5-star rating, you don’t have any reason not to use this plugin for your backup needs.

UpdraftPlus is a WordPress Backup plugin that makes backing up and restoring websites as easy as pie.

Image Source: WordPress.org

It integrates with top cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, UpdraftVault (Their personalised cloud storage), Rackspace Cloud and much more to allow Website to Cloud Storage Direct Backups.

Image Source: WordPress.org

UpdraftPlus even supports direct backups via FTP which makes it one of the most extensible Backup plugins available for free on the WordPress Repo.

Another extra feature which you would expect to pay for is Scheduling Backups. With UpdraftPlus, you can automate backups daily to any selected storage location for absolutely no cost.

UpdraftPlus also has a premium version (with pricing starting at $70 for two site licenses) which extends its functionality, even more, features like Incremental backups, a powerful add-on for smooth migration (Migrator), an option to backup non-WP files, database encryption and

More storage destinations.

You can download UpdraftPlus from here.

Duplicator Backup Plugin

Image Source: WordPress.org

Duplicator is a WordPress Backup/Migration plugin that enables WordPress owners to Backup their site for absolutely free.

With more than 20 million total downloads since release and 1 million active installs, this is amongst the most popular WordPress Backup you can consider.

Image Source: WordPress.org

Duplicator works by creating a package that contains parts of your website you want to backup; you have the option to backup your database, site plugins, files or your entire installation.

The free version of the plugin allows you to backup and download your site to your local machine as frequently and much as you want.

Image Source: WordPress.org

You can restore a backup using their wizard (Quite complicated for beginners) or install on a new server if you want (migration).

To Backup your site to cloud storages like google drive & dropbox, you would need to upgrade to the Pro version which pricing starts from $59 & comes with some extra advanced backup features as well.

With the Pro version of Duplicator, you can schedule backups daily, weekly or even monthly and Duplicator will automatically store each snapshot to a selected cloud storage location.

This feature gives complete peace of mind as you always know your site is secure with several backup snapshots arranged by date.

All for a one-time fee of $59 (license for three websites)

Even without the Paid version, it is still considered one of the best plugins to backup your website with

BlogVault – Backup & Staging

Image Source: WordPress.org

If you are a total non-tech-savvy WordPress user, then you might most likely run into problems trying to use the other BackUp plugins on this list. Well, not except BlogVault.

Image Source: WordPress.org

Blog Vault is a backup plugin that takes out all the complexity in backing up your WordPress website and restoring them.

Image Source: WordPress.org

We included this plugin because it does not require any technical skills to use; you simply install it and follow the setup wizard and voila; it does all the work for you.

Image Source: WordPress.org

It comes with many premium features (provided for free) like incremental backups, free offsite storage, one-click backup restore, migration, etc.

Blogvault is not just a Backup plugin, but more of a Backup service just like hosting backup tool notably “CodeGuard” that is used by Bluehost among its package addons, Blogvault is actually used by some of the largest web hosting companies out there.

From WPEngine, Pantheon, FlyWheel to many more and aids their free migration services.

It comes with several other features like migration and staging, with Backups being the main focus.

The premium version of the plugin (starting at $89 a year) provides backups in real-time as well as being completely compatible with WooCommerce with a Backups Archive period of 90 days.

If you just want an easy way to backup your WordPress website, you can try out Blogvault, but I would advise you combine this plugin with another as your backup data is stored on an external server that can go offline anytime any day.

You can try BlogVault out by downloading from the WordPress Repo.

BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin

Image Source: WordPress.org

One good alternative to UpdraftPlus you could consider if run into issues with it is BackWPup.

Image Source: WordPress.org

This plugin shares many similar features with UpdraftPlus and allows you to backup your WordPress Website for free.

Image Source: WordPress.org

It also allows Cloud storage locations with a few services like Google Drive being limited to Premium users only.

Image Source: WordPress.org

You can back up just individual parts of your websites like the Mysql database or your WordPress installation with ease.

With a 4.5 star rating and regular plugin updates every month, this could be the best option for your backup needs.

You can download the BackWPup plugin from your WordPress plugin repo.

Backup Guard – WordPress Backup and Migrate Plugin

Image Source: WordPress.org

Backup Guard is a Backup/Migration plugin that provides you with an easy way to backup, restore, and migrate WordPress Website.

What we like about this plugin is its simple and easy to use User interface, especially the dashboard.

Image Source: WordPress.org

Backups are sorted by date of creation and you the option to either download them to your local machine or Dropbox for free.

Image Source: WordPress.org

To add more Cloud Storage services, you would need to purchase the premium version of the plugin, but by default, the free version allows you to move your backups to dropbox.

It also has BackUp scheduling, Notifications, and migration features just like the other plugins on this list but only for Premium users.

Image Source: WordPress.org

The only thing free about this plugin is creating unlimited backups and restoring them.

You can download the Backup Guard plugin from your WordPress plugin repo.

All-in-One WP Plugin

Image Source: WordPress.org

All in One WP plugin is actually a migration plugin that can be used for backing up your WordPress website.

Image Source: WordPress.org

It provides functionality to backup (in an export file) your entire WordPress website, including the database, media files, plugins, and themes without any technical knowledge.

Image Source: WordPress.org

It is also quite extensible and does support cloud storage locations like Dropbox, FTP, Google Drive, Amazon S3, OneDrive Box, MegaNZ, DigitalOcean, Microsoft Azure Storage, etc. on purchase of the extension.

With each extension having a starting price of $50 50 $99, this is considered pricy compared to the other plugins on this list.

Image Source: WordPress.org

It provides an easy Drag & Drop backup restoration wizard which makes this ideal for backing up small sites with minimal content if you consider going for the free version.

You can download the All in One Plugin from your WordPress plugin repo or the WordPress.org plugin page here.

Our Personal Favourite (Recommendation)

UpdraftPlus no doubt, has the best to offer when it comes to backing up WordPress website.

Not only is it a powerful plugin, but it’s also free with several premium features you would otherwise pay for to use on other backup plugins.

Image Source: WordPress.org

Duplicator is also a good option but only when you have plans of migrating your backup to another server at a later date as it’s straightforward to do that with the duplicator.

Finally, a tip that’s worth mentioning, if you prefer to minimize the plugins installed on your site, then in that case, then you should know that there are some hosting companies out there that offer Automatic Backups feature. So you might want to keep that in mind

Conclusion

Each Backup plugin has there advantages and disadvantages, it up to you to test them and find the one that works best for what you’re trying to achieve.

You might need to upgrade to a premium version to get what you want but at the end of the day, you should have a well functioning Backup Plugin working smoothly.

Also, make sure you have more than one backup location, never put all your eggs in one basket, i.e. storing backup files in the same server as your website.

Anything can happen, and at any time, so you have to be ready.

That’s all for this article. We hope you found it useful, If you have a question about any of the plugins on this list, please do not hesitate to add a comment below and we would respond as soon as possible

This is a common showdown among users who are confused as to which to pick. Whether you’re a beginner or long-term user, looking at redesigning your website or want to commence a bandwagon for your product or content. Then stick around till the end and know how much impact the right platform can do on your site.

We are going to dive in deep, strategically covering up the necessary points that would aid your knowledge and reading. 

So, if you’re in search of a simplified yet detailed understanding of both platforms. Then stick around, read to the end, and let us know what you think in the comment section. 

What is WooCommerce?

So, for the better understanding of readers, most especially newbies who are inexperienced with the whole concept of WooCommerce. Or are wondering why they come across the word so much but have no idea what it means. Long-term users, on the other hand, can just follow the overview in a like-mind.

WooCommerce is not exactly an eCommerce site but the significant feature it offers as an open-source plugin for all sites to make it function properly as an eCommerce site.

WooCommerce kicked off in 2011, but now, it is the most popular eCommerce platform utilized by over three million users on their WordPress site. This plugin is installed and activated on the website. 

One distinguishable feature between WooCommerce and Shopify is that the former is distinguished to be a natural platform for WordPress and it is flexible and convenient for users to modify their site to their discretion since it is self-hosted. By self-hosted, it means the store files remain in a single server that is embedded in it, unlike Shopify. 

What is Shopify?

Shopify was launched in 2004, but unlike WooCommerce, the former is not an open-source platform but runs powerful features provided to its user at a monthly fee and commission. But aside from this, it makes up for this by providing users with reliable and user-friendly components that are variously employed to run their eCommerce store.

Another notable feature is the fact that Shopify employs a user-friendly nature that gives room for beginners and individuals with no technical skills. However, the utilization means that your store would run by Shopify software which although is wide but limited. Therefore, you can only make modifications that are permitted by the software, unlike WooCommerce which is self-hosted. 

Trend Overview

Although this is not a major factor for you to decide which is best for your site. But since we are looking at a lot of grounds in this article, we are going to cover the market share trend and figure out the popularity level of both platforms.

As claimed by BuiltWith, it states that as of 2018, 21% of websites employ the use of WooCommerce compared to Shopify that uses 18% of users’ websites. And this research was carried out on the top one million sites on the web.

But with more critical analysis, the research done with other top ten thousand websites stipulates that WooCommerce is 17% behind Shopify and it is greatly utilized by top authority companies. WooCommerce is seen as one of the top alternatives to Shopify but the differences give room for both platforms to grow and perhaps outgrow. 

You should remember that WooCommerce was earlier launched compared to Shopify that has been established for quite a while. The milestone Woocommerce has reached should not be overlooked. 

Let’s take a look at Google Trends as well.

WooCommerce being blue and Shopify being red. We can see the steady growth between both platforms as it gradually passes over the years. And at the end of the trend, there’s a slight increase by Shopify.

And though this is not a reason to choose one over the other. It’s preferable you gain more insight into the features they provide and choose the one comfortable and convenient for your eCommerce store.

However, before moving into the features comparison, let’s take a look at this breakdown. 

What to look out for when choosing between WooCommerce and Shopify? 

Picking the best from both eCommerce platforms can be herculean because both platforms provide users with lots of indisputable features. These features are best used by users to improve their eCommerce store, promote awareness, and obtain a better rank on the search result page. 

So most users are either eager to choose the best for their store or would just want one that perfectly suits their taste, budget, and convenience. 

Therefore if you want to know which to pick between WooCommerce/Shopify, stick around, and let’s discuss the factors or grounds you should consider before deciding the one that best satisfies your needs. 

1. Installation Process

Due to popular opinion, yes, the installation process of both platforms does matter. 

For WooCommerce, it takes the process of installation and activation and a level of knowledge on WordPress sites (this is pertinent where you have barely any knowledge as to the connection of your site to WooCommerce). 

The WooCommerce installation, fortunately, comes with a guide to take you through the whole process of connecting your site to it. So, don’t feel discouraged because it’s straightforward and only takes a few minutes of your time. And in addition, there are provisions for blogs, tutorials, and the WordPress Site community who would come up with discussions as solution to issues on one’s sites. 

However, you have to go through the process of installation and activation of the plugin, installation and configuration of WordPress, and other basic information such as the tax payment, payment gateway, shipping features, and a host of others. This has to be done accordingly before you can use WooCommerce on your eCommerce store. 

A step-by-step guide on the installation process of WordPress sites with other related plugins can be found here.

For Shopify, this is undoubtedly more simple compared to the WooCommerce installation process. All you have to do is create a Shopify account, sync an existing domain name or buy a new one, and finally set up the payment getaway or if you already have an existing Shopify payment gateway process, then it’s easier for you to evade that step. 

2. Practicability

This is also a good factor to consider when comparing both platforms. Now, we would want to figure out which is practical enough for your understanding, that is, easy to use and manage. 

With the aim of giving your visitors the best website experience, you would want to choose a platform that can be easily managed and operated to suit your convenience. Here, you are tasked with making online deals, managing customers feedback, vendor issues, and a host of others. You should ascertain that the platform suits your eCommerce store and can therefore match your work line. 

Here, WooCommerce wins this round because it provides features that help users to simplify their site’s setting to fit their convenience. For example, the eCommerce payment processing feature. 

3. Level of control over site’s functionality

Another thing to look out for is the level of control you would have over your website over time. You would want to choose that which is flexible and administer a level of website control to the user. 

Here, we have WooCommerce as the clear winner. 

Shopify gives its user some level of control of the website functionality but it is a limited variation, meaning that it’s not a self-hosted site and can not assert the same flexibility that WooCommerce provides.

With WooCommerce, you can;

• Customize your theme. There are unlimited themes to choose from(both free and paid).
• Customize your domain code 
• Extend your WooCommerce feature with additional plugins designated particularly for WooCommerce. Amazing right! There are lots of WooCommerce extensions that can aid your WordPress site. To mention a few, we have; WOOCS – Currency Switcher, Stripe and/or PayPal, Custom Product Tabs, Fancy Product Designer, Beeketing, WooCommerce Memberships, and a host of others. There are thousands of them out there. 

You can visit our blog site for more tips on how you can effectively employ WooCommerce to increase sales on your site. 

In comparison, Shopify offers limited flexibility to its users. This does not imply that it has no flexible content that it provides to its users but is limited. Like the product variation restriction placed in Shopify. Unlike WooCommerce that has no restriction, Shopify restricts its product variation to 100 variations for each product and three total product options. And this is not defined by the plan you are on. 

Apart from that, Shopify allows users to customize their HTML but only applies to their homepage and not all pages. 

So, Shopify allows a measure of control of the website functionality by the user but in comparison, it is unlike WooCommerce. 

4. Extension to Third Party Platforms 

Another factor to consider is if the eCommerce platform you want to set up for your store is not limited to just its features but can extend its thrilling features to external platforms. Things you have to consider here are things like if the platform allows the extension to other social media tools, and email marketing tools as well. 

These tools are to run side by side with the platform chosen in your eCommerce store. You might not be able to get it all with WooCommerce/Shopify but with the extension, you can get it all.

WooCommerce, like earlier discussed, there are over 50,000 extensions made available for WordPress websites to add. And we also have MailChimp; a third-party integration of WooCommerce that further aids email marketing. You can find more third-party extensions of WooCommerce here.

Shopify runs an app store with about 500 applications but if you want your eCommerce store with more admissible extensions, WooCommerce is a better choice.

5.  Customization

For this category, it’s hard deciding which is the winner in the WooCommerce vs. Shopify showdown. You should know that the theme and design play a major role in attracting your website visitors. Some visitors use the website theme and design as a reason to stay on the site. 

So, you have to buckle up and figure out the theme that matches your product and is capable of driving sales to your site. 

Shopify offers over sixty curated themes that can match your product website. In comparison, WooCommerce has lots of thrilling themes, and therefore, the user has a wide range of choices to pick.

Storefront is the official store for WooCommerce themes. 

To know exactly what you want, there is a detailed blog that discusses WooCommerce themes and picking that which you need for your eCommerce store. 

6. Payment method 

A major factor to also consider. Although both eCommerce platforms support lots of payment methods and even the popular ones. 

WooCommerce has a lot of support for major payment methods and even minor ones as well. They have over seventy payment gateway options made available for you.

The major difference between WooCommerce vs. Shopify in the payment option is the fact that Shopify charged up to 2% extra charge on external payment gateway in addition to the normal payment gateway fee. 

7. Hosting Option

You should also try looking at the hosting features in Woocommerce and Shopify.

For Shopify, you don’t get the alternative of choosing another host, unlike WooCommerce. Here, your site would run under the Shopify server.

This is unlike WooCommerce where you get to pick the hosting provider of your site from a wide variety of host providers and subsequently you get to choose the host features such as the size or the bandwidth and other considerable things.

You have to determine the host plan you want to go for, pick the one suitable for your website and matches your budget size. You don’t want to pick a host that might fluctuate on days when you’re running a sale or special event on your website. This is why the option to choose your server is a good thing which is admissible only under WooCommerce.

And you can see how to improve the speed of your site and what may cause the slowness here. 

8. Maintenance Option

For this category, maintenance is wholly operated by the users unlike Shopify since it is not a self-hosted platform.

WooCommerce gives control and ownership to the user, therefore, the job to secure and maintain your website is given to the users. This is why the web host provider you choose has a great role to play in your website’s maintenance.

Your eCommerce store should have a good hosting provider because this decreases the level of maintenance you have to uphold on your site. This does not delimit the level of security and reliability which WooCommerce provides for its users.

9. Cost of Operation

Another factor to consider is the cost of operating WooCommerce or Shopify. The thing is, it is hard to ascertain which has a higher cost of operation since it depends on the package run by the user. For instance, the premium theme and plugins for WooCommerce, as well as the premium theme and apps for Shopify. This varies accordingly and can affect the cost of operation differently.

WooCommerce has a static price for the domain, hosting, and payment gateway. Shopify is also accountable and has a static monthly payment price that covers most activities done on your site. But this can also be affected by extra fee charges like the one placed on the external payment gateway on Shopify.

10. Multilingual Support

You would be surprised to find out that Shopify is not a great option for a multilingual store. So if your eCommerce store requires communication or connectivity with the world outside your location then you have to restrategize.

To enable Shopify multilingual support, you have to install Langify but have to pay $17.50 every month to continue enjoying its functionality.

Pretty high right! In a year, you would have spent over $200 just to enable the multilingual feature of your site with Shopify. This is aside from other charges you’re still going to make for your site with Shopify.

A preferable alternative is WooCommerce. It provides a multilingual feature with the installment of WPML.  And it is priced at $29 for the first year and $21 for the preceding years, or you can pay once at a commendable fee of $195.

Do the calculations.

11. Support system

Another factor to examine is the support system of WooCommerce and Shopify. Although they are versatile, there might come a time where you would need the support system for any issues.

For WooCommerce, it’s an open-source platform with no formal support system. But this is supplemented with a host of other mediums such as blogs, tutorials, and even the WordPress active community where various issues are collectively discussed and solutions are given.

There is no official support channel indeed but this does not seem to be a hassle because there are other means by which users can easily obtain information on a certain WooCommerce issue smoothly.

For Shopify, there’s provision for an official support medium. There is provision for emails, chats, or you can even try to get hold of their social media handle to communicate with them, and of course there’s the option of hiring a Shopify specialist to help with an issue in your eCommerce store.

12. Dropshipping Feature

For people who are new to the dropshipping feature, it allows eCommerce stores to be an intermediary between the actual supplier and the buyer. This permits the retailer to hold no inventory but displays the goods or product on the site and acts as an intermediary between the buyer and the actual supplier.

Both WooCommerce and Shopify make provision for the dropshipping features. This is to the level that they allow add ons and extension plugins and apps that support the drop-shipping feature on your site.

So I guess both platforms win this round.

Our top Pick- WooCommerce vs. Shopify

There are various reasons as to why we should pick WooCommerce over Shopify and vice versa. But it is pertinent for you to note that Shopify can be termed to be a storefront with product pages, so if you want more classical pages about your store, then WooCommerce should be your top pick.

We are choosing WooCommerce because of its;

• Flexibility
• User’s Controllable features
• Customization
• Multilingual support at a low-cost range, and
• Reliability. Some products are banned from the Shopify product page. You can find more information here.

Conclusion

Our top pick is in no way degrading the excellent feature that Shopify provides to its users. The various factors discussed are a way of showing how much impact both platforms have on the world. But we are picking WooCommerce for the top five reasons stipulated in the preceding subheading.

If you have other reasons, do let us know.

However, choices in this showdown may differ, there are other blogs out there that pick Shopify over WooCommerce, this shows how both platforms provide excellent features to cause such an uproar.

So, take a step back, check the factors discussed again and figure out the one that would best suit your site.

You can also take on a trial period for each platform. But decide this knowing fully well that it is technical going through the migration process of your website for both sides.

If you’re in search of simplicity, Shopify is good for you, whereas if you seek ownership plus flexibility, then WooCommerce is the best option for you. But at the end of the day, it’s all up to you.

Even if you don’t do something as stupid as these with your site, there’s still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to speeding up your WordPress site. I optimize around 8-10 WordPress sites in an average month, and there are a few techniques I always leverage to optimize and speed up WordPress sites. Optimizing your site requires rich SEO tools and the right SEO strategy

Here are a few ways (some well-known, some not) you can improve the performance of your WordPress sites:

Now lets learn how to optimize WordPress site.

#1: Choose A Good Web Host

You can think of optimizing your WordPress site only after you surely know that it’s not your host that’s slowing down your site. Recently, I’ve been optimizing a site which was hosted on GoDaddy, which is, of course, one of the most horrible hosts out there that puts thousands of sites on a single shared server. As a result, their servers are damn slow. You have to make sure you don’t make these mistakes while choosing a web host that most beginners make.

Like I always recommend, go visit some community like WebHostingTalk that’s filled with Web Hosting enthusiasts. Read some genuine reviews of the host you were planning to go with, before actually going with them. I came to know about MDDHosting, the host that we’re on since 2011, from WebHostingTalk. And I thank myself everyday for doing some actual research instead of going with just another crappy top-10 ‘unlimited everything’ host.

Read my MDDHosting Review to know how a great web host can benefit you and save you hassles in the long run.

If you wish to receive WordPress-specific support from your host, you can try a managed WordPress host. WPEngine is a fast growing reputable host that specializes in WordPress hosting. More “well-known” options include BlueHost and InMotion Hosting.

#2: Use A Fast Theme/Framework

You need to start with a fast and well-coded WordPress theme or framework. If you choose a theme packed with lots of additional features that you don’t need, it’ll negatively impact your site performance.

Last time I dealt with a heavy theme and framework, I had to put in more than 8 hours to optimize YooTheme’s Subway theme, to make it faster and improve the load time of the site from 5.5 seconds to 1.8 seconds.

Unless you’re a total code-illiterate, don’t choose a theme that allows you to change everything directly from the theme options, making your job easy. Generally, it also makes the job harder for your web server and browser. Too much PHP, JavaScript, Iframe isn’t good for your site’s speed.

The default WordPress themes are incredibly well-coded, light-weight, very fast, and easily customizable. If you can handle a little bit of code or hire a developer, choose one of those to build something great on top of them. I tweaked the default WordPress Twenty Thirteen theme for this site and it’s getting the job done very well.

#3: Install A Caching Plugin

The second most effective way (the first being choosing a good web host) to improve your site’s load times is to install a caching plugin. As soon as you install a plugin like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache, you’ll be able to tell that your site loads faster.

In simple words, when a caching plugin is active on your site, its servers users cached copies of your pages. It greatly reduces MySQL database access, no. of PHP requests, server access for static resources, and even HTTP requests (in case of combining multiple files into one).

W3 Total Cache is one my most favourite WordPress plugins. It offers a variety of caching features:

1. Page Cache
2. Minify
3. Object Cache
4. Database Cache
5. Browser Cache
6. CDN

Initially, you don’t want everything enabled. You can still safely enable everything except Minify and CDN (unless you want to use a CDN).

Minify breaks some other heavily JS-based plugins unless you specifically tweak it. On the other hand, you should tweak the Browser Cache settings to utilise the full potential of browser caching.

#4: Try a CDN to Speed Up WordPress

Offloading the static resources of your site, like images, scripts, css files, can speed up your site. Not only those resources will load faster for visitors, if you use a CDN, your primary server will have less load to handle and thus will deliver significantly better performance while serving the rest of your site.

Offloading the static resources of your site, like images, scripts, CSS files, can speed up your site. Not only those resources will load faster for visitors if you use a CDN, but your primary server will also have less load to handle and thus will deliver significantly better performance while serving the rest of your site.

Generally, those static resources will be served to your visitors by the server closest to them. That will ensure the heavy part of your site loads as fast as possible for your users.

There are quite a few Content Delivery Networks out there. But one that’s really easy to setup on WordPress sites is MaxCDN. I’ve been using MaxCDN since the beginning of this year and it has helped us shed around 1.5 seconds off our load time.

#5: Enable Gzip Compression

You should serve compressed versions of your site to your visitors, as they’ll be less in size and will generally load a lot faster.

The best option is to enable Gzip compression straight from cPanel (if your host offers you that) if you’re on a shared server. Otherwise, you can enable Gzip compression using a plugin like W3 Total Cache.

There are also a few tweaks that allow you to enable it from your .htaccess file. You can simply add this code to the beginning of your .htaccess file to enable server-level Gzip compression for a few known file types:

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css text/javascript application/javascript application/x-javascript

#6: Install Well-coded Plugins

There are literally tons of plugins available for WordPress. That doesn’t mean all of them are well-coded. You should always install plugins that are well optimized for the latest version of WordPress which don’t slow your site down.

You should perform some research before installing a below 3-star rated plugin. Often the plugin will turn out to be poorly developed, using inappropriate hooks. It will not only slow down your site but in certain cases might also mess up with the functionalities of other plugins and WordPress itself.
Once in awhile, monitor your plugins’ performance and impact on your site’s load time by using a plugin like Plugin Performance Profiler. It isn’t 100% accurate but you can observe the trends to know which plugins are really slow and troublesome for your site

#7: Perform Routine Maintenance on Your Plugins

Plugin maintenance is very important for WordPress sites. If you don’t keep all your plugins and WordPress itself updated, chances are that your site will get hacked.

It isn’t a rule, but older versions of plugins are generally more vulnerable to attacks. Not only that, newer versions of plugins are in most cases more optimized, faster, and more secure with less or no bugs.

You should also disable, and even delete the plugins that you don’t use. More plugins don’t necessarily mean a slower site, but lots of low-quality plugins together will slow down your site significantly

#8: Optimize Your Database

You can optimize your WordPress MySQL database directly from PHPMyAdmin, or by using a plugin like WP-Optimize or WP-DBManager.

These plugins are capable of deleting all your pending spam comments, trashed posts, auto-saved drafts, post revisions to name a few. They can also perform general MySQL database optimization queries without you having to access PHPMyAdmin.

A well-optimized, fast responding database is a huge bonus for a database-driven software like WordPress.

#9: Optimize Uploaded Images

Images are one of the heavier elements of your site. There are a few ways you can optimize your uploaded images.

First of all, you should specify the maximum image dimensions for thumbnail, medium, and large-sized images. That means if you upload an image 1024px wide, and your content area is only 604px wide, normally the image will be scaled down using CSS. When you specify the maximum width of your ‘large’ images as 604px, it’ll then display the pre-resized, 604px wide image, which will be significantly smaller in size.

The second thing you’d want to do is to reduce the sizes of your uploaded images without resizing them, or messing with their quality. Yahoo’s Smush.it is your ally in this case. It is able to losslessly reduce image sizes.

And I quote from the official site: “Smush.it uses optimization techniques specific to image format to remove unnecessary bytes from image files. It is a “lossless” tool, which means it optimizes the images without changing their look or visual quality”.

Fortunately for you, you don’t need to visit the Smush. it website every time you need to compress a couple of images. There’s a WordPress plugin for that! ????

The WP Smush. it plugin allows you to upload images normally while it automatically optimizes them using Yahoo’s Smush. it API behind the scenes.

#10: Delete Old Post Revisions

Do you really need 10s of revisions of your old posts that have already been published a long time ago? You probably don’t.

The Revision Control plugin allows you to remove old post revisions from your WordPress database, making it considerably smaller, and your site slightly faster.

More links:

Optimize Your Website

If you want to go with WordPress, you need to install it first. Some of you might be getting confused about its installation process. But let me clarify you, it is very easy to deal with such than even can beginners can do it well. You can install a WordPress within a few minutes, you just need to be focused and keep patience.

Before starting its installation process, let me introduce you to some of its advantages.

Why start with WordPress?

• powers over 33% of all websites on the internet
• WordPress web hosting companies allow you to install WordPress with just a few clicks
• Installation takes less than five minutes to complete
• Easy to use platform for creating any types of website

In this article, we will discuss different processes through which you can install WordPress. Most of those are beginners friendly. If you follow each step perfectly, I am sure you will install a WordPress within a few minutes and without getting any issue. The main aim of creating this article is to provide every necessary detail for a WordPress installation. So let’s get started:

How to Install WordPress using web hosting?

1.      With Bluehost

Bluehost is an amazing hosting provider who is providing its services worldwide. It is an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider. With Bluehost, you can install WordPress very easily and very quickly. Once you sign up through Bluehost, it will automatically install WordPress on your domain.. So go through the following steps:

• Login to your Bluehost account
• Go through ‘My Sites’ tab
• Click on ‘Login to WordPress’ button
• Click on the ‘Create Site’ button under ‘My Sites’ tab
• Except for their ‘Basic’ plan, Bluehost also allows you to install WordPress on unlimited sites with all their hosting plans
• A WordPress installation wizard will be launched
• Provide a site title and optionally a tagline
• Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue

In the next step, the system will be asked you to select your domain name and path for your website. So need to select your domain name before starting this step. But you are always allowed to purchase and add new domain names to your account by visiting the ‘Domains’ page from the hosting dashboard.

So now you have your domain name, go for the following steps:

• Select your domain name
• Leave the directory path blank and let Bluehost choose it for you
• You will get an option for a few essential plugins that you can install
• Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue
• After a while, you will get a success message with your WordPress site details

Congratulation, you have installed your WordPress through Bluehost. Now you can enter your new site’s admin area. Isn’t it an easier process?

2.      With GoDaddy

First of all, you need to create an account. So go for any of the available plans and create an account.

• GoDaddy WordPress Plans
• Select your required products and Add to your Cart
• Select term length
• Choose your domain name
• With your domain name, order your plans
• Follow the checkout process
• With this, you will get your own GoDaddy account
• Log in to your GoDaddy account
• Get your WordPress hosting account
• Click on the Manage option
• Install WordPress and customize your website
• Install WordPress from cPanel

3.      With Siteground

Another stunning hosting provider is SiteGround. With its custom Area, you can easily install a WordPress. Now follow the following steps to install WordPress:

• Log in to the Customer Area
• Select “Start a new website” option
• Click on the WordPress icon
• Provide the login information for your new site
• Click the confirm button
• Choose whether you want to add enhancements
• Click the “Complete Setup” button

Finally, you will install WordPress through Siteground successfully.

4. With DreamHost

DreamHost comes with a one-click installation method. Now, even beginners with basic knowledge can handle it. Let get started:

• Go to your DreamHost control panel
• Navigate to Domains
• Go through the software list and select WordPress
• Fill in the fields
• Provide the address to install WordPress
• Database fields will be filled on the automatic setting
• Click on “Install it for me now!” button

You can install your WordPress via DreamHost. Like this, there are several hosting providers with which you can install WordPress. So go for the one which you get easier for you.

How to Install WordPress from cPanel?

Cpanel is one of the popular software to install WordPress. It is also used by many web hosting companies as it provides a simple web-based interface. Here, you will get access to several useful utilities like auto-installer scripts. These auto-installers automate the full WordPress install process. The best part about this is, with your single click, the auto-installer installs WordPress for you.

Some of the popular auto-installers are:

• Softaculous
• QuickInstall
• Fantastico

Let’s see how these auto-installers are useful for installing WordPress.

1.      Using Softaculous

Softaculous is an amazing auto-installer script that allows you to install WordPress very easily. Not only WordPress but you are allowed to install several other web applications with just a few clicks. Most of the popular web hosting companies like SiteGround and InMotion prefer this auto-installer in their control panel.

So let see how you can install WordPress for your domain via Softaculous:

• Login to your cPanel account
• Go to auto-installer section and click on Softaculous or WordPress installer icon
• Now Softaculous auto-installer will be launch for WordPress
• Click on the Install tab to continue

After this step, you will be asked for the address to install WordPress. Once you select your domain, go to next page and change the setting. So following steps:

• Add title and description to your WordPress site
• Next, choose an admin username, password, and email address

(But Softaculous will fill in the username and password fields automatically with a non-dictionary word. You can change it to recall it easily)

• Always enter correct email address since you will get notifications and password reset link there
• Click on the install button to run the installer

Now your work is done here, Softaculous will run the installer. Keep remember that you should not close the window until the progress bar reaches 100% otherwise, this may affect your WordPress installation. Once WordPress is installed, you will get a success message along with a link for your website and to your WordPress admin area.

2.      Using QuickInstall

Likewise, QuickInstall is another amazing auto-installer that installs WordPress very easily. Most of the popular web hosting companies like HostGator and others prefer it. So follow the given below steps to install WordPress through QuickInstall:

• login to your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard
• Click on the QuickInstall icon scrolling down the page
• with your single click, you will get an option to install web applications
• click on WordPress to launch the WordPress installer
• you will get an option to select your domain name from the drop-down menu
• Click on the Next button to continue
• enter WordPress details like username, email address, and site title
• After filling in all the information, click on the Install button.

In this way, you can install WordPress with the help of QuickInstall. After the installation, you will get a success message with your login details like username and password.

3.      Using Fantastico

Last but not least, Fantastico is outstanding and easy to use auto-installer. It is also used by several popular hosting providers since it provides an easier way to quickly install WordPress.

So let get started with its steps to install WordPress:

• Like previous one login to your cPanel dashboard
• scroll down to software and services section, and click on the Fantastico icon
• launch the auto-installer script
• go to the main Fantastico screen
• select WordPress from the list of web applications
• you will get an overview of the application
• Click on ‘Click here to install WordPress’ button to continue

After this, you will be asked for installation settings for which you need to choose the domain. In case, if you want to install WordPress in a sub-directory then enter the sub-directory name in the same field below. Provide admin user account information to the Administrator Details section like username, password, and email address.

Now finally click on the Submit button to continue. On your click, Fantastico will start to install WordPress for you. Your installation will be completed with a success message.

How to Manually Install WordPress Using FTP?

You can also install WordPress manually through FTP. Before starting, make sure you have your domain name and web hosting, provider. We have divided this process into a few parts. Let’s see how a user can install WordPress through this process.

Step 1.Preparation of a Blank Database

• Log into your Hosting Dashboard
• Click the MySQL Management on the left panel
• Add a MySQL database with a plus sign
• Type your database name
• Click the Next button
• Type your username and password
• Click the Save button.

Step 2.Download and Upload the WordPress files

• Get the WordPress from WordPress.org
• Unzip the wordpress.zip
• Now connect to your hosting account with FTP Client
• After this upload the unzipped WordPress files to the directory

Step 3.Configure the wp-config.php file

• Access your File Manager
• Click the File Manager icon
• Go to the left navigation menu and click public_html
• Get the folder containing the WordPress installation and click on it
• Again at right side locate the wp-config-sample.php file
• You will see the 3-dotted icon, click on that and select Rename
• Change the name of the file to wp-config.php
• Save the change
• Again click on the 3-dotted icon of the wp-config.php file and select Edit
• Click Save to save the changes

Step 4.Initiate the WordPress Installation Script

• Open a new browser window
• Go to the installation page
• You will find the following URLs as per your provided setting

• Now you will see a welcome page below where you will be asked for Site Name, Username, Password, Email address
• Select whether or not to have the search engines index the site
• Click Install Now,

Finally, you are at the end where you will get a message that WordPress has been successfully installed.

How to install WordPress on your Computer?

You can install WordPress on your computer using the XAMPP server. So you need to install XAMPP and WordPress zip file.

Part 1: Install XAMPP

• Download and install XAMPP
• Run the file and launch the XAMPP installer
• Click next to continue
• On the next screen, select MySQL and PHPMyAdmin to install
• Again click on Next button
• On the next screen, you will be asked to select a folder to install XAMPP
• Finally, run the install
• Once the installation process is done, launch the control panel

Part 2: Start the modules

• Launch the control panel
• Run two modules: Apache and MYSQL
• Open your browser and browse for http://localhost/

Part 3: Add the WordPress files

• Go to wordpress.org
• Download latest version of WordPress
• Open your XAMPP folder
• Search for htdocs
• Create a folder in the htdocs
• Extract the WordPress file on that new folder

Part 4: Create a Database

• Launch PHPMyAdmin from XAMPP control panel
• Click on the database on the PHPMyAdmin page
• Enter your database name
• Click on create button
• Visit your test site
• You will see the normal WordPress installer
• Apply your details like database name, user name, and password

Now after submitting the details you are ready with your WordPress on your localhost.

Conclusion

Well, these are all about the methods and steps with which you can install WordPress for your domain. We have mentioned different methods, so whether you are beginners or an expert, you all get this article useful to you.

 If you are a beginner, we suggest you go through auto-installer. It is easy, fast, and no different than installing WordPress yourself.  You can also prefer the hosting that provides pre-installed WordPress. But still, you are free to choose any of the above methods. Just keep your mind focused, I am sure you will get the best result.

Keep visiting our site for more interesting and useful articles.

Themes provide a beautiful layout for WordPress websites. Many people purchase the Best WordPress themes to enhance the nice look of their website. But sometimes these themes fail to work and the displays Package could not be installed. The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet error. If this is the problem you are facing right now, then don’t fear it. We are here to assist you in fixing this WordPress theme installation error.

The best way to fix Theme install failed error in WordPress

In this vast world, For every problem, there is a solution. Alike in WordPress also, for every error or issue, there is a way to fix it. In this article, You will learn about why and when the stylesheet missing error occurs and the best solutions to fix the error.

When is the style.css missing error occurs in WordPress

The common missing style.css issue occurs when you are installing a WordPress theme. Also, the error message “The theme is Missing the style.css stylesheet” is displayed when you upload or activate the theme. Before going to know about the causes of the error, it is better to have some idea on the Style.css. So, read the below-provided information.

What is stylesheet style.css in WordPress?

Generally, WordPress hangs utterly on the presentation styles specified in the CSS(Cascading Style Sheet). It provides almost infinite choices of layout options to the users in the form of themes. Every WordPress theme contains a style.css file that stores the style presentation information (like colors and layout of the theme) separately from the HTML structure.

In addition to the CSS style information of your theme, the style.css file provides details about the Theme in the form of comments. This stylesheet also contains the style rules which define the formatting of pages for your website. This allows stiff control of your website layout and makes your pages faster and easier to update.

This stylesheet also contains the style rules which define the formatting of pages for your website. This allows stiff control of your website layout and makes your pages faster and easier to update.

Importance of style.css

WordPress recognize theme file only with the presence of the style.css. If this file is not there in your theme folder, then not at all it is considered a theme file by WordPress.

Reasons for “Theme install failed” error in WordPress

It is always best to know the causes of the error. This will help us to find the best and easy way to fix WordPress errors. Here, we have provided all the reasons for the cause of the Missing style.css stylesheet error in WordPress. Go through them and find the cause for the rise of this ‘Package could not be installed. The theme is Missing the style.css stylesheet error’ on your site.

Reason 1: Incorrectly installed theme

The stylesheet missing error in WordPress generally arises if the theme has been installed incorrectly.

Reason 2: uploading the entire zip file

When you download a theme, a zip file will be downloaded. This Zip file actually contains theme files along with the documentation and licenses from Themeforest. If you upload the entire package, then the “Theme installation error” raises.

Reason 3: Non-WordPress Theme

Some people confuse WordPress themes and other themes. This raises the “Theme is Missing the style.css stylesheet” error in WordPress.

Note: Most of the Low-Cost themes are not WordPress themes.

Reason 4: Misplaced Style.css file

The style.css file must be placed in the themes folder. But many WordPress users, especially beginners, misplace this style.css file in the subfolders of the themes folder. This would raise the issue of “Unable to install theme” in WordPress.

Reason 5: Assuming plugins as themes

Some WordPress plugins like GP Premium provide all the functionalities alike the theme. Many people assume these plugins as themes and upload them to the themes folder. This leads to the rise of Broken theme errors in WordPress.

Fixing the “Missing the style.css stylesheet error”

For many people, finding the appropriate solution is a difficult task. Don’t worry. We have already done that job for you. Here, we have provided all the possible solutions for you to fix the Missing style.css stylesheet error in WordPress. Thoroughly check all the solutions mentioned below to fix Missing the style.css stylesheet error.

Solution 1: Upload only the theme file

Never attempt to upload the entire zip file that you get from the theme forest. The actual theme file hides inside the zip file.

So, extract the zip file and find the theme file with its name “Exampletheme.zip” file. For example, “Abundance.zip.” Now upload this file to your themes folder.

Note: Before uploading the “Exampletheme.zip” file, Unzip the file and make sure that it contains the style.css file and a bunch of PHP files.