Glossary
What is WooCommerce?
In depth
WooCommerce launched in 2011 (WooThemes) and was acquired by Automattic in 2015. Today it is the free open-source e-commerce engine on WordPress — 4.4M+ active installs, 23% e-commerce CMS market share per BuiltWith 2026.
Philosophy: WordPress + the WooCommerce plugin = money, facts, nothing else. Every commerce feature — products, cart, checkout, orders, customers, taxes, shipping — is added via plugins. Cost: $0 for the plugin + WordPress hosting ($5-$25/mo) + payment gateway.
Strengths for the Georgian market: (1) BoG iPay + TBC E-Commerce + Credo Bank — community or commercial gateway plugins exist. (2) Cost spread — 1/3-1/5 of Shopify TCO over 3 years. (3) Georgian translation pack + RTL support. (4) Recurring billing — WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin ($199/year, native). (5) GDPR + EU VAT compliance via plugins.
Weaknesses: (1) Performance — out-of-box LCP 4-7s, requires WP Rocket + Object Cache + Cloudflare. (2) Security — WooCommerce is the #1 attack surface on WordPress, weekly security patch needed. (3) Scaling — past the 1,000+ orders/day mark database queries slow, requires hosting upgrade ($50-$200/mo VPS). (4) Plugin compatibility — combo of 30+ plugins has 5-10% conflict chance. (5) Mobile checkout — default UX is dated, customisation needed ($500-$2,000).
Craftwebstudio recommendation: Georgian store + medium scale (50-1,000 orders/mo) → WooCommerce. International dropshipping → Shopify. Headless + brand-driven → Next.js + Sanity Commerce.
Examples
- 1WooCommerce + BoG iPay plugin (Pelipost €99) + Tegeta delivery API → Georgian store 4-6 weeks
- 2High-traffic setup: DigitalOcean VPS $40/mo + Object Cache Pro + Cloudflare Pro → handles 5K orders/day
- 3Subscription store: WooCommerce + Subscriptions ($199/year) + Stripe → SaaS-style billing
- 4Multi-vendor marketplace: WooCommerce + Dokan ($149/year) — Etsy/Bazar.ge-style platform
- 53-year TCO: WordPress + WooCommerce + plugins ~$1,500 vs Shopify Basic ~$1,500 + apps + transaction fees ~$5,000
Related terms
WordPress
WordPress is the free open-source CMS that powers 43%+ of all websites in 2026. It dominates the blog, corporate site, a…
Shopify
Shopify is a SaaS e-commerce platform — managed hosting + payments + theme + admin in one subscription ($39-$399/mo). 4.…
CMS (Content Management System)
A CMS (Content Management System) is software that lets you create, edit and publish website content without writing cod…
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Frequently asked questions
Is WooCommerce really free?▾
The core plugin is free. But payment gateway plugin (BoG €99-€299), shipping plugin ($79/year), Subscriptions ($199/year), backup plugin ($59/year) are extras. Full setup is $300-$800 in year 1.
WooCommerce vs Shopify TCO over 3 years?▾
Small store (<$5K/mo revenue): WooCommerce ~$1,500 (hosting + plugins). Shopify Basic ~$1,500 + apps ~$2,000 + transaction fees ~$3,000 = ~$6,500. WooCommerce is 4× cheaper at scale.
What is the security risk with WooCommerce?▾
Outdated plugins = the #1 attack vector. Baseline: Wordfence + 2FA admin + custom login URL + weekly automated update + monthly security audit. Managed hosting (SiteGround WooCommerce $14.99/mo) is a safe default.
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