Dokan vs WC Vendors Features Compared – Which Offers More?

Which is a better option when comparing Dokan vs WC Vendors? Both are great plugins that allow you to create a WordPress multi-vendor marketplace just like AliExpress, eBay, Amazon, etc.

Creating a multi-vendor marketplace is not easy. You’ll need to consider many different variables. But resources such as WC Vendors and Dokan can help you with everything from start to finish to add all essential aspects.

They are impressive, feature-rich, and powerful plugins that work with WooCommerce to add all capabilities needed to run a store smoothly.

But which one to choose? I have compared WC Vendors vs Dokan so that you can make an informed decision on which one is best for your needs.

 

Dokan vs WC Vendors Comparison

Dokan is a WordPress plugin based on WooCommerce. With this plugin, you can create a multi-vendor marketplace where different sellers can add and sell their products or services.

 

Best free WordPress multi vendor marketplace plugin.

 

Dokan gives you everything you’ll need to quickly get your site up and running. If you were to use just WooCommerce for creating a multi-vendor store, you would end up spending way too much money and time on plugins and extensions for even the most minor tasks. But with Dokan, you have everything you will need under one plugin.

For more info about Dokan, be sure to check my Dokan review and Dokan vs WCFM Marketplace.

WC Vendors is also a WooCommerce add-on that helps you start a multi-vendor marketplace like eBay or Amazon.

 

WC Vendors multi-vendor marketplace plugin.

 

WC Vendors provides a convenient dashboard for vendors/sellers to manage everything. They can easily see information such as recent products and orders, paid and active commissions, and total sales. Information can be filtered according to time and date.

Thanks to the integration with WooCommerce Bookings, users can sell physical goods but also bookings, audio, and video components, fonts, photos, and other digital products. For more info, check WC Vendors review and WC Vendors vs WCFM Marketplace comparison.

 

blank comparison 300x160
  • Name
  • Price
  • Free Version Available
  • Manage Products
  • Auction Products
  • Bookable Products
  • Add Variable Products
  • Downloadable Products
  • Grouped Products
  • Run Limited Time Discount
  • Tax Options
  • Trusted Vendor
  • Shipping Tracking Integrated
  • Frontend Dashboard for Vendors
  • Vendor Verification
  • Frontend Product Management
  • Stock Management
  • Store Ratings
  • Vacation Mode
  • Vendor Store Widgets
  • Store Contact Form
  • Subscription Products
  • SEO Options
  • Product Image and Gallery
  • Vendor Withdraw Options
  • Seller Reports
  • Coupon Creation
  • Cross-sells and Up-sells
  • Backorders
  • Admin Announcements for Vendors
  • Custom Store URL
  • Social Media Profiles
  • Store Logo and Header
  • Individual Vendor Stores
  • Order Email Notifications
  • Storefront Widgets
  • Payment Gateway Options
  • Fixed Commission for Vendors
  • Multiple Commission Types
  • Product Level Shipping
Dokan vs WC Vendors.
  • DOKAN
  • Free and pro (starts from $149/year for 1 site)
  • PayPal, Bank Transfer, Stripe, Skrill, and Wirecard
  • 100+
WC Vendors vs Dokan.
  • WC VENDORS
  • Free and pro version ($199/year for 1 site)
  • Stripe, Paypal, MangoPay, Escrow, Mollie, Square
  • Limited
  • 100+

 

User Interface

Dokan has the full WooCommerce options on the frontend. Every vendor can see reports, manage their store, check order status, create coupons and add products right from their dashboard. They can manage everything and make changes at any time. The Reports tab lets vendors view reports that measure their store’s success.

 

Dokan vendor dashboard.
Dokan vendor dashboard example.

 

WC Vendors also provides a dashboard that shows data about vendor sales. Al data such as sales by date and product, store status, and other important details can be seen from a single screen.

 

WC Vendors user interface.
WC Vendors interface.

 

Adding products works much like in WooCommerce. The vendors get a simple profile page consisting of their logo, social accounts, reviews, product listings, etc.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer an easy-to-use interface to manage everything, so it can only come to personal preference as each user will prefer one interface over another.

 

SEO Features

Dokan comes with built-in SEO for each vendor. Dokan uses a form similar to Yoast and automatically merges the details from the market, users, categories, tags and uses that data for SEO.

WC Vendors has inbuilt SEO features that does not require a 3rd party plugin. It also provides snippets to integrate built-in SEO and social media sharing systems with both Yoast and Rank Math SEO.

 

WINNER: Both Dokan and WC Vendors come with some built-in SEO features.

 

Storefront

WC Vendors’ default storefront is rather basic. It resembles the top portion of most standard Facebook profile pictures. There’s only a background photo without much information about the store location or the actual vendor. It doesn’t look professional for an online market and isn’t organized.

 

Customizing WC Vendors storefront.
WC Vendors storefront example.

 

There are ways to improve the storefront. However, most methods usually require plenty of design expertise that most sellers lack.

It’s easier to enhance the Dokan storefront. One mouse click lets you redesign using any of the four available templates. The look and feel will be noticeably different immediately.

 

Dokan storefront options.
You can customize Dokan storefront and add widgets, sidebar, contact form, best selling products, store location, live search, etc.

 

Some of the additional features include the ability to show coupons, add Google Maps, receive reviews, tag social networks and address, add storefront support, and much more.

 

WINNER: Dokan adds far more storefront customization options.

 

Payment Solutions

Dokan uses various types of payment such as check and bank payments, local pickup, cash on delivery, and all payment gateways that currently work with WooCommerce, such as Stripe and PayPal.

When using WC Vendors, you can use any payment gateway that supports WooCommerce. The checkout page is where clients will pay for the items they’ve ordered. As of this writing, more than a hundred different payment gateways can be integrated with WooCommerce. More gateways are being introduced every year.

WC Vendors lets you accept payments from customers across the globe because any method that works with WooCommerce is allowed.

 

WINNER: Both offer the same payment gateway options.

 

Announcements

Admins can use announcements to inform vendors about any marketplace changes that will affect them. For example, if you add a new feature, add another payment gateway, etc.

Dokan lets you put that information in a weblink or as message text on the vendor dashboard. Sellers will then see that message when they log into their vendor dashboards.

WC Vendors has the ability for the admin to add a broadcast notice to all vendors on the dashboard, although it is not a complete announcement system.

 

WINNER: Dokan

 

Earning, Sales Reports & Vendor Statements

Being able to assess the day’s performance is important for vendors and site admins. That data should be available for examination on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis. You can learn which items sell faster than others and other essential details.

WC Vendors doesn’t provide vendor reporting tools at this time. However, an admin can use the WooCommerce backend to check records.

Dokan vendor reports come with comprehensive graphs. Sellers can also examine specific details by filtering results. Shipping and order statuses, earnings from certain orders or products, top sellers, pending and active items, and more can be examined easily. Dokan is much better than WC Vendors in this aspect.

Exportable statements are also available with Dokan. They can come in handy for people who want physical paper records or plan on linking that information with their existing accounting software.

 

WINNER: Dokan

 

Vendor Management & Commissions

Site owners can effectively monitor and control all of their vendors when using Dokan. The WordPress Users page lets you see all current marketplace vendors.

Vendor selling capabilities can be altered whenever you wish, and you can set commission amounts and types for each vendor right from your dashboard.

 

Dokan selling options.
Dokan commission settings.

 

Sales can have percentage-based or fixed amount commissions. You can also determine if products added by vendors need to be reviewed first or can be published directly. This can ensure that only top-quality items will be on your marketplace.

Vendors can be designated as trusted members. This can give them additional opportunities to excel. No prior approval will be required for trusted members to add new products.

WC Vendors allows you to set commission structure such as flat percentage, percentage+fee, or a flat fee. You can use the Stripe payment gateway to pay commissions instantly.

 

WC Vendors commissions structure.
Setting commissions in WC Vendors.

 

Each vendor pays commissions. You can decide when commissions will be paid, and you can also set how commissions will be calculated when the coupon is applied. They can be paid before or after coupons are applied to the price of a customer’s order, for example.

WC Vendors also provides much more enhanced features for vendor management and access.

 

WINNER: Both Dokan and WC Vendors offer good amount of vendor management options.

 

Withdraw System

Dokan offers bank transfers, Wirecard, Skrill, PayPal, and Stripe as payout methods. Site owners will select the withdrawal amount limit and withdrawal method for vendors.

A request will appear on the Request Withdrawals page every time a vendor asks to withdraw funds. Requests can be deleted, approved, or canceled from that page. You’ll get an email notification for each withdrawal cancellation, approval, or denial.

With WC Vendors, site owners can pay earnings to the vendor after clients have paid for their purchases. You can choose how you want to pay them.

Your payment decision will primarily be based on when and how vendors are paid. Vendors can be paid manually, on a specific schedule, or instantly. Square, PayPal, Mollie, Stripe, Escrow, and MangoPay are WC Vendors’ payment methods.

 

WINNER: Both

 

Handle Taxes

WooCommerce tax support is included with Dokan. Taxes can be set from the backend by site admins. As vendors add or edit products, they can choose the respective tax classes. You can also use Global Tax for Dokan addon. Using this addon, tax rules can be configured to conform with your value-added or sales tax needs.

Both WC Vendors free and paid plugins support the inbuilt tax classes the same as Dokan. But they include enhanced tax plugin for free with WC Vendors Pro.

WC Vendors Pro comes with the separate WC Vendors Tax plugin. With this extension, your marketplace can calculate sales tax automatically at the checkout by integrating TaxJar or Avalara tax calculation service. You can also use a third-party addon called Global Tax Commission for WC Vendors.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer ways to handle taxes.

 

Coupon Management

Dokan makes things easier by incorporating the coupon system into the frontend, where sellers can create their own custom coupons. The discount type and amount, usage limit, and other attributes can be assigned for each coupon. Coupon discounts can either be a percentage or a fixed amount.

 

Dokan coupon management.
Dokan coupon management options.

 

WC Vendors also provides the option to offer coupons. Coupons can have restrictions like a limit to use coupon only on certain products. You can set a fixed and percentage discount.

 

WC Vendors coupon management.
WC Vendors coupon management.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer sufficient options for offering coupons.

 

Addons

WC Vendors has 6 addons and several third-party plugins to extend features. Dokan has 20+ extensions and third-party addons.

 

WINNER: Not sure if having more addons is good or bad considering that WC Vendors only has 6 addons but the majority of the ‘add-ons’ that Dokan provide are already core features in WC Vendors which saves money.

 

Reviews

Clients can leave product reviews on Dokan powered marketplaces. Vendors can then mark those reviews as spam, place them in the trash folder or approve reviews. Vendors get to manage their store and product reviews themselves.

WC Vendors offers an option for customers to review each product. The specific store’s profile page will receive a cumulative score after all respective reviews have been gathered. This gives consumers a brief overview of each store to compare different vendors based on ratings. It provides for better customer satisfaction and improved sales and revenue.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer the option for customers to leave reviews.

 

Shipping Management

Shipping simplicity is one of Dokan’s primary strengths. Vendors have complete control over shipping orders.

Each vendor can select their own shipping zones from the zone wise shipping that Dokan offers. Flat shipping rates can also be assigned. Thanks to Dokan’s integration with the popular ShipStation platform, product shipments can be managed automatically.

 

Dokan shipping system.
Setting Dokan shipping methods.

 

WC Vendors provides table rate and flat rate shipping systems. However, WooCommerce shipping zones aren’t compatible with WC Vendors or WC Vendors Pro.

 

WC Vendors shipping settings.
WC Vendors shipping management.

 

You can override the default shipping system on a per vendor basis.

 

WINNER: Both Dokan and WC Vendors provide shipping management options.

 

Order Tracking

Vendors can successfully ship orders to clients across the globe with Dokan’s shipping processes. The Dokan Shipping Status system allows customers to track each order’s status. Products are also tracked as they are being shipped to destinations.

 

Dokan shipping tracking.
Dokan order tracking feature.

 

WC Vendors also comes with shipping tracking option. It provides the ability for vendors to add tracking numbers to their orders, and the customers are notified of this when the products are shipped. On top of this, it provides an interface for customers to be able to mark when they receive their products.

 

WINNER: Both Dokan and WC Vendors offer integrated order tracking option.

 

Contact Forms

There may be certain times when customers want to contact product vendors. Contact forms typically appear on the bottom, and these forms usually need to be personalized for online marketplace sites. Vendors using Dokan will have access to contact forms to easily personalize as needed.

WC Vendors provides widget for contact details for the store including Store Name, Phone Number, Email Address, and Email Contact Form. The contact form will show in the selected widgetized area on the vendor’s Store page only.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer contact form option.

 

Bookable Products

Dokan Bookings allow vendors to create bookable products. WC Vendors WooCommerce Bookings adds a booking option into WC Vendors. This will allow vendors to create and sell bookable products. These features make it easy to turn the site into a reservation and booking marketplace.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer booking features.

 

Store Support

Both vendors and customers can benefit from having a reliable communication channel. This is important for service before and after each sale. There is addon for Dokan that allows you to integrate store support, and you don’t need email or third-party support to accomplish this goal.

WC Vendors doesn’t have a safe, secure method for vendors and clients to communicate without the possibility of customers receiving spam messages. Email is the only way customers can contact vendors at this time.

 

WINNER: Dokan

 

Theme & App

Dokan makes it easy to create an app from your online marketplace. They have Android and iOS compatible mobile apps, which can save you a lot of time and money. Dokan will let you customize the app with your chosen branding and white label it if necessary.

 

Dokan app review.

 

There’s also Dokan free theme available that is independent of the plugin, which means that you don’t have to install the Dokan plugin to use the theme.

As of this writing, there is no official theme for WC Vendors, but there is a third-party theme called StoreMate. They don’t have any app available.

 

WINNER: Dokan

 

Multilingual Support

Dokan was compatible with WPML, but according to this announcement, it seems the development of Dokan WPML is currently off due to compatibility issues.

I have not found any data regarding WC Vendor’s multilingual support.

 

WINNER: None

 

Pricing Plans

Dokan comes in a free and paid version. Even though its functionality is somewhat limited, the free version can still be used to create a multi-vendor marketplace implement a vendor withdrawal system and order management.

There are several paid plans. They range in price from the Starter plan at $199 annually to their Enterprise plan, priced at $999 per year.

Certain features come only as part of a particular Dokan pricing plan, and more features are available as you move up to higher plan levels. Live search, live chat, geolocation, product duplicator, and seller verification are some of the modules available in advanced plans. Dokan also offers lifetime plans. For more info, check Dokan free vs pro comparison.

WC Vendors also comes as a free and paid version. The free version comes with basic features. It consists of a simple commission system and doesn’t have frontend management. The support is through community forums on WordPress.org.

For $199 a year, you can buy the WC Vendors Pro Annual plan for 1 website. Here you get coupon management, order management, vacation mode, table rate and flat rate shipping, and a frontend vendor dashboard. It also comes with a year of updates and premium support.

You can also acquire the WC Vendors Pro Lifetime for $599. This version has the same features as the WC Vendors Pro Annual plan but with lifetime updates and support. But in this case, you don’t get addons—just the WC Vendors PRO.

If you want to get all the available addons and WC Vendors pro, then you can purchase Pro Bundle for $397/year. Or if you need just addons (without WC Vendors pro), then you can get Extensions Bundle for $287/year.

For more info about differences between free and pro version of the plugin, you can check this comparison.

 

WINNER: Both plugins are not cheap, and it all depends on what features you need. But if we check pricing plans based on a plan that provides all features, then WC Vendors is a cheaper option.

 

WC Vendors vs Dokan Conclusion

Dokan and WC Vendors serve similar purposes. They are good tools for creating WooCommerce online multi-vendor marketplaces. But which one to choose – Dokan vs WC Vendors?

Dokan’s simple user interface and impressive features make it a better choice. Its marketplace approach is simple, clean, and professional. Both plugins work well with WooCommerce and have relatively similar functions.

Certain features and designs set WC Vendors and Dokan apart from each other. I think Dokan has more features and is overall a better plugin than WC Vendors. But WC Vendors is still worthy Dokan competitor.


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