WC Vendors vs WCFM Marketplace Comparison – Which Plugin Offers More Features?

Multi-vendor marketplaces aren’t easy to build. There will be a bunch of factors to consider. However, plugins like WC Vendors and WCFM can assist you every step of the way to ensure that you include all of the necessary components. But how do you make a decision when choosing between WC Vendors vs WCFM Marketplace?

These WooCommerce plugins are feature-rich, impressive, and powerful, and they will provide everything needed to create a robust multi-vendor marketplace.

I’ve analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of each to assist you in making an educated choice about which one is ideal for your specific requirements.

NOTE: You can also check WC Vendors vs Dokan and WCFM Marketplace vs Dokan.

 

WC Vendors vs WCFM Marketplace

If you’re looking to create an online marketplace similar to eBay, AliExpress, or Amazon, look no further than the WooCommerce plugin WC Vendors.

Vendors/sellers can keep track of everything using WC Vendors’ simple dashboard. Detailed information about the most recent items and purchases, commissions earned and pending, and overall sales are always available with the option to filter results based on date and time.

 

 

Vendors can sell both physical and digital products like audio and video components and booking thanks to integration with the WooCommerce Bookings plugin. For more info, check WC Vendors review.

WCFM Marketplace is also a WooCommerce-based plugin. It has an astounding number of capabilities. It’s easy to get your online marketplace up and running with the help of WCFM Marketplace’s many features.

 

 

Everything can be controlled from the frontend, so you won’t have to bother with backend access. For example, vendors can monitor sales figures, create discounts, and add products all using the frontend dashboard. The plugin is available in a free and premium version. For more info, check the WCFM Marketplace review.

 

 

User Interface

To keep track of vendor sales, WC Vendors offers an analytics dashboard. Everything from sales by date and product to shop status and other critical information can be seen on a single screen.

 

 

Adding products is quite similar to the WooCommerce experience. There is a basic profile page for each seller that includes their logo, reviews, social media profiles, and product listings.

WCFM also makes it possible to operate your marketplace entirely from the frontend. But admins will still need to maintain WordPress updates and other tasks from the backend, just like with WC Vendors.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer an easy-to-use interface with the option to manage everything from the frontend for vendors and customers.

 

SEO Features

WC Vendors has few inbuilt SEO options and social media sharing systems but also works with SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO and Rank Math.

With the help of WCFM, vendors can customize their store’s social and SEO settings. Some available options are Twitter image, Twitter description, Twitter title, Facebook image, Facebook description, Facebook title, meta keywords, meta description, and SEO title.

 

WINNER: I would say that WCFM provides more in-built SEO options.

 

Storefront

The default storefront for WC Vendors is pretty simple. Resembles typical Facebook profile. There is a background photo without much information about the store location or the vendor. It doesn’t look professional, so it has room for improvement.

 

 

WCFM sellers will see a “Store Setup” widget when they log in for the first time. Before they begin selling, they will need to set up all necessary settings. Some available settings include analytic region, store invoice, vacation mode, and store policies.

 

 

WINNER: WCFM provides a few more options to customize the storefront.

 

Payment Solutions

WC Vendors allows you to use any WooCommerce-compatible payment gateway. WC Vendors lets you accept payments from customers across the globe.

WCFM is compatible with all WooCommerce payment gateways supported by WooCommerce. There are a number of options for merchants to accept payment, including cash, bank transfers, Skrill, Stripe, and PayPal.

 

WINNER: Both plugins use the WooCommerce payment gateway system, which means any gateway that works with WooCommerce will work.

 

Announcements

Admins can use announcements to notify vendors about changes to the marketplace that will affect them. This can include adding new features, changes regarding the payment, etc.

In WC Vendors, the admin can send out a broadcast notice to all vendors on the dashboard. However, this is not a complete announcement system.

WCFM provides the same feature but with an option for admins and vendors to have more involved interaction. New topics (often the same as forums) can be started for both sides to respond to. Admins can also make read-only announcements.

 

WINNER: WCFM provides a better announcements system.

 

Earning, Sales Reports & Vendor Statements

Being able to assess everyday performance is important for vendors and site admins. That data should be available to look at monthly, weekly, and daily. This will provide insights into which items sell more quickly and other important information.

WC Vendors provides vendor reports, and the admin can use the WooCommerce backend to check the records.

WCFM Marketplace gives both vendors and store administrators the ability to see how well their store performs. Product sales data for a specific period with many different options can be seen at any time.

 

 

Vendors will only see how their store performs, but only admins can see reports for every vendor. Site administrators can set the level of information each active vendor can see.

 

WINNER: WCFM provides better sales reports.

 

Vendor Management & Commissions

WC Vendors allows you to set commissions based on flat percentages, percentage+fee, or a flat fee. Each vendor pays commissions. If a coupon is used, you can decide when commissions will be paid before and after the coupon is applied.

 

 

Vendors can sign up for the WCFM Marketplace, or admins can add them. Admin can set commissions based on percent, fixed fee, percent + fixed fee, by vendor sales, and by product price.

 

 

You can also set commissions for each vendor, category, or product.

 

WINNER: WCFM provides more flexibility when it comes to commissions.

 

Withdraw System

When you use WC Vendors, you can pay the vendors instantly once customers have paid for goods, or you can manually make payments.

Vendors can be paid manually, at a specific time, or right away. Square, PayPal, Mollie, Stripe, Escrow, and MangoPay are the payment methods that WC Vendors provides.

WCFM provides options for vendor payouts such as bank transfer, Skrill, PayPal, and Stripe.

 

 

WINNER: WC Vendors provides better withdrawal options.

 

Handle Taxes

Both WC Vendors free and paid plugins support the inbuilt tax classes. The WC Vendors Tax plugin is included with WC Vendors Pro. With this extension, you can use TaxJar or Avalara tax services to automatically calculate the sales tax when customers check out. In addition, there is an addon from the Global Tax Commission for WC Vendors that you can use.

According to my research, the only tax functions that WCFM offers are those that come standard with WooCommerce or are added through a third-party plugin.

 

WINNER: WC Vendors provides better tax management options.

 

Coupon Management

It’s possible to create fixed or percentage discount coupons through WC Vendors. For example, vendors can create coupons with limits, such as a limit on the products on which coupons can be applied.

 

 

It is possible for sellers and administrators in the WCFM Marketplace to generate coupons right from the dashboard. Each vendor can generate its own unique coupons.

 

 

Vendors can offer two different sorts of discounts: a fixed price reduction or a percentage discount. There are a number of limitations that can be added to coupons, such as excluding particular goods or categories, setting minimum and maximum spending amounts, etc.

 

WINNER: WCFM provides better coupon management features.

 

Addons

WC Vendors provides 6 addons, and there are a few third-party plugins for it to extend features. WCFM Marketplace comes with 6 premium add-ons.

 

Reviews

WC Vendors gives customers the option to write reviews for each purchase. The vendor store profile page will show the cumulative score for all reviews. This gives people a quick overview of each store to compare different vendors.

On WCFM, reviews can either be approved manually or automatically. Admins can deactivate vendors’ ability to manage their reviews.

 

 

Vendors can disapprove or approve reviews, but only site admins can delete reviews.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer proper review management functionality.

 

Shipping Management

WC Vendors provides table rate and flat rate shipping systems. But WC Vendors and WC Vendors Pro are incompatible with WooCommerce shipping zones. Vendors can set their own shipping rules.

 

 

WCFM offers the following shipping options for the store: zone-based shipping, country-based shipping, and weight-based shipping. Vendors can override any shipping parameters via the use of custom shop rules. Global shipping options are accessible from the site administrator dashboard.

 

 

WINNER: WCFM provides more options for shipping.

 

Order Tracking

WC Vendors provides a delivery tracking feature. Thanks to the tracking number that suppliers can add to orders, customers are notified about their order status.

WCFM allows vendors to add a shipment tracking URL and mark items as shipped. Customers can check the delivery status using the tracking URL.

 

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer an order tracking feature.

 

Wholesale Section

WCFM provides the wholesale feature using WooCommerce Wholesale Prices (free) and WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Premium (price $49) plugins.

I didn’t find any info about WC Vendors wholesale options. You will need to use a third-party plugin.

 

WINNER: Neither WCFM nor WC Vendors have an in-built wholesale feature, but WCFM integrates with some WooCommerce wholesale plugins you can use. I did not find any info if WC Vendors supports integration with particular wholesale plugins.

 

Subscription Feature

WCFM has a free WordPress plugin called WCFM Membership that offers a membership feature. You can have as many membership levels as you like, each with a different price, features, and commissions.

WC Vendors adds a subscription feature using the WooCommerce Subscriptions extension for WC Vendors. Vendors can create and sell simple and variable subscription products.

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer a subscription feature.

 

Seller Verification

The Verification module of WCFM includes a seller verification option. Each new vendor request can have its own set of necessary and optional ID verification papers. This gives the admin the freedom to design their own vendor verification processes. Until verification is complete, product limits can be placed on vendors.

WC Vendors has an approval system, where a vendor must be approved before they can create and publish products. But they don’t have a seller verification system in place.

 

WINNER: WCFM provides a seller verification feature while WC Vendors offers some basic approval system.

 

RMA Functionality

During the warranty, customers may choose to return a product for a refund, replacement, or repair. That’s why many online sellers have established policies for return authorization (RA), return goods authorization (RGA), or return merchandise authorization (RMA).

The WooCommerce Returns and Warranty Requests plugin (price starting at $79) is used to offer RMA capabilities on the WCFM Marketplace.

This functionality is not included by default in WC Vendors. A third-party plugin called WooCommerce RMA For WC Vendors enables vendors to add product returns or exchange feature.

In terms of refunds and swaps, WooCommerce RMA For WC Vendors covers all bases. Customers’ Return/Exchange Requests are handled by the vendor, which gives your vendor the ability to refund money to customers’ wallets and manage the stock of refunded products.

 

WINNER: Neither WC Vendors nor WCFM offer in-built RMA functionality, and thus using a third-party plugin is needed.

 

Contact Forms

In addition to the shop name, phone number, and email address, WC Vendors includes an email contact form widget. It will only appear on the vendor’s store page in the widgetized section.

WCFM Marketplace comes with a product inquiry option. Vendors are provided with a dashboard to track and respond to inquiries. This approach makes managing and monitoring messages a lot simpler.

 

WINNER: WCFM provides better contact and inquiry options for vendors and customers.

 

Bookable Products

WC Vendors WooCommerce Bookings extension adds a booking option to WC Vendors. This allows vendors to create and sell bookable products.

WCFM also has a booking feature. You can create and manage Bookable Products, and Bookings live from the site frontend.

 

 

WINNER: Both plugins offer vendors the option to sell bookable products and services.

 

Store Support

WC Vendors does not provide a means for vendors and customers to connect securely without the risk of spam being sent to customers. For the time being, customers can only reach vendors through email.

WCFM has a variety of support options. Requests can contain attachments, and customers can describe the kind of help they need, as well as the urgency of their issue and the specific product they are requesting support for.

 

 

This system is based on orders (not products), so it can serve as a support system before and after sales.

 

WINNER: WCFM provides better store support features.

 

Theme & App

There is no official theme for WC Vendors, but there is a third-party theme called StoreMate. WC Vendors doesn’t have a store app for managing store on the go.

WCFM Marketplace has a mobile app. This makes it easier for vendors to manage their stores while on the move.

There are no official WCFM themes available, but the plugin can work with any WooCommerce-compatible theme. Check a list of themes that are fully compatible with WCFM Marketplace.

 

WINNER: WCFM provides an app for managing store on the go, while WC Vendors doesn’t offer that option.

 

Pricing Plans

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

WC Vendors Pro annual plan costs $199/year for use on a single website. You get coupon management, order management, vacation mode, table rate and flat rate shipping, and a front-end vendor dashboard in the pro version.

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

If you want to get all the add-ons and WC Vendors Pro, you can buy the Pro Bundle for $397 a year. If you only need add-ons, you can get the Extensions Bundle for $287 a year.

Check this comparison for more info about the differences between the free and pro version of the plugin.

WCFM comes in a free and paid version. WCFM pro version comes in the form of individual extensions for premium features:

• WCFM Ultimate – starting from $49/year for 2 sites
• WCFM Groups & Staffs – starting from $39/year for 2 sites
• WCFM Affiliate – starting from $29/year for 2 sites
• WCFM Delivery – starting from $29/year for 2 sites
• WCFM Analytics – starting from $11/year for 2 sites
• WCFM Product hub – starting from $11/year for 2 sites

You can also buy all add-ons for $168 a year for two sites.

 

WINNER: WCFM is the cheaper option.

 

WCFM vs WC Vendors Conclusion

Which is a better option when comparing WC Vendors vs WCFM Marketplace? Do we have a clear winner? The selection may be challenging, particularly if you consider all of the things each has to offer.

In the end, the features you desire and your budget are the most important considerations. Take a look at your financial situation and consider the sort of marketplace you want to start up.