The guys over at Market theme recently posted a Comparison between WP e-Commerce and Market Theme.
I have made my own comparison – I think that the following comparison contains more information that large more serious e-commerce user will find very important.
Also the Market Theme comparison compares the Free version of WP e-Commerce and not the Gold Edition so the Market Theme comparrison is misleading.
Over the past 4 years we have talked to thousands of shop owners and all of the features we have developed have been developed because you have asked for them – if they wear not important to somebody’s online business then the features would not exist it is that simple.
WP e-Commerce is better suited to people that what a one stop solution bundled into their WordPress website. I think that WP e-Commerce is the perfect mix of being enough for small shops right through to serious e-commerce sites who rely on the rich features we have developed that are not included with Market Theme.
So please read the comparison and decide which is best for you.
The Comparrison
As is always the case, all good things must come with some competition. The WP e-Commerce Plugin competition number one would be the Market Theme. For those of you thinking, “Why would I use WP E-Commerce as opposed to the Market theme?”, I have the answers for you. This quick comparison will line up WP e-Commerce competition and explain why WP e-Commerce is the better choice for those seriously considering using Wordpress to power their e-Commerce site.
| WP e-Commerce Gold | Market Theme | |
| Works with Wordpress 2.X+ |
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| Product Search |
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| Live Product Search (like apple.com) |
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| Authorize.net payment gateway |
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| Grid View Product Layout |
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| Multiple images per product |
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| Facebook / Social Networking Integration |
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| Sell Digital and Physical Products |
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| WordPress template tags & CSS |
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| Ajax Shopping Cart |
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| Fully functional theme |
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| Purchase Log Export (CSV) |
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| Purchase Logs / Sales History |
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| Google Checkout LV2 Integration |
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| Google Base (for SEO) |
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| Advanced Shipping Methods (i.e. USPS) |
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| Order Fullfilment (Shipwire) |
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| ProtX Integration |
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| Search Engine Optimization |
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| Coupon System |
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| Related Products (Cross Sales) |
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| Product Slider, Drop Shop, Media Player, MP3 Player, Widgets, Templates |
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| Hosted Solution GetShopped.Com |
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WP E-commerce and GetShopped have a back-end and front-end solution, what about the Market Theme
The WP E-commerce plugin has a nice admin page that lets you add products and uploaded images, set descriptions, prices, etc.
The Market theme does not. Market utilizes custom fields to get most of this done. WP e-Commerce makes this even easier by utilizing TinyMC – you simply click and you add.
The WP e-Commerce administration screen gives site administrators additional power that the Market Theme can not. After reading feedback from literally thousands of shop owners our experience has shown us that a significant amount of shop owners need more advanced functionality that WP e-Commerce caters for.
WP e-Commerce is the best of both worlds – it is easy to use for people that just want one or two products and it offers advanced features for those that need it.
The Market Theme does not keep track of all my products with logs and such. What good does that do me?
WP E-Commerce and GetShopped have product logs. Market Theme does not.
But so does Paypal and so does Google Checkout and so do all the others. So what?
Whatever payment processor you use will keep logs of all your purchases, but trust us when we say that integrated and locally stored logs are better. You will save time not having to go between different systems (life is way too short) and you will find that our logging features are nice to use. I have always preferred the integrated WordPress solutions – this simply comes down to what you prefer.
We have over 5000 logs in Paypal and they are slow and hard to use. I avoid them at all costs.
What themes work with WP e-Commerce?
All the sexy good ones that follow the WordPress theme guidelines.
We work closely with Nick La from N.Design Studio, Shayne Sanderson from S-Tastic Designs, Dan Fris from Device Studios and many other well know WordPress fanatics to ensure that we work on all the crem-de-la-crem themes.
Here is a list of some of the themes we know work well with WP e-Commerce. Not only do these work but they are some of the best most respected themes in the WP community:
• Copyblogger
• Thesis
• Sandbox
• K2 RC6
• iTheme
• Glossy Blue
• Cutline
• Hello
• Light
Why WP e-Commerce is better from our perspective.
WP e-Commerce is better because it is.
As a plugin, with plently of template tags and widgets you can power and WordPres site with an industrial strength solution that lets you create a site with as much flare and design as you like. This is freedom.
You can customize the design as much or as little as you want because you are free to use whatever theme you want. You do not need to be a developer to use it. Businesses have a range of licenses – you do not need the more expensive package just because you are a business – but only you might want to support the cause ☺
There are plenty of additional upgrades and add-ons. You have access to a support center that is constantly expanding, and we have plenty of documentation and “how to’s” that have been asked and answered by different customers.
Plus, WP e-Commerce is WPMU compatible.
The truth is that only you will know what suits you best. If you only want a theme that lets you insert Buy Now buttons then use the Market Theme, if you want a feature rich plugin use WP e-Commerce, if you want a hosted solution (which is by far the easiest to setup) then use GetShopped.
At the end of the day what is most important to us is that you can sell online and you have the right tools to run your online business.