Less disappointed and Happier now I’ve had time to work with it

Strange comparison. I’d say you got a top-of-the-line Lexus for free, including the engine and transmission. You just have to pay for the cruise control, navigation and airconditioning if you want those extras…

What functionality are you missing?

Hi Soft79,

Still not sure I agree with your analogy, but like it all the same.;-)

I know it’s free and it is super full of functions for that “price”. I also realize it’s really designed for a store and works very well for that, I assume.

The main functionality I’d like to see included: check boxes to customize Checkout fields and payment buttons. It would be great to turn PayPal off (for free stuff) and on for paid with a simple checkbox. Also think a way to handle basic memberships/subscriptions could be included for minimal needs such as ours.

Guess I figured it would be easier to use for a non tech type than it is. And I do find the cost of extensions for things like memberships and subscriptions rather high.

Hope this explains where I’m coming from. I do know it’s a super popular plugin and it is great that it is free.

Linda

Ok, maybe not a top-of-the-line Lexus, but I’d consider it a decent ride anyway ??

If cart total is zero the payment should be disabled automatically. If that’s not the case please open a support topic and add an url to reproduce the issue in your store.

What kind of customization would you like to see for checkout?

True, subscriptions require a paid plugin. It goes beyond the scope of a standard web store. What is ‘key functionality’ to you is not required by most of the stores. You mention you prefer to pay for WC instead of using extensions, but would this be fair to all the users that don’t need more than core functionality?

You make a good case, Soft79. I do agree that it wouldn’t be fair to make others pay for functions they don’t need. It’s just that Subscriptions is awfully expensive (not WooCommerce’s problem, I know). I guess the way to rationalize that is the basic WooCommerce is free and it has tons of functions … even if I don’t need them personally ;).

Re. cart total: the payment system is not disabled when I try to “buy” the free version of our virtual product. I’d read that it should be, but … For now, I’ve switched to “register to access” as a workaround. I will, however, set it up again as a product with $0 price to double check – and send in a support ticket if it still doesn’t disable the payment system.

As for checkout, it would be great if we could omit/include fields via a checkbox. That way, if you’re selling a virtual product, you could uncheck all fields except name and email. I’ve found a (free) plugin that let me do that, but always worry about having too many plugins on my site.

I’ll post back what happens re. the free version.

Linda

Hi @irenelinda, sorry to hear about your bad experience with WooCommerce.

Have you tried posting your issue in the support forum to see what can be done?

Regarding the extension model, it makes more sense to have niche features broken into extensions that can be purchased separately. I hope you understand that we cannot just simply give away everything, how else are we to be able to keep on developing the product? It ensures the financial sustainability of the product, meaning it will not just disappear one day. Also most stores do not require the features if it gets bundled into an all in one solution making such a solution bulky and confusing with too many options.

Hope you understand and thanks for your feedback, we hope you can find faith in our product to turn this review into a 5-star one.

Hi Gerhard,

You must be a little psychic. I was planning on re-evaluating WooCommerce over the weekend. I’ve come to realize that much of why I’d rated it so poorly is related to issues outside the main focus of the plugin.

The reason we chose WooCommerce was to have the ability to sell both online access products now and, possibly, downloadable and shipable products later. Having worked with the plugin for a number of weeks, I realize it wasn’t fair to complain that a plugin designed for an online store didn’t fit our unique needs. Also, it’s become obvious to me that it does a lot of things automatically and wonderfully in the background without my having to do anything. This wasn’t clear to me until I’d worked with the plugin for a while.

Consequently, I’ve now given it 4 stars. The only reason it’s not 5 is due to its lacking the few features I’d mentioned above, each of which would make life easier for small businesses who lack technical resources.

Haven’t yet re-tried a free product to see if I need to post a problem in the forum. Once our site is further along, I will do so.

Thanks for your reminder. And thanks WooCommerce for making so feature-rich a product available free.

Linda