There are very few places where people can find niche communities that match their interests without being bombarded by advertisements and dark tactics to get them addicted.

This is a massive opportunity for website owners.

Whether you sell products or services, teach online courses, or run a non-profit, you can easily build a community around your brand. This can help you quickly boost user engagement and loyalty.

In this guide, we will show you how you can create your own private community with WordPress, set it up, and make money from it.

Here is a quick list of topics we will cover in this guide:

Why Create an Online Community with WordPress?

In our experience, creating an online community can significantly enhance user engagement and loyalty.

Over the years, we have learned that highly engaged customers are more likely to purchase and be vocal promoters of your brand.

An online community provides a space for users to interact, share ideas, and participate in discussions, creating a sense of belonging and connection to your brand.

Communities also offer valuable support and feedback. Members can share knowledge, provide insights, and help each other, which can lead to a more vibrant and dynamic environment.

This, in turn, increases retention and can even create new revenue streams through membership fees and exclusive content.

Why Use WordPress?

There are many online platforms for building communities. However, WordPress offers unparalleled freedom and extensibility.

Here are the top reasons to pick WordPress:

• Flexibility: WordPress offers many themes and plugins, allowing you to customize your community to fit your business model.
• Cost-Effective: WordPress is free, needing only investment in hosting and premium features if needed.
• User-Friendly: It is easy to use, even for beginners. This means that you can manage content and settings without any coding knowledge.
• SEO-Friendly: Built with SEO in mind, WordPress plugins like All in One SEO can help you optimize your site for search engines.

New to WordPress? See our detailed WordPress review with pros and cons.

Getting Started

To get started, you will need the following things:

• A domain name
• A web hosting account
• A WordPress community-building plugin

First, you will need to sign up for a web hosting account and register a domain name. Web hosting is where your website lives on the internet, while the domain name is the address that users will type in to visit your online community.

Normally, you can get a domain name for $16/year, and web hosting plans start at $7.99 per month, paid annually.

However, our friends at Bluehost are offering WPBeginner users an exclusive discount and a free domain name.

Basically, you can get started for just $1.99 per month.

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They are also an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

Simply visit the Bluehost website and click on the ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Follow the on-screen instructions to choose a domain name and complete your purchase.

After that, you will be able to log in to your web hosting account dashboard.

Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you. You can simply click on the ‘Edit’ Site button to log into WordPress admin area.

Setting Up BuddyBoss WordPress Community Platform

For this tutorial, we will be using BuddyBoss to create an online community platform with WordPress.

BuddyBoss is one of the best WordPress community-building platforms on the market. It offers all the features you need to build an engaging community, including the ability to:

• Transform your website into a social media platform.
• Add forums, activities, and social groups to your site.
• Allow users to connect and interact with each other.
• Integrate with popular LMS plugins and WordPress membership plugins.
• And more.

For example, here is how an online community built with BuddyBoss could look like:

BuddyBoss also offers a free version. However, this free version has limited features, and you will need the paid version, BuddyBoss Pro, to take full advantage of the platform.

To get started, simply visit the BuddyBoss website to sign up.

After signing up, you need to download both the BuddyBoss Platform and BuddyBoss Platform Pro plugins on your site. For more details, see our tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will need to enter your product license key. You can find this information in your account on the BuddyBoss website.

Configuring BuddyBoss Settings

After installation, you need to set up the BuddyBoss plugin to your own requirements.

Activate BuddyBoss Components

BuddyBoss comes with a powerful set of features. Each core feature is called a Component, and you can activate or deactivate it based on your needs.

Simply go to the BuddyBoss » Components page. There, you will see a bunch of components activated by default.

You will need to review the component list and activate any additional components that you want to see on your site.

Here is a list of available components and what they do:

• User Profiles: Allow members to create and customize their profiles.
• Profile Fields: Customize your community with fully editable profile fields.
• Account Settings: Allow members to modify their account and notification settings.
• Notifications: Send notifications to members about relevant activities.
• Social Groups: Enable the creation of social groups where members can join and interact.
• Forums: Set up discussion forums for structured conversations.
• Activity Feeds: Provide activity streams to track and display member activities.
• Media Uploading: Let members upload and share photos, videos, and files.
• Private Messaging: Allow members to send private messages to each other.
• Member Connections: Allow members to make connections with one another.
• Email Invites: Allow members to send email invitations to non-members.
• Moderation: Allow members to block each other and report inappropriate content.
• Network Search: Allow members to search the entire network.

When you activate a component, you may see options to set it up just below the component title.

For instance, under the ‘Profile Fields’ component, you will see the option to Edit Fields.

This will take you to the ‘Profiles’ section, where you can add or remove profile fields.

You can also organize your profile fields into Field Sets by clicking on the ‘New Field Set’ button.

You can then configure components by looking for actions below it or by going through different tabs under the BuddyBoss menu.

Set Up BuddyBoss Pages

Once you have activated the components you need, the next step is to set up pages for different areas of your online community.

Switch to the BuddyBoss » Pages tab, and you can select the pages you want to use for those areas.

To create a page, simply go to Pages » Add New in the WordPress admin area.

Provide a title for the page and click ‘Publish’ to save it. Then, you can select that page under the plugin settings.

For more details, you can see our tutorial on how to create a page in WordPress.

Setting Up a Theme

In WordPress, themes control how your website looks on the front end to your users.

BuddyBoss is designed to be theme-agnostic, which means it will work with any good WordPress theme.

However, an online community is not like other WordPress business websites. You’ll need to find a theme that allows you to showcase your community and social features properly.

For example, the folks at BuddyBoss also offer a BuddyBoss theme. It is designed to take full advantage of all the plugin features.

You can find it under your account on the BuddyBoss website. It comes as two separate themes: the main BuddyBoss theme and a child theme.

You will need to install both on your website and then activate the child theme. For details, see our tutorial on how to install a child theme.

The BuddyBoss theme is highly customizable. You can configure all options by visiting the BuddyBoss » Theme Options page.

Other Options:

BuddyBoss is based on BuddyPress, which means you can use any of these BuddyPress themes on your site.

Optionally, you can also use any page builder plugin, such as SeedProd, Thrive Architect, and more, to design custom pages for your site.

For more information, see our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme.

Monetize Your Community With Subscriptions And Courses

BuddyPress allows you to make money from your online community by selling subscriptions, courses, premium content, and more.

It allows you to integrate with any of the top WordPress LMS plugins, including LearnDash, LifterLMS, and more. This allows you to create and make money from online courses on your community website.

You can also sell subscriptions using any WordPress membership plugin like MemberPress, Thrive Apprentice, and more.

Note: If you are using MemberPress, then you can install their BuddyPress addon to easily integrate with the BuddyBoss platform.

How Does This Monetization Work?

The BuddyBoss integrations let you use a membership plugin to restrict access to members-only content on your website, accept payments, and sell subscription plans.

Similarly, you can use an LMS plugin to create courses and educational materials, manage students, and more.

BuddyBoss adds online community and social media features to boost engagement.

Adding Gamification to Boost Community Engagement

One thing we learned from online games is that they are highly engaging and can help build a community spirit.

Marketers use the exact same game design principles to engage and motivate members to participate and interact more actively online.

BuddyBoss leverages the free GamiPress plugin to gamify your online community by integrating point-based rewards, badges, and achievements.

You will simply have to install and activate the GamiPress plugin on your site.

This integration allows community managers to set up various rules for earning points by posting, commenting, or engaging with your community activities.

Members can also unlock badges and achievements for their participation, which enhances motivation and engagement.

Grow Your Community With a Mobile App

Many users prefer to use social media platforms on their phones using apps.

BuddyBoss offers a mobile app for both iOS and Android (sold separately). The app allows your BuddyBoss community to interact on the go.

Users can access their online courses, post updates, and interact with course creators and other students.

It automatically syncs with your BuddyBoss web platform so that users can access their profiles and courses and interact with other users just like they would on the web.

Growing Your Online Community

Now that you have set up your online community, the next step is to promote and grow it.

Luckily, with WordPress and BuddyBoss, you have access to excellent tools and plugins for growing your business.

Our team tested the best WordPress plugins that work seamlessly with BuddyBoss.

Here are some of those plugins that will help you quickly grow a thriving online community.

• All in One SEO for WordPress – The best WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It allows you to easily optimize your WordPress community for better search rankings and more traffic.
• SeedProd – A beginner-friendly yet powerful drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress. Enables you to easily create professional landing pages for your online community.
• WPForms – The best WordPress form builder plugin, which allows you to easily create on-demand forms and add them anywhere on your site.
• MonsterInsights – Wondering where users spend most of their time in your community? MonsterInsights lets you track website analytics so you can make data-driven decisions to grow your community.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create an online community with WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to make $5000 of passive income every month or take a look at these resources on growing an online business on a limited budget.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create Your Own Private Community with WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Creating your own online store is great, but you could potentially earn more money by letting other sellers rent a small part of the space. With multi-vendor plugins, you can turn your eCommerce site into a professional-looking marketplace, such as eBay, Amazon, or Etsy.

In this article, we will go over the best WooCommerce multi-vendor plugins so that you can allow other sellers to promote their products on your website.

Why Do You Need a WooCommerce Multi Vendor Plugin?

A WooCommerce multi-vendor plugin allows you to turn your store into a marketplace where vendors can easily sell their products. It adds a feature to your WooCommerce site where other users create their own stores and manage products, payments, and orders.

Rather than trying to tinker with code, WooCommerce multi-vendor plugins are the fastest way to get started.

Creating a marketplace might be useful if your website has a large audience who wants to buy certain products. Maybe you can drive traffic to the marketplace but don’t have the products to sell.

In that case, you can just bring sellers onboard to your marketplace and earn a commission for each sale.

Here are just a few advantages of building your own eCommerce multi-vendor website:

• Earn a commission: As mentioned, you can piggyback on the sales generated by vendors on your site. This is similar to dropshipping, where you can make money online without having to deal with the hassle of managing inventory or shipping.
• An expanded audience: The more sellers on your eCommerce platform, the more customers you’ll have. Each seller brings their own word-of-mouth contacts, established customer base, and social media presence, which means more visitors to your platform.
• Sell a wide range of products: Every seller can add their own unique products or services. This can be either physical or digital products. It’s a win-win for everyone because customers have more products to choose from.
• Save on costs: Creating a marketplace usually takes a huge upfront investment, such as hiring developers to code a website that offers multi-vendor functionality.

With all that said, let’s look at the top WordPress multi-vendor plugins available so you can create a beautiful marketplace that attracts both buyers and sellers.

1. WC Vendors

WC Vendors is the best WooCommerce multi-vendor plugin out there, and it has all the features you need to convert your online store into a marketplace and begin selling third-party products online.

You can easily accept registrations from potential vendors. That way, they can hop on board and start selling on your platform. You can require admin approval, or vendor submissions can be approved automatically.

That said, if you require a more comprehensive application process, it’s best to use a dedicated form builder.

For example, WPForms would allow you to create a multi-page user registration form to collect all the information you need. You may want to ask sellers about the types of products they sell, their current revenue, and whether they already have a retail store.

In addition, the plugin offers plenty of customization options. Individual vendors can create their own storefronts, and they have the ability to easily upload products, manage inventory, and fulfill orders.

Best of all, you can set the commission rate to a fixed or percentage rate. You can even set up a tiered system where you reduce commission rates for top sellers to incentivize them to keep selling on your website.

If you are not ready to commit to a paid plan, then WC Vendors offers a free version to help you get started. You can easily allow vendors to register, and you can set up a commission rate for sales. Beyond that, all vendors have the ability to publish products.

That said, if you want more advanced features, such as creating service or digital product marketplaces, offering more SEO compatibility, adding auction capabilities, and creating membership plans, then you need to install the Pro version.

Pros:

• With its launch wizard, WC Vendors is easy to set up.
• WC Vendors make it easy to accept vendor registrations.
• You can accept customer reviews and ratings on each product page.

Cons:

• While there is a free version, the best features are paid.

Pricing: Starts at $99.50 per year.

Why We Recommend Using WCVendors: We recommend WC Vendors as the best choice for turning your online store into a highly profitable marketplace. It has all the features needed to sell physical products, handcrafted and second-hand goods, digital products, services, and more. Plus, since the plugin supports many WordPress themes and plugins, you can easily integrate all sorts of marketing apps to boost sales and conversations.

To learn more about its features, check out our complete WC Vendors review.

2. Dokan

Trusted by over 60,000+ marketplaces, Dokan is one of the most popular WooCommerce multi-vendor plugins on the market. Like WC Vendors, it lets you create your own online marketplace, similar to Amazon, eBay, or Magneto, in under 30 minutes.

What’s great about Dokan is that each vendor gets their own customizable dashboard on the storefront. They can easily control and navigate each aspect of their store, like creating product listings, managing orders, creating coupons, and viewing sales reports. However, the backend access is restricted to those with admin access only.

Dokan has arguably the most available payment gateways, with over 100+ integrations, including Apple Pay, Stripe Express, Google Pay, Razor Pay, and more. Vendors can enjoy automatic payment distribution, meaning that the plugin automatically calculates and distributes payouts with the commissions already included.

Also, vendors can easily manage shipments as well by selecting their own shipping zones or setting flat-rate shipping. It’s a good idea to have a built-in shipping calculator at the checkout page so customers can view the final price to avoid unexpected surprises.

Pricing: Free to get started with limited features. But if you want a full-featured marketplace with product bulk edits, multiple commission types, and reporting, the plans start at a one-time fee of $559.

Pros:

• Dokan has 20+ extensions, allowing you to add a lot of different functionalities to your marketplace.
• The plugin has a built-in order tracking system so vendors and customers can see the status of their shipments.
• It is an easy-to-use plugin with an intuitive interface.

Cons:

• Dokan’s paid plan is more expensive than WC Vendors.
• It doesn’t have advanced commission settings like WC Vendors.

Why We Recommend Using Dokan: It’s hard to argue against Dokan, especially with all of its add-ons and integration capabilities. Dokan also provides all the essential features you need, like commission settings, vendor customization, and more.

3. MultiVendorX

MultiVendorX is one of the best plugins for creating a niche marketplace. What’s cool about MultiVendorX is that you are not limited to making just an eCommerce marketplace.

You can also add subscriptions, auction features, or even a rental marketplace. Let’s say you wanted only to sell handmade goods, similar to how you would use Etsy. With MultiVendorX, you are in total control.

MultiVendorX gives you a wider range of monetization strategies than other platforms. While you can charge a commission fee, you can also charge subscription fees, listing fees, pay-per-contact, pay-per-action, or a mixed model. Pay-per-contact and pay-per-action would be best suited to a service marketplace.

For example, when a user books a table at a restaurant through your marketplace, you would get paid for that.

MultiVendorX also offers an easy-to-read analytics dashboard so that you can view sales performance. You can filter by vendors, products, product categories, and more.

There’s even a Google Analytics integration that allows you to track your traffic sources. That being said, we recommend using MonsterInsights to get insights from Google Analytics directly in your WordPress dashboard.

Pricing: Free to get started, but if you want advanced features, plans start at $399 per year.

Pros:

• Lots of available monetization strategies.
• Vendors can create a product catalog.
• You can create many types of niche marketplaces.

Cons:

• Paid plans are more expensive due to their diverse feature set.

Why We Recommend Using MultiVendorX: If selling products isn’t your main focus, then MultiVendorX might be the perfect solution. It allows you to create niche, subscription-based, and auction marketplaces. So whether you want to be the next eBay or Craigslist, there’s something for everyone. The plugin offers many monetization options, so you are not just limited by charging commissions, either.

4. WooCommerce Product Vendors

WooCommerce Product Vendors is an official plugin from WooCommerce that allows you to turn your store into a powerful marketplace. At its core, the plugin lets you:

• Build a diverse community of sellers.
• Set a commission rate for each vendor.
• Receive detailed earnings and sales.

While vendors don’t have the same level of customization over their storefronts as plugins like WC Vendors or Dokan, they do still have some control. For example, they can manage their shipping rules, view sales performance, control their public profiles, and send customers tracking numbers.

The biggest advantage to using this plugin is that it’s a part of the vast WooCommerce ecosystem. It allows you to sell anything from digital downloads and handmade products to music, themes, photographs, and more. You could even sell services and have customers book appointments using WooCommerce Bookings.

Pricing: It costs $119 per year.

Pros:

• You can tailor the appearance of vendor pages to align with your brand.
• Woo Product Vendors allows you to onboard new sellers easily with a customizable registration form.
• Vendors can manage their product listings, orders, and inventories.

Cons:

• Vendors must have PayPal accounts to use the plugin’s automatic payout feature, which can be very limiting for sellers in certain regions.
• It doesn’t allow vendors to customize the front end of their store.

Why We Recommend Using Product Vendors: WooCommerce Product Vendors is a simple solution that lets you easily turn your store into a multi-vendor site. You can enable commissions based on a set amount, percentage, store, product, vendor, or individual. Beyond that, you can set payouts to send on a schedule like weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

5. YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor / Marketplace

YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor is a beginner-friendly WooCommerce multi-vendor plugin that allows you to create and manage an eCommerce marketplace similar to AliExpress, SHEIN, or Amazon. It comes with both free and paid versions, so you can test the tool before making a commitment.

What’s unique about the YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor plugin is that you can customize what appears on the vendor side. For example, you can perform actions like setting the seller’s header size and color, customizing the related products section, and more.

You also get instant compatibility with all of the YITH plugins. For instance, if you wanted to add reviews of all products to each listing, then you could connect your site to the YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews plugin.

Pricing: It costs $149.99 per year.

Pros:

• You can easily set up your marketplace.
• The plugin allows you to customize the registration form and approve or reject vendor applications.
• As the marketplace owner, you can set vendor permissions.

Cons:

• Vendors don’t have a lot of customization options to personalize their own store.

Why We Recommend Using YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor: We like the YITH WooCommerce Multi Vendor plugin because it gives the owner a lot of control over what vendors can and can’t do. You can set the commissions and permissions. for instance, you can decide whether you want to allow them to generate coupons, manage reviews, or limit the number of products they can publish.

6. WCFM Marketplace

WCFM Marketplace is a free marketplace plugin from the WordPress repository. It has a lot of the essential features you’d expect, like flexible commissions, vendor registration, bulk product uploads, and more.

Vendors have a lot of control over their shipping rates. They can set them by zone, country, distance, weight, country, and even zip code.

The plugin also gives the marketplace owner a lot of control. For instance, you can set the rules for withdrawals and disbursements. It also supports reverse withdrawals in the event that a customer requests a refund.

You can configure the refund settings for vendors. For instance, you may want refunds to be auto-approved or set up to enforce a threshold number of days for permissible refunds.

But if you want additional features, then the WCFM Marketplace has a wide range of paid add-ons. For example, the WooCommerce Frontend Manager addon allows you to set store hours, store vacations, add reviews, and more.

The Analytics addon gives you the ability to analyze visitors and sales by product category, specific products, traffic sources, etc.

Pricing: Free to get started, but they offer a variety of premium extensions available that range between $19 to $249+.

Pros:

• Marketplace owners have a lot of control over setting rules for operating their multi-vendor stores.
• It is a relatively affordable plugin with a free plan.
• Vendors can configure the store’s SEO by placing appropriate keywords.

Cons:

• There are complaints about the quality of customer service.
• You need to pay for add-ons to allow vendors to customize and manage the front end of their stores.

Why We Recommend Using WCFM Marketplace: WCFM Marketplace is a good option with a wide range of feature sets for both the marketplace owner and vendors. Plus, unique customizations such as seller verification and badges are available. The verification ensures a seller verifies they are a real person, and the badge will showcase the best vendors on your site.

7. Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads is a popular plugin for selling digital products like ebooks, courses, audio, pdf, templates, and more.

While it’s not a WooCommerce plugin, it’s the best choice for people looking to turn their website into a digital product marketplace.

With the Frontend Submissions addon, you can configure your own eCommerce store for selling third-party products. Once configured, you can allow anyone to sell digital products through your store, similar to Etsy or Gumroad.

On the front end, vendors can register to become sellers in your marketplace. Upon approval, they’ll be given access to a vendor dashboard, where they can create new products, add product pages, manage orders, access revenue stats, and communicate with customers.

What’s also cool about this addon is that it integrates with the Reviews extension. That way, customers can rate and leave reviews on the products they’ve purchased. Vendors get valuable feedback about their products and can leverage these reviews as social proof for more orders.

Everything is drag-and-drop, so vendors can easily build out their product listings without writing code. All they do is add a product description, upload images, and set their pricing.

For a full tutorial, check out our complete guide on how to create a digital product marketplace in WordPress.

Pricing: Starts at $99.50 per year.

Pros:

• Easy registration process for vendors.
• Vendors can easily create their own storefronts since everything is drag-and-drop.
• Vendors have the power to track their stats and communicate with customers.

Cons:

• Easy Digital Downloads is geared towards selling digital products, not physical products.

Why We Recommend Using Easy Digital Downloads: If you plan on selling digital products, then Easy Digital Downloads is the perfect choice. While it’s not a WooCommerce plugin, it still works for all WordPress websites. Easy Digital Downloads also comes with a wide range of extensions like multi-currency capabilities, email marketing service and payment gateway integrations, add-to-cart pop-ups, and more.

Other Useful Plugins for WooCommerce Websites

Besides having a WooCommerce multi-vendor plugin to simply create the marketplace, you might want to download a few additional tools to help provide sellers and buyers with a better user experience.

Here are a few tools to consider.

8. TeraWallet

TeraWallet is a free WordPress plugin that lets your customers easily store money in a digital wallet on your multi-vendor marketplace website.

Returning buyers can add money to their wallets using a variety of payment methods and later use it to make purchases. With this plugin installed on the website, customers won’t have to fill in their payment details every time or for every vendor they purchase from.

Beyond the core wallet functionality, TeraWallet has a useful cashback and rewards system that allows you to provide discounts to customers based on their purchases.

For instance, you can set cashback rates for specific categories or products and even provide bonus cashback during special events or seasonal promotions. This is a great way to build customer loyalty and drive more buyers to your marketplace.

Pricing: Free to use

Pros:

• The plugin is free to use.
• Customers can deposit funds, transfer money to other users, and make purchases with their wallet balance.
• Customers can even make partial payments with the balance and the remainder with their credit cards.

Cons:

• It’s not a multi-vendor-specific plugin, so it works for regular WooCommerce and online stores, too.

Why We Recommend Using TeraWallet: We like TeraWallet as a plugin to improve the user experience. If you want your customers to keep returning to your website, then it’s a good idea to ensure a seamless checkout experience. With TeraWallet, customers can keep an account balance, and sellers can reward them with cashback.

9. Product Feed PRO for WooCommerce

Product Feed PRO for WooCommerce is a plugin that helps you set up better eCommerce marketing campaigns.

It helps you add product feeds to your marketing channels, such as Facebook, Google Shopping, Bing Ads, and others. Adding these feeds will help you showcase your top sellers, which help you boost their sales. Best of all, this plugin has an unlimited number of products you can put in your product feeds.

In addition, you can set various filters and rules to show only your vendor’s most profitable products. You can exclude products that are low on stock, have low-profit margins, or only include products on sale.

Pricing: Free to use

Pros:

• Free and paid versions are available.
• Filter rules so you can show the best products for your marketing campaigns.
• 100+ templates included for marketplaces and comparison shopping engines.

Cons:

• It is not designed explicitly for multi-vendor sites, so each seller does not get their own control set.

Why We Recommend Using Product Feed Pro for WooCommerce: We like Product Feed Pro for WooCommerce because it’s a good way to help advertise your marketplace. Adding product feeds to your Google Shopping campaigns will allow you to showcase some of the most popular products on your website and, in turn, help out your vendors.

How to Choose the Right WooCommerce Multi-Vendor Plugin

Not all WooCommerce multi-vendor plugins are made equal. That’s because you may have specific needs that are different from those of other eCommerce marketplaces.

But still, here are some key features and factors to consider when making your decision.

Vendor Management Tools

At the heart of a successful eCommerce marketplace is the ability to easily manage multiple vendors. So, you’ll want to look for vendor management features such as:

• Unlimited product uploads and variations
• Inventory management
• Sales data and reporting dashboard
• Shipping management
• Vendor Registration

For instance, WC Vendors provides a full vendor dashboard so you can see all of your orders and shipment status.

The idea is that the plugin should be able to handle all multi-vendor activities, contributing to smoother operation.

Individual Vendor Stores

Your branding plays a vital role in attracting vendors and customers. That means your chosen platform offers a high level of customization.

These customization options may include things like flexible layout designs, adjustable themes, and personalized storefronts for vendors. Each vendor must have its own independent storefront with unique URLs that customers can send.

On top of that, vendors should have the power to add custom dashboard logos, unique headers, and product descriptions.

Commission Structure

Since you are responsible for driving all the traffic to your marketplace, it’s a good idea to have a commission structure in place.

The best multi-vendor plugins offer a flexible commission system. Under this system, you can charge vendors a fixed or percentage fee for every successful sale made through your platform.

For instance, WC Vendors allows you to set multiple commission types. You can even offer tiered commissions based on product price, product sales, or total sales.

Essentially, it allows you to take a small cut to provide the customer base, infrastructure, and platform so that vendors can sell their products or services.

Payment Gateways

Without convenient payment gateway options, there’s a good chance your visitors will abandon their shopping carts.

No matter how many pop-ups, social proof, countdown timers, or other trust badges you add, customers need a reliable payment option they can trust, like Stripe and PayPal.

These are trusted WooCommerce payment gateways available in most countries. They allow you to process credit card payments. Furthermore, customers know they can always contact these payment providers should a problem arise with their order.

Integration and Third-Party Apps

Your multi-vendor plugin is just one part of your entire eCommerce ecosystem. You’ll need other third-party apps such as inventory management systems, email marketing services, accounting software, and help desk plugins.

For example, adding various WooCommerce shipping plugins is probably helpful so that customers can calculate extra fees before checkout and track their orders after making a purchase.

WC Vendors offers integrations with UPS and FedEx shipping plugins, which is helpful for getting accurate shipping costs and handling returns.

Navigation and Search

When customers land on a marketplace site, they expect a smooth shopping experience. Slow website performance or a lack of mobile responsiveness are a few factors that could increase bounce rates.

But beyond that, it’s helpful to have a search bar on your site along with a filter option. For example, WC Vendors provides a sorting feature so users can easily sort through products by rating, price point, and popularity.

They also have an intuitive search functionality so shoppers can find the products they’re looking for without needing to scroll through pages of product listings.

Documentation and Customer Support

When an issue comes up, getting the error fixed should be the top priority. That’s why you want to look for a multi-vendor plugin with a dedicated support team that you can easily reach.

It should also provide a comprehensive knowledge base with documentation showing you how to perform every single function offered by the platform. Ideally, there should also be a way to submit a support ticket or a live chat feature where you can speak with a customer service representative.

Frequently Asked Questions About WooCommerce Multi Vendor Plugins

What is the best multi-vendor plugin for WooCommerce?

Based on our experience and testing, WC Vendors is the best multi-vendor plugin for WooCommerce. Its combination of user-friendliness, customization, and diverse feature sets makes it the most popular choice for building your own online marketplace.

Why create a multi-vendor marketplace?

Creating your own marketplace allows you to stand out from the pack. You can create niche multi-vendor platforms to serve a specific audience, such as a marketplace for hand-crafted goods or an online booking system for online contractors. The possibilities are endless. By creating a multi-vendor site, you can earn an additional income stream with commissions and serve a niche audience.

With all that in mind, WC Vendors is the best overall multi-vendor plugin for WooCommerce since you can sell physical goods, digital products, services, and subscriptions. That said, MultiVendorX offers multiple monetization methods like charging a subscription model, listing fees, or pay-per-action.

We hope this article helped you find the best WooCommerce multi-vendor plugin for WordPress. You may also want to check out our curated list of the best WooCommerce plugins for your store and the best WooCommerce WordPress themes.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 9 Best WooCommerce Multi-Vendor Plugins (Compared) first appeared on WPBeginner.

There are dozens of WordPress slider plugins on the market that you can use. However, not all of them are created equal. We’ve found that most of them have poor performance or limited customization options.

In this article, we will show you a list of the best WordPress slider plugins, so you can choose the right one for your needs.

What Makes a Good WordPress Slider Plugin?

When choosing the plugins for this showcase, we installed each tool on our test site to explore its pros, cons, and features. This allowed us to recommend only the best WordPress slider plugins.

We’ve found that a good WordPress slider plugin should offer a good balance of these features:

• Ease of use – A user-friendly plugin interface is very important. The best slider plugins offer a drag-and-drop builder with a visual editor for easy slide creation.
• Responsiveness – The plugin should offer a fully responsive design so your sliders will easily adapt to any desktop, tablet, or mobile device.
• Customizability – The plugin should offer enough customization options to make the slider suit your website design. Examples include transition effects, font options, custom animations, slider templates, and so on.
• Performance – Ideally, the plugin should be fast and not affect the page loading time on your site. This way, your site can be fast and SEO-friendly.
• Support for various media types – If you want to create a testimonial or video slider, then it would be best if the plugin supports other media files besides images.

With all this in mind, the best slider plugin for your WordPress blog or site will depend on your specific requirements, technical skills, and budget. Therefore, we recommend testing the plugins that catch your attention to see if one of them is the right solution for your needs.

Now, let’s look at our expert pick of the best WordPress slider plugins.

1. Soliloquy

Out of all the WordPress slider plugins we’ve tried, Soliloquy is the fastest and most beginner-friendly option.

To test the plugin’s speed, we installed each slider plugin on a demo WordPress site. We uploaded the same images to create a slider, didn’t change any other settings, and embedded the slider on a blank WordPress page.

After that, we used the Pingdom speed testing tool to run the test. Here are the results:

As you can see in the above scores, Soliloquy was the fastest-loading WordPress slider in our tests, followed by MetaSlider. Plus, if you look at the test results, then you will see that Soliloquy increased the page size without affecting the speed.

Soliloquy also comes with an easy drag-and-drop user interface to create your sliders. You can then change the slider template, resize the images, adjust the transition duration, and so on.

If you know some code, then you can also use custom CSS to further customize the slider.

Pros of Soliloquy:

• You can create various types of sliders without worrying about slowing down your WordPress website.
• Mobile-friendly sliders out of the box, with support for touch-swipe on mobile and tablet devices.
• Besides images from the media library, you can also use your WooCommerce products, Instagram photos, PDFs, and posts/pages/custom post types to create your sliders.
• Multiple ways to embed the slider in WordPress posts or pages: shortcodes, a Gutenberg editor block, a button for the old classic editor, and a widget.
• Various add-ons to enable advanced features, like dynamic content support, lightbox, right-click protection, thumbnail navigation, and more.

Cons of Soliloquy:

• The free plugin is only enough for creating a simple image slideshow. That’s why we recommend getting the premium version to make the most out of its features.

Pricing: Free plugin available. The premium plans start from $19.50 per year to create unlimited sliders on 1 website and 1 year of support and updates. You can use our Soliloquy coupon code to get 10% off of your purchase.

Why we chose Soliloquy: If you run a photography or any other image-heavy website, then investing in Soliloquy is a great idea. You can create multiple sliders using its easy-to-use controls without worrying it will negatively affect your website speed.

You can learn more about this WordPress slider plugin in our Soliloquy review.

2. Envira Gallery

If you are looking for the best WordPress slider plugin for images, then check out Envira Gallery. This gallery plugin comes with a Slideshow Add-on that can turn your lightbox gallery into a beautiful slideshow.

This means that you can display multiple pictures in a regular lightbox gallery. When users click on an image in that gallery, they can navigate through the different pictures using a slider.

The Slideshow Add-on is pretty easy to use. You can set the slideshow to automatically play once it’s opened, pause it when a cursor hovers over it, and configure the speed of the slideshow.

Envira Gallery offers several gallery layouts to choose from. You can choose the automatic layout so that the gallery automatically adjusts its layout based on how many images are there. Alternatively, the square layout can emulate a social media photo feed.

Besides that, you can enable lazy loading so that the gallery doesn’t weigh down your web page. This way, you can maintain a stable and fast performance and make sure your website is SEO-friendly.

Pros of Envira Gallery:

• Easy-to-use Slideshow Add-on that turns a lightbox gallery into an image slider.
• Beautiful gallery layouts out of the box.
• Lazy loading feature to prevent slowing down the web page.
• Mobile-specific settings to ensure the slideshow looks good on smartphone screens, such as setting custom dimensions for the gallery.
• Right-click protection to make sure no unauthorized users can save your images without permission.

Cons of Envira Gallery:

• The Slideshow Add-on only supports images.

Pricing: Free plugin available, but you need to purchase a Basic plan ($39.50 per year) or higher to use the Slideshow Add-on. You can use our Envira Gallery coupon to get 10% off your purchase.

Why we chose Envira Gallery: Envira Gallery is one of the most beautiful image gallery plugins we’ve tried, so it was a no-brainer for us to feature it in this list. It’s a great option if you want to create a good-looking yet speed-optimized image slideshow for your website.

You can learn more about the plugin in our Envira Gallery review.

3. MetaSlider

MetaSlider is one of the most popular WordPress slider plugins on the market. Many well-known companies like Vimeo and NASA have used this plugin to create fast and fully responsive sliders on their websites.

If you are only looking to create a simple image slider, then the free version is enough. The drag-and-drop builder lets you create a slideshow or a carousel using images from the media library or Unsplash, which is a free stock photo library.

The live preview makes it easy to see what the slider will look like when it’s published.

However, the real power comes in its Pro version. MetaSlider Pro supports various types of content for the slides, like images, videos, posts, eCommerce products, and even HTML.

What’s more, MetaSlider lets you hide slides or display a different slide when viewed on mobile. As a result, you can show slides that look best on a small screen size.

Pros of MetaSlider:

• User-friendly drag-and-drop builder with a live preview that connects with the WordPress media library and Unsplash.
• Support for various types of slide content, from images to products and HTML.
• Settings to adjust the slide for mobile viewing, like hiding the slide or using a different slide on mobile.
• Multiple professional slider layouts to choose from.
• Scheduled slider feature to make a slider visible only on certain dates, which is useful for online stores that want to showcase special deals or seasonal promotions.

Cons of MetaSlider:

• Like Soliloquy, you will need the Pro version to leverage its full offers.

Pricing: Free plugin available. The premium plans start from $39.50 per year for 1 website license.

Why we chose MetaSlider: This WordPress slider plugin costs slightly more than Soliloquy, but we found it to be excellent for people looking to create various types of non-image sliders that look good on all devices.

4. Smart Slider 3

Do you want to create beautiful interactive sliders on your WordPress website? If so, then check out Smart Slider 3.

This WordPress slider plugin comes with 11 free sliders that support images, texts, videos, buttons, and so on. You can also layer each content element on top of each other, like adding text on top of an image. This makes it a great tool for creating presentations in WordPress.

It’s an excellent choice if you want to get users not just to sift through your slide content but also to interact with it, such as clicking on a button to read a post or check out a product.

The user interface itself is pretty different from the rest of the options in the list. The editing screen looks a bit like a photo editor, which can intimidate beginners at first. But once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Pros of Smart Slider 3:

• Professional slider layouts available in the free plugin, from full-width sliders to sliders with thumbnail navigation.
• Layering feature to stack elements on top of each other in one slide.
• Dynamic content support that can pull content from external sources like YouTube or Facebook.
• Advanced parallax effects to make your sliders more eye-catching.

Cons of Smart Slider 3:

• The abundance of customization settings and photo-editing-like user experience can seem overwhelming for complete beginners.

Pricing: Free plugin available. The premium plans start from a one-time fee of $49 for 1 website license.

Why we chose Smart Slider 3: Considering how powerful it is and the fact that it uses a one-time payment system, this WordPress slider plugin offers great value for money. The interface may seem intimidating at first but you can get used to it with some practice.

5. Master Slider

Last but not least, we have Master Slider, which is a freemium WordPress slider plugin. Like many other options on the list, it comes with a drag-and-drop interface to rearrange your slide content.

The free version supports images only, but you are able to choose the slider control buttons (like arrows, tabs, or bullets) to personalize the design. It also includes built-in caching and smart preloading to make the slider faster.

On the other hand, the Pro version includes more features, like full-width and full-screen layouts, custom slider templates, tooltips, and even a slide video background feature. That last feature is a great way to make a strong first impression on visitors when they land on your page.

Pros of Master Slider:

• Easy drag-and-drop builder to move the slider content around.
• Speed optimization features like caching and preloading.
• Comprehensive Pro feature set to customize the sliders to your exact liking, like 90+ premium sliders, premium transitions, a slide video background, tooltips, and more.
• Supports sliders from WooCommerce, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo.

Cons of Master Slider:

• Some users have complained that the plugin asks them to leave reviews and ratings on the WordPress.org repository too often, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Pricing: Free plugin available. The paid version starts from $34 for a regular license. This means the plugin can only be used on one website by you or a client and is not meant to be sold to end users.

Why we chose Master Slider: We decided to feature this WordPress slider plugin on the list is its unique Pro features, like the slide video background and tooltips, which are not very common in other plugins.

Bonus: Use SeedProd to Build a Landing Page With a Slider

When you use a slider plugin, you may find it difficult to adjust the slider’s design to the rest of your page’s appearance. In this case, we recommend using a WordPress page builder with a slider element, like SeedProd.

SeedProd is a WordPress page builder that comes with an easy-to-use image carousel block.

It’s a great option for people looking to add a slider to a landing page or a custom page on their website. By using a page builder, you can ensure that your slider’s design seamlessly matches the rest of your page.

With SeedProd, you can add as many images as needed from the media library or their built-in stock photo integration. After that, simply pick a slider template that suits your needs best.

You can also adjust the dark or light mode of the slideshow navigation buttons, how many images to show in a single slide, enable autoplay, add captions, and more.

SeedProd has a free plugin, but the image carousel block is only available in the premium version. The plans start from $39.50 per year for 1 website license, but you can get 60% off using our SeedProd coupon code.

You can learn more about the plugin in our full SeedProd review.

What Is the Best WordPress Slider Plugin?

Out of all the plugins we’ve reviewed, Soliloquy is the best WordPress slider plugin on the list. During our tests, it performed the fastest and has a beginner-friendly interface that anyone can use to create their sliders.

What’s more, it has tons of add-ons you can use to extend the basic slider functionality. This way, you can pick and choose features based on what you need and avoid dealing with ones you don’t use.

If you are looking for a free WordPress slider plugin, then we recommend Smart Slider 3. It offers professional-looking slider templates out of the box and there are plenty of customization options to play with in the editing interface.

We also recommend checking out SeedProd. Sometimes, it can be hard to find an image slider plugin that works well with your theme. Since SeedProd already has an image carousel feature, you won’t have to worry about compatibility issues.

Best WordPress Slider Plugin: Frequently Asked Questions

Now that we’ve shown you the best WordPress slider plugins, let’s go through some frequently asked questions about using sliders in WordPress.

Should I use sliders on my website?

Sliders can be a good addition to your website, but whether you should use them depends on your content and design goals. They are useful for showcasing multiple images or messages without taking up too much space.

You will want to consider the visual appeal and relevance to your audience when deciding whether to use sliders on your WordPress blog or website.

What is the best size for a slider in WordPress?

It’s recommended to keep slider sizes responsive so that they adjust to different screen sizes. However, a common practice is to make the slider’s width equal to the device’s width, and its height proportional to the width, typically around 40-60%.

This helps ensure that the slider looks good on a variety of devices and screen sizes.

What is the difference between Soliloquy and Smart Slider 3?

Soliloquy and Smart Slider 3 are both popular WordPress slider plugins, but they have differences in terms of features and user interface.

Soliloquy is known for its beginner-friendliness and fast performance, while Smart Slider 3 offers slightly more advanced customization options. The choice between the two depends on your specific needs and skill level.

Ultimate Guides to Using WordPress Sliders

• How to Easily Create a Responsive Slider in WordPress
• How to Create a Video Slider in WordPress (Easy Tutorial)
• How to Properly Add a Featured Content Slider in WordPress
• How to Show Before and After Photos in WordPress
• Forget PowerPoint, How to Create Presentations in WordPress

We hope this article answers your questions regarding the best WordPress slider plugins. You may also want to see our list of must-have WordPress plugins to grow your website or our tutorial on how to create an image gallery in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 5 Best WordPress Slider Plugins – Performance + Quality (Compared) first appeared on WPBeginner.