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Comparison between WCFM and Dokan woocommerce plugin
So you want to build an eCommerce marketplace and are thinking about using WordPress. Excellent decision! But what comes next?
Dokan and WCFM Marketplace are two names you’re sure to come across if you dig further to locate the ideal multi-vendor solution for your marketplace.
What follows is an honest comparison of the two most popular multi-vendor marketplace plugins. It is ultimately up to you to determine who is the greatest.
Let’s start from the beginning:
DOKAN’S HISTORY
On February 17, 2014, Dokan debuted as a WooCommerce-based marketplace theme. However, 7 months after its first release, it is reintroduced as a plugin coupled with a free marketplace theme in order to remain competitive.
A free version of the plugin was also released on WordPress in early 2015. Dokan was able to boost its exposure to a larger WordPress audience as a result of this. However, it wasn’t until March 2017 that the light version was made necessary with the pro, resulting in a considerable improvement in the plugin statistics.
In November 2017, Dokan underwent yet another significant reorganization. Individual add-ons were phased out in favor of more expensive price options with pre-bundled modules rather than a development update.
Dokan now boasts, moreover, 50,000 active installs, the most in its peer group, and a good average user rating of 4.46/5.
WCFM MARKETPLACE’S HISTORY
WC Lovers, the business behind WCFM Marketplace, began as a WooCommerce front-end manager. A few months later, the plugin received a significant boost when support for multi-vendor plugins was enabled.
Later, on August 15, 2018, the WCFM Marketplace was launched on WordPress. It was an immediate success. The plugin grew from 0 to 1000 active installations in less than two months after its release, and it grew to 5000 in less than six months. Finally, WCFM Marketplace joins the 10,000+ active installations club on its 306th day on WordPress!
With over 30,000 active installs, WCFM Marketplace is the fastest-growing multi-vendor plugin. But wait, there’s more. It also has the biggest user rating of 4.92/5 among its peers!
To summarise, Dokan is in its seventh year, has over 50,000 active installs, and has a 4.46/5 average rating. WCFM Marketplace is in its second year and has over 30,000 active installs with an average rating of 4.92/5.
Now that we have completed the history behind these two giant marketplaces let’s get started on the head-to-head comparison. Should we?
ADVICE REGARDING FEATURE COMPARISON
Before you start searching for plugins, you should decide what sort of marketplace you want to establish, the business plan, and the must-have features.
First, let’s use the “All Characteristics” list from Dokan’s website as a starting point for comparison, followed by some other required marketplace features worth noting. We’ll next look at the functionality provided by various Dokan modules before wrapping up with a look at all of the WCFM Marketplace add-ons.
We’ll also explain the function of some less evident features to help you determine whether they’re important to you.
Dokan Website Features
Marketplace with Independent Stores
A marketplace, by definition, is a gathering of independent shops. So, of course, both plugins, as well as all peers, provide this.
Any WooCommerce-compatible theme may be used
Because both plugins are built on WooCommerce, any eCommerce theme that adheres to Woo’s requirements will work with both.
However, there is a catch. The pages created by the plugin outside of WooCommerce need a touch of CSS to appear compatible with the main website UI. As a result, you need always choose appropriate themes for each plugin.
Easy Withdrawal System for Your Vendors
For every vendor, the earnings amount on their dashboard does not seem nearly as nice as the earnings figure in their bank account. If sellers have difficulty receiving their earnings into their accounts, they are likely to depart the site.
On the other hand, as an admin, you may choose to apply certain limits in order to reduce the danger of return requests or customer disputes. Dokan’s payment choices are now, to put it mildly, incredibly restricted.
Individual vendor storefronts are crucial in markets where vendors’ reputations are as important as or more important than the things they offer. So it’s not as vital for Amazon, but it’s critical for Etsy or Zatista. Again, both plugins allow sellers to change their homepage without compromising the marketplace’s general uniformity.
Vendors may add alternative shipping zones, shipping methods, and shipping classes to WCFM Marketplace and Dokan.
Declare Important News Directly on the Dashboard
Every marketplace requires a direct means to access its sellers in order to function properly. One such approach is to broadcast vital news or information to all or a subset of suppliers.
Dokan handles announcements in the same way as he manages alerts. As a result, vendors, are static, read-only communications.
WCFM Marketplace gives you a considerably broader range of choices for communicating with your merchants. While you may send static, read-only announcements, you can also build new topics where merchants can engage, much like a forum.
You have complete control over who sells and who does not.
You may need to temporarily halt a vendor’s selling privileges from time to time. This might be due to rules infractions, membership expiry, or a temporary lack of availability. Whatever the cause, the configuration should be simple and reversible.
Both WCFM Marketplace and Dokan provide one-click options to halt or restart a seller’s product selling capabilities.
Admin’s frontend dashboard
The arguments for choosing a frontend dashboard for your suppliers are the same as they are for you, the administrator. If we can all agree that administering a shop from the backend is time-consuming, how can you, as an administrator, justify utilizing the same system to operate the whole marketplace?
Unfortunately, Dokan does not provide a frontend dashboard for administrators. That means you’ll have to deal with the normal WordPress backend, which has a plethora of needless menus and settings.
However, with WCFM, you can completely manage your marketplace from the front end. You may still need to access the backend from time to time for development/maintenance chores such as plugin installation, theme update, or WordPress version upgrading. However, they have your back when it comes to the day-to-day operations of your marketplace!
Managers and administrative personnel
In the real world, keeping a firm functioning successfully necessitates devoting personnel to certain jobs. We can’t expect the owner to do it all, from processing vendor registration paperwork to evaluating new items, publicizing significant news, engaging with suppliers, and so on. Like any reasonable company owner, you will need to employ people to handle various elements of your marketplace at some time. You will need to create several user roles with varying access privileges for this.
You, as the administrator, may add an infinite number of personnel and assign various capabilities depending on their job in WCFM. Furthermore, with the Groups & Staffs add-on, you may regulate these powers not only for individual employees but also for groups.
Dokan does not let administrators hire their own personnel to run the marketplace.
Notification of low stock
This is a critical feature for marketplaces that sell tangible things. Let’s face it: out-of-stock items are a massive turnoff. It’s awful for everyone, including the consumer, the seller, and the company as a whole. This can easily be remedied by sending an email warning to the seller before running out of stock. Just configure the low stock threshold limit, and you’re done.
Vendors using WCFM may get a low stock notice through email as well as on their notification screen. Dokan does not have the vendor’s low stock notice functionality.
Conclusion
It is now up to you to pick between the Dokan Multivendor Plugin and the WCFM Marketplace. We will add that WCFM Marketplace is a definite favorite of ours since it allows us to say goodbye to hostile WordPress backends. It’s a visual pleasure with almost no learning curve.
