What are Plugins?

Your website may be built using WordPress, and if it has a shopping cart, the chances are it uses WooCommerce. Think of WordPress as the base of your site. WooCommerce is an add-on that is put into the site, called a plugin. Plugins are add-ons that give your site extra features.

For example, a plugin can:

• Add a booking calendar
• Show product reviews
• Connect your shop to your accounting software
• Offer more payment options, such as Windcave and Afterpay
• Calculate shipping costs automatically
• Send follow-up emails to customers

Why use plugins?

Plugins are already built, tested and used by thousands of other websites. We can install a plugin and set it up for your business, so new features get on your site quickly.

Free vs paid plugins

Some plugins are free and some cost money, usually a yearly subscription.

Free plugins can work well for simple tasks. But they often come with limits:

• Fewer features, with the best ones locked behind an upgrade
• Little or no support if something goes wrong
• Less frequent updates, which can cause security or compatibility issues

Paid plugins tend to be the better choice for anything important to your business. You generally get:

• More features and flexibility
• Regular updates to keep your site secure and working with the latest WordPress and WooCommerce versions
• Access to a support team if there is a problem

Our approach

We recommend plugins based on what your site needs. If a free plugin does the job well, we will use it. If a paid one is more reliable or will save you trouble later, we will tell you why and what it costs before we go ahead.