What is WooCommerce used for?

WooCommerce is a customizable open-source ecommerce platform built as a plugin for WordPress; this repository is the monorepo for the core plugin and its extensions. It is a good fit for adding a shop to a WordPress site, agencies building custom online stores and developing WooCommerce extensions.

Is WooCommerce open source?

Yes. WooCommerce is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at woocommerce/woocommerce and is written mainly in PHP.

Yes. WooCommerce is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

Can I self-host WooCommerce?

Yes. WooCommerce can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is WooCommerce an alternative to?

WooCommerce is an open-source alternative to BigCommerce, Ecwid, Shopify and Square Online. Other open-source alternatives to BigCommerce include Bagisto, PrestaShop and OpenCart.

Is WooCommerce actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to WooCommerce was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 11.1.2, published on 22 September 2026. The project has 11k stars on GitHub.

WooCommerce: open-source alternative to BigCommerce, Ecwid

About WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a customizable ecommerce platform that runs on WordPress, written mainly in PHP. The GitHub repository is a monorepo with the plugins, packages and tooling for developing the core WooCommerce plugin together with its extensions, so it is where the project's code, issues and development discussions live.

Developers working on it need Node.js, PNPM, PHP 7.4 or higher and Composer, and a POSIX-compliant operating system is assumed, with WSL recommended on Windows. The project maintains a development blog and a developer account on X for updates, and the topics reference React, since parts of its admin interface use it.

Because it is built on WordPress, merchants typically run WooCommerce on their own hosting, adding products, payments and shipping through extensions. The repository lists the license as Other, so check the licence terms in the repository. It suits small and mid-sized shops, agencies and developers who already work in the WordPress ecosystem.

Key features

Ecommerce functionality on WordPress
Extensions add features to the core
Monorepo of plugins and packages
PHP codebase with React-based admin parts
Developer blog and documentation
Large ecosystem of third-party extensions

Good fit for

→Adding a shop to a WordPress site
→Agencies building custom online stores
→Developing WooCommerce extensions

Built with: PHP
Tags: ecommerce; wordpress; php; online-store; plugin; woocommerce; shopping-cart; monorepo

WooCommerce: questions and answers

What is WooCommerce used for?: WooCommerce is a customizable open-source ecommerce platform built as a plugin for WordPress; this repository is the monorepo for the core plugin and its extensions. It is a good fit for adding a shop to a WordPress site, agencies building custom online stores and developing WooCommerce extensions.
Is WooCommerce open source?: Yes. WooCommerce is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at woocommerce/woocommerce and is written mainly in PHP.
Is WooCommerce free?: Yes. WooCommerce is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
Can I self-host WooCommerce?: Yes. WooCommerce can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is WooCommerce an alternative to?: WooCommerce is an open-source alternative to BigCommerce, Ecwid, Shopify and Square Online. Other open-source alternatives to BigCommerce include Bagisto, PrestaShop and OpenCart.
Is WooCommerce actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to WooCommerce was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 11.1.2, published on 22 September 2026. The project has 11k stars on GitHub.