Looking for a complete comparison between the subscription plugins from WooCommerce and WebToffee? Here it is!
Subscriptions are a type of business model in which businesses receive regular recurring revenue from customers in return for their products or services.
Though they have been around for decades on end, there has been a drastic boost in the subscription economy in recent years. The trend is visible on WooCommerce too. More WooCommerce businesses are incorporating subscription models.
There are several plugins in WordPress that facilitate subscription functionalities, a prominent plugin among them is the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin from WooCommerce. The capabilities of this plugin are heavenly, however, they are a bit overwhelming for a small to medium business with limited requirements. A better alternative for such businesses would be the Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin from WebToffee.
Here is a complete comparison between the two WooCommerce subscription plugins. Have a look!
WooCommerce Subscriptions
WooCommerce Subscriptions is a WordPress plugin by WooCommerce that adds subscription features to your eCommerce store hosted on WordPress.
The plugin offers superior subscription features including, but not limited to, simple & variable subscription, free trials, sign-up fees, payment synchronization, switching subscription variations, multiple billing schedules, recurring payment compatibility with several WooCommerce plugins, manual & automatic payment renewal, and more.
In addition to the plugin features, the purchase also entails 1 year of extended updates and technical support.
Subscriptions for WooCommerce
One of the best alternatives for the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin is the Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin by WebToffee.
Subscriptions for WooCommerce is a premium plugin that houses features that are necessary for adding and managing subscription products in your Woo Store. Subscriptions are a good way to ensure regular clients for a product in your store. The model focuses more on customer retention than acquisition.
The plugin offers everything that is essential for running a subscription-model business. The feature-rich platform is renowned for its reliability and trustworthiness. You can get the most robust of features at a competitive price to improve your store performance from the plugin.
Like WooCommerce, WebToffee also offers 1 year of extended plugin updates and technical support along with the plugin purchase.
The complete comparison of the subscription plugin from WebToffee VS WooCommerce
The plugin comparison can be done in a number of ways. Here we are comparing the plugins based on some of the critical parameters that are to be analyzed before purchasing any products.
- Functionalities
- Prorating payments
- Switching subscriptions
- Subscription actions for individual orders
- Email notification
- Affordability
- Customer response
- Technical assistance
- Compatibility
Let’s dive in!
Functionalities
Though both the plugins look the same from the outside, there are considerable differences when it comes to the features each one of them offer.
| Features | The WebToffee Subscriptions Plugin | The WooCommerce Subscriptions |
| Subscription synchronization | ✔ | ✔ |
| Prorate new subscriptions | ✔ | ✔ |
| Prorate renewals on switching subscriptions | ✘ | ✔ |
| Automatic payment renewal | ✔ | ✔ |
| Manual payment renewal | ✔ | ✔ |
| Drip downloadable content | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mixed checkout | ✔ | ✔ |
| $0 Subscription sign up without configuring payment method | ✘ | ✔ |
| Automatic retry for failed payments | ✔ | ✔ |
| Simple and variable subscription products | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free trials for subscriptions | ✔ | ✔ |
| Schedule recurring payments | ✔ | ✔ |
| Apply coupons for subscriptions | ✔ | ✔ |
| Automatic email alerts | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email alerts for subscription renewal reminder | ✔ | ✘ |
| Price | Starting from $89/year | $199/year |
When comparing the sheer number of features that plugins offer, WooCommerce Subscriptions has the upper hand. Even though this is the case, the plugin lacks features in several key areas that are essential to the customers.
The WebToffee subscriptions plugin offers all the major and advanced features required for practically managing subscription products in WooCommerce. This includes simple and variable subscription setup, email alerts on subscription statuses, free trial and sign-up fee offerings, multiple payment gateway support, etc.
Another key thing to note here is that the development of the plugin from WooCommerce seemed to have stalled. There have been no significant additions to the plugins during the last major releases. This has been one of the main concerns of the plugin users.
The following are some of the key differences when it comes to the features:
Prorating payments
Subscriptions by WebToffee – The plugin enables you to prorate the first payment/renewal for all subscription products.
Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The plugin offers prorating first renewals, along with prorating recurring payments, signup fees, and the number of pending payment recurrences while switching subscriptions.
Switching subscriptions
Subscriptions by WebToffee – At the time of writing this article, the plugin by WebToffee does not offer to switch between subscription variations and upgrading/downgrading subscriptions.
Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The plugin has capabilities to help users switch between subscription variations and grouped subscriptions.
Subscription actions for individual orders
Subscriptions by WebToffee – You may make use of the subscription actions to manually add or edit subscriptions in your store. With the WebToffee plugin, you can create the following actions for individual subscriptions:
- Email invoice/order details to the customer
- Re-sent new order notification
- Regenerate download permissions
- Create pending renewal orders
Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The plugin only enables you to regenerate download permissions and create pending parent orders.
Email notification
Customers and store admins are notified by email of the various statuses of their subscriptions.
Both the plugins support setting up email alerts. However, the plugins differ in the type of available email notifications. For instance, with the WebToffee Subscriptions plugin, automatic notifications are sent to customers reminding them of subscription renewals, subscription expiry and subscription renewal intimation, these are not available in the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin.
Whereas both plugins offer notifications on completing & processing renewal, suspending & canceling subscriptions, and more.
Affordability
There is a considerable difference between the plugins when it comes to plugin pricing. The WebToffee plugin is far more affordable than its alternative.
Subscriptions by WebToffee – The plugin has a pay-only for what you need model. They offer the product in three different price ranges – each with the same feature sets but a different number of site licenses. The plugin is available from $89/year to $199/year.
Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The plugin has a yearly subscription rate of $199. This is an extremely high rate when considering that you may have to use other add-ons/extensions to enhance subscription functionalities.
Customer Response
Subscriptions for WooCommerce is a well-received WooCommerce plugin with an average rating of 4.72 out of 5 from a total of 18 reviews on Trustpilot.
The WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin has an average rating of 3.4 on 5 from a total of 42 reviews in WooCommerce.
Technical Assistance
The WebToffee subscription plugin offers support services such as email support, and technical resources.
They also offer a number of customer service options including email, and technical resources. The normal response time of an email query or email support ticket is around one business day. Note that the support desk is exclusive for premium customers.
Additionally, the users have free access to comprehensive documentation, blog articles, and FAQ guides.
WooCommerce Subscriptions also offer email support and comprehensive technical documentation.
Compatibility
Subscriptions by WebToffee – The plugin is compatible with over 10 payment gateways and several multilingual plugins.
Subscriptions by WooCommerce – The plugin has integrations with over 25 payment gateways and several other extensions.
Summing Up
While the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin has more features than the plugin from WebToffee, the WooCommerce plugin does come with a price that not all people can afford. And ultimately, selecting the right plugin for your store depends on what your requirements and goals are for your subscription-based business.
If you are still not sure what plugin to go for, both plugins provide a 30-day money-back guarantee you can make use of to find the right one to take your subscription business to the sky.
Hope this article has helped you find a better alternative for the WooCommerce subscription plugin. Have some queries? Comment them below, we are happy to help!
