Web Stories vs WooCommerce
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Web Stories v1.42.0 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.2/5 Visit Details | WooCommerce v11.2.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.5/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 60,000+ | 7M+ |
| Last updated | May 15, 2025 | October 9, 2026 |
| Editions | Web Stories | WooCommerce |
| Pros | Free and open source (Apache 2.0) from Google; Publishes tap-through, AMP-friendly visual stories; Optional ad, shopping and embed features | Simple and variable products, cart, checkout and coupons; Built-in payment, shipping zone, tax and email tools; REST API and WP-CLI commands for store management |
| Cons | Stories are a separate post type, not ordinary page content; Ad and shopping features need third-party accounts; Opt-in usage tracking exists, off until a user opts in | Payments, shipping and tax all need setup before selling; Many advanced features come from paid marketplace add-ons; Contacts Woo and WordPress services for some optional features |
| Mentioned in our posts | — | 2 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Experiments admin page, AMP story player output, Google Ad Manager ads in stories, Google AdSense ads in stories, MGID ad widgets, WooCommerce product lookup for shopping tags, Shopify product lookup, oEmbed embeds in stories, Hotlinked media copied to the media library, Google Fonts for story text | Simple and variable products, Cart and checkout, Built-in offline payment methods and gateway API, Shipping zones and methods, Tax rates and calculation, Coupons, Order query API, REST API for products and orders, WP-CLI commands, Analytics reports |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | — | PayPal |
| Marketing | Google Ad Manager, Google AdSense, MGID | — |
| Analytics | Google Site Kit | WooCommerce usage tracking service |
| Social | — | |
| E-commerce | WooCommerce, Shopify | — |
| Plugins | Advanced Custom Fields | WooCommerce.com |
| Requires WordPress | 6.6 | 7.0 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 6.8 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | Only if you agree | Only if you agree |
| External services | wp.stories.google, cdn.ampproject.org, fonts.googleapis.com | public-api.wordpress.com, woocommerce.com, api.webflow.com, tracking.woocommerce.com, www.paypal.com, www.sandbox.paypal.com, api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com, api-3t.paypal.com, dzv365zjfbd8v.cloudfront.net, api.wordpress.org, plugins.svn.wordpress.org, translate.wordpress.com, api64.ipify.org, ipecho.net, ident.me, tnedi.me, ipinfo.io, api.country.is |
| Blocks | 1 | 60 |
| Shortcodes | — | 7 |
| Custom tables | — | 31 |