Compare Sharetribe vs. WordPress

What is the best way to build a marketplace: Sharetribe or WordPress marketplace plugins and extensions? What is the easiest solution? How about fastest? Most affordable, or most scalable? Let's find out.

Strictly speaking, WordPress isn't a Sharetribe alternative.

WordPress wasn't originally built for creating two-sided marketplaces. To build a marketplace with WordPress today, you need to configure multiple plugins built by different developers to work together. Adding unique features, workflows or designs can be become very complex and require you to dive deep into the internals of all these plugins to maintain their compatibility. Because of this, setting up a marketplace with WordPress can take quite a while, and the approach is not very scalable or easy to maintain.

For an experienced WordPress developer who wants to test a side project idea as affordably as possible, WordPress can be a good starting point. For an entrepreneur who prefers a no-code alternative and plans to grow the business to a bigger scale, Sharetribe may be a better fit.

Sharetribe was built solely for the purpose of creating two-sided marketplaces. Sharetribe Go allows you to set up a fully functional marketplace in minutes. You don't need to install anything or configure plugins and themes: it just works. If you want to scale your marketplace and add completely unique features, workflows, and designs, Sharetribe Flex allows you to do exactly that. It's optimized for great developer experience, making it easy to extend your marketplace infinitely and scale it to any size.

The table below helps you compare WordPress with Sharetribe Go and Sharetribe Flex.

WordPress

Sharetribe Go

Sharetribe Flex

Dedicated marketplace solution?

Requires using plugins and themes to extend the core functionality

How to get started

Install WordPress on your server
(Buy a domain)
Buy hosting + SSL certificate
Install a theme
Install WooCommerce plugin
Install Dokan Multi-Vendor

Sign up to Sharetribe Go
(Buy a custom domain)
(Set up a Custom Landing Page)

Sign up to Sharetribe Flex
Develop your marketplace front end on top of APIs & website template
Buy a domain
Buy hosting for your front end

Built-in marketplace features?

Time to launch

1–3 weeks

1 day

1–3 months

Pricing

WooCommerce plugin (free)
(WooCommerce Bookings plugin $249.00 /y)*
Dokan Pro or Business $249–$499 /y*
Theme $30–$60
Hosting costs starting from $25 /mo

*You need a Bookings plugin and Dokan Business to build a rental or service marketplace (like Airbnb or Fiverr)

Plans starting from $79 /mo
(Custom Landing Page $99 /mo)

Subscription fee $299 /mo
(+ Transaction fee for transaction volume over $30,000)

Free trial

14 days for Dokan

30-day money-back guarantee for WooCommerce

30 days

Free for the duration of development

Technical skills needed

Low to high

Installing and maintaining themes and plugins requires being comfortable with WordPress, but no coding skills
Customizations will require advanced WordPress development skills
Maintaining performance at scale requires advanced development skills

Low

No coding skills needed
Easy to customize and setup using Admin panel
Hosting, performance, maintenance, backups, and updates included at any scale

Medium

Some development skills needed to take Flex into use
Mid- to high-level skills needed for custom-developing features and integrations
Backend hosting, performance, maintenance, backups, and updates included at any scale

Hosting

Backend hosting included

Maintenance

Backend maintenance included

Performance monitoring

Backups

Custom-development

Unlimited

Not possible

Unlimited

Main programming language

PHP

Custom coding not possible

Use the tech stack of your choice

Supports building a mobile app

Support

WordPress forums (online support for paid plans)
WooCommerce online support
Dokan online support

Sharetribe support

Sharetribe support +
Flex developer support

Key benefits

+ Low cost

+ Customizability through plugins

+ Supports multiple business models

+ Offers multiple payment gateways

+ Advanced features for "online malls" like Amazon

+ Very fast to launch

+ Very easy to use

+ Seamless user experience that keeps improving

+ Effortless to maintain

+ Advanced features for rental marketplaces like Airbnb, service marketplaces like Fiverr, and product marketplaces like Etsy

+ Dedicated support for non-technical founders

+ Fully customizable, yet fast to launch

+ Effortless to maintain

+ Unlimited scalability

+ Enjoyable developer experience

+ Easy to build a mobile app

+ Advanced features for rental, service, and product marketplaces

+ Dedicated support for developers

Key drawbacks

- Not the fastest way to launch

- Requires some level of technical skills

- Maintaining can become challenging especially at scale

- Not easily extendable with custom features

- Challenging to build a mobile app

- Limited scalability

- Not the smoothest developer experience

- Multiple sources for documentation and support

- Lowest customizability

- Not possible to build new features

- Limited functionality for "online mall" marketplace types

- Supports fewer payment gateways and business models

- Requires development skills (or hiring a verified Sharetribe Expert)

- Takes more time to launch

- Requires a bigger budget to get started

› Learn more about how Sharetribe compares with WordPress in our complete guide

Always included in both Go & Flex

When you create a marketplace with Sharetribe, here's what you can always count on.

All essential marketplace features

Listings and profiles. Multiple different transaction flows. Search engine. Availability management. Messaging, reviews, email notifications, and a lot more. Because you don’t have to sweat the basics, you can focus on what counts: your brand and your user community.

Secure online payments

Sharetribe’s built-in payment system allows you to process payments between your users, delay payouts, and collect your commission automatically. Without compromising user experience or security compliance.

Powerful admin tools

Have a 360° view of what goes on in your marketplace. User management, content moderation, transaction monitoring, and a lot more – all the tools you need to be in complete control of your platform.

Regular updates & new features

Sharetribe makes your business more powerful every day. In addition to keeping your platform up to speed with the latest security and regulatory advancements, our team adds lots of new functionality to your marketplace every month.

Carefree infrastructure

Wherever your growth takes you, your Sharetribe-powered platform can handle it. You never need to worry about traffic spikes or site performance. Our solutions support your marketplace at any stage of your business lifecycle.

Legal & regulatory compliance

Local payment regulation? Data security protection? Regulatory changes and updates? With Sharetribe, your payment and data processing is always compliant with the latest regulatory standards such as GDPR and PSD2.

Maintenance & backups

Scratch backups off your todo list. Sharetribe keeps your platform and data storage working reliably and securely according to the latest industry best practices. If you ever want to leave, your data is yours to keep.

Expert support 7 days a week

Sharetribe’s support team consists of marketplace business and platform technology experts – all extremely friendly folks to boot. We’ll help you get the most out of our products and share Sharetribe’s decade-long marketplace experience to support your business.