There are a lot of fantastic WooCommerce coupon plugins that you can use to offer discounts and run sales on your store. Two of the top options that you can choose from are Advanced Coupons and WooCommerce Smart Coupons.
Knowing what each plugin has to offer and their pros and cons will help you make the right decision for your store. After all, both plugins offer entirely different coupon creation and management experiences.
In this article, we’re going to compare Advanced Coupons vs. WooCommerce Smart Coupons, touching upon all the aspects that you need to know about. Let’s get to it!
Advanced Coupons vs. WooCommerce Smart Coupons: Key Considerations
If you’re in a hurry, this table includes an overview of all the key differences between both WooCommerce coupon management plugins:
| Advanced Coupons | WooCommerce Smart Coupons | |
| WooCommerce integration | Yes (builds on WooCommerce’s basic coupon functionality) | Yes (builds on WooCommerce’s basic coupon functionality) |
| Types of coupons available | Percentage, fixed-cart and fixed-product discounts, BOGO deal | Percentage, fixed-cart and fixed-product discounts |
| Store credit | Yes | Yes |
| Free shipping coupons | Yes (with discounts available as well) | Yes (with discounts available as well) |
| Quick-sharing links for coupons | Yes | Yes |
| Subscription or recurring coupons | Yes (WooCommerce Subscriptions integration) | Yes (WooCommerce Subscriptions integration with store credits only) |
| Insertable coupons | Yes (via Gutenberg blocks or shortcodes) | Yes (via shortcodes) |
| Advanced coupon use restrictions | Restrict by spending, sale availability, product, categories, email, user role, specific users, payment methods, and coupon limits | Restrict by user role, spending, products, categories, email, and payment methods |
| One-click or automatic coupon application | Both, with no limits | One-click application available, 5 coupon limit for auto apply |
| Coupon cart conditions (coupon rules) | Yes, a robust coupon rules engine available | No |
| BOGO Deals | Yes, single product BOGO, combinations of products BOGO, category BOGO, any products BOGO | No |
| Loyalty Program | Yes | No |
| Gift Cards | Yes, with 85+ card designs | Yes |
| Price | Free plugin available Premium starts at $59.50 per year | Starts at $99 per year |
Although both coupon management plugins are comparable in terms of raw functionality, there are a lot of key differences between them. Let’s go over what they are, starting with price.
Advanced Coupons vs. WooCommerce Smart Coupons: Price
One of the key differences between both WooCommerce coupon plugins has to do with price. From the get-go, we can tell you that Advanced Coupons is the more budget-friendly option, and that applies for both its licenses.
A single-site license for Advanced Coupons costs $59.50 for the first year. If you want to use the plugin for up to 3 sites, that goes to $99.50 or unlimited for $149.50. You get access to the plugin’s full suite of features in all plans except for Multisite which is available on Business only.
Another aspect that makes Advanced Coupons more attractive is that there’s a free version of the plugin, which you can download from WordPress.org:
Although the free version of the plugin doesn’t include all the features that we’ve discussed, it offers a far more comprehensive coupon system than WooCommerce does. If you’re on a very strict budget, that free version is where we recommend that you start.
Now onto WooCommerce Smart Coupons. Although this plugin is a bit more expensive, with licensing starting at $99 per year, it does offer some features that Advanced Coupons lacks.
We’re going to dig more into what those features are in the next sections, where we’ll talk about each plugin’s pros and cons.
Advanced Coupons vs. WooCommerce Smart Coupons: Pros and Cons
Since you already have an overview of what both coupon management plugins can do, now we’re going to focus on their respective pros and cons. Let’s start with WooCommerce Smart Coupons.
WooCommerce Smart Coupons
WooCommerce Smart Coupons has two clear advantages over Advanced Coupons and those are:
Store credit functionality. With this plugin, you can create coupons that give customers persistent store credit that they can use as they wish.
Update: Advanced Coupons now offers full store credit management functionality in the free plugin along with many additional features leveraging this in the premium, loyalty, and gift card plugins.- Basic email marketing functionality. Using WooCommerce Smart Coupons, you can send coupon codes via email to your subscribers without using third-party integrations.
As far as email marketing goes, WooCommerce Smart Coupons also include a few basic coupon template designs that you can use to share codes. They’re not necessarily compelling reasons to choose the plugin, but they can make coupon codes feel more personal.
The area where WooCommerce Smart Coupons stumbles versus Advanced Coupons is customizability. Although both plugins offer comparable sets of features, WooCommerce Smart Coupons gives you access to far fewer customization options in general (not counting design).
Advanced Coupons
Advanced Coupons takes an edge over WooCommerce Smart Coupons in three key areas:
- BOGO deals. Buy One, Get One deal coupons can be created across either single products, combinations of products, or even category-wide (or across multiple categories) which is a whole new deal type you can then offer your customers.
- Loyalty Program. You can set up your own Loyalty Program that can offer incentives and rewards for your customers with points that they can redeem for store credit later. You can use this in lieu of store credits.
- Advanced cart conditions (coupon rules). Using the cart conditions system, you get an unmatched level of control over who can use the coupons that you create and under which circumstances.
To give you an idea of the range of coupon customization options that you get, let’s take a look at Advanced Coupon’s coupon editor:
Now, here’s the cart conditions system in action. In this example, you can see a coupon that only works if customers add more than two hoodies to their carts:
Ultimately, Advanced Coupons gives you more control over the coupons that you create. However, the plugin does lack access to functionality such as basic coupon emailing and coupon templates.
FAQ
What is WooCommerce smart coupon?
A WooCommerce smart coupon is just a coupon that has more functionality or options than the WooCommerce default coupons. Advanced Coupons is the best example of a plugin that adds this extra functionality. Another is WooCommerce Smart Coupons plugin.
Is Smart Coupons for WooCommerce free?
No, WooCommerce Smart Coupons is a premium plugin sold exclusively on the WooCommerce marketplace.
How do I create a unique coupon in WooCommerce?
Creating a unique coupon in WooCommerce is easy. First, install a coupon plugin such as Advanced Coupons. Next, create a new coupon under the Coupons->Add New menu. Finally, choose your coupon type and set the rules for the coupon. A unique coupon leverages new interesting deal types such as BOGO (Buy one, get one) and others.
Conclusion
Advanced Coupons is the better WooCommerce coupon management option if you want access to a more comprehensive set of customization features, BOGO deals, loyalty program, gift cards, and it’s cart conditions system, in particular, is well worth the price of admission. Plus, you can also use the free version of the plugin.
WooCommerce Smart Coupons, on the other hand, is the better option if you’re looking for features such as basic email marketing and store credit.
Overall, though, both plugins are fantastic options if you want to try more powerful coupon systems in WooCommerce.
Do you need any help deciding between Advanced Coupons and WooCommerce Smart Coupons? Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below!
