If you’re looking for a YITH Gift Cards alternative, Advanced Gift Cards is a strong option for WooCommerce stores that want more flexibility with scheduled delivery, gift card designs, and how redeemed value is managed.
Gift cards can be scheduled up to a year ahead, redeemed value moves into the customer’s store credit balance, and built-in designs make it easier to launch cards without creating every design from scratch.
In this comparison, we’ll look at how Advanced Gift Cards stacks up against YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards, where each plugin is stronger, and what to expect if you decide to switch.
What YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards Does Well
YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards is a widely used option in the WooCommerce ecosystem. Its product page lists over 66,000 customers and a 4.4 out of 5 rating, with features for both online and in-person gift cards. Its feature set includes:
- Physical and virtual cards: you can create physical cards to print and ship as well as virtual cards sent by email.
- QR codes: a scannable code can be added to the card, taking the recipient to the shop with the gift card code automatically applied to the cart.
- Print-at-home PDFs: useful for a last-minute gift someone wants to hand over in person.
- Sender notifications: the buyer can be notified when the card is delivered and again when it is used.
- In-person redemption: a shortcode lets shop staff debit a balance at a counter without logging into the backend.
- Bulk creation: you can generate multiple codes at one value from the plugin panel, plus CSV import and export.
YITH also lets you add a call to action on a product page that generates a gift card matching that product’s price, so a shopper can suggest a specific item to the recipient.
If you sell in person as well as online, those physical-card and counter-redemption tools are a genuine advantage. Our guide on what to look for in a gift certificate plugin covers the core features to consider when comparing gift card plugins.
Why Store Owners Look For A YITH Alternative
The biggest differences come down to delivery timing, design setup, and what happens to the balance after redemption.
Scheduled delivery stops at three months. YITH lets buyers schedule a card up to three months in advance. That works for near-term gifting, but it can be limiting for shoppers buying in September for Christmas or for stores promoting holiday gift cards early.
You supply the card artwork. YITH lets you build a gallery from your own images, but it doesn’t include ready-made designs out of the box. That gives you control over the look, but the artwork has to come from you.
The balance stays on the card. When a recipient uses a YITH gift card, the remaining value stays tied to that card instead of moving into a store credit balance. If you also issue refunds as store credit or run a rewards program, those balances are managed separately.
YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards is listed at €129.99 per year on its product page.
You can run both plugins during a transition, but existing YITH cards still need to be managed in YITH while new Advanced Gift Cards redemptions move into store credit. That means keeping both systems available until the older YITH cards are spent or expire.
Advanced Gift Cards As A YITH Alternative
Advanced Gift Cards takes a different approach to redemption: when a customer redeems a gift card, its value moves into their store credit balance instead of staying tied to the card.
Redeemed gift cards go into the same store credit balance used for refunds. If you also use Advanced Loyalty Program, redeemed loyalty points can go into that balance too. So a $50 gift card with $30 spent leaves $20 in the customer’s store credit balance for a future order. If you use these features together, customer credit stays in one place. Our comparison of store credit and gift cards explains why the two behave differently.
Advanced Gift Cards also gives you strong control over delivery, designs, and card values. Buyers can schedule delivery up to a year ahead, four times YITH’s window. Three card designs come built in, and the plugin also includes 85 bonus gift card designs worth $99 at no extra cost, plus the option to upload your own. Custom amounts support a minimum, maximum, step, and default, with up to five preset buttons beside the open field. Recipient name, email, and a short message are all standard, expiry defaults to five years or a period you choose, and cards can be imported in bulk by CSV.
Two features are especially useful in practice:
Fixed and customer-chosen amounts use the same gift card product. Ticking “Let the customer choose the amount” swaps the fixed value field for the minimum, maximum, step, default, and preset controls. That means you can switch an existing gift card product to customer-chosen amounts without creating a new one.
Multiple cards in a single cart each keep their own delivery date. Someone buying four presents in one order can send each on a different day. That makes it easier to handle several gifts in one order without forcing them onto the same schedule.
There’s also an email preview in the same panel as the design picker, so you can check how the card will look in the email before it sends.
There are two setup details to keep in mind. Advanced Gift Cards needs the free Advanced Coupons plugin installed first because store credit lives there. Recipients also need to be logged in before redeeming a card, since the value is added to their account’s store credit balance. Pricing is $99.50 for the first year on a single site, renewing at $199.
Feature Comparison
Here’s how the two plugins compare on the features most relevant to switching.
| Capability | Advanced Gift Cards | YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards |
|---|---|---|
| Custom amount with minimum and maximum | Yes, plus step, default, and preset buttons | Yes |
| Scheduled delivery | Up to 1 year ahead | Up to 3 months ahead |
| Multiple cards per cart, each with its own date | Yes | Not listed |
| Built-in card designs | Yes, 3 included | No ready-made designs |
| Upload your own design | Yes | Yes |
| Preview the email before it sends | Yes | Not listed |
| Physical and printable cards | Not listed | Yes |
| QR code redemption | Not listed | Yes |
| Sender notified on delivery and use | Not listed | Yes |
| In-person balance debiting | Not listed | Yes |
| Redemption dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Expiry control | 5 years by default, or custom | Fixed date, or a period after purchase |
| Bulk creation by CSV | Yes | Yes |
| Redeemed gift card value becomes store credit | Yes | No |
| Single site, per year | $99.50 USD first year, $199 after | €129.99 EUR |
For rows marked “Not listed,” the capability isn’t currently shown on the plugin’s product page, so it shouldn’t be read as a definite “No.” If you want to compare more options, see this roundup of WooCommerce gift card plugins.
What Switching Involves
Advanced Gift Cards doesn’t include a direct migration tool for live YITH gift card balances, so cards you’ve already issued need to stay in YITH until they’re spent or expire.
A practical way to handle the transition is to let existing YITH cards run their course while new card sales move to Advanced Gift Cards:
- Install Advanced Coupons and Advanced Gift Cards and build your new gift card products, but don’t publish them yet.
- Stop selling YITH cards. Unpublish those products so no new balances enter the old system.
- Publish the new cards and point your gift card page at them.
- Leave YITH installed and active until the outstanding balances are spent. Existing customers keep redeeming as normal.
- Deactivate YITH once the balances are gone or expired, checking their dashboard for anything still outstanding first.
How long you keep YITH active depends on your outstanding cards. If you have long-dated cards, you may need to run both plugins for several months while those balances are spent or expire. Planning for that overlap makes the switch easier to manage.
One thing to sort out before you start: decide whether the new cards need the same amounts as the old ones. If you’re moving to an open-amount card anyway, do it now rather than as a second change later.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best YITH Gift Cards alternative for WooCommerce?
For stores focused mainly on online gift cards, Advanced Gift Cards is a strong YITH Gift Cards alternative. It schedules delivery up to a year ahead compared with YITH’s three months, includes built-in card designs, and converts redeemed gift cards into store credit. YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards remains the stronger fit if physical cards and in-person balance tools are important to your store.
Can I migrate existing YITH gift cards to another plugin?
Advanced Gift Cards doesn’t include a direct migration tool for live YITH gift card balances. The practical route is to stop selling new YITH cards, start selling the new ones, and keep YITH active until the outstanding balances are spent or expire.
How much does Advanced Gift Cards cost compared to YITH?
Advanced Gift Cards is $99.50 for the first year on a single site and renews at $199. YITH lists its single-site plan at €129.99 per year. Advanced Gift Cards also needs the free Advanced Coupons plugin, which is where store credit lives.
Does Advanced Gift Cards support custom card designs?
Yes. Advanced Gift Cards includes three built-in designs, plus 85 bonus gift card designs worth $99 at no extra cost. You can also upload your own image from the media library. The design works with both fixed and customer-chosen amounts and appears in the email the recipient receives.
Why does it matter whether a gift card becomes store credit?
Because it decides where the remaining value lives. A card that stays a card is redeemed against itself. A card that converts into store credit puts the leftover value into the customer’s account, alongside store credit from refunds and, if you use Advanced Loyalty Program, redeemed loyalty points. That gives your team one balance to check instead of separate gift card and store credit balances.
Is Advanced Gift Cards The Right YITH Alternative?
For stores focused mainly on online gift cards, Advanced Gift Cards is the stronger fit when you want longer scheduled delivery and gift card value that becomes store credit. If physical cards and in-person balance debiting matter more, YITH remains the better fit.
With YITH, the remaining value stays tied to the gift card. With Advanced Gift Cards, it moves into the customer’s store credit balance, where it can sit alongside store credit from refunds and, if you use Advanced Loyalty Program, redeemed loyalty points. That shared balance is most useful when gift cards are part of a broader store credit or rewards setup.
If you’re still deciding, these sections cover the main trade-offs:
- What YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards Does Well: a genuinely strong plugin, especially in person
- Why Store Owners Look For A YITH Alternative: the three-month delivery cap, artwork, and the split balance
- Advanced Gift Cards As A YITH Alternative: what the shared balance changes
- Feature Comparison: the two plugins side by side
- What Switching Involves: how to transition while existing YITH cards run their course
If a shared store credit balance is what’s missing from your setup, Advanced Gift Cards is a YITH Gift Cards alternative worth considering. Our guide to custom amount gift cards shows how to set up customer-chosen gift card amounts.
