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Free Plugin by Open Tools v2.0.6

Shipping by Rules for WooCommerce

Describe (even complex) shipping costs with simple general rules on the order properties (amount, postcode, weight, #products and/or articles etc.).

Shipping by Rules for WooCommerce

The facts

Rating
4.5★ from 8
Active installs
500+
Price
Free
Last updated
24 Feb 2018
Added
Jan 2016
Requires WP
4.0
Tested up to
WP 4.9.31
Downloads
25,158

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Shipping by Rules for WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that allows you to set shipping costs based on specific conditions related to order properties. You can create rules based on the total amount, total weight, number of items, product dimensions, and postal code of the delivery address. This free version supports fixed bounds for these properties, while an advanced version offers more complex mathematical expressions for rules.

This plugin is suitable for WooCommerce users who want to implement basic shipping rules without needing to calculate costs on a per-product basis. It is particularly useful for those who need straightforward shipping cost structures based on overall order characteristics.

Best for: WooCommerce store owners looking for basic shipping cost rules.

What it does well

  • Allows shipping cost determination based on order properties
  • Supports rules based on total amount, weight, and number of items
  • Easy rule structure using semicolons for separation
  • Free version available on WordPress.org

Where it falls short

  • Limited support for category-based shipping
  • Does not calculate shipping on a per-product level
  • Only applies the first matching rule found

Verdict

Shipping by Rules for WooCommerce provides a straightforward way to manage shipping costs based on order properties, but it has limitations in flexibility and complexity.

From the developer

Open Tools's own description of Shipping by Rules for WooCommerce, lightly tidied.

Determine shipping costs according to general conditions (bounds on the order properties). Shipping costs can depend on e.g.:

  • Total amount of the order
  • Total weight of the order
  • Number of articles or different products in the order
  • Volume or minimal and maximal extensions of the products
  • Postal code of the delivery address (the Advanced version also supports alphanumeric postal codes from the UK, Canana and Netherlands)
  • Coupon Code (Advanced version only)

The plugin exists in two different versions, this free version, which supports fixed bounds for all properties, and a paid version, which allows all conditions and shipping rules to contain arbitrary mathematical expressions (like an OR operator, multiplication, addition, subtraction, functions like rounding etc.). See the documentation for all the differences.

Each rule is described as one line of text with an easy structure (semicolons separate the parts of the rule). For example:

Name=Free Shipping; 100<=Amount; 0
Name=Domestic Small; Articles<5; Amount<100; Shipping=1.50
Name=Domestic Standard; Amount<100; Shipping=3.50

This set of rules describes three shipping costs: Orders of 100€ and more are free, otherwise orders with less than five articles have shipping costs of 1.5€, all others 3.50€.

Limitations and common misconceptions

  • The plugin is not designed to calculte shipping costs on a per-product level (e.g. it is not possible that Article A has shipping costs of 3€, Article B 5€ and if you order both you pay 8€ shipping)
  • The plugin allows only limited support for category-based shipping. You can only find out if an article from a particular category is in the order, but NOT how many articles from a given category (e.g. it is not possible to have all articles from Category X ship for 3€ and all articles from Category Y ship for 5€)
  • The plugin does NOT sum the results of all rules, but uses the FIRST matching rule it finds.
  • The plugin does NOT use the lowest result of all rules, but it uses the FIRST matching rule it finds. (In particular, if you want to provide free shipping under certain conditions, you usually need to place the rule for free shipping FIRST rather than last, because the last rule will only be used if none of the other rules matches).

For the full documentation of the Shipping by Rules plugin for WooCommerce see:
http://open-tools.net/documentation/advanced-shipping-by-rules-for-woocommerce.html

Read the full description on the official page →

Tagged as

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