AliPlugin vs AliDropship: Which Is A Better WordPress Plugin?

Setting up an eCommerce store from home comes with many challenges. Fortunately, dropshipping allows you to overcome many of them, eliminating tasks such as storing, handling, and shipping inventory.

With dropshipping, you act as a middleman between the customer and the manufacturer: You take care of selling the products, while the manufacturer takes care of processing orders and handling the inventory. You don’t have to worry about storing or shipping products.

AliExpress is by far one of the most popular places to source your products from as a dropshipper. It is owned by Alibaba, but allows you to order products in lower quantities (even as low as one).

This works out perfectly for dropshippers who only want to place an order with the manufacturer after a customer has already placed an order for that product with them.

Many plugins have been created to make the process simpler for those who own AliExpress dropshipping businesses. These plugins allow you to easily and seamlessly populate your website with products from AliExpress and fulfill orders as they come in.

Most plugins were created for the Shopify platform. However, there are a number of high-quality plugins for those who prefer to stick with WordPress sites.

Today, we’ll be taking a look at two such plugins: AliDropship and AliPlugin. Which of the two are better suited for your dropshipping business?

What Is AliPlugin?

AliPlugin is a WordPress plugin that transforms a WordPress website into an online store containing affiliate links from AliExpress.

With AliPlugin, users can import multiple AliExpress products into your affiliate site, with the added feature that it will put their affiliate ID on any link or product back to the AliExpress site for increased commissions.

This saves time from searching through each individual product listing on the AliExpress online marketplace.

It also has many features such as quick search, automatic update, live stats, auto-translation, and more.

Notably, AliPlugin also provides users with compatible WordPress themes to customize their affiliate website. That way, affiliate marketers can quickly build their online stores without advanced web design knowledge.

What Is AliDropship?

AliDropship is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create your own dropshipping store with AliExpress products in minutes with their turnkey solution and sell items from AliExpress suppliers. You can even import products in just one click!

It also incorporates powerful tools that make managing your store, marketing products, and fulfilling orders much easier.

With AliDropship, you can browse the AliExpress marketplace for products to add to your store. When one of your customers makes a purchase, the plugin will automatically process their order with the supplier and forward the tracking information to them.

When you use AliDropship, your customers can shop on your site and make purchases just like they would on any other online store. The difference is that the products they purchase are sent directly to them from AliExpress, not from you.

With AliDropship, you don’t have to worry about stocking merchandise or shipping it – the AliExpress supplier handles all of that for you.

AliPlugin

Dropshipping vs Affiliate Marketing

Let’s start with Aliplugin. It’s not actually meant for those who own dropshipping businesses. Instead, it’s meant for those who want to make money through the AliExpress affiliate program.

Yes, AliPlugin will help you populate your WordPress site with products from AliExpress. It allows you to easily find products from AliExpress based on categories or keywords and populate your site quickly with many products.

However, there is a crucial difference here that you need to be aware of, and that is the difference between dropshipping and affiliate marketing.

With dropshipping, the customer places an order with you and it’s then your responsibility to make sure you place an order with the manufacturer for that same product.

Using AliPlugin, however, the customer won’t place an order directly with you. Instead, they will be transferred to the AliExpress website, and they will place an order over there. AliPlugin will automatically embed your affiliate ID in each clickable link.

You will earn a small commission as an affiliate, provided they make a purchase. This might make things easier for you by taking the responsibilities of customer service off your shoulders, but you are limited in the commissions that you earn.

Automation Features

AliPlugin has automation features for populating your affiliate online store.

In essence, you can upload and publish multiple products from the AliExpress marketplace selectively or in bulk. This eliminates the need to manually paste the product details and upload its images.

Additionally, AliPlugin can also import product variants and products in other supported languages from the AliExpress site. Plus, you can even import customer reviews for the imported product as well.

Another notable automation feature by AliPlugin is its auto product update tool which systemically keeps the product information fresh on your online store. Also, it removes redundant or out-of-stock items from the product inventory.

AliPlugin Themes

Apart from transforming your WordPress site into an online store for affiliate sales, AliPlugin also provides users with several free WordPress themes (templates).

Available themes include AliPro-Single, Alpha, Gamma, Beta, and Delta.

These themes have flexible customization options that enable you to modify your website to perfectly present your brand to even appear as the AliExpress website.

Conversely, the AliPlugin will also work well with other themes such as Storefront by WooCommerce, Shopper, and Flatsome.

AliPlugin Custom Store and Hosting

Interestingly, AliPlugin also offers a custom store service where they help customers to build their custom affiliate websites from scratch.

However, this service cost about $99 per online store, and the hosting will be provided by you. Besides that, you also get the AliPlugin included in the package.

Also, all the imported products will contain your affiliate ID and you can send your custom requests to the sales manager.

Conversely, AliPlugin offers a hosting package that starts from $48 per year for up to 5 AliExpress affiliate websites.

AliDropship

Set Up Your Own Ecommerce Store

With AliDropship, you will be setting up your own ecommerce store. It will populate your site with products from AliExpress. Orders will be placed with you and customers will send their payments directly to you. You will be using AliExpress as your source for the products.

As far as the customer is concerned, they are purchasing the product from you. Where you are sourcing it from doesn’t matter to them.

You’ll be responsible for customer service and will have to take the blame if a product doesn’t arrive or arrives damaged (which is why you should only work with reputable manufacturers).

However, you are in more control of your earnings potential, as you can decide how much markup to place on the products you list on your website.

Following are some of the ways AliDropship will help you in your ecommerce business.

Automation Features

AliDropship has many automation features to simplify your entire business model. You can use their filters to easily find products on AliExpress to list and populate your site with (including a filter that looks for products with ePacket shipping options).

Instead of having to go to AliExpress and manually order each product after an order comes in from a customer, you can do it by simply clicking their built-in order button. Orders will be automatically tracked and emails will be sent to your customers with updated tracking information.

Instead of listing a price for each product individually, you can use their advanced markup formula to automatically create prices for all products or for products of a particular category.

Product data will be updated automatically, and you can also customize it yourself manually. Reviews can be imported from AliExpress.

Product images can be edited with their editing tool before you upload them to your website. AliDropship also has a variety of themes you can choose from.

Marketing and Promotional Features

One of the best features AliDropship offers is advanced marketing capabilities. Emails will be automatically collected and added to your customer list.

You can send out emails with various kinds of promotions, and the system will also remind your customers about carts that they left abandoned.

You can easily keep track of your sales with their live stats. Sales, orders, traffic, and available inventory are all tracked and displayed.

You can even earn up to 12 percent cash-back when you place orders through AliExpress, giving you an additional income stream.

AliDropship Add-Ons

The AliDropship plugin is compatible with a variety of add-on plugins to help boost your sales and revenue.

For example, you can use the Social Rabbit add-on to boost sharing on social media. You can also use plugins to help with upselling or creating urgency with countdown timers.

AliDropship Themes

As a reliable dropshipping solution, AliDropship has several professional WordPress themes that you can use for your online store.

Notably, AliDropship has both free and premium themes.

There are about 7 free AliDropship themes that are compatible with the AliDropship original plugin. Conversely, there are 5 premium WordPress themes with a starting price of $67.

By using these themes, you can ensure a buyer-friendly environment that will drive your dropshipping sales.

AliDropship Custom Store and Hosting

Until now, we’ve been discussing the AliDropship plugin. Purchasing the standalone plugin will certainly make setting up your WordPress ecommerce store easier.

It is worth noting, however, that AliDropship also offers a service where they set up a customized store for you.

They will do everything from niche research and domain name research to optimizing product listings. A personal manager will work with you throughout the entire process. This service starts at $299.

AliDropship also offers hosting for their stores. Hosting starts at $48/year and can be purchased either with the plugin or with a custom store.

Pricing Comparisons

AliPlugin Pricing

You can get the AliPlugin from the AllPartnership official website by making a one time payment.

At the moment, you can get the original AliPlugin and its WooCommerce version with a single purchase.

Here are the license types for AliPlugin:

• Regular – $69 for 5 websites
• Extended – $99 for 10 websites
• Developer – $397 for 100 websites

Note: you have to acquire web hosting from another third-party at this price. If you want the AliPlugin hosting, it starts from $48 per year for up to 5 AliExpress affiliate sites.

AliDropship Pricing

The AliDropship Plugin costs $89 and is based on a one-time payment. It is available for both WordPress and WooCommerce sites.

Likewise, if you want web hosting for your dropshipping store, you can get it at $48 per year.

AliPlugin vs AliDropship: Pros And Cons

AliPlugin Pros

• Ideal for running an AliExpress affiliate store
• Simple user interface
• Auto-update functionality
• Profitability depends on being accepted into the AliExpress affiliate program
• Free WordPress themes

AliPlugin Cons

• The plugin may not work as described
• Slow customer service

AliDropship Pros

• Perfect for running an AliExpress dropshipping store
• Technical knowledge is not required to install the AliDropship plugin
• Two plugin versions; WordPress and WooCommerce
• Product import is a straightforward process
• Beautiful and responsive dropshipping WordPress themes
• Multiple payment options
• Free lifetime support
• Helpful customer support and resources

AliDropship Cons

• WordPress CMS familiarity is required to install AliDropship
• It doesn’t come with free web hosting

AliDropship vs AliPlugin: Similarities And Differences

Similarities

• Both AliPlugin and AliDropship have plugins compatible with WordPress CMS.
• They both offer free WordPress themes
• With either AliDropship or AliPlugin, you can get web hosting.
• They both offer custom store design services.

Differences

• AliPlugin enables users to set up an AliExpress affiliate site, while AliDropship facilitates setting up an AliExpress dropshipping site.
• AliDropship has more WordPress themes than AliPlugin.
• Unlike AliPlugin, AliDropship offers helpful add-ons.
• AliDropship has superior customer service than AliPlugin.
• AliDropship has a larger user base than AliPlugin.
• Once again, AliDropship has Chrome extension while AliPlugin does not.

AliPlugin vs AliDropship: Which Is Best For You?

While both AliPlugin and AliDropship allow you to make money with AliExpress, AliDropship is a better choice for those who want to set up a dropshipping business.

In addition, it gives you a much greater variety of options with regards to features, services, add-ons, and potential revenue.