Good if you're a developer but avoid like the plague if you're not

  • Without doubt a good eCommerce plugin for WordPress, however you should only use this if you’re a web developer and are prepared to PAY for add-ons and/ or support. It’s not enthusiast-friendly at all.

    From a developer’s point of view, it’s also lacking in some areas. The way it’s been coded means that some things cannot be changed without edits to the core plugin files (thus making it a nightmare when it comes to upgrading). It also interferes with the best (and most common) WordPress form plugin which was around long before JS was; Gravity Forms. Unfortunately I reported the issue to JigoShop but they don’t seem interested in addressing (or even acknowledging) the issue.

    Support really is non-existent unless you pay for it, and to be quite honest I’m totally against the way they are profiting from our beautiful community – WP is opensource and has a huge range of free plugins submitted “by the community, for the community”. People have continually contributed plugins, themes, and support within wp.org (for free) over the years, and that’s what makes WordPress great.

    As a developer myself I understand that it’s nice to be rewarded for your hard work when contributing – nobody likes to work for free. This is why I often make donations to plugin authors if I find their addition useful.

    I also have no problem paying a nominal fee for a premium plugin (Gravity Forms, for instance), nor for premium plugin add-ons. The same goes for offering “premium-support” (chargeable); I’ve nothing against it, however FREE support is absolutely non-existent from JigoShop. The only time they’re willing to help is if they feel they can sell you something (and sometimes in a dirty/sneaky way. I’m onto you, JigoShop!).

    JigoShop look to profit from absolutely everything they can with their plugin; it’s quite ridiculous really, given their plugin is far from perfect. It’s a long way off being a “complete product” in my opinion.

    The thing that has outraged me the most however, is the fact that they insist all support requests are posted on their forums rather than on the WP.org support forums. The problem with this is that it allows them to do with the posts/ threads as they see fit. What I (and others) have noticed on several occasions, is that when knowledgeable end-users take the time to post solutions on their forums, for free, JigoShop then move those threads/ answers so that only “premium-support subscribers” can see them.

    This means JigoShop are profiting FROM US end-users offering support for THEIR PLUGIN, on THEIR FORUMS.

    Initially I was going to use JigoShop for all client builds, however in my opinion we need less rogues like this in the WordPress community and therefore I shall no longer be using it, nor recommending it to others.

    JigoShop’s approach has therefore influenced my rating of this plugin in huge way.

    I’m now off to check out WooCommerce, which essentially is the same plugin under a different name, managed by different people.
    JigoShop are a small Web Development company based in Peterborough, UK, whereas Woo are a very well-established and respected company in the WordPress community, and have been around for a long time.

    Fingers crossed Woo they have a better approach than what JigoShop do.

    My advice is that you save yourself some time, frustration, money, and help the WP community by following in my footsteps.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Thanks for saving me a lot of time.
    Great review!

    A long rant from a ‘developer’ is not a review…its a bitch session, posting on their forums saves double answering the same question.

    Daniel if i were you…try them out, try them all, they all have some plus and minus and woo…they came from ?

    Your own skills may be very different as will be your needs.

    Moderator chriscct7

    (@chriscct7)

    > It interferes with Gravity Forms.

    Nope, thats Gravity Form issue, that as reported to them. There’s also a WordPress Core Bug Trac ticket on the issue (its actually WP’s fault, as its a bug in WP, and not really Gravity or Jigoshop issue).

    > to be quite honest I’m totally against the way they are profiting from our beautiful community

    Ok, so lets say you’re a developer of an open source plugins. Thats all you do full time. How exactly do you get paid? What we do is offer free forums, manned by volunteers, and paid support manned by developers.

    > People have continually contributed plugins, themes, and support within wp.org (for free) over the years, and that’s what makes WordPress great.

    About 30% of WP plugins are not free. Additionally, about another 20% are freemium. Jigoshop itself is free. No one charged you to use it, and there’s no Pro version or anything.

    > The way it’s been coded means that some things cannot be changed without edits to the core plugin files

    I’d love to see an example. There’s several hundred hooks and filters in Jigoshop.

    > FREE support is absolutely non-existent from JigoShop.

    Its a community forum, so we do our best to help.

    > The only time they’re willing to help is if they feel they can sell you something (and sometimes in a dirty/sneaky way. I’m onto you, JigoShop!).

    Thats a first. What are we secretly trying to sell you?

    > is the fact that they insist all support requests are posted on their forums rather than on the WP.org support forums.

    This actually has nothing to do with the way posts are handled. There’s several reasons we do this:
    1. It encourages people to use our KB which answeres about 80% of the questions we see posted
    2. Tender automatically recommends similar questions. Most of the questions we see posted are duplicates.

    > JigoShop then move those threads/ answers so that only “premium-support subscribers” can see them.

    We actually can’t do this. Legit. If you ask Tender, who makes our support system, they will tell you the same thing. The Premium Support and free Support are two seperate Tender accounts, and there isn’t a way to migrate from one to the other, because we’ve tried moving the Premium’s KB articles to Free, and ended up having to copy and paste 1 by 1.

    > JigoShop are profiting FROM US end-users offering support for THEIR PLUGIN, on THEIR FORUMS.

    No idea how this works.

    > JigoShop are a small Web Development company

    JigoWatt is actually the company, and its actually about the same size as Woo. Jigoshop focuses on plugins, versus Woo on themes.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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