Not a feature-by-feature comparison. We describe each tool from its own website or WordPress.org page, checked on 2 October 2026, and link to it. Prices and features change, so check before you decide. Product names belong to their owners, and we aren’t affiliated with them.
What WooCommerce Analytics does well
Analytics comes with WooCommerce and costs nothing. Its 11 reports cover revenue, orders, products, variations, categories, coupons, taxes, downloads, stock, customers and order attribution. You can pick which order statuses count and which date a sale belongs to. For “how much did we sell, and of what?”, it does the job. (WooCommerce docs)
Where it stops
Its main money figure is net sales: gross sales minus returns and coupons. That’s the money in, before anything you paid out. The reports don’t take off:
- Product costs. WooCommerce can store a cost for each product since version 10.3, but its documentation says that cost doesn’t feed into Analytics.
- Ad spend. Meta, Google and TikTok spend lives in those platforms, not in WooCommerce.
- Payment fees and what you pay carriers. Analytics shows the shipping your customers paid, not what the carrier charged you.
- Running costs. Rent, apps and staff.
So a good sales month in Analytics can still be a thin month in your bank account.
Free alternatives
Google Analytics 4
Free. GA4 adds where visitors come from, what they do on your site and which channels lead to sales. It reports revenue, not costs, so it answers “where do sales come from?” rather than “what do we keep?”.
Free cost-of-goods plugins
These add product costs and show profit per order or product, inside WordPress:
- Cost of Goods for WooCommerce by WPFactory: the free version adds product and variation costs and cost and profit per order. Profit in Analytics reports is in the Pro version. (WordPress.org)
- Ni Cost of Goods for WooCommerce: free, with profit and margin per sale, top products and categories, and a month-by-month comparison. (WordPress.org)
- Profit Margin Reports for WooCommerce: free and new. It reads WooCommerce’s own cost of goods and shows gross profit and margin by period, product and order. (WordPress.org)
They’re a good step up for margin per product. Ads and running costs you’d still track somewhere else.
A spreadsheet
Free, if you count your time as free. Export your orders each week, add product costs, shipping, fees and that week’s ad spend from each platform. It works, and it’s how many store owners start. It’s also easy to skip a week or miss a cost. Our guide to profit per order walks through the sums.
Balanik, free version
Balanik has a free version that runs inside WordPress. It shows your profit after product costs, shipping, payment fees and refunds, with profit by day. The Products tab lists every product’s profit, with a Losing money list. Open any order to see what it kept and where each cost came from. Pick any period, including your own dates, and compare it with the one before. Ad spend and running costs are part of Pro.
The free version isn’t on WordPress.org yet. For now, start the 7-day Pro trial without a card. When it ends, the free version keeps working with all your data.
Cheap paid options
- Balanik Pro, $49 a year plus VAT where it applies. It adds ad spend from Meta, Google Ads and TikTok, running costs, the live view, Channels and Opportunities, so you see profit after ads.
- WPFactory Cost of Goods Pro, $59.99 a year or $199 once. It adds profit to WooCommerce Analytics and more cost options. (wpfactory.com)
- Hosted dashboards from about $20 to $25 a month, such as Putler and Metorik, priced by revenue or orders. We compare them in WooCommerce profit analytics tools, with a calculator for what a subscription costs you over a few years.
| Option | What it adds to Analytics | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | Traffic, channels, conversions | Free |
| Free cost-of-goods plugins | Product costs, profit per order or product | Free |
| A spreadsheet | Whatever you add by hand | Free, plus your time |
| Balanik free version | Profit after product costs, shipping and fees, by day and by product, with a losing-money list | Free |
| Balanik Pro | Profit after ads and running costs, live view, what to fix | $49 a year, plus VAT |
How to choose
- You only need margin per product: start with a free cost-of-goods plugin.
- You want profit by day and by product, without ad spend: Balanik’s free version covers that.
- You run ads: you need ad spend next to your costs. That’s Balanik Pro, a spreadsheet, or a hosted dashboard.
Whatever you pick, enter your product costs in WooCommerce first. Every option on this page works better with them. Our guide to cost of goods in WooCommerce shows how.