How to choose the right tool for calculating prices on WooCommerce

Do you have a WooCommerce store and want to know how to dynamically adjust the price of your product using user-selected add-ons? As a WooCommerce user, you probably already know that the platform comes with limited built-in features for calculating prices. If you’re looking for more control over your pricing strategy or you want to build a WooCommerce measurement price calculator, you need to use a third-party plugin.

Whether you’re looking to sell products with custom measurements or product add-ons, or you want to offer your customers a way to customize their orders, there are plenty of tools available to help you achieve your pricing goals. But with so many options out there, it can be tough to know where to start.

In this post, we’ll explore how to choose the right tool for calculating prices on WooCommerce and compare the top 3 plugins for the job. We’ll go over the pros and cons of each tool, as well as some key features you’ll want to take into account when making your decision.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help you navigate the world of WooCommerce pricing calculators. By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of what to look for in a calculator, as well as a clear idea of which tool might be the best fit for your specific needs.

So let’s dive in!

What is a WooCommerce measurement price calculator plugin?

If you’re running an online store selling products that need to be priced based on measurements like length, area, volume, or weight, then you need a WooCommerce measurement price calculator.

It’s a plugin that calculates the product price based on measurement data entered by the customer. The plugin uses a formula (or other pricing schemes defined by you) to calculate the final price. The calculated price, and any additional information to support the calculation is shown to the customer so they know exactly what to expect when at checkout.

Here are a few examples of products that require a measurement pricing calculator:

• If someone wants to buy a custom-made carpet, they’ll need to enter the length and width of the covered area, and the plugin will calculate the final product price per square foot or square meter.
• Customized products such as blinds, shades, or curtains also require accurate pricing depending on the width and height entered by the customer.
• If you sell paint, you can offer a calculator that computes the exact amount of paint a customer needs to cover their room. The calculator can work out the square area of the room, show the estimated amount of paint needed (in liters), and then calculate a custom price. In WooCommerce, you can set the price per unit as per usual.
• Gardening supplies such as soil, mulch, and stones are priced based on volume. A calculator can measure the volume and price your customer needs.

Other examples are textiles, DIY, or construction products, where pricing based on measurements is necessary.

This calculator for made-to-measure blinds offered by Blinds Galore is a great example of a user-friendly pricing calculator:

Woodshop Direct provides another excellent example of a measurement pricing calculator for tailored wood cutting:

The pricing labels are automatically updated as the user changes width, length, or thickness.

Advantages

Using a measurement pricing plugin is a necessity when offering products with dimensions or volume. In doing so, you also tackle a few other benefits which are a nice bonus:

• It saves time for you and your customer to figure out exact pricing. The calculator automates the process.
• Customers are more satisfied because you prevent them from overpaying for an unnecessary amount. They feel confident that they are getting a fair price for your product.
• You can increase the average order value by offering quantity discounts: a lower price for a higher volume of measurements.
• Offering a measurement-based pricing option can reduce cart abandonment rates, as customers can make a more informed decision on what they’re purchasing.

In this post, we’ll explore how to choose the right measurement pricing plugin for your WooCommerce store. We’ll discuss the features to look for, compare the top options on the market, and provide helpful tips for making the most of your chosen plugin. So let’s get started!

What should you look for in a measurement price calculator plugin?

Now that we know what a measurement price calculator plugin is, we’ll discuss what you should look for in order to get the most out of a plugin, so that you can get started with pricing your products with ease!

Here are the different points to look out for:

Pricing customization

This goes without saying, but the most important aspect of a price calculator plugin is – of course – setting the product price. You want to choose a plugin that has lots of features to change the product price:

• Look for a plugin that can both increase and decrease the final product price. In other words, you want to be able to give discounts in certain cases.
• Make sure the plugin allows you to create more complex pricing structures by using formulas. Most calculators will need one or multiple formulas to calculate the final product price.
• Consider a plugin that enables you to upload a price matrix, which links various data points to a price. This is useful if your pricing approach does not conform to a fixed formula.

Change product weight

Shipping costs are typically determined by weight, and as a result, it’s important for a measurement price calculator plugin to take that into account. If a customer increases the measurements of their product, the plugin should adjust the weight of the product accordingly to accurately calculate shipping costs.

User-friendliness

Choose a measurement price calculator plugin that is easy to use and navigate, both for you and your customers. It’s not easy to set up a complex pricing structure, so you want to use a plugin that does everything it can to make it easy for you.

A user-friendly plugin will both help to improve the customer experience and reduce the time required to set up and manage your pricing strategy.

Support and documentation

Setting up a pricing calculator in WooCommerce often requires some thinking. Look for a plugin that offers accessible customer support and good documentation to speed up your work.

A good support team can help you quickly resolve any technical issues or questions you may have, which reduces downtime and frustration.

Reviews

Before choosing a WooCommerce measurement price calculator plugin, read reviews from other users to learn about their experiences. Reviews can provide insight into the plugin’s strengths and weaknesses and help you make an informed decision.

The best measurement price calculator plugins

In the rest of this article, we will explore the top 3 price calculator plugins available for WooCommerce. These plugins offer the best value for money and can help you set up your pricing strategy with ease. We’ll also compare them in terms of their pricing methods, user-friendliness, and other features, so you can choose the right tool for your business.

1. Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce

Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce is an all-in-one plugin that allows you to customize your product pages according to your specific needs.

The plugin offers a huge number of selection mechanisms and configuration capabilities such as text boxes, number fields, dropdown lists, checkboxes, radio buttons, image swatches, color swatches, date fields, and file uploads. You can even use conditional logic for more advanced combinations and pricing capabilities.

The plugin works on simple products and variable products (as well as product variations).

Pricing options

As we explained earlier in this tutorial, whichever plugin you choose should have a lot of different pricing options. Advanced Product Fields allows you to increase or decrease the final product price in various ways. Store owners can choose to add:

• An additional flat fee: Add an additional flat fee to the product price.
• A quantity-based fee: Similar to a flat fee, but it is multiplied with the chosen quantity.
• A percentage-based fee: Add or subtract a percentage of the base product price.
• Formula-based pricing: This is likely what you’ll use to build your calculator. Advanced Product Fields allows you to build powerful Excel-like formulas with functions and other user-defined variables.
• Matrix (or “lookup table”) pricing.
• A discount based on selected options.

Demo

Here is an example of a simple pricing calculator demo made with Advanced Product Fields:

The demo explains how to calculate a custom square feet price based on width and height input (in inches) from the customer. The system calculates both the WooCommerce product price and the square feet (sq ft) needed. It converts inches to square feet on the fly.

Creating a simple calculator with Advanced Product Fields

Creating a WooCommerce measurement price calculator with Advanced Product Fields happens in 3 steps:

1. Set up your product: Create a product in WooCommerce and give it a base price. To do this, log into your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Products → Add New. Fill in the product details such as the name and description. Don’t forget to set a base price (which can be zero). Save your product when you’re finished.
   
2. Create the form input fields so the user can enter their desired data on your product page. For example, if you are selling fabric, you could add fields for length, width, and fabric type. To create these input fields, go to the product editing screen and activate the Custom Fields tab in the Product Data box. From there, click Add Your First Field to create your first field.
   
3. Add a formula to change the product price depending on the entered data. For example, you could add a formula that calculates the price based on the length and width entered by the user, and then adds an additional fee for the type of fabric selected.

There is a more in-depth tutorial that explains everything step by step. Please read this tutorial on how to create a WooCommerce product with measurement pricing.

Plugin price and rating

The plugin has a free version available, but to build a true measurement calculator, you will likely need one of the paid versions. The Pro version is available for $59 per year, but to take advantage of the full measurement price calculator functionality you can upgrade to the Extended version at $79/year. This comes with unlimited support, extra field types, and advanced Excel formula functions.

The plugin is currently rated at 4.8 out of 5 stars on the WordPress plugin repository and is the number 1 in terms of daily downloads for its genre.

2. Flexible Quantity Calculator for WooCommerce

This plugin allows you to set up a cost calculator based on units, weight, dimensions, area, and volume. While it is less flexible than Advanced Product Fields, it has all the features necessary to create a WooCommerce measurement price calculator.

As an extra, it also has a range of features influencing the WooCommerce quantity. For example, you can use decimal points for quantity increments. This is especially handy if you are selling items that do not follow conventional numeric quantities.

Flexible Quantity Calculator for WooCommerce also has support for minimum and maximum values for the product quantity and integration with the product stock field. Additionally, it is compatible with the Flexible Invoices plugin, which allows you to include new units of measure on WooCommerce PDF invoices.

It’s worth noting that the free version of Flexible Quantity Calculator for WooCommerce is limited in terms of calculation functionality. To access more advanced features, such as dynamic price per quantity, enabling pricing tables for ranges, and setting minimum and maximum values for unit dimensions, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version.

Plugin price and rating

The basic version is free. There are a few paid packages available. The cheapest version comes in at $95/year, which is a considerable investment.

At the time of writing, the plugin has a rating of 3 out of 5 on the WordPress plugin repository. Since there is only one rating, it’s safe to assume this was a one-time angry customer.

3. Price Calculator for WooCommerce

Price Calculator for WooCommerce is a great option if you’re looking for a simple plugin to add a calculator to your WooCommerce product pages. It supports 7 measurement types, including length, weight, area, square area, box, volume, and surface area. Each measurement type offers multiple pricing units to choose from, allowing you to customize your pricing based on your product needs.

Just like Advanced Product Fields, this plugin also allows for both product-level and global-level pricing. This means you can configure personalized measurement sizes and prices for each product, or you can create global rules that enable measurement-based pricing for multiple products and categories.

In addition, the plugin allows you to limit options by setting minimum and maximum values, create pricing tables, and set different prices based on size. You can also manage your product stock with this plugin.

Price Calculator for WooCommerce comes at an affordable $79/year, so it’s an accessible option for small businesses. However, it should be noted that the plugin has limited functionality compared to more sophisticated options like Advanced Product Fields.

If your business needs a more customized and advanced pricing calculator, it might be worth investing in a more robust plugin. However, for businesses with simpler needs, Price Calculator for WooCommerce is a good option to consider.

One final note: We found the plugin is not regularly updated. At the time of writing, the last update happened over 6 months ago. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, we always recommend to use plugins that are updated more regularly.

Plugin price and rating

The plugin costs $79 per year and does not have a free version available on WordPress.org. The plugin currently has no ratings on the WooCommerce marketplace. This suggests the tool has a small userbase.

Conclusion

A WooCommerce measurement pricing calculator is a plugin used to calculate the price of a product based on measurements (e.g. length, width) provided through user input. These are useful plugins for store owners looking to power up their product options and add automated calculators to their product pages. It increases customer happiness because you prevent them from overpaying for an unnecessary amount.

This article offers some key features to look for when choosing a measurement price calculator plugin. Look into pricing customization, product weight adjustments, user-friendliness, and support and documentation.

Moreover, this blog post compares the top 3 measurement price calculator plugins available on the market, along with their pros and cons, to help you make an informed decision.

Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce is an excellent option to build a pricing calculator. It allows you to create both simple and complex pricing calculators without the need for any additional customization.