9 Best Variation Swatches Plugins for WooCommerce

Do you want to improve your customer experience and boost your conversation rates? (Spoiler alert: we’re going to assume you do!) Then adding variation swatches to your WooCommerce store might be just the thing you need to add a little more spark to the shopping experience on your website.

When you display product variations, you offer your customers a personalized visual experience. And that type of customization increases your chances of selling. In this article, we’ll look at 9 of the best WooCommerce variation swatches plugins.

Let’s get to it!

What are WooCommerce variation swatches?

Variation swatches are visual buttons that replace dropdown menus for product options. WooCommerce variation swatches display product attributes as clickable elements. These swatches show colors, images, text labels, or radio buttons. Customers select product variations by clicking swatches instead of using dropdown lists.

Lots of ecommerce websites use variation swatches, a feature that displays product variations such as color and size. These variation swatches don’t display variations in a dropdown menu (as it is the default behavior of WooCommerce), but they are visualized as clickable buttons or images.

As soon as a customer clicks on a swatch to select it, it is visually highlighted to indicate their choice. What’s more, the product image and price are updated automatically to reflect the selected variation.

This provides customers with a very user-friendly way to pick and choose what they want. WooCommerce variation swatches enhance the user experience and make the product page look more visually appealing and engaging. This increases the odds that people enjoy the time they spend shopping on your ecommerce website.

Why should you add variation swatches to your WooCommerce store?

There are plenty of reasons for adding variation swatches to your ecommerce store. In short, swatches offer benefits for you as a store owner and for your customers, so it’s a win-win situation. Let’s go over the advantages below:

• User experience: Visual swatches eliminate dropdown scrolling and provide instant product preview. Customers can easily select the product variation they want, especially when it comes down to visual attributes like color and pattern, e.g. on a T-shirt or fabric. With a dropdown menu, those specifics can be hard to distinguish, but variation swatches automatically visually display the options.
• Selection speed: Customers click once on swatches instead of navigating dropdown menus. With variation swatches, customers can quickly see all the available options and make their preferred selection with just 1 click. 
• Visual appeal: Product pages become more enticing with colorful swatches and image previews. More appealing products are great for your conversion rate, but the flexibility is also a huge bonus. Variation swatches can be different formats, e.g. color, images, or radio buttons, allowing you to choose the most appropriate one for your product.
• Competitive advantage: Stores with swatches appear more professional than dropdown-only competitors. When you provide a better user experience than other stores that use traditional dropdown menus for product variations, customers will notice the difference. Hopefully, you will too when looking at the number of orders you receive!

Plenty of WooCommerce stores offer a large inventory of products that come with multiple variations, such as size, color, material, or style. They can really benefit from adding variation swatches.

Businesses that may find this feature particularly useful include those selling clothes, cosmetics, home goods, electronics, and more. Customers have really come to expect visual customization options when shopping for those products online, so don’t miss the train on offering a wider range of options to increase your sales.

Features to look for in a variation swatches plugin

Choosing the right variation swatches plugin requires evaluating several key features. Here are the main categories to consider when selecting a plugin for your WooCommerce store:

• Swatch types: Most plugins offer 4 main swatch types: color blocks, image thumbnails, text labels, and radio buttons.
  • Color swatches work best for clothing and accessories. 
  • Image swatches help customers visualize patterns, textures, or complex product variations. 
  • Text labels suit size options or technical specifications.
• Display locations: Consider where you need the swatches to be visible and make sure the plugin you choose offers that.
  • Some plugins only show swatches on individual product pages. 
  • Others add swatches to shop pages, category archives, and search results. 
  • A few plugins even enable swatches in the shopping cart for last-minute changes.
• Out-of-stock handling: Plugins handle unavailable variations in three ways: blur, hide, or disable.
  • Blurred swatches show unavailable options with reduced opacity. 
  • Hidden swatches remove out-of-stock variations completely. 
  • Disabled swatches display options but prevent selection with a strikethrough or X mark.
• Customization options: Look for plugins offering multiple swatch shapes like squares, circles, or rounded rectangles.
  • Size controls let you adjust swatch dimensions for different product types. 
  • Style options include borders, shadows, hover effects, and custom CSS support.
• Mobile responsiveness: Quality plugins automatically adjust swatch sizes for mobile devices.
  • Touch-friendly swatches need larger tap targets on smartphones. 
  • Responsive plugins rearrange swatch layouts to fit smaller screens without horizontal scrolling.

The best WooCommerce swatches plugins for WooCommerce

When you’ve decided to add variation swatches to your ecommerce store on WordPress, the best way to start is to look for a plugin that suits your needs. Plugins are an easy way to enhance the functionality of your shop pages with swatches offering visual customization options.

We have selected the 9 best WooCommerce swatches plugins for WordPress. Below, you will find out what makes them different, which will help you choose a plugin that works for you.

1. Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce

Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce is a plugin by Studio Wombat that lets users create customizable product options, including color swatches, image selectors, child products, text fields, and other input fields.

Features and advantages

The plugin offers extensive functionality beyond just swatches:

• Flexible field types: Add text boxes, dropdowns, images, checkboxes, radio buttons, and more. You can also add content fields such as HTML, shortcodes, or extra images.
• Dynamic pricing: Adjust prices based on customer selections. If they want a ring that is gold-plated rather than platinum, they will see a different price because of the value of the materials, for example.
• Repeatable fields: Let customers add multiple instances of the same field when needed.
• Image switching: The main product image can change depending on the selected options.
• Multi-currency support: Works seamlessly with WOOCS for international stores.
• Cart editing: Shoppers can edit their product data directly from the cart page.
• Multilingual integration: Full compatibility with WPML or Polylang for translated stores.
• High-quality addons: Extend functionality with ACF integration, image upload features, pre-fill fields through URL parameters, live content preview, and more.

Reviews consistently report wide compatibility with themes and plugins, excellent usability, and responsive support. The plugin gives you greater flexibility and control over the product data you display.

One thing to pay attention to is that generally we don’t support older Woo or WP versions. The upside of this is that customers can benefit from modern, fast code, but it may be an issue for people who still run older versions on their webshop.

Pricing: A limited free version is available on the WordPress plugin repository. The paid version starts at $69 per year. It is backed by a 14-day refund policy, so you can try it out before you commit.

2. WooCommerce Attribute Swatches by Iconic

WooCommerce Attribute Swatches by Iconic creates color and image swatches for product variations. The plugin displays swatches on product pages and shop archive pages. Iconic’s solution supports tooltips and custom swatch styling options.

Key features include color swatches with hex codes, image swatches for textures or product photos, text button swatches, and shop page display options. You can customize swatch shapes (round or square), sizes, and hover effects.

The plugin enables swatches in product filters and allows instant variation preview on shop pages. When customers click a swatch, they see the variation image or go directly to the product page.

One advantage is the professional design and reliable performance. The main limitation is the higher price point compared to alternatives.

Pricing: Starts at $79 per year.

3. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce By RadiusTheme

Variation Swatches for WooCommerce by RadiusTheme is a popular plugin that allows you to convert product variation selection fields into 4 types of swatches: Radio buttons, images, colors, and labels.

This plugin offers dual color variation swatches and you can edit your swatches by choosing square or rounded layouts, different backgrounds, font color and size, and more.

Variation Swatches for WooCommerce is an affordable plugin. But it is pretty limited in terms of what it offers. If you only want to add swatches to your product variations, this might be a good plugin for you, but it doesn’t offer much functionality beyond that.

Pricing: Starts at $39 a year for one site and has a free version.

4. Variation Swatches and Photos by Element Stark

The Variation Swatches and Photos plugin by Element Stark is a straightforward, simple plugin you can use to add color and image swatches to your variable products.

By adding color and image swatches with this plugin, you make it easier for your customers to select the product variation they want. In the easy admin interface you can define colors and images at the attribute or product level.

This plugin comes with some nice advantages: Not only does it offer premium support, but you also have access to tutorial videos. If you’d like to see the plugin in action, have a look at this live demo.

Despite the ease of use and support of multiple swatch types, this plugin doesn’t offer as much variety as some of the other swatch plugins we highlight in this article. There are more affordable options available that also provide more features.

Pricing: $99 a year.

5. YaySwatches – Variation Swatches for WooCommerce

YaySwatches creates color, image, and label swatches for WooCommerce product variations. The plugin works with popular page builders like Elementor and Divi. YaySwatches displays swatches on product pages with zoom preview functionality.

Key features include automated variation image swatches, dual-color swatch support, customizable swatch shapes and sizes, and hover tooltips. The free version supports global attributes while the pro version adds custom product attributes.

The plugin stands out for its modern interface and compatibility with major themes and builders. It also supports WPML and Polylang for multilingual stores.

One limitation is that shop page swatches and out-of-stock visibility options are only available in the pro version.

Pricing: Free version available. Pro version starts at $59 per year.

6. Variation Swatches for WooCommerce by ThemeHigh

The Variation Swatches for WooCommerce plugin by ThemeHigh allows you to create 4 different types of swatches: Color, image, label/button, and radio. 

You can also choose between square and circle icons to display your attributes, so it’s a nice plugin to play around with.

With this plugin, it only takes one click to convert from the default WooCommerce variation dropdowns to variation swatches for your product attributes. 

Once you’ve done that, you have access to customizable swatch designs: You can define the swatch icon, customize the hover and border details, style the tooltip, and more to make the swatches blend in with your shop pages. 

You can highlight the selected swatch with a checkmark, and if variant swatches are out of stock, you can choose whether you want to hide, blur, or cross them. Alternatively, you can also display image and color swatches in a dropdown.

From reviews we gather they offer decent support, but beware that the free version of this plugin only offers basic swatch functionality. A lot of the advanced features require a premium upgrade.

Pricing: There’s a free version, paid licenses start from $39 a year for a single site.

7. Swatchly

Swatchly is a feature-rich plugin that allows your customers to easily find what they’re searching for with a large number of product options, like colors, buttons, images, variation images, and radio buttons.

This plugin offers a lot of flexibility: You can choose from various swatch shapes and set the swatch width, height, and font size.

Moreover, you can override the swatch settings for each individual product, and you can easily enable/disable the tooltip. 

Another interesting feature is that you can automatically convert default WooCommerce variation dropdown menus into swatches.

This intuitive plugin helps you save time when adding swatches to your variable products, and it is a budget-friendly option, because its free version comes with lots of core features. However, you can’t use it to import or export swatches in bulk, and you might experience conflicts with other themes and plugins you’re using for your e-commerce store, so make sure to check that before buying the plugin.

Pricing: The plugin has a free version with many core features. The premium plan starts at $49 a year for a single site.

8. WPMozo Variation Swatches for WooCommerce

WPMozo Variation Swatches displays color, image, and label swatches for product variations. The plugin shows swatches on both shop and product pages. WPMozo includes hover tooltips with text and image support.

Features include two shape options (square and round), multiple layout styles, customizable positioning, and blur/cross/hide options for unavailable variations. The plugin offers both inline and stacked layout options for multiple swatches.

WPMozo provides a simple customization panel with separate settings for product, shop, and archive pages. The plugin is fully responsive and works with any well-coded WooCommerce theme.

The main advantage is the unlimited site license at a competitive price. However, it lacks some advanced features like quick view integration or Ajax functionality.

Pricing: $39 per year for unlimited websites.

9. Product Variations Swatches for WooCommerce by VillaTheme

Product Variations Swatches for WooCommerce converts variation dropdowns into 5 display types: Button, color, image, variation image, and radio. The plugin works with both global and custom attributes. VillaTheme’s solution includes customizable swatches profiles for consistent styling.

Features include horizontal and vertical display styles, mobile-responsive design, tooltip customization, and search functionality for attributes. You can customize hover and selected states with different colors, borders, and shadow effects.

The free version provides essential swatch functionality with one profile. The pro version adds unlimited profiles, product list display options, image change on selection, and out-of-stock variation handling.

A notable advantage is the built-in WPML support for multilingual stores. The limitation is that showing swatches on product lists requires the premium version.

Pricing: Free version available. Pro version pricing starts at $22 for a regular license.

Which plugin is best?

Plugin selection depends on required swatch types, budget constraints, and technical complexity needs. As always, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Which plugin is the best plugin for your WooCommerce store depends on several factors, including:

• Preferred features and functionality: Do you want to keep it light and simple, or are you looking for specific add-ons to increase the functionality?
• Your budget: There are free versions available that all cater to basic needs. If that is enough for you, why bother paying?
• Quality of code: This one might be hard to investigate if you are not a programmer. WordPress has many hobby-developers that create plugins while they learn to program. This is not ideal for you as you want something of high-quality that keeps your site lean and fast.
• Compatibility with your existing theme and plugins: You want to make sure the plugin you choose is compatible with the other products you’re using.
• Support: When setting up a plugin, the support can really influence how smooth the setup process is for you. Make sure you look for a plugin with excellent support.
• Reviews and ratings: This goes without saying, but before you decide, make sure to have a look at the ratings of people who have gone before you. There is often a wealth of useful information in previous reviews that can save you a lot of time and hassle down the line.

When you are looking for advanced features and comprehensive control over your field types, we highly recommend the Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce plugin. This plugin is not only user-friendly and quality-coded, but it’s also cost-effective. 

Let’s take a closer look.

How to get started with Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce

The Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce plugin is easy to get started with. Below we share the first steps you need to take for a smooth user experience. For more detailed instructions, make sure to check out the article Getting Started with Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce.

1. Purchase and install the plugin from the Studio Wombat website. 
2. Install the plugin through the WordPress admin dashboard. 
3. Go to WooCommerce → Product Fields and click Add New to create an empty field group.
   
4. Click the Add Field button to create a new field and add it to the bottom of the list. You can easily reorder fields by dragging the order handle with your mouse.
5. Customize the settings of your fields, including the field type, label, instructions, and requirements. Don’t forget to save your changes when you’re done!
   

Of course, you can also change the global settings if you want to modify the plugin’s behavior. To do that, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Product fields.

These short steps will help you get started with the Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce plugin, but there is plenty more information in the documentation for this plugin if you’re looking for anything specific.

Get started with variation swatches on your WooCommerce store

As we have explained, variation swatches offer great benefits and contribute to a positive customer experience. Visual aids really make a difference to the online shopping experience, and variation swatches make it very obvious to your customers what their preferred products will look like if they place an order.

There are lots of plugins out there offering variation swatches, so you’ll need to take some time to research which one best suits your needs. There is a plugin out there for everyone, but we recommend using Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce, which is both a budget-friendly and comprehensive plugin.

But why take our word for it if you can try it out yourself? Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee, so make sure to give it a go!