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You want to sell gift cards before the next holiday rush, so you open the WooCommerce extension store, type “gift card,” and get hit with a dozen plugins that all promise the same thing. Some are free with hidden limits. Others charge over $100 a year for features you’ll never touch. A few quietly skip the one thing you actually need, like scheduled delivery or store credit redemption.
The best WooCommerce gift card plugin for most stores is Advanced Coupons’ Advanced Gift Cards. It handles digital e-gift cards, scheduled “send to friend” delivery, and store-credit redemption in one add-on. That add-on plugs into the free Advanced Coupons core. It isn’t the only good option, though. The right pick depends on whether you need printable physical cards or an all-in-one coupon suite.
I’ve watched store owners lose a whole gifting season to the wrong plugin choice. So we set up the same $50 gift card in five plugins on test stores. We wanted to see how each one behaves at checkout and in the admin. Here’s how they compare, ranked, with honest notes on where each one fits.
A WooCommerce gift card is a prepaid balance a customer buys for someone else. The recipient then redeems it at checkout. There are two technical approaches, and the difference matters when you pick a plugin.
Most plugins redeem gift cards in one of two ways:
You’ll also see a split between digital and physical cards:
The category is big and still growing fast. The global gift cards market was valued at $950.86 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $2.29 trillion by 2034 at a 9.0% CAGR. Digital gift cards now make up over half of all gift card units sold worldwide, and they’re growing faster than physical cards. That’s why scheduled email delivery matters more than a printable PDF for most online stores.
Before comparing plugins, decide which of these features your store genuinely needs. Buying on feature count alone is how store owners end up paying for a suite they barely use.
A note on expiry: gift card expiration is regulated in many regions. So check your local consumer law before setting short windows. The plugin gives you the toggle; the legality is on you.
We tested each plugin on a clean WooCommerce install, bought a gift card as a customer, and redeemed it. These are ranked on real-store fit, not marketing copy.
Advanced Gift Cards is the best WooCommerce gift card plugin overall for stores that sell digital e-gift cards. It makes them behave like real store credit. It’s an add-on that runs on top of the free Advanced Coupons core. So you install the free plugin first, then activate the gift card add-on.
The standout feature is the scheduled “send to friend” delivery. When we bought a card, we could enter the recipient’s email, write a personal message, and set a future delivery date. The recipient got the code by email on that day. Gift cards redeem as store credit, so a $50 card drew down across two separate test orders instead of forcing a single use.
What we tested and liked:
🔍️ What we’ve seen: Store owners often assume a gift card and a discount coupon are the same object. Then they get confused when a customer’s leftover balance disappears. The fix is to lean on the store-credit redemption model so the remaining balance stays on the account. We tell people to test a partial redemption on a staging site before launch. Seeing the balance carry over removes most support tickets later.
Advanced Gift Cards is digital-first. So if you need physically shipped cards, this isn’t your plugin. For everyone selling e-gift cards, it’s the pick.
Best for: Stores that want digital gift cards redeemable as store credit.
Price: From $99.50/year on the single-site Growth plan, or bundled in the All Access pack at $249/year.
The official WooCommerce Gift Cards extension is the safe, no-surprises choice. You get a tool maintained by the same team that builds WooCommerce. It handles digital gift cards, custom amounts, and applying balances at checkout. It also ships with the platform-native polish you’d expect.
In testing, setup was the most familiar of the group. The gift card product type slotted straight into the standard WooCommerce product editor. Redemption worked cleanly, and the balance applied without fighting the cart.
The trade-offs are real, though. It’s digital only, with no physical or PDF cards. Custom-amount support relies on the separate Name Your Price extension. And it’s a single-purpose extension rather than part of a wider promotions suite. If gift cards are the one feature you need and you value first-party support, that focus is a strength.
Best for: Stores that want a first-party, digital-only extension.
Price: $79/year on the WooCommerce marketplace.
YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards is the plugin to reach for if you genuinely need physical and printable PDF cards. It’s the clearest differentiator in this roundup. Alongside digital cards, the premium version can attach a printable PDF to the email and supports physically shipped cards.
It offers a free Lite version on the WordPress.org repository, which is handy for trialling the basics before paying. When we set up a card, the design gallery was generous. The recipient and custom-message fields were available even on the free tier.
The premium tier adds scheduled delivery, multiple recipients, and expiry dates. The interface carries more options than most stores will use. So budget a little extra setup time to find the settings you actually want.
Best for: Stores that need physical or printable PDF gift cards.
Price: Free Lite version; Premium around $129.99/year (YITH runs frequent promotions, so the live price may be lower).
Smart Coupons by StoreApps bundles gift cards into a broader coupons-and-store-credit suite. You get gift cards, store credit, BOGO, URL coupons, and bulk generation under one license. If you were going to buy several promotion tools anyway, the all-in-one packaging can be good value.
Testing the gift card flow, we found it overlapped heavily with what Advanced Coupons does. That includes scheduled delivery and store-credit redemption. The single-license model means there are no separate add-ons to manage, which some owners prefer.
The catch is the entry price. At $129/year flat, you’re paying suite-level pricing even if gift cards are the only module you’ll use. For a gift-cards-first store, that’s more than you need to spend. By contrast, Advanced Coupons starts lower and still redeems as store credit.
Best for: Stores that want gift cards plus a full coupon suite in one license.
Price: $129/year (all features included).
WP Swings Gift Cards for WooCommerce Pro is the budget pick that still covers both digital and physical cards. It supports email delivery, shipping, and downloadable PDFs. It also ships with a library of pre-designed templates, which is a lot of distribution flexibility for the price.
There’s a free Lite version on WordPress.org to test the basics. In our run, the template gallery made it quick to produce a branded-looking card without any design work. The redemption flow was straightforward.
It’s the least polished admin experience of the five, and reporting is lighter than the suite options. Still, for a small store that wants physical-and-digital coverage on a tight budget, it does the job.
Best for: Budget-conscious stores wanting both digital and physical cards.
Price: Pro starts around $69/year (WP Swings runs frequent sales, so check the current rate).
You don’t need to overthink the launch. Once you’ve picked a plugin, selling your first gift card takes a handful of steps. We’ll use the free Advanced Coupons core plus the Advanced Gift Cards add-on as the example, since it’s our top pick.
That last step is the one store owners skip and regret. A two-minute test purchase catches most redemption surprises.
Here’s how the five plugins stack up on the features that decide most purchases.
| Feature | Advanced Coupons – Advanced Gift Cards | WooCommerce Gift Cards (official) | YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards | Smart Coupons (StoreApps) | WP Swings Gift Cards for WooCommerce Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital e-gift cards | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Physical cards | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Printable PDF | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Scheduled delivery | Yes | Yes | Yes (Premium) | Yes | Yes |
| Variable / custom amounts | Yes | Via add-on | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Store credit redemption | Yes | Limited | No | Yes | No |
| Bulk import / generation | Yes (CSV) | Limited | Premium | Yes | Limited |
| Custom branding / designs | Yes | Basic | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free version | Free core required | No | Lite | Lite | Lite |
| Starting price (list) | From $99.50/yr | $79/yr | ~$129.99/yr | $129/yr | ~$69/yr |
Prices are list rates at time of writing. The official WooCommerce, YITH, and WP Swings figures should be reconfirmed on each vendor’s own listing, as all change periodically.
No. The official WooCommerce Gift Cards extension is a paid extension, listed at $79/year at the time of writing. WooCommerce itself is free, but the gift card functionality is a separate purchase. If you want a free starting point, YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards and WP Swings Gift Cards for WooCommerce both offer Lite versions on WordPress.org. Advanced Coupons’ core plugin is also free, with gift cards as a paid add-on.
For most stores selling digital gift cards, Advanced Coupons’ Advanced Gift Cards is the best WooCommerce gift card plugin. It wins on scheduled “send to friend” delivery and store-credit redemption. If you specifically need physically shipped or printable PDF cards, YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards is the stronger fit. If you want gift cards bundled with a full coupon suite, Smart Coupons by StoreApps is worth a look.
Yes, most gift card plugins let you set an expiry date. Be careful here, though. Gift card expiration is regulated in many countries and US states, and short expiry windows can be illegal. Check your local consumer protection rules before enabling expiry. When in doubt, leave balances open-ended.
Yes, but only some plugins support them. Physical gift cards are mailed to the buyer or recipient and carry a redemption code. YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards and WP Swings Gift Cards for WooCommerce Pro both handle physical and printable cards. Digital-first plugins like Advanced Coupons’ Advanced Gift Cards and the official WooCommerce Gift Cards extension deliver by email only.
It depends on the plugin. Some apply the gift card as a one-time coupon code. Others load the balance as store credit that draws down across multiple orders. Advanced Coupons’ Advanced Gift Cards and Smart Coupons by StoreApps both redeem as store credit. That’s the more natural shopping experience for repeat customers.
Gift cards are one of the few features that bring in revenue before you‘ve shipped a single product. That’s exactly why it’s worth getting the plugin right the first time, rather than rebuilding the flow mid-season.
Here’s the quick way to decide the best WooCommerce gift card plugin for your store:
For the majority of WooCommerce stores selling digital e-gift cards, Advanced Coupons’ Advanced Gift Cards is the gift card plugin we’d reach for first. Its scheduled delivery and store-credit redemption do most of the heavy lifting. Start with the free Advanced Coupons plugin, add the Advanced Gift Cards for WooCommerce add-on, and have your first card live before the next gifting season.
If you’re also weighing up discount tools, see our sibling guide on the best WooCommerce coupon plugin.
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