When you outgrow the default WooCommerce coupon system, you start looking for features that can handle real marketing campaigns.
Advanced Coupons and WooCommerce Smart Coupons both build directly on top of the native interface, but they each add different promotional strategies to your store. Let's look at how they compare.
📑 Table of Contents
Types of Discounts
Both WooCommerce discount plugins build upon the core percentage and fixed discount types while introducing unique ways to reward customers. Let's explore the different discount types offered by them.
Core and Unique Promotions
| Feature | Advanced Coupons | WooCommerce Smart Coupons |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage Discount | ✅ | ✅ |
| Fixed Cart/Product Discount | ✅ | ✅ |
| BOGO (Buy X Get Y) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Store Credit / Gift Certificates | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cashback Coupons | ✅ | ✅ |
| Subscription Discounts | ✅ | ✅ |
| Next Order Coupons | ❌ | ✅ |
You'll find the essential discount types you need with either option. Both handle standard percentage and fixed amount discounts effortlessly.
Advanced Coupons stands out if you want to run Buy One Get One (BOGO) deals, offer shipping discounts based on zones, or automatically add free products to a customer's cart.
WooCommerce Smart Coupons focuses heavily on purchasing behavior. It allows you to actually sell gift certificates that customers can buy and send to others. It also features "Next Order" coupons that directly encourage a customer to come back and shop again.
Subscription Discounts
| Feature | Advanced Coupons | WooCommerce Smart Coupons |
|---|---|---|
| Sign Up Fee Discount | ❌ | ✅ |
| Sign Up Fee % Discount | ❌ | ✅ |
| Recurring Product Discount | ❌ | ✅ |
| Recurring Product % Discount | ❌ | ✅ |
If you run a subscription-based business, WooCommerce Smart Coupons has a massive advantage. It includes dedicated discount types specifically built for subscription products. You can discount the initial sign-up fee or apply discounts to the recurring payments. Advanced Coupons offer a subscription coupon, but it isn't as feature-rich as Advanced Coupon.
Key Features
Beyond the types of discounts you can create, both plugins offer advanced features to manage how those promotions are distributed and applied.
Promotion Management
| Feature | Advanced Coupons | WooCommerce Smart Coupons |
|---|---|---|
| Cart Conditions | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto Apply Coupons | ✅ | ✅ |
| URL Coupons | ✅ | ✅ |
| Usage & Role Restrictions | ✅ | ✅ |
| Location/Payment Restrictions | ✅ | ✅ |
| Bulk Code Generation | ✅ | ✅ |
| Email Bulk Codes Directly | ❌ | ✅ |
| Coupon Templates | ✅ | ❌ |
Both plugins excel at making coupons easier for customers to use. You get URL coupons and auto-apply features with both plugins. This removes the friction of forcing customers to manually type in a code at checkout.
Advanced Coupons includes a helpful Coupon Templates feature. This gives you pre-designed configurations for common promotions, which saves you time when building new campaigns.
WooCommerce Smart Coupons gives you slightly more control over distribution and restrictions. You can bulk generate thousands of codes and email them directly to users from within the plugin. It also lets you restrict coupons by location, payment method, and shipping method.
Ease of Use
Because both plugins build on top of WooCommerce's native systems, their interfaces feel very similar.
Interface Comparison
| Feature | Advanced Coupons | WooCommerce Smart Coupons |
|---|---|---|
| Native WooCommerce Interface | ✅ | ✅ |
| Tabbed Configuration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cart Conditions Builder | ✅ | ❌ |
| Visual Block Builder | ❌ | ❌ |
If you are comfortable creating basic WooCommerce coupons, you will feel right at home with either plugin. You manage everything by going to Marketing > Coupons in your WordPress dashboard.
Advanced Coupons uses a series of tabs to manage its extra features. It includes a dedicated section for its Cart Conditions, making it relatively straightforward to stack multiple rules together.
WooCommerce Smart Coupons also uses the familiar tabbed layout. It highlights its specific settings with a subtle green background so you know which features belong to the plugin.
Neither plugin offers the modern, visual single-screen layout found in dedicated pricing plugins, but their reliance on the native interface makes them very approachable.
Integrations
Both plugins need to play nicely with your existing tech stack. Here is how they handle third-party plugins.
Third-Party Compatibility
| Feature | Advanced Coupons | WooCommerce Smart Coupons |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Currency Support | ✅ | ✅ |
| Affiliate Plugins | ✅ | ✅ |
| WPML Multilingual | ✅ | ❌ |
| Automation Plugins | ✅ | ❌ |
| WooCommerce Subscriptions | ✅ | ✅ |
| StoreApps Products | ❌ | ✅ |
Both plugins handle multi-currency setups well and integrate with affiliate platforms, allowing you to pay out commissions based on coupon usage.
Advanced Coupons has a very strong integration ecosystem for general marketing. It works seamlessly with WPML for translated sites. It also connects with powerful automation plugins like Uncanny Automator, SureTriggers, and FunnelKit, giving you incredible flexibility in how you trigger promotions.
WooCommerce Smart Coupons focuses its integrations on the WooCommerce core ecosystem. It works perfectly with WooCommerce Subscriptions and integrates deeply with other StoreApps products like Smart Manager and Smart Offers.
Reporting and Analytics
Tracking your coupon usage is critical for understanding what works.
Analytics Features
| Feature | Advanced Coupons | WooCommerce Smart Coupons |
|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce Reports Integration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Dedicated Dashboard | ✅ | ❌ |
| Store Credits Activity | ✅ | ❌ |
| Date Range Filtering | ✅ | ✅ |
Advanced Coupons provides its own dedicated dashboard. While basic, it gives you a clean overview of your coupon usage, recently created offers, and a specific section for monitoring your store credit activity. It also feeds data into the native WooCommerce reports.
WooCommerce Smart Coupons does not have a separate dashboard. All your promotional data is fed directly into WooCommerce's native analytics. This keeps all your data in one place, but it can make it harder to isolate the performance of specific promotional campaigns.
Pricing
Cost is always a factor when choosing a new tool for your store. Here is how the pricing breaks down.
Plan Comparison
| Plan | Advanced Coupons | WooCommerce Smart Coupons |
|---|---|---|
| Single Site | $199/year | $129/year |
| Unlimited Sites | $399/year | ❌ |
| Free Version | ✅ | ❌ |
WooCommerce Smart Coupons is the more affordable starting point for a single store, coming in at $129 per year. It is a premium-only plugin sold through the WooCommerce marketplace and does not offer a free version or unlimited site licenses.
Advanced Coupons is a higher investment for a single site at $199 per year. However, it offers an unlimited site license for $399 per year, which is a great value for agencies or users managing many websites. It also provides a free version in the WordPress repository so you can test the basic features before committing to a paid plan.
Advanced Coupons vs WooCommerce Smart Coupons: Which Plugin Is Right for You?
Deciding which plugin is right for your store depends on whether you value advanced marketing automation or deep subscription and gift card features. Here is a quick breakdown of where each plugin fits.
Choose Advanced Coupons if:
- You want to run BOGO deals or automatically add free products to a cart.
- Shipping discounts based on zones are a core part of your strategy.
- You use automation tools like Uncanny Automator or SureTriggers.
- You need a dedicated dashboard to track store credit activity.
- You want a more affordable pricing structure with multi-site options.
- A free version helps you test the waters first.
Choose WooCommerce Smart Coupons if:
- You run a subscription business and need recurring discount features.
- Selling digital gift certificates to customers is a priority.
- You want to issue "Next Order" coupons to drive repeat sales.
- You need strict coupon restrictions based on location or shipping methods.
- Emailing bulk-generated codes directly from the plugin saves you time.
- You already use other StoreApps products or WooCommerce Subscriptions.
Frequently Asked Questions - Advanced Coupons vs WooCommerce Smart Coupons
What is the best discount plugin for WooCommerce?
Elevated Discount Rules is the best discount plugin for WooCommerce. It offers an intuitive and simple setup process combined with support for various discount types, robust conditional logic, and strong display features to create nearly any discount scenario you can imagine.
How do I create automatic discounts in WooCommerce?
To create automatic discounts in WooCommerce, you need to use a plugin, as WooCommerce's built-in coupon system requires manual code entry. All of the plugins in this article support some form of automatic discount, but only Elevated Discount Rules and Discount Rules for WooCommerce are the top options.
What is the first-order discount plugin in WooCommerce?
Many WooCommerce discount plugins, including Discount Rules for WooCommerce by Flycart, Smart Coupons by StoreApps, and YayPricing by YayCommerce, offer features to create first-order discounts. This discount type involves setting a condition to apply a special discount when a customer makes their initial purchase.
