WordPress Currency Switcher vs WooCommerce Currency Switcher: which one?
WordPress Currency Switcher vs WooCommerce Currency Switcher is not a choice between a basic and an advanced edition of one product. They are two plugins from the same team, made for two different jobs. WPCS – WordPress Currency Switcher converts prices that you write into posts, pages and custom content. FOX – WooCommerce Currency Switcher (formerly WOOCS) converts a WooCommerce shop: product prices, cart, checkout and orders. Install the one meant for the other job and you get a switcher that changes nothing, so it pays to decide before you set anything up.
WPCS: prices in posts, pages and custom content
WPCS works on any WordPress site, with or without WooCommerce. You write each price once, in your base currency, inside the [wpcs_price] shortcode: [wpcs_price value=100]. When a visitor picks a currency with the [wpcs] switcher, the widget or the side switcher, every price printed by that shortcode is converted at the current exchange rate and shown with the right symbol and format. GeoIP rules and a welcome currency can choose the first currency for a new visitor. The settings are under Settings → Currency Switcher.
WPCS has no connection to WooCommerce. It does not hook into product prices, the cart, the checkout or payments, so even when WooCommerce is active on the same site, all shop prices stay as they are. That is how the plugin is built, not a fault. It also only displays prices: if your site takes payments through a form or a booking plugin, the amount charged stays in that plugin's currency. How to set WPCS up step by step is explained in how to show prices in multiple currencies in WordPress.
FOX: the WooCommerce shop
FOX requires WooCommerce and works inside it. It converts product prices on shop, category and product pages, and the amounts WooCommerce calculates from them in the mini cart, cart and checkout. With the option Is multiple allowed, customers pay in the currency they selected and the order is stored in that currency; without it, they see converted prices but pay in the base currency. On top of that come shop-specific features: fixed prices per product and currency, payment gateways per currency, GeoIP rules (including Checkout by GeoIP rules) and a welcome currency. The settings are in WooCommerce → Settings → Currency, and the switcher shortcode is [woocs].
A shop does not need WPCS for its blog or landing pages either: FOX converts any amount written in the base currency into the visitor's currency with [woocs_show_custom_price value=100].
Side-by-side comparison
| WPCS | FOX | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Prices in posts, pages, custom post types and widgets | WooCommerce shops |
| Needs WooCommerce | No | Yes |
| Changes product, cart and checkout prices | No | Yes |
| Customer pays in the selected currency | No, it displays prices only | Yes, with Is multiple allowed |
| Amounts in content | [wpcs_price value=100] | [woocs_show_custom_price value=100] |
| Switcher | [wpcs], widget, side switcher | [woocs], widget, side switcher |
| GeoIP rules and welcome currency | Yes | Yes |
| Settings | Settings → Currency Switcher | WooCommerce → Settings → Currency |
Which one you need
- WPCS: blogs and magazines, service and pricing pages, portfolios, tour, rental and real-estate listings, catalogs without a cart, prices stored in custom fields of custom post types. Anything where a price is shown but not sold through WooCommerce.
- FOX: every WooCommerce shop, including bookings, subscriptions or memberships sold as WooCommerce products. Also a shop that has content pages with prices, because FOX covers those with its own shortcode.
- Neither changes the currency of a payment form or booking system that is not built on WooCommerce. WPCS can show converted amounts next to it for information, as long as they are printed with
[wpcs_price].
Signs you installed the wrong plugin
- The switcher is visible, the rates are set, and WooCommerce product prices never change. This is WPCS on a shop.
- Check the name on the Plugins page: WPCS - WordPress Currency Switcher or FOX - Currency Switcher Professional for WooCommerce. The settings location in the table above tells them apart too.
- The FOX download package includes WPCS as a bonus, in a separate folder named GIFT FOR YOU. The archive from that folder installs and activates like any plugin and then never touches the shop. Install the main plugin archive instead.
To switch from WPCS to FOX, deactivate and delete WPCS, install FOX and set up the currencies again in WooCommerce → Settings → Currency. FOX does not read the WPCS settings, so currencies, rates and rules have to be entered there.
Do not run both on a shop
On a WooCommerce site, keep WPCS deactivated. The two plugins have separate currency lists, separate rates and separately stored visitor choices, so they can disagree: the WPCS switcher can show one currency while FOX builds the cart and checkout in another. Use the FOX switcher ([woocs] or its widget) and FOX's shortcodes for prices in content.
If, with FOX alone, a free-shipping threshold or a fee added by another plugin (for example Flexible Shipping or WooCommerce Extra Fees) still ignores the selected currency, that plugin compares cart amounts in the base currency. This is a compatibility question between FOX and that plugin; ask it on the FOX support forum.
Try before you decide
Both plugins are on wordpress.org: WPCS and FOX. Install the one that fits on a staging copy of your site and test the real case before you build on it:
- WPCS: a draft page with
[wpcs]and[wpcs_price value=100]; the amount must change when you switch currency. - FOX: a product page and the cart; the product price and the cart total must change when you switch currency.
If WPCS prices do not change on the test page, follow currency switcher not converting prices. For anything else about WPCS, ask on the WPCS support forum.