Dokan Multivendor Review: Everything You Need to Know!

Are you considering launching a multivendor eCommerce website? If so, you may have heard of Dokan Multivendor, a powerful plugin for WordPress that enables you to create and manage an online marketplace with ease. Dokan is a popular solution that has been used by thousands of businesses around the world, from small start-ups to large enterprises. But is Dokan the right fit for your eCommerce business?

In this comprehensive review, we’ll take a closer look at Dokan and evaluate its features, benefits, and drawbacks. We’ll explore how it can help you launch and manage your own online marketplace, as well as the potential challenges you may face when using it. 

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a marketer, or a developer, you’ll get valuable insights into how Dokan works and whether it’s a good fit for your business needs. We’ll also compare it to other popular multivendor eCommerce solutions on the market. 

By the end of this review, you’ll have a clearer understanding of what Dokan can offer you and whether it’s worth investing in for your eCommerce business. So, let’s dive in and explore the world of Dokan!

What is Dokan Multivendor?

Dokan is the number 1 WordPress multivendor plugin to create any type of marketplace. With more than 60K active installations and 4.6 out of 5 ratings, this is the most popular multivendor solution available. 

Using Dokan plugin, you can turn your regular WooCommerce store into a fully functional marketplace where multiple vendors can sell their products.

The Dokan plugin provides features such as vendor registration, vendor dashboard, commission management, product management, order management, and more. It also supports various payment gateways, shipping methods, and tax options.

Using Dokan Multivendor Plugin, vendors can register themselves, create their own profiles, and manage their products, orders, and shipping methods. The plugin also provides a front-end dashboard for the vendors to manage their stores and sales.

Dokan Multivendor Plugin is a popular choice for creating multi-vendor marketplaces as it is user-friendly, customizable, and offers a range of features to make marketplace management easy for both the store owner and vendors.

Key Features of Dokan Multivendor Plugin 

Dokan is a feature-rich WordPress multivendor plugin. This plugin comes with a wide range of powerful features. In this segment, we are going to discuss the Dokan top features in three categories: 

1. Top Features for Admins 

• Vendor Management UI: Admin can manage vendors capabilities and access important information related to vendors using this feature. 
• Multiple Commission Types: This feature helps admins to set global, vendor-specific, category-specific, or product-specific commissions for vendors. 
• Admin Reports: You as an admin can check earning reports of different stores by day, year, and vendor, all in one place using this feature. 
• Coupon Creation: This feature will come in handy if you want to create coupons for your vendors or products. Also, you can allow your vendors to create coupons on their products by using this feature. 
• Making Announcements: If you want to communicate with your sellers, Dokan plugin lets you do that by sending announcements right to their dashboards.
• Automatic Withdrawal Disbursement: Dokan allows you to schedule withdrawal time for vendors with ease. 
• Product Advertising: You can increase your marketplace earnings by offering vendors to promote their products in the marketplace using this feature. 

2. Top Features for Vendors

• Shipping Management: It lets vendors manage their shipping rates with several options, and use popular shipping solutions for delivery.
• Social Login & Registration: Nowadays, social login is a common scenario. You as a vendor can allow your customers to register or log in to your store using their social profiles like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Google.
• Earning Reports & Statements: This feature helps vendors to get a real-time overview of their finances with breakdowns of their earning reports right on their dashboard.
• Frontend Variable Products: Both admin and vendor can create variable products simply from the frontend using this feature. 
• Product Bulk Edit: Vendor can change product status, allocate disccounts, and more for a bulk amount of products at the same time with this feature.
• Withdraw System for Vendors: There is a minimum amount set by the admin for vendors. Once vendors achieve that amount, they can easily withdraw their income in no time.
• Order Management: This feature helps vendors to easily manage their orders and get notified on every new order. 

3. Top Features for Customers

• Email Notifications: Dokan sends notifications to customers every time when there is a change in order details and status. 
• Multiple Product Category: Dokan lets customers to discover products easily by selecting desired categories in the marketplace.
• Ajax Live Search: Live search is one of the most expected features on an online marketplace. Regardless to say Doakn comes with the Ajax Live Search feature.  
• Follow Store: Dokan allows customers to follow their favorite stores so that they can get updates from their favorite stores.  

35+ Premium Modules of Dokan Multivendor Plugin 

Dokan comes witb 35+ premium modules for you. These are the premium modules that means you can not access and use them while you’re using the Dokan free AKA lite version. Modules are basically implemented to enhance the functionality of your marketplace. 

So, let’s check some of the most popular modules of Dokan multivendor plugin: 

1. Auctions Module: If you want to host an auction for any of your products, you can do that using this premium module. Then customers can bid on your products just like a real-time auction event.  
2. Vendor Staff Manager: You can manage staff, such as adding new staff members, assigning their roles, giving permissions, and managing their access to the vendor dashboard, using this module. 
3. Geolocation Module: This module enables vendors to specify their location, which helps buyers to search for products based on their location. 
4. Product Add-ons Module: If a vendor wants to offer additional product options, such as add-ons, upgrades, and accessories, this module can help him to do that. 
5. Live Search Module: This is one of the most popular module of Dokan. It provides real-time search functionality that helps customers find products quickly and easily. 
6. PDF Invoice Module: PDF invoice is a must for an online transaction. You can use this module to generate invoices automatically for each order. Also, this module lets you customize the invoice layout and design as per your requirements. 
7. Stripe Connect Module: Stripe Connect is another popular module of Dokan multivendor plugin. It enables vendors to receive payments directly from customers using Stripe Connect. It supports various payment methods such as credit cards, Apple Pay, and more.
8. Product Zoom Module: If you want to allow you customers to view a product in more details, you can use this module. This module provides a zoom functionality for each product. 
9. Vendor Subscription Module: This module allows vendors to subscribe to different subscription plans, which provide various benefits such as reduced commission rates, priority support, and more.
10. Product Import-Export Module: Product export-import is very crucial for a vendor. You can use this module to import or export your products in bulk using CSV files. 

Top Integrations, Free Plugins, and Mobile Apps of Dokan Plugin 

To push your marketplace capabilities beyond boundaries, Dokan comes with a few top integrations, free plugins, and mobile apps. Let’s focus on that: 

a) Dokan Integrations

Dokan integrations are completely free to use. You can leverage these integrations to make the best use of Dokan and add some remarkable features to your marketplace. Here are top free integrations for Dokan multivendor plugin: 

• YOAST SEO
• WooCommerce Simple Auction
• WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slip
• YITH WooCommerce Brands Add-Ons

b) Free Plugins

Dokan offers 5 completely free plugins for you. You can use these plugins for different purposes. Let’s check them: 

• Dokan PDF Invoice: You can easily create an unlimited number of invoices using this plugin. This plugin has a dependency on the WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips plugin. 
• Dokan Product Duplicator: This free plugin is used to duplicate products in no time. 
• Dokan WPML Integration: If you want to enable your marketplace to multiple languages, you can use this free plugin. 
• Dokan Vendor Dashboard: You can provide your vendors with a smart dashboard to manage their activities in one place using this plugin. 
• Dokan WC Vendors Migrator: If you want to migrate from WC Vendors marketplace to Dokan multivendor marketplace, you can use this free plugin and get your job done easily. 

c) Dokan Mobile Apps

Dokan comes with two mobile apps for you. Both have different purposes to serve. These are the Dokan mobile apps: 

• Dokan Mobile App: The number of mobile phone users are getting increased everyday. To cope up with this trend, Dokan offers a mobile app. It helps your customers buy their products using their smartphone app rather than logging into your multi-vendor site using the web browser. Dokan mobile app is only available for the Dokan Paid Version.
• Delivery Driver App: The Delivery Driver App is the latest addition to the Dokan ecosystem. You can use this plugin to automatically assign drivers to transport vendor goods from vendor pick-up points to customer doorsteps. Also, delivery driver contact details, status, timeline, and live driver location on Google Maps can be tracked with this app. 

Dokan Support System 

Dokan provides several channels of support to help users with any issues or questions they may have. Here are some of the support options available:

• Documentations: Dokan has a comprehensive knowledge base that provides articles and guides to help users with different aspects of the platform. This resource includes step-by-step tutorials, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and more.
• Community Forum: The Dokan community forum is a place where users can connect with each other, share their experiences, and ask for help. You can join Dokan FB group and follow Dokan Twitter channel to raise your voice if you need any clarification. 
• Email Support: Users can also reach out to Dokan’s support team (support@wedevs.com) via email. The support team typically responds within 24 hours to provide assistance with any issues or questions. 
• Live Chat: For urgent issues, users can also reach out to Dokan’s support team via live chat. 

Overall, Dokan’s support system is designed to be comprehensive and accessible, providing users with the help they need to make the most of the platform.

Dokan Pricing

Like any other multivendor plugin, Dokan also comes with various pricing with several types by businesses in mind. In this way, it makes it quite easier for the users to select their desired pricing plan along with their needs.

Here are the Dokan pricing plans for you: 

• Always Free: As you know Dokan is a freemium plugin, so, you can use this plugin completely free forever by choosing the Always Free plan. 
• Starter ($149/year): Best for creating a full-featured multi-vendor marketplace.
• Professional ($249/year): Do more with Dokan using powerful advanced features.
• Business ($499/year): Best for creating the ultimate and perfect multivendor store.
• Enterprise ($999/year): Perfect for those who are looking to reach greater heights with their marketplace. 

Dokan Pros and Cons 

We already have discussed everything about the Dokan plugin. Having said that let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the Dokan plugin at a glance: 

Pros 

• Dokan is an easy to setup plugin
• Supports multiple vendors in one marketplace
• Allows vendors to manage their own products and orders
• Provides detailed reports and analytics
• Comes with a free integration with a range of third-party plugins and themes
• Provides a customizable storefront for vendors
• Offers a range of payment and shipping options

Cons

• Some features may require additional plugins or addons
• May require some technical knowledge to set up and configure
• Dokan modules are not available for Dokan Lite

How to Use Dokan Plugin- Installation and Configuration 

Installing Dokan is easy. It’s the same as installing any other WordPress plugin. You can either install the plugin from the WordPress dashboard or download the plugin from WordPress.org.

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Plugin → Add New → Click the search. Then type Dokan → Install → Activate.

Dokan will also provide a setup wizard that will help you easily set up your marketplace. Configuring Dokan is very easy by using its own Wizard.

If you still have any confusion go through this video tutorial.

You don’t need to install WooCommerce separately. When you install Dokan, it automatically installs WooCommerce.

Install a Dokan-Compatible Marketplace Theme

Now it’s time to install a Dokan compatible marketplace theme. The good news is that any theme that is compatible with WooCommerce is also compatible with Dokan plugin. However, Dokan has its own theme “Dokani” that you can use for your convenience.

You can find other themes in WP-Admin–> Appearance–> Themes.

Dokan Multivendor Plugin Alternatives 

Here we are going to compare Dokan multivendor plugin with its top 2 competitors using a comparison table. So that, you can check all the crucial data in one place. So, let’s check the table: 

This comparison table is supposed to help you choose the best suited multivendor solution for you. If you take a closer look at this table, you’ll be able to find out who is the winner among these plugins. 

Our Verdict- Is Dokan The Best WordPress Multivendor Plugin? 

It’s tough to say that Dokan is the best WordPress multivendor plugin. But we can show you some points where Dokan is a clear winner. Here are those points: 

• User-Friendly Interface: Dokan has a clean and intuitive user interface that makes it easy for vendors to manage their stores and products. This can save time and reduce the learning curve for new users.
• Customizability: Dokan offers a lot of customization options, including the ability to create custom templates, modify the vendor dashboard, and customize emails and notifications.
• Performance: Dokan is optimized for speed and can handle large amounts of traffic and transactions. This can help to ensure a smooth and seamless experience for vendors and customers.
• Integrations: Dokan integrates with a wide range of third-party plugins and services, including popular payment gateways, shipping providers, and email marketing tools. This can help to streamline your business processes and make it easier to manage your marketplace.
• Competitive Pricing: Dokan offers competitive pricing plans that are affordable for small and medium-sized businesses. It also offers a free version of its plugin with basic features, making it accessible for new businesses or those on a tight budget.

Ultimately, the decision to use Dokan over other multivendor plugins will depend on your specific needs and requirements for your online marketplace. It’s important to do your research, compare features and pricing, and read user reviews before making a decision.