While online stores provide convenience, require less overhead, and offer online exposure to a global market, many customers still enjoy the experience of shopping at a physical location. Often businesses utilize WordPress as it is a convenient content management system (CMS) that allows non-developers to manage various aspects of the site in an easy and straightforward manner. Website […]
Jul 01, 2020 | 12 min. read
While online stores provide convenience, require less overhead, and offer online exposure to a global market, many customers still enjoy the experience of shopping at a physical location. Often businesses utilize WordPress as it is a convenient content management system (CMS) that allows non-developers to manage various aspects of the site in an easy and straightforward manner.
Website plugins are available for WordPress allowing business owners to add functionality to their website with limited to no coding experience required, empowering them with the tools necessary to effectively manage their online presence without needing to spend hours learning how to hard-code them in.
Many business owners with brick and mortar shops are in need of locator plugins that show the customer where their physical locations are placed around the globe. There are many WordPress plugins that allow you to harness the power of Google Maps and create custom maps and markers that indicate your business’s physical stores, provide directions, business hours, and more. There are so many WordPress store locator plugins to choose from that it may be difficult to find the one that’s right for you.
Below is a list of some of our favorite WordPress store locator plugins with pros, cons, and plugin details for each:
Rated 2.9/5 Stars
SimpleMap Store Locator is a popular store locator plugin for WordPress that’s designed to be intuitive and highly customizable. This specific plugin has garnered over 2,000 downloads with a rating of 2.9/5 stars. Unfortunately, this plugin has not been tested with the last 3 recent versions of WordPress. This plugin may be incompatible when used with more recent versions of WordPress. The positive aspects of using this particular plugin are that you will be provided with extensive customer support and will find that the plugin is simple to install.
There are, however, several problems that users have found with the Simple Map Store Locator plugin. The main issue that you should be aware of is that the plugin doesn’t have as many features as other store locator plugins. Updates are no longer made to the plugin, which means that additional features won’t be added in the future.
The main features of this plugin include:
Rated 4.5/5 Stars
The 10Web Map Builder for Google Maps plugin is a fantastic store locator that has more than 10,000 active installations and has built up a rating of 4.5/5, which indicates that most customers are satisfied with the plugin. This plugin was updated within the last 2 months. The goal of this plugin is to combine simplicity and quality while providing site owners with the ability to add an unlimited number of maps to their websites. A notable aspect of this particular plugin is that many features that would typically be available in a premium version are provided in the free version.
The 10Web Map Builder for Google Maps plugin comes with many tangible benefits, which include reliability, a user-friendly interface, high amounts of customization, and timely customer support. Keep in mind that there are several issues with this plugin, the primary of which is that the plugin can be buggy after each update. While most of these bugs and issues are eventually corrected, they can make using the plugin difficult at times.
The many useful features of this plugin extend to:
Having been around for just under 6 years, MapifyPro has grown into one of the most popular store locator tools available. MapifyPro’s most common use is in implementing a beautiful store locator, but it is fully equipped to handle any map-based project.
If you’re looking for the perfect store locator, a way to document your adventures, or if you simply want to showcase an event directly on the place where it was captured (GoPro videos, drone footage, vacation highlights), then MapifyPro just might be the perfect fit. And hey, they offer a 5 day money-back guarantee, and even a free version, so it never hurts to give it a go.
Rated 4.4/5 Stars
Locatoraid is primarily a store and zip code locator plugin that allows customers on your website to search for businesses within the vicinity of their current location. This plugin was updated one month ago. This WordPress store locator plugin is designed to work with all business types, from restaurants and hotels to stores and dealerships. When being used by the customer, this plugin will take the zip code or address that the customer has typed in and return a number of matches, which can be sorted by the exact distance to the destination from the customer’s current location.
Locatoraid is very mobile-friendly and works worldwide, allowing it to be used by your entire customer-base. This plugin is currently actively installed by over 2,000 WordPress websites (double from last year) and has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars.
Two versions are offered with these WordPress store locator plugin, including a lite version and pro version. The lite version includes:
If you choose the pro version, you’ll benefit from:
Rated 4.5/5 Stars
Google Maps WD is a WordPress store locator plugin that’s been designed around Google Maps and is made to be very user-friendly and responsive, which means that it can be used on any device with ease. This plugin was updated 2 months ago. One of the more notable aspects of this plugin is that you’re provided with the ability to add an unlimited number of maps to your website and individual pages or blog posts within.
This comprehensive plugin provides you with full control over how every feature and facet of it is used, which is part of the reason why it’s actively installed on over 10,000 websites. When the user scrolls over a location on the map, they’ll be presented with the name of the destination as well as additional information such as a description of the place and the address. With a current rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, you can be confident that you’ve chosen a plugin that works well.
As with many of the WordPress store locator plugins on this list, Google Maps WD offers two separate versions that you can select from, including the base install version and Google Maps Pro, both of which provide you with numerous features. For instance, the base installation provides you with:
On the other hand, the pro version adds a litany of additional features like:
Rated 4.6/5 Stars
Leaflet Maps Marker is a unique WordPress store locator plugin that’s notable for allowing you to use any base map of your choice when implementing the plugin on your site, including Bing maps, Google Maps, Open Street map, and Mapbox. This plugin also offers you access to over 1,000 free and customizable icons that you can use on your maps. This plugin was updated within the last 3 months.
With more than 30,000 active installations, this plugin is among the most popular WordPress store locator plugins available and has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. The plugin can be used by any website or business, but is especially beneficial if your business has dozens of locations around the country. If you select the Maps Marker Pro version, you can use this plugin with 25 separate domains.
The primary feature list of this plugin includes:
Rated 4.8/5 Stars
WP Store Locator is a highly recommended WordPress store locator plugin that has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars and is actively installed on more than 60,000 websites. This location management system is very easy to use and allows you to manage an unlimited number of stores, while also being compatible with a variety of other multilingual plugins such as qTranslate X and WPML. This plugin was updated within the last 4 weeks. The code used with this plugin is very developer-friendly, as it allows you to use custom post types and nearly 30 unique filters that can immediately change the appearance of your store locator. Customers will be able to filter their search results by radius and will be provided with directions to the store that’s located nearest to them.
A couple of the premium add-ons that you can select from this plugin include a search widget that allows the customer to search for nearby locations from numerous areas on the website and a CSV manager that allows for the export, import, and update of all of your locations via a CSV file.
The main feature-set included with the base plugin provides you with:
Rating 4.7/5 Stars
WP Google Maps is a widely used Google Maps plugin that has more than 400,000 active installations as well as a high rating of 4.7/5 stars. With this tool, you can add a Google Map to your site content with a simple short code that’s easy to add to any WordPress website. This plugin was updated within the last 2 months. The top reasons why you should use WP Google Maps include fantastic customer support, comprehensive customization and flexibility, and the ability to create a map in less than 30 seconds.
As for the negative aspects of this plugin, the only downside to using this plugin is that the free version may not offer all of the features that you want from a store locator. To that end, there are some premium features that you might want to know about. When you purchase the premium version of this plugin, you’ll be provided with additional features and functionality like custom fields, videos, heat maps, custom markers, direction waypoints, and a modern UI.
The core features that are provided to users of the free version of this plugin include:
Rated 4.9/5 Stars
Agile Store Locator is a comprehensive plugin that’s fully responsive and provides users with access to all stores in their local area through Google Maps V3. This plugin currently has more than 7,000 active installations and has a very high rating of 4.9/5 stars. A premium version of this plugin is available that provides extra features like an interactive Google Maps template, additional templates for real estate and deals, five themes, and numerous layouts.
There are many different pros and cons that come with using the Agile Store Locator plugin for your store locator needs. The main benefits of using this particular plugin include the fact that the plugin is easy to use and install. It also comes with great support and provides users with the ability to add unlimited maps to their website. This plugin was updated within the last 3 weeks. On the other hand, there are several issues with the plugin that you should be aware of. For instance, there aren’t many language options. The features provided with the free version may not give you everything you need from a store locator.
Some of the core features of the Agile Store Locator plugin include:
The answer is all of them! At the end of the day, there are many plugins that work extremely well and are supported by a community of thousands of developers around the globe. With many resources at your disposal, you must determine which plugin has a feature set that fits the needs and goals of your business.
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