Are you looking for a clearer and more convenient way to compare items on your website?
Perhaps you want to give your visitors an easy way to compare two more options and then choose the one that’s best for them. If so, pricing tables could be just what you’re looking for.
Although pricing tables are ideal for anyone selling items from their website, that’s not their only use.
If you’re writing about products, services, or anything else that can be compared, displaying the key features or characteristics of those items, side by side, in a pricing table format, gives your audience an easy way to make an informed decision on which one is best.
Thankfully, it’s very easy to create pricing or comparison tables in WordPress, whether you want to install a plugin or not.
Creating a Pricing Table without a Plugin
Most of this guide will focus on using a WordPress pricing table plugin. This is because these tools let you create more advanced pricing tables compared to what you can do with WordPress by default.
However, if your needs are modest, or you don’t want to add another plugin to your site, the core WordPress pricing table functionality is worth checking out. Also, as it’s a relatively recent addition, it’s not something everyone is familiar with.
Unlike how most WordPress pricing table plugins work, the way that you build a pricing table in WordPress without a plugin is to simply add the pricing table pattern to your post or page.
You can then swap out the placeholder text with your own content. You can also change the appearance of the table. However, you don’t get access to some of the features that are included with the best pricing table plugins for WordPress.
How to Use the WordPress Pricing Table Pattern
Before we look at the plugins, let’s look at the core functionality of WordPress. To get started, create a new post or page, or open an existing one for editing.
From the Page Editor, click on the Block Inserter icon on the left side of the top menu.
Then type “pricing table” in the search field to filter the options and find the Pricing Table pattern.
Next, click on the pricing table pattern, and it will be added to your post or page.
You can then edit the table by clicking on it and interacting with the text. Opening the settings panel by clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen, gives you more options.
For some readers, that might be all the pricing table functionality you need.
However, if you’d like the ability to create a pricing table and then display it on multiple parts of your site, as well as have more control over how your table looks and functions, then a plugin might be a better option.
Choose a Pricing Table Plugin
Perhaps the most challenging part of adding a pricing table to a WordPress site these days is choosing which plugin to use.
There are some great free plugins out there, not to mention the many paid options.
Among the free options, these plugins stand out due to a combination of the number of active installs and ratings from users:
- Pricing Table by Supsystic
- Pricing Tables WordPress Plugin – Easy Pricing Tables by Fatcat Apps
- Responsive Pricing Table by WP Darko
They’re all easy to use, have a good set of features, and are being used on lots of sites. They all have positive ratings from users, too.
Choosing between the best options will be a matter of preference, and you can read more about their features and differences in this pricing table plugin comparison I wrote for another site.
However, this guide will use the freemium Responsive Pricing Table by WP Darko.
Install the Pricing Table Plugin
To get started, you can install the plugin directory from inside your WordPress dashboard. After logging in, click on Plugins → Add New from the sidebar menu.
Then search for “Responsive Pricing Table.”
Once you’ve found the plugin, click on the Install Now button, then the Activate button.
Create a Pricing Table
Once the plugin is installed on your site, it’s time to create your first pricing table.
To do so, click on Pricing Tables → Add New from the WordPress admin dashboard sidebar menu.
Create the First Pricing Table Column
Once the Add New Pricing Table screen is displayed, you can give your table a name, then click on the Add a pricing plan button. With this plugin, you add each table column individually.
You can start by populating the table column with the different products, offers, or other content you want it to display. First up is the column Title, Subtitle, Short description, Price, and Frequency. You can ignore the fields that aren’t relevant to the items you’re adding to your table.
You can also add features to your table by clicking on the Add feature button. Each time you want to add a new feature, click on the button again.
These features will be displayed in separate rows, in a list under the main information about the item you’re adding. If you’d like to get an idea of what your table will look like, you can press the Instant preview button at any time.
Back to the table editor. If you want to display a button on your table, you can define how it will be displayed by adding button text, a button URL, and any custom code, such as a PayPal snippet.
In the next section of the plugin interface, you can decide whether you’d like to make this column of the table stand out from the others by choosing to highlight the plan from the dropdown menu. You can also set the button color for this column and whether or not to show the currency symbol. The currency you’ll be using can be added in the Settings panel at the top right of the screen.
Feel free to preview your column to see how it looks before pressing the Save Draft button on the Publish panel on the right of the screen.
If you’re happy with how the first column of your pricing table looks, click on the Add a pricing plan button to start work on the next column.
Adding Additional Table Columns
Now, you can add additional columns to the table in the same way. If you’d like to minimize the clutter on the screen a little, you can click on the Collapse all button at the top of the page. This will collapse or hide all of the fields from the other columns or plans. You can then expand the one you’re working on, leaving the others hidden.
The clone button comes in handy if you want to make a copy of a column and then make a few changes to the copy rather than starting from scratch each time.
Customizing the Table Appearance
You can make changes to the appearance of your pricing table via the Settings panel on the right of the screen. After expanding the panel, you can change whether the table uses fonts from the plugin or your theme. You can also change the size of the table text.
Publishing the Table
When you’re ready, you can make your table available so that it can be added to your posts and pages by clicking on the Publish button on the bottom right of the screen.
After you’ve published the table, the table’s shortcode will be displayed.
You can then copy the shortcode and paste it into a post or page to display the table on your site. Due to the way shortcodes work, if you make any changes to the table, those changes will be automatically applied to any instances of that table on your site.
To add the table to a post or page, copy the shortcode. Then either create a new post or page or open an existing one for editing.
You can now paste the shortcode into the content area of the WordPress Page Editor.
Now, when you publish the page, the shortcode will be replaced by the table.
If you need to make any changes to the table, you can find it by clicking on Pricing Tables → All Pricing Tables.
As there’s a paid version of the plugin, you can unlock additional features, such as adding pricing toggles that let visitors switch between monthly and annual prices, different design skins, and hover-activated tooltips for displaying more information.
Summary
Now, you know two ways to add pricing tables to WordPress. The first way, using the WordPress Pricing Table block pattern, is the most straightforward.
Some readers, however, might prefer using a plugin and creating their pricing tables outside of the WordPress Page Editor and then using the shortcode to insert the tables into your posts and pages. Plugins do tend to have a few more features than the built-in WordPress pricing table-building capabilities.
Some readers might even be better served by creating a regular table. If so, you can read our guide on using tables in WordPress here.
If you have any questions about pricing tables, please leave a comment below.
