The Prices by Country plugin and the Currency Switcher may look similar, but they serve different purposes. This article will explain the differences, and how the two can be used together.


1. Prices by Country

The Prices by Country plugin allows to create regions (i.e. sets of countries), and set a different product price for each of those regions. It also allows to set some products as "unavailable" to specific regions. It doesn't add currencies.


Example

When you use the Prices by Country plugin, and your site's currency is USD, you could set prices as follows:

  • Product A: 100 USD for North America, 150 USD for Europe, 200 USD for Australia.
  • Product B: 90 USD for North America, 110 USD for Europe, unavailable to Australia. 
  • Product C: unavailable to North America, 80 USD for Europe, 90 USD for Australia.

As a result

  • A customer from North America will pay 100 USD for Product A, 90 USD for Product B, and won't be allowed to buy Product C. 
  • A customer from Europe will pay 150, 110 and 80 USD for Products A, B and C, respectively.
  • A customer from Australia will pay 200 USD for Product A, won't be able to buy Product B, and will pay 90 USD for product C.


2. Currency Switcher

The Currency Switcher allows to set prices in multiple currencies, which apply to all customers, worldwide. For example:

  • Product A: 100 USD, 90 EUR, 80 GBP
  • Product B: 90 USD, 70 EUR, 65 GBP.
  • Product C: 50 USD, 40 EUR, 40 GBP.
As a result, a customer from any country would pay the price USD, EUR or GBP, simply by selecting the currency. 

Note
Some of our clients "lock" their buyers to a specific currency, depending on the region. This is possible with our Currency Switcher, but it's something we tend to discourage, as it can impact on conversion. For example, an EU citizen might be in the US temporarily. He might need something shipped to the US, but still want to pay in EUR. If the currency is "locked" depending on the country, he will be forced to pay in USD, and most likely abandon the purchase.


Another key difference is that the Currency Switcher doesn't have a an "availability by currency" feature (e.g. "Product A can be only bought in USD"), because it makes little sense to customers. Usually, a product is available to a customer, or it's not (for example, by region), regardless of the currency chosen for the payment.


3. Using both plugins together

The Prices by Country plugin and the Currency Switcher are designed to work together. If you install them both, you will get both feature sets, and you will be able to set product prices in USD, EUR and GBP, independently for each region, as well as set products' availability for each region.


You can buy the Prices by Country plugin and the Currency Switcher from our online shop.