Like many WordPress developers, I’ve had my fair share of frustration with WooCommerce when it comes to something that should be simple: exporting product data—especially product categories.
Recently, I stumbled across a blog post on WP Desk that outlined how challenging it can be to export WooCommerce product categories, especially in bulk. While the article offered some guidance, it also leaned heavily toward paid plugin solutions—some costing $79 or more per year.
Let’s be honest: not everyone wants to pay just to export their own data.
🧩 The Problem: Exporting WooCommerce Product Data Isn’t Easy
By default, WooCommerce lets you export products, but the category structure, custom metadata, relationships, and plugin data often get left behind. If you’re trying to migrate or back up your store, this leads to a broken import or hours of manual work.
The paid plugins do a great job, but for small store owners or developers who just need a clean backup or want to move data between environments, paying for something so basic feels… unnecessary.
💸 The Cost of Paid Plugins
Some popular plugins that offer full export/import features include:
- Product CSV Import Suite – $79/year
- WP All Export Pro – $149/year
- Advanced Product Import Export – $69/year
These tools are powerful, but if you just want to grab your data, save a backup, or move from staging to production, they can feel like overkill.
🔧 My Solution: The CCMS Woo Export/Import Tool (Free, Fast & Flexible)
After reading that WP Desk post and running into this wall myself on a client project, I decided to build my own tool: a simple, PHP-based export script that gives you total control over your WooCommerce data—without paying a dime.
You can read the full instructions in the README file here, but here’s what it does:
- 🗃️ Exports all WooCommerce product data to a clean
.sqlfile. - 🌐 Ideal for backups or migration to a new host, domain, or database.
- 🖼️ Reminds you to copy the uploads folder, where all product images live.
- ⚠️ Includes a warning for third-party plugins that may use subdirectories.
Whether you’re a developer or store owner, this tool can save you time, money, and a whole lot of hassle.
🧠 Why I’m Making This Free
Too many core WooCommerce functions are locked behind paywalls. As a developer and founder of CCMS High Tech, I believe that open-source should mean accessible. That includes giving people the tools to own and move their data without restrictions.
This script is my way of giving back and making life easier for anyone working with WooCommerce.
🚀 Get the Script
The tool is called:
CCMS Woo Export/Import Tool
✍️ Written by Joseph Charnin
🌐 josephcharnin.com
You can grab it and follow the instructions here: View on GitHub / Download Page
📬 Questions or Feedback?
If you find this useful—or run into issues—feel free to reach out. I’m always open to feedback, feature requests, or just talking shop.
Let’s make the WordPress ecosystem more developer-friendly, one free tool at a time.