Kelley Muro North Commerce Review: Better Than WooCommerce?

Kelley Muro’s North Commerce is a SaaS for WordPress-based ecommerce stores. In 2025, they launched the $0-$1k / Day System and Community program. The program features live coaching, frameworks, templates, and access to the Facebook and Discord community. It is not a module-based, self-paced course. Instead, it is meant to travel alongside you on your journey through store creation and performance optimization.

North Commerce reviews are positive. It has a rating of 4.8/5 on AppSumo and 4.9/5 on FiveTaco. Users like the smooth UI, ease of use, and fast page load times. However, it’s taken a long time to develop and there’s limited 3rd party plugin support. Reddit users have reported issues with transitioning their existing stores to Kelley’s system.

I’ve sold both digital and physical products online for over a decade. I made 6-figure businesses selling on platforms like Amazon and Shopify. Ecommerce is getting more challenging as ad costs and platform fees increase and markets get saturated.

North Commerce Pros and Cons

Pros

• Private Discord channel and Facebook group with over 600 members
• Faster speed performance compared to WooCommerce
• Removes dependency on plug-ins

Cons

• Slow development time
• Integration and plugin support limitations
• Lack of tutorials and documentation for new users migrating from WooCommerce

Price: North Commerce costs $499. The $0-$1k/Day System and Community program costs $997.

Refund Policy: North Commerce has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Origin: North Commerce was launched in 2021.

Reputation: North Commerce has a positive reputation among the users.

Is North Commerce Better Than WooCommerce?

North Commerce is better than WooCommerce when it comes to speed and simplicity. However, it lacks the in-depth customization that WooCommerce extensions offer. Here is a simplified comparison of WooCommerce and North Commerce.

North Commerce is still in development and is not as stable as WooCommerce. For example, North Commerce has limited region-specific payment gateway options compared to the 140+ with WooCommerce. WooCommerce has a dedicated mobile app for iOS and Android for store management, while North Commerce does not. Some integrations (like Mailchimp) are not yet fully built in the current version of North Commerce.

North Commerce’s development seems to be on hold or stopped. There have been no updates since August 2024, as reflected in the roadmap. This presents the risk that the project might be abandoned.

KnightBizPro’s Experience With North Commerce

An AppSumo user with the name KnightBizPro shared their experience using North Commerce. After following the development for months, they decided to try North Commerce as an alternative to WooCommerce. The user liked the clean UI and faster loading speeds. They highlighted the checkout pages as being fast and efficient. Their biggest concern was the slow development speed and lack of 3rd party support plugins.

What Is Included With The $0-$1k/Day System and Community Program?

• The $0-$1k/Day System training on ecommerce and automation
• Manufacturing communication framework for contacting and negotiating with suppliers
• Influencer outreach templates to help you contact and make deals for influencer marketing
• Access to North Commerce’s Facebook and Discord community

What Are the Features of North Commerce?

Storefront Customization

• WordPress integrated store for physical and digital products
• Works with WordPress block editor, Bricks, Beaver Builder
• API access for custom extensions
• Zapier and webhook integrations
• Fast load times optimized for WordPress

Product Management

• Pre-built product and page templates
• Supports product variations (size, color, images, text)
• Multiple shipping methods with advanced shipping options
• Daily USPS pickups
• Fulfillment centers with unlimited shipping locations

Checkout

• Simplified 3-step customer info collection
• Single-page checkout process
• Address autocomplete feature
• Automatic and manual tax calculations for US and EU
• Integrated payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie
• No transaction fees aside from payment processing

Customer Communication

• Customizable automated email notifications (order confirmation, invoices, edits)
• Customizable HTML email templates
• Automated order status notifications

Built-in Analytics

• Customer behavior tracking
• Sales and growth opportunity monitoring

Who Is Kelley Muro?

Kelley Muro is a self-taught technical digital marketer and developer from Gilbert, Arizona. He has made over $35 million in revenue by building and scaling membership websites, ecommerce stores, and SaaS (North Commerce). Some brands he worked with include Haircation, Malibu Presets, The Perfect Clean, and EcoGuard Pest. His technical skills include the use of WordPress, JavaScript, HTML, CSS / SASS, PHP, MongoDB, and SQL.

Kelley saw the limitations of platforms like WooCommerce while working on ecommerce stores. His experiences led him to develop his own ecommerce SaaS, North Commerce, in 2021. It is meant to eliminate the issues of plugin dependency and complexity of platforms like WooCommerce. Kelley has spoken at several industry events including CloudFest USA 2024.

What Is Kelley Muro’s Claims About North Commerce?

• Replace Shopify in 1 to 2 years
• Zero-effort scaling
• Comparable to $100K builds

Debunking Kelley’s North Commerce Claims

• Shopify has over 2 million active stores, with an established infrastructure, and an extensive app ecosystem. North Commerce is still in development since 2021. It still lacks established integrations (POS, fulfillment, shipping APIs). To compete with Shopify, North Commerce needs massive funding, support team, international server presence, and many more improvements.
• WordPress itself often requires technical setup and powerful hosting , like Kinsta, to scale properly. Scaling requires monitoring and regular tuning. Any technical product that claims “zero-effort scaling” is setting unrealistic expectations.
• Shopify + Remix or Swell $100K builds often involve custom frontends (Hydrogen, React-based), advanced APIs, and enterprise-level features (PIMs, headless CMS, AI search, personalization, etc.) North Commerce does not currently offer the same capabilities.

The claims Kelley makes about North Commerce are far from reality in its current state. North Commerce would take a lot more updates and further development to reach those capabilities. In its current state, it only has basic features and is focused on simplicity.

Ecommerce VS Digital Marketing

• Initial investment: Ecommerce involves inventory, platform, marketing, and fulfillment costs. Digital marketing costs include tools and workspace.
• Revenue model: You need to sell products to make money in ecommerce. With digital marketing, you can charge monthly or project based.
• Income: With ecommerce, you earn with each sale based on your profit margin. With digital marketing, you earn a commission by promoting products or by generating leads.
• Scalability: Ecommerce growth involves increased investment in inventory, brand building, and automation. Digital marketing scaling involves outsourcing and AI automation.
• Skill requirements: Ecommerce involves skills like inventory management, customer support, and supplier negotiation. Digital marketing involves technical and specialized skills SEO, paid ads, and social media marketing.

With ecommerce vs digital marketing , it comes down to your preference and goals. Ecommerce is great if you have a large capital to invest. If you have more time than capital, digital marketing is the best choice.

My Number 1 Business Model

Local lead generation is my number 1 business model because of its recurring income and scalability. It is a type of digital marketing business combined with digital real estate. Compared to ecommerce, it creates predictable monthly cash flow with zero selling or marketing. It is low cost, as there is no inventory or paid marketing involved. Its passive nature makes it easy to scale without adding risks or costs.

You can start a local lead generation business with as low as $500 in initial investment and costs as little as $30 a month to maintain. Use local SEO tactics to rank niche sites. Once ranked and attracting organic traffic, you rent it out to local businesses and earn $500 to $3,000 a month. To scale, just repeat the rank-and-rent process. This is how I created a local lead generation business that earns me over $52K a month of passive income.