Askshelf vs WooCommerce Analytics

If you want full reports, every row and a CSV you can take into a spreadsheet, use WooCommerce Analytics: it's free and already in your store. If you want to type a question ("how did October compare with last October?", "what sells out in the next two weeks?") and get a short answer with the numbers behind it, add Askshelf. They aren't rivals. Askshelf reads its numbers through Analytics, so most stores that use Askshelf still use Analytics.

This page covers what each does, where Analytics is the better tool, where asking is faster, and what each costs.

At a glance

What WooCommerce Analytics does well

WooCommerce Analytics is the reporting area under Analytics in WordPress admin. It's part of the free core plugin, and for most everyday reporting it's all you need.

• Every number, in a table. The Revenue report breaks each day, week or month into gross sales, returns, coupons, net sales, taxes, shipping and total sales. Products, Variations and Categories show units and revenue for every item, not only the top few.
• Compare any two periods. The date picker's Compare to option sets the current range against the previous period or the previous year, in both the chart and the table.
• Filters. Advanced filters let you narrow a report, for example to products in one category or customers in one country.
• CSV export. Every report has a Download button. Small tables download straight away, and larger exports run in the background and arrive by email.
• Customer details. The Customers report (WooCommerce › Customers) lists each customer's name, email, orders, total spend and location, including guest buyers.
• Stock status. Analytics › Stock lists products by Out of stock, Low stock, In stock and On backorder.

It also has limits. Core Analytics has no profit or margin report, no sales by weekday, hour or payment method, no new-vs-returning or repeat-rate report and no forecast of when products will sell out. It has no order attribution report either: since WooCommerce 8.5 each order records where it came from, but to see totals by channel you open orders one by one, export them, or add an extension. Woo now offers a separate, free WooCommerce Analytics extension (in early access as of November 2026) that adds five attribution reports. Woo's listing says that extension syncs your data to a separate system to build them, and that it's designed for single-currency stores.

Where WooCommerce Analytics is the better choice

Use Analytics, not Askshelf, when you need:

• A full table or an export. Askshelf answers a question; it doesn't hand you every row. Bookkeeping, a spreadsheet model, or sharing raw numbers with an accountant all start with Download in Analytics.
• Tax, download or variation reports. Askshelf doesn't break sales down by tax rate, tag, region or variation attributes such as size or colour, and has no downloads report. Analytics covers tax, downloads and variations with its own reports and filters.
• Anything about individual customers. Who your top spenders are, a customer's order history, emails for a win-back list: that's the Customers report. Askshelf deliberately never reads names, emails, phone numbers or addresses.
• Browsing. If you like to scan a report, sort columns and notice things, a table is better than a conversation.
• No extra cost. If ten questions a month wouldn't cover you and the reports already answer what you need, Analytics costs nothing.

Where Askshelf fits

Askshelf adds Analytics › Askshelf to WordPress admin. You type a question, and it answers in a sentence or two with the numbers behind it, a chart where one helps, and the lookups it made so you can check them. Because it reads data through Analytics, it counts the same order statuses, takes refunds out and uses your store's time zone. It's read-only and can't change anything in your store.

It helps most in four situations.

When the answer needs two or three reports. "How did last month compare with the same month last year, and which products drove it?" means a Revenue report, a Products report and some mental arithmetic. Askshelf runs both lookups and writes the answer:

When core Analytics has no report for it. Several of Askshelf's lookups cover gaps in core. Two of them:

• Orders by channel. Askshelf groups orders and net sales by order attribution source type, UTM source, medium, campaign or device, straight from the data WooCommerce already records. The guide on which channels bring the most orders shows the manual way too.
• Stock runway. Askshelf lists products and variations that will run out within a number of days, from current stock and the recent sales rate. Analytics shows what's low today; it doesn't forecast. See how to find products about to sell out.

When you just want a quick number. "How many orders today?" reads today's orders live, without waiting for Analytics to catch up. "Did the SPRING10 coupon pay off?" returns that code's orders, discount and net sales.

When core Analytics doesn't report it at all. Askshelf also answers gross profit and margin (with WooCommerce's Cost of Goods Sold turned on), sales by weekday, hour or payment method, new vs returning customers with the repeat purchase rate, and products with stock that hasn't sold in a while, with the money tied up in them. The profit figure leaves out shipping costs, payment fees and ad spend.

What Askshelf can't do: anything about named customers, cohort tables, sales by tag or region, and exports. For those, Analytics (or a spreadsheet built from its exports) is the place to go.

It also gives you a free store snapshot at the top of its page and as a WordPress Dashboard widget: the last 7 days against the 7 before, stock running out and stock value, with no question and no AI. An optional weekly email sends the same snapshot every Monday.

They share the same numbers, and the same quirks

Because Askshelf is built on Analytics' figures, the two should agree. That also means Analytics' quirks carry over:

• Orders with a status listed under Analytics › Settings › Excluded statuses are left out of both.
• Refunds count on the refund date, not the order date.
• If Analytics hasn't imported older orders, Askshelf won't see them either. Run Import historical data under Analytics › Settings.

If your numbers look off in one, they'll look off in the other. The guide on why Analytics numbers don't match your orders covers the usual causes, and net sales explains the figure both tools lead with.

What each costs

WooCommerce Analytics is free as part of WooCommerce core, as of November 2026. Woo's separate attribution extension is also listed as free to install.

Askshelf is free for 10 questions a month, with paid plans for more questions. Every plan has every lookup. See pricing for the current plans.

Using them together

A simple routine many owners settle into:

1. Ask Askshelf the Monday questions: how last week went, what's selling, what's about to run out, which channel brought orders.
2. Open Analytics when an answer needs a closer look: a category breakdown, a full product list, or a CSV for your accountant.
3. Check the lookups Askshelf shows against the matching Analytics report whenever a number surprises you. They read the same data, so they should match.

For a tour of everything core reporting can do, start with the WooCommerce sales reports guide.