What is the maximum amount of products an Alidropship can serve?

[Leo237]

Hello,

If we assume that I use the most powerful server among the existing ones, how many products can the Alidropship serve?

- Is there any limit on the number of daily updated products?
- Can the Aliexpress ban my server's IP address? If so, in what cases is it possible and how to avoid it?

Thanks

 

[Christina]

Hello,

If we assume that I use the most powerful server among the existing ones, how many products can the Alidropship serve?

- Is there any limit on the number of daily updated products?
- Can the Aliexpress ban my server's IP address? If so, in what cases is it possible and how to avoid it?

Thanks

Even if you're using the most powerful server, there are other things which can impact. WordPress, for example, has its own limit for updating.

As for the AliExpress, we can't give you an appropriate answer, because it is a third-party company.

 

[Leo237]

Even if you're using the most powerful server, there are other things which can impact. WordPress, for example, has its own limit for updating.

As for the AliExpress, we can't give you an appropriate answer, because it is a third-party company.

I tried to comprehend your answer, but I could not. Excuse me. Let's try to detail every aspect of this question.

1. Regarding Wordpress / Woocommerce Limits.

I studied this question and found the following information.

1.1. Woocommerce official position:

What is the maximum WooCommerce can handle?
Sky is the limit. We’ve seen instances of shops with 100,000+ products listed, handling thousands of transactions per minute. In those cases, they had great hosting support and their own developer team focused on optimization.
https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-scaling-faqs/

1.2. The results of testing the store with a large number of products:

General conclusion on “How many products can WooCommerce handle?”
In this research , we’ve tested the load speed of WooCommerce without the use of any cache plugins or custom hosting settings, which obviously influenced the results. In the following articles, we will explore the possibilities of caching and optimizing the store through hosting settings.

In general, it’s obvious that WooCommerce can cope with the large product bases and, if properly configured, can work with the bases of 50K, 100K or more products.
https://premmerce.com/many-products-can-woocommerce-handle/

This information leads us to conclude that Woocommerce can function normally with 50k-100k products.


2. Regarding Alidropship import / update limits

I think that the bottleneck of Wordpress (Woocommerce) / Alidropship interaction is not any Alidropship restrictions, but restrictions that Ali places on the number and duration of connections from one IP address.

Yaros tried to answer this question here. According to this topic, it took 8 hours to upgrade 1,200 products. Assuming that Ali does not block the IP address from which updates are made, you can update 3600 products within 24 hours. This number could be used as a starting point to determine the maximum amount of product that can be updated from a single IP address per day..

Today I received a message from Sergey (Alidropship), in which he writes that the import and update of products occur from the local address of the computer (via Chrome plugin).

In this regard, I have a question: can I use VPN and several Ali accounts in order to run several parallel update streams?

I will be grateful for the concrete answer, without the general reasonings.

Thank you!

 

[Christina]

I tried to comprehend your answer, but I could not. Excuse me. Let's try to detail every aspect of this question.

1. Regarding Wordpress / Woocommerce Limits.

I studied this question and found the following information.

1.1. Woocommerce official position:

What is the maximum WooCommerce can handle?
Sky is the limit. We’ve seen instances of shops with 100,000+ products listed, handling thousands of transactions per minute. In those cases, they had great hosting support and their own developer team focused on optimization.
https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-scaling-faqs/

1.2. The results of testing the store with a large number of products:

General conclusion on “How many products can WooCommerce handle?”
In this research , we’ve tested the load speed of WooCommerce without the use of any cache plugins or custom hosting settings, which obviously influenced the results. In the following articles, we will explore the possibilities of caching and optimizing the store through hosting settings.

In general, it’s obvious that WooCommerce can cope with the large product bases and, if properly configured, can work with the bases of 50K, 100K or more products.
https://premmerce.com/many-products-can-woocommerce-handle/

This information leads us to conclude that Woocommerce can function normally with 50k-100k products.


2. Regarding Alidropship import / update limits

I think that the bottleneck of Wordpress (Woocommerce) / Alidropship interaction is not any Alidropship restrictions, but restrictions that Ali places on the number and duration of connections from one IP address.

Yaros tried to answer this question here. According to this topic, it took 8 hours to upgrade 1,200 products. Assuming that Ali does not block the IP address from which updates are made, you can update 3600 products within 24 hours. This number could be used as a starting point to determine the maximum amount of product that can be updated from a single IP address per day..

Technically there is not limitation on how many products you can have on your site. Aldiropship plugin does not limit you in that regard. However we recommend to work with no more than about 1000 products due Wordpress limitations. More products can slow down your site regardless of what hosting you are using. If you are going to use Wocommerce and Alidropship Woo version, you can divide that number by 2 due to Wocommerce import process.

Today I received a message from Sergey (Alidropship), in which he writes that the import and update of products occur from the local address of the computer (via Chrome plugin).

In this regard, I have a question: can I use VPN and several Ali accounts in order to run several parallel update streams?

Suppose that using VPN and several AliExpress account makes no sense and doesn't accelerate updating process. Moreover simultaneous using several AliExpress account might result in incorrect plugin work.

 

[Leo237]

"...However we recommend to work with no more than about 1000 products due Wordpress limitations. More products can slow down your site regardless of what hosting you are using. If you are going to use Wocommerce and Alidropship Woo version, you can divide that number by 2 due to Wocommerce import process.

Ok, now I am summarizing all the information received from you. If I understand correctly, the official position of AilDropship, expressed by you, is expressed by the following formula:

WordPress + Woocommerce + AliDropship = up to 500 products

This is very puzzling to me. Now, when I see on Ali2Woo, a service plan that supports up to 30,000 products, I think the Gods are working there . After your description of all the limitations of WP and Woo, the figure of 30,000 products looks like the feats of Hercules.

 

[Mika]

I have ALiDropship + WordPress + Woocommerce site running ok with 600 products. Increasing product count towards 1000... No any issues yet!
I have also two WordPress + Woocommerce sites both running ok with over 5000 products, however those update using custom script and not from AliExpress. I use dedicated 16xprocessor server and one of those 5000+ product sites uses Google Cloud. There is no significant speed difference.

If you have issues with site speed / updating products etc., I suggest to look at security/firewall side. I found out my sites being brute froce attaced rugularly, which slowed down them very badly, and sometimes disturbed updates until I put rate limiting etc. shields up using CloudFlare.

 

[Leo237]

I have ALiDropship + WordPress + Woocommerce site running ok with 600 products. Increasing product count towards 1000... No any issues yet!

Hi Mika, , thanks for the info. However, I planned to have a significantly larger number of products in my store.

The Achilles heel of the AliDropship plugin is in the process of updating products. AliDropship guys are aware of this problem and are trying to hide behind the limitations of WordPress and Woocommerce.

Some details you can see here:
https://forum.alidropship.com/threads/manual-update-stops-very-often-very-slow.3545/
https://forum.alidropship.com/threa...l-update-took-8-hours-for-1200-products.3412/
and so on...

Technically there is not limitation on how many products you can have on your site. Aldiropship plugin does not limit you in that regard. However we recommend to work with no more than about 1000 products due Wordpress limitations. More products can slow down your site regardless of what hosting you are using. If you are going to use Wocommerce and Alidropship Woo version, you can divide that number by 2 due to Wocommerce import process.

This information should be added to the description pages of the plugin, so as not to mislead buyers.
Now the Woocommerce plugin page contains the following information:
------------------------------------------------
https://alidropship.com/woocommerce-dropshipping-plugin/
Unlimited number of products
There's no limit to the number or type of products you can sell in your Aliexpress drop shipping store.
-------------------------------------------------

If I work only with AliExpress suppliers', I cannot have more goods in the store than I can update.
Your "unlimited number" of products is limited to 500-1000 products that can be updated without problems ...
Be honest to customers and write the truth in the pages of plugin descriptions!

I will return the money and switch to Ali2Woo.

 

[Gogo]

I have a site with over 5000 products updating OK (it takes 24h or so). The only problem is that the update process breaks a couple of times during this and i have to reload the page and press "Continue".

It would be great if this could be fixed in some way (even if something as simple to skipping the problematic product and automatically continue with the next in the case of error ... or just to retry one time in case of error).

 

[Leo237]

I have a site with over 5000 products updating OK (it takes 24h or so). The only problem is that the update process breaks a couple of times during this and i have to reload the page and press "Continue".

it takes 24h or so

The process of updating 5,000 products should last much longer than 24 hours. The devil is hiding in the details ... Let's try to sort out the details.
According to this post, a full update of 1200 products lasts 8 hours. I have no reason to doubt this information. I do not know, in this case, the update process continued uninterrupted, or the update was interrupted and restarted again.

The truth is that Aliexpress will not allow you to scan its servers continuously for several hours. Your IP address will be blocked after some time (maybe 1.5-2 hours of continuous scanning). Every time the scanning process stops, it means that Aliexpress has blocked your IP address. Your IP address is automatically blocked for a while, so you can’t start it again immediately after stopping the scan.

I assume that with the most favorable scenario and the use of one IP address, it is possible to update about 3000 products within 24 hours. (In reality, this figure may be less). I guess it may take a total of about 48 hours to upgrade 5,000 products. At this time, your computer should be turned on, your browser should be started and you should periodically check whether the update process stopped to try to start it again. Of course, you can negotiate with multiple partners to for two days continuously check the process of updating ... However, you see, it is extremely inconvenient.

The only way to bypass the blocking and, accordingly, to avoid stopping the update process, is to use proxy servers. This is not super-secret information, but it requires additional efforts on the part of developers, in particular, maintaining and buying a pool of additional IP addresses. This, in turn, will require additional costs from AliDropship, which inevitably should lead to a change in pricing policy. For example, the introduction of a monthly payment for the possibility of a comfortable update of 5,000, 10,000 or more products.

AliDripship is a good product, but the products update process is its weak point. It was these restrictions that made me look for alternatives.

 

[Gogo]

So a simple solution for this would be to add a proxy support to the Alidropship Chrome extension...option where we could insert our list of proxies (no need for Alidropship to provide proxies; power users like us can provide our owns). And lets say after X number of products the proxy would just change to the next one.

This is also important because I have more than one shop that i need to update.

 

[Direct Webstore]

I think all you guys quoting product numbers in the "thousands" are pretty clueless and unrealistic. Filling your store with crap products as "filler" is counter productive. Having less products but better quality is the way to go. "More is not always "better". Even a store with only 50 quality and unique products will out perform a store bloated to the ceiling with thousands of crap products. Don't try to be another eBay or Amazon ... it won't work.

Also ... Wordpress/Woocommerce will really start to bog down with too many products. I wouldn't use more than 300 in a WP/Woo setup.

 

[Direct Webstore]

The Achilles heel of the AliDropship plugin is in the process of updating products. AliDropship guys are aware of this problem and are trying to hide behind the limitations of WordPress and Woocommerce.

You're right about the updating being a problem for some (people with bloated stores) but the Alidropship team is not trying to hide from anything. In the two threads you quoted they have openly conceded the problem and are working on it. Also, the limitations of WP/Woo are very real factors in the problem.

 

[Leo237]

I think all you guys quoting product numbers in the "thousands" are pretty clueless and unrealistic. Filling your store with crap products as "filler" is counter productive. Having less products but better quality is the way to go. "More is not always "better". Even a store with only 50 quality and unique products will out perform a store bloated to the ceiling with thousands of crap products. Don't try to be another eBay or Amazon ... it won't work.

Choosing the number of products in the store is the personal choice of each customer. In the world there are thousands of great products that can be sold in your store. Depending on the chosen business model, financial opportunities and technical limitations, we make different choices.

If you prefer to have 50 products in the store - this is your choice. However, I do not think that this choice should be promoted as the most optimal, effective and profitable scheme that exists at the moment.

Also ... Wordpress/Woocommerce will really start to bog down with too many products. I wouldn't use more than 300 in a WP/Woo setup.

I already mentioned earlier what restrictions WordPress and Woocommerce have. Here I will repeat in brief:

What is the maximum WooCommerce can handle?
https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-scaling-faqs/

General conclusion on “How many products can WooCommerce handle?”
https://premmerce.com/many-products-can-woocommerce-handle/

... Woocommerce can function normally with 50k-100k products. (Of course, this will require a bit more than shared hosting)

Please do not mislead people. If you have other test results, please provide links.

 

[Direct Webstore]

Choosing the number of products in the store is the personal choice of each customer.

You're dead right. Everyone has a choice to do sensible things ... or not.

In the world there are thousands of great products that can be sold in your store.

You're right again! The "world" has lots of great products. If only the same applied to Aliexpress/China.

If you prefer to have 50 products in the store - this is your choice.

I don't. Nor did I say I did. I prefer 200 or so hand picked quality and somewhat unique or special products with engaging descriptions.
But I have seen very successful money makers with only 50 or so quality/unique products. I've also seen stores jam packed with thousands of crap product that have failed.

I do not think that this choice should be promoted as the most optimal, effective and profitable scheme that exists at the moment.

That's a pretty vague and generalized statement. It depends on the products, how well you have branded your store and other factors. I could equally and generally say that bloating your store with thousands of products should not be promoted as an effective strategy.

The only exception would be is if every single one of those thousands of products was unique and of good quality. Pretty unlikely if one is sourcing from Aliexpress. Thousands of cheap plastic vegetable peelers, ill fitting clothing, rubbish phone covers etc just isn't going to work.

But that's just my opinion from long observation over the years. If you disagree ... that's fine.

 

[Direct Webstore]

Woocommerce can function normally with 50k-100k products.

Of course it can ... if it's filled with a company's own products. But if it's updating products from a 3rd party site like Aliexpress ... you'll have problems.

 

[Leo237]

So a simple solution for this would be to add a proxy support to the Alidropship Chrome extension...option where we could insert our list of proxies (no need for Alidropship to provide proxies; power users like us can provide our owns). And lets say after X number of products the proxy would just change to the next one.

This is also important because I have more than one shop that i need to update.

Yes, this may be the easiest solution IF ALL requests to Ali go through the local machine. You can use any program that, in a revolving mode, at certain intervals will switch the used IP addresses. It needs to be tested. To access some pages, you must be logged in to Ali. I don’t know how Ali will behave if a user with the same login periodically connects from different IP addresses. However, this scheme can now work.

 

[Direct Webstore]

Have any of you guys actually started to make any money at all with a site/sites yet? I may be wrong, but I sense a lot of "cart before the horse" action going on here. LOL

If I'm right, I suggest starting off small and growing over time, or you will crash and burn. Again ... I'm just stating my opinion based on observation and experience over the years. You all are of course entitled to your own opinions. I'm not interested in a debate. We can just agree to disagree.

 

[Gogo]

Yes, this may be the easiest solution IF ALL requests to Ali go through the local machine. You can use any program that, in a revolving mode, at certain intervals will switch the used IP addresses. It needs to be tested. To access some pages, you must be logged in to Ali. I don’t know how Ali will behave if a user with the same login periodically connects from different IP addresses. However, this scheme can now work.

Im never logged-in to Aliexpress when doing product updates. I did not notice any problems or a requirement to log-in when updating (other that occasional errors because of large amount of products).

 

[Gogo]

Hi,

Direct Webstore you should keep in mind that not everyone here is a "novice" user. I have 10+year of experience in online marketing and IT development. During my career I have worked with huge e-commerce sites (several hundreads of thousands of monthly revenue). So i respect your oppinion but it should be targeted to a more "novice" oriented thread. I think Alidropship is an excellent product for building quality e-commerce sites. We are only suggesting how to improve it to make it work better for all of us.

 

[Leo237]

Have any of you guys actually started to make any money at all with a site/sites yet? I may be wrong, but I sense a lot of "cart before the horse" action going on here. LOL
[/ QUOTE]

The AliDropship team has a very powerful lobby. )) A lot of words, a lot of text, not a single fact.
This is similar to the method of conducting discussions in early Buddhism. It is important to bring the opinion of the interlocutor to the absurd