You sell custom engravings. A customer orders "LOVE" on a bracelet. Another orders "Happy 25th Anniversary Mom and Dad!" on a plaque.

Same product. Same flat fee. But one takes 10x more work.

Sound familiar?

This is the pricing problem every personalization business faces. And WooCommerce doesn't solve it out of the box.

Let's fix that.

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The real problem

Personalized products are booming. Custom engravings, embroidery, cake messages, printed labels, monogrammed gifts - people love them.

But here's the thing. Text length varies wildly.

• A 3-letter monogram? Quick job.
• A 50-character anniversary message? Much more effort.

If you charge a flat fee, you either:

Overprice short messages, and lose sales

Underprice long messages, and lose money

Neither works.

What you really need is per-letter pricing. Charge based on what customers actually type.

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What solutions exist?

WooCommerce has a great ecosystem. Plenty of plugins let you add custom text fields to products.

Here are the popular ones:

1. WooCommerce Product Add-Onsby Woo

The official solution from Woo. $79/year.

What it does:

• Text fields, dropdowns, checkboxes.
• Flat fee add-ons.
• Percentage-based pricing.

The catch: No per-character pricing. You can add a text field. You can charge a flat fee for it. But you can't charge based on how many letters someone types.

2. Product Addons for WooCommerce by Acowebs

Free plugin with 30,000+ installs. Solid reputation.

What it does:

• Drag-and-drop form builder.
• Text, number, date, color fields.
• Conditional logic.

The catch: Same story. Flat fees only. The premium version adds more field types, but still no character-based pricing.

3. YITH WooCommerce Product Add-Ons

Another heavyweight. Part of the YITH family.

What it does:

• Upload fields.
• Color swatches.
• Price multipliers.

The catch: You can multiply price by quantity. But text length? Nope. Not supported.

4. WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate by Plugin Republic

Premium option at $49+.

What it does:

• Calculation fields.
• Image uploads.
• Complex conditional logic.

The catch: Powerful for many things. But charging per letter isn't one of them.

5. PPOM – Product Addons by ThemeHigh

Popular free alternative with formula support.

What it does:

• Math formulas.
• Conditional fields.
• File uploads.

The catch: You might hack together a formula. But it's clunky. Not built for this purpose.

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The pattern here

See the trend?

All these plugins are great at adding fields. They're great at flat fees and option-based pricing.

But none of them natively support:

• Charge per character.
• Charge per word.
• Real-time price updates as customers type.

They solve the "add a text box" problem. Not the "charge fairly for text length" problem.

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Enter Smart Input Pricing

This is exactly why we built Smart Input Pricing for WooCommerce.

One simple job: charge based on text input.

No bloat. No 50 features you'll never use. Just character-based pricing that works.

How it works

Enable on any product: One checkbox. That's it.

Set your rate: $0.50 per character? $2 per word? Your choice.

Customer types: Price updates in real-time.

Fair pricing: They see exactly what they'll pay. No surprises.

Three pricing modes

Per Character: Perfect for engraving, embroidery, name plates.

Per Word: Great for custom messages, quotes, dedications.

Per Line: Ideal for multi-line text areas, poems, certificates.

What makes it different?

Feature	Other Plugins	Smart Input Pricing
Add text fields	✅	✅
Flat fee pricing	✅	✅
Per-character pricing	❌	✅
Per-word pricing	❌	✅
Real-time calculation	❌	✅
Set min/max limits	Varies	✅
Works with variations	Varies	✅
Lightweight	Varies	✅

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Real-world use cases

Engraving & Jewelry

Charge $0.75 per letter for ring engravings. A "MOM" ring costs $2.25 extra. A "Forever in my heart" ring costs $13.50 extra.

Fair for you. Transparent for them.

Bakeries & Cake Shops

Cake message pricing finally makes sense. "Happy Birthday" costs less than "Congratulations on your promotion, Sarah! You deserve this!"

Set a per-word rate. Done.

Print & Embroidery Shops

Custom t-shirts. Personalized uniforms. Name tags.

Characters take time to embroider. Charge accordingly.

Gift Stores

Monogrammed towels. Personalized photo frames. Custom ornaments.

Short names are quick. Long dedication messages take effort. Price them differently.

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Quick Setup Guide

Getting started takes about 2 minutes.

Step 1: Install the Plugin

Download from WordPress.org or search "Smart Input Pricing" in your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Edit Any Product

Go to Products → Edit any product → Scroll to the "Smart Input Pricing" section.

Step 3: Enable and Configure

• Check "Enable Smart Input Pricing"
• Choose pricing mode (character, word, or line)
• Set your price per unit
• Optional: Set min/max limits

Step 4: Save and Test

That's it. Visit your product page. Start typing. Watch the price update.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does it work with variable products?

Yes. You can enable input pricing on variable products. The character price adds to the variation price.

Can I set a minimum charge?

Yes. Set a minimum character count. Customers must type at least that many characters.

Does it work with WooCommerce Blocks?

Yes. Fully compatible with the Cart and Checkout blocks. No classic checkout required.

Is it HPOS compatible?

Yes. Works with WooCommerce's High-Performance Order Storage.

Will it slow down my site?

No. The plugin is lightweight. Price calculation happens client-side in JavaScript. No extra server load.

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The bottom line

If you sell personalized products, flat-fee pricing is broken.

A 4-letter name shouldn't cost the same as a 40-character message.

Most WooCommerce add-on plugins focus on adding fields. They're not built for text-length pricing.

Smart Input Pricing is.

One plugin. One job. Charge per letter, word, or character.

Try it free: Smart Input Pricing for WooCommerce

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_Have questions about text-based pricing in WooCommerce? Contact us or check out the plugin documentation._