How To Migrate From Dokan To WC Vendors Without Losing Your Data

If you’ve decided to migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors, one of the first things you’ll notice is that the usual migration tools don’t help you here. Dokan has its own migration plugin, but it only moves data into Dokan, not out of it.

The good news: most of your critical data, products, customers, and order history belong to WooCommerce, not to Dokan. According to WPFactory, WooCommerce powers over 4.5 million active stores, and your data sits in a well-established, stable database architecture. That data is safe regardless of which plugin you’re running. What does require manual work is your commission structure, vendor shipping settings, and Dokan’s vendor store URLs, which will need redirects to avoid SEO damage.

This guide covers all of it, step by step. Whether you have 5 vendors or 500, the process to migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors follows the same sequence.

Why Marketplace Owners Migrate From Dokan To WC Vendors

Dokan is one of the most widely known multi-vendor plugins in the WooCommerce space. But “widely known” doesn’t always mean “right fit.”

The most common reasons we hear for switching:

• Pricing. Dokan’s paid plans are significantly more expensive than WC Vendors. WC Vendors Pro starts at $99.50/yr. Dokan’s starter paid plan starts at $149/yr, with the Business tier running $499+/yr. For a single-site marketplace, that’s a meaningful cost difference, especially in early stages when margins are thin.
• Module-heavy ecosystem. Dokan operates on a module model, in which many features, including Stripe payment splitting, subscription support, and certain reporting tools, require purchasing separate add-ons. The base cost rarely reflects the real cost once you’ve added the modules your marketplace actually needs.
• Support experience. WC Vendors is maintained by Rymera Web Co, a focused product team that also builds Wholesale Suite and Advanced Coupons. Some store owners find the specialist team approach a better fit for their ongoing support needs.
• WooCommerce-native architecture. WC Vendors extends WooCommerce’s own architecture directly. It’s the same architecture that W3Techs reports powers over 40% of all websites. Dokan wraps around it with additional abstraction layers, including custom database tables for orders and vendor balances, that can increase the risk of plugin conflicts as WooCommerce evolves.

Check our WC Vendors pricing to see how the cost comparison plays out across plan tiers. You can also explore our full WC Vendors vs Dokan comparison for a detailed feature breakdown.

What Migrates And What Doesn’t

Before you migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors, you need to know exactly what data lives in WooCommerce’s tables (safe) and what lives in Dokan’s custom tables (needs manual handling).

Data Type	Migrates?	Notes
WP user accounts (vendors)	Yes, automatically	Vendors are WordPress users; accounts carry over
WooCommerce products	Automatically	Products are native WC data, not plugin-specific
WooCommerce orders	Yes, automatically	Parent orders stored in WC core tables
Dokan sub-orders	Partial, see Step 5B	Dokan uses /store/slug/; WC Vendors uses a different URL structure
Commission settings	No, manual re-entry	Stored in Dokan’s _dokan_orders and user meta tables
Dokan withdrawal history	No	Stored in _dokan_withdraw table; export before deactivating
Vendor balance records	No	Stored in _dokan_vendor_balance table; includes gateway fees as of Dokan v4.2+
Vendor shipping settings	No, manual re-entry	Plugin-specific; vendors must re-enter in WC Vendors
Vendor store URLs (/store/)	Partial, redirects needed	Some are stored in user meta (carries over), some in Dokan-specific meta
Dokan shortcodes / pages	No	Must be replaced with WC Vendors equivalents
Vendor store banners & profile	Partial	Some stored in user meta (carries over), some in Dokan-specific meta
Reverse withdrawal records	No	Dokan-specific; export if you track vendor debits

The critical item unique to Dokan migrations: vendor store URLs. Dokan creates /store/{vendor-slug}/ URLs for each vendor storefront. After deactivating Dokan, these URLs 404. If vendors have built any external links or SEO presence around these URLs, you need 301 redirects in place before going live. This is covered in detail in Step 6.

Understanding Dokan’s Database Structure (What Lives Where)

One of the most common mistakes when planning to migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors is assuming that all marketplace data is stored in WooCommerce. It doesn’t. Dokan creates its own custom database tables that store commission, withdrawal, and vendor balance data separately from WooCommerce.

Here are the key Dokan-specific tables you should know about:

Database Table	What It Stores	Migration Impact
_dokan_orders	Commission records for each order, such as vendor ID, order total, commission amount, commission rate, and order status	Does not transfer. Export or document before deactivating.
_dokan_withdraw	All withdrawal requests, like vendor ID, amount, payment method, status (approved/pending/cancelled), date	Does not transfer. Export from Dokan → Withdraw Requests before deactivating.
_dokan_vendor_balance	Running balance for each vendor, such as transactions (payments, withdrawals, refunds), gateway fees (as debit entries since v4.2+)	Does not transfer. Vendor statements can be exported as CSV from vendor dashboard → Reports → Statements.
_dokan_announcement	Admin announcements sent to vendors	Does not transfer. Low priority is usually not needed post-migration.
_dokan_refund	Vendor refund requests and status	Does not transfer. Document any pending refunds before switching.

Why this matters: When you deactivate and eventually delete Dokan, these tables may be dropped (depending on your cleanup settings). Any data you haven’t exported is gone. The WooCommerce data (products, parent orders, customers) remains untouched because it’s in WooCommerce’s own tables.

📝 Important update for Dokan v4.2+: As of late 2025, Dokan stores gateway fees in the _dokan_vendor_balance table as debit entries. If your vendors reference their balance history for accounting, make sure they export their statements (Dashboard → Reports → Statements → Export All) before you begin the migration.

A Note On Dokan’s Migration Tool

Before we get into the steps, it’s worth addressing this directly: yes, Dokan has a migration plugin called Dokan Migrator.

But it only migrates data into Dokan, from WC Vendors, WCFM, or YITH. It doesn’t work in reverse.

This is strategic on Dokan’s part, not a technical limitation. There’s no equivalent tool to move vendor data from Dokan to WC Vendors.

If you’ve also looked at migrating from WCFM, our WCFM migration guide covers that process.

Before You Start: Pre-Migration Checklist

Don’t begin the actual migration until you’ve completed this preparation:

• Full site backup. Back up both database and files via your host’s backup tool, UpdraftPlus, or Duplicator. Store off-server.
• Export Dokan withdrawal reports. Go to Dokan → Withdraw Requests in WP Admin and export all historical withdrawal data. These records live in the _dokan_withdraw table — your only copy is there.
• Have vendors export their own statements. Notify vendors to go to Dashboard → Reports → Statements, set the date range to cover their full history, and click Export All to download a CSV. This is their personal transaction record that won’t exist after migration.
• Document commission settings. Record every vendor’s commission rate and type. Note global defaults, per-vendor overrides, and per-category rules. Check Dokan → Settings → Selling Options for global settings, then Dokan → Vendors for individual overrides.
• Note vendor store slugs. List all active vendor store slugs (e.g., /store/vendor-name/). You’ll need these to set up 301 redirects after switching.
• Document any pending refunds or reverse withdrawals. Check the _dokan_refund table and the reverse withdrawal interface for any unresolved vendor debits. Handle these before migrating.
• Disable caching plugins. Deactivate WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or similar before starting. Cached pages during a plugin switch cause confusing errors.
• Set up a staging environment. Non-negotiable. Covered in Step 1.

📝 The migration issue that catches most marketplace owners off guard is the vendor store URL structure. Dokan’s /store/{slug}/ URLs can accumulate external backlinks and Google index entries over time. If those URLs 404 after you go live, you’re losing SEO equity that took months to build. Map your redirects before you deactivate Dokan.

Step 1: Set Up A Staging Environment

A staging environment is a private copy of your live site where you test the full migration before touching anything real.

Most managed WordPress hosts (WP Engine, Kinsta, Cloudways, SiteGround) offer one-click staging. If yours doesn’t, use Duplicator or WP Stagecoach to clone to a subdomain.

Run the entire migration on staging first. Identify your site’s specific friction points, shortcode replacements, redirect rules, and role update quirk before repeating on the live site. What takes a day on staging saves days of live-site cleanup.

This is the most important step when you migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors. Never skip it.

Step 2: Install WC Vendors On Your Staging Site

On your staging environment:

1. Go to Plugins → Add New and search for “WC Vendors”
2. Install and activate the WC Vendors free plugin from WordPress.org
3. Upload and activate WC Vendors Pro if you’re upgrading at this stage
4. Run the WC Vendors setup wizard to configure initial settings (commission defaults, payout method, vendor permissions)

Do not deactivate Dokan yet. Keep both plugins active so you can reference your Dokan configuration while setting up WC Vendors.

Step 3: Export Your Dokan Vendor And Order Data

Even though core data lives in WooCommerce, export everything before making changes. Here is exactly where to find each piece of data when you migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors:

Export vendor user accounts

Go to Users → All Users and filter by the dokan_seller role. Use WP All Export to export vendor records as CSV, including user meta (email, display name, store name, store slug).

Export WooCommerce products

Go to WooCommerce → Products and use the native WooCommerce export tool (Products → Export). Export all fields. Note: Dokan recently removed XML export from the vendor dashboard. CSV is the supported format.

Export WooCommerce orders

Use the WooCommerce native order export (WooCommerce → Orders → Export CSV). This captures parent orders. For sub-order data, see Step 5B.

Export Dokan withdrawal history

Navigate to Dokan → Withdraw Requests in WP Admin and export your withdrawal records. This is your only record of historical payouts after Dokan is deactivated.

Export vendor balance statements

Have each vendor export their own statement from Dashboard → Reports → Statements → Export All. This generates a CSV with dates, order IDs, transaction types, sales amounts, earned amounts, and running balance. This data lives in the _dokan_vendor_balance table and is not recoverable after Dokan is removed.

Record commission settings manually

Dokan stores commission configurations in its own database tables and user meta. There is no standard export for these. Document:

• Global commission rate and type from Dokan → Settings → Selling Options (percentage, fixed, or combined)
• Per-vendor commission overrides from each vendor’s profile under Dokan → Vendors
• Per-category commission rules (if configured)
• Whether commissions are calculated on product price only or include shipping/tax

If you want to model how different commission structures will affect your revenue after the switch, try the WC Vendors marketplace commissions calculator.

You’ll re-enter these in WC Vendors during Step 4.

Step 4: Configure WC Vendors And Update Vendor Roles

This is the most consequential step when you migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors. Configure carefully, then verify.

Configure WC Vendors global settings

Navigate to WC Vendors → Settings and configure:

• Commission: Set your global default to match your previous Dokan configuration. WC Vendors Pro supports percentage, fixed, percentage + fee, fixed + fee, and tiered commissions, so you can match or improve on your Dokan setup. For a full breakdown, see how commissions work in WC Vendors and our guide to commission levels and their benefits.
• Payments: Configure payout method: manual bank transfer, PayPal Mass Pay, or Stripe Connect. For best practices, see our guide on how to manage vendor payouts in multi-vendor marketplaces.
• Vendor Permissions: Set product approval workflow, product types allowed, and what fields vendors can edit

When I set up WC Vendors on a staging site after Dokan, one of the first things I noticed was how different the administrative experience feels. Dokan’s admin is dense, with a large left-hand menu, multiple sub-panels, and settings scattered across module-specific pages. WC Vendors consolidates the key settings into a single, tabbed settings panel. Fewer clicks to reach the commission configuration; fewer places to accidentally misconfigure something. To see what the vendor experience looks like, check out our new vendor dashboard overview.

Update vendor user roles

Dokan vendors have the dokan_seller WordPress user role. WC Vendors uses its own vendor role. You need to update every vendor user’s role.

Go to Users → All Users, filter by dokan_seller, and bulk-update the role to WC Vendors’ vendor role. For larger vendor bases, use WP-CLI:

wp user list --role=dokan_seller --field=ID | xargs -I{} wp user update {} --role=vendor

Verify after running: go to Users → All Users, filter by vendor, and confirm the expected number of vendors appear.

Reconfigure per-vendor commission overrides

Using your notes from Step 3, go to each vendor’s user profile in WP Admin and set their individual commission rate in WC Vendors. If you have a large number of vendors with custom rates, this is the most time-consuming part of the process. Plan accordingly.

Set up Stripe Connect (if applicable)

If you’ve been running Dokan with manual payout processing, migrating to WC Vendors Pro is an opportunity to implement automated payment splitting via Stripe Connect. Vendors connect their Stripe accounts during onboarding, and from that point forward, commission splits happen automatically at the point of sale, with no manual bank transfers or withdrawal processing required. You can configure payout timing as instant, daily, weekly, or monthly. See our vendor commission payout schedule guide for details.

This is one of the clearest functional upgrades in the switch. According to Chargeflow, 75% of the world’s top marketplaces use Stripe Connect for payment processing. Dokan does offer Stripe-based payouts, but they require the Dokan Stripe Connect module, which is an additional purchase. With WC Vendors Pro, Stripe Connect is available as a dedicated add-on with clear documentation and setup. For a full walkthrough on setting it up, see our guide on how to set up Stripe Connect WooCommerce vendor payouts.

Step 5.1: Verify Products And Orders

Once vendor roles are updated and WC Vendors is configured, verify that product and order data is correctly attributed.

Products

• Go to WC Vendors → Products in admin. Confirm products appear under the correct vendor
• Log in to a test vendor account. Products should appear in the WC Vendors vendor dashboard
• If products aren’t attributed correctly, check the _wcv_vendor_id post meta on those products. It should contain the vendor’s WordPress user ID

Orders

• Place a test order in your staging store
• Confirm commission is calculated correctly on the order
• Log into the vendor dashboard. The test order should appear in the vendor’s order list
• Verify the commission amount shown matches your configured rate

Historical orders (placed before the migration) will remain in WooCommerce as normal. Historical Dokan commission attribution and withdrawal records won’t appear in WC Vendors; they live in Dokan’s tables. That’s why exporting the withdrawal history in Step 3 matters.

📝 A common assumption is that Dokan’s “Withdraw” system records are equivalent to commission records and will somehow appear in the new plugin. They don’t. They’re stored in Dokan’s _dokan_withdraw and _dokan_vendor_balance tables. Export them before deactivating. From the migration date onward, WC Vendors tracks everything correctly for new orders.

Step 5.2: Handle Dokan Sub-Orders

Dokan creates sub-orders when a customer purchases products from multiple vendors in a single checkout. For example, if a customer buys from Vendor A and Vendor B, Dokan creates one parent order plus two sub-orders (one for each vendor).

These sub-orders are technically WooCommerce orders stored in the standard WC orders table, but they have a parent-child relationship that Dokan manages. After deactivating Dokan:

• Parent orders — remain intact and visible in WooCommerce.
• Sub-orders — remain in the database as WooCommerce orders, but the parent-child linking may behave differently without Dokan active.
• Vendor attribution on sub-orders — check that each sub-order’s products are still correctly attributed to the right vendor via the _wcv_vendor_id meta.

For most marketplaces, sub-orders from before the migration are historical records and don’t need active management. New orders placed after the switch will follow WC Vendors’ own order handling. But if you need clean reporting on historical sub-orders, export them before deactivating Dokan.

📝 If you notice duplicate order entries in WooCommerce after deactivating Dokan, those are likely Dokan sub-orders. They’re real WC orders; don’t delete them. They contain the order details for individual vendors in multi-vendor checkouts.

Step 6: Handle Vendor Store URLs And Redirects

This step is unique to Dokan migrations and is frequently skipped, which is a mistake.

Dokan creates a vendor storefront URL for each seller using the structure:

/store/{vendor-store-slug}/

WC Vendors uses a different URL structure for vendor storefronts. After you deactivate Dokan, every /store/ URL returns a 404 error.

Why this matters

If your vendors have built any external presence pointing to their /store/ URLs — links from social media, Google index entries, backlinks from other sites, all break the moment Dokan goes offline. From Google’s perspective, those pages have disappeared. According to Google’s developer documentation, 301 redirects are the recommended way to permanently move URLs while preserving search ranking signals. And as Search Engine Journal notes, failing to implement proper redirects during a migration can result in significant traffic loss.

What to do

Before deactivating Dokan on your live site, map every vendor’s old Dokan URL to their new WC Vendors URL and set up 301 redirects. Use the Redirection plugin (free, WordPress.org) to manage this without touching .htaccess directly.

The redirect mapping follows this pattern:

• Old: /store/{vendor-slug}/
• New: /vendor/{vendor-slug}/ (or whatever URL structure WC Vendors generates for your vendor storefronts)

If you have a small number of vendors (under 20), set up redirects manually in Redirection. For larger vendor bases, Redirection supports CSV import; export your vendor slug list and build the redirect CSV before go-live day.

For a regex-based approach that handles all vendors at once:

Source URL: /store/(.*)
Target URL: /vendor/$1
Type: 301 Permanent Redirect
Regex: Enabled

This catches every /store/{anything}/ URL and redirects it to /vendor/{anything}/. Test on staging first to confirm your WC Vendors store URL base matches.

Step 7: Replace Dokan Pages And Shortcodes

Dokan creates specific WordPress pages during its setup wizard: vendor dashboard, store listing, product submission page, and others. These pages are tied to Dokan shortcodes. After Dokan is deactivated, they break.

Common Dokan shortcodes to replace:

Dokan Shortcode	WC Vendors Equivalent	Notes
[dokan-dashboard]	[wcv_vendor_dashboard]	Main vendor dashboard page
[dokan-stores]	WC Vendors vendor list page	Check WC Vendors docs for your version
[dokan-sell-now]	WC Vendors registration flow	May require page setup via WC Vendors wizard
[dokan-best-selling-product]	Use WooCommerce shortcodes	Standard WC shortcodes work post-migration
[dokan-top-rated-product]	Use WooCommerce shortcodes	Standard WC shortcodes work post-migration

Go through your site’s pages and identify every page using a Dokan shortcode. Update them with WC Vendors equivalents before deactivating Dokan on the live site.

Also, check your theme’s widget areas. Some Dokan setups use widgets for vendor store navigation or search. Replace or remove these before go-live.

📝 Don’t forget: Check your theme’s functions.php and any custom code for Dokan-specific hooks or filters (e.g., dokan_dashboard_nav, dokan_store_tabs). These will throw PHP errors after Dokan is deactivated. Remove or replace them with WC Vendors equivalents.

Step 8: Test, Go Live, And Communicate With Vendors

Testing checklist (on staging)

• Login and dashboard access working
• Vendors can view and manage their products
• Vendors can add new products from the frontend
• Test order placed — commission calculated correctly
• Commission visible in vendor earnings dashboard
• Stripe Connect payout tested (if applicable)
• Vendor email notifications triggered correctly
• Registration flow working for new signups
• Vendor storefront URLs resolving correctly
• 301 redirects from old /store/ URLs verified
• No broken shortcodes on any pages
• Vendor shipping settings page accessible
• No PHP errors in debug log from removed Dokan hooks

Go-live steps

1. Take a fresh backup of the live site
2. Enable maintenance mode
3. Repeat Steps 2-7 on the live site (faster this time, you’ve debugged on staging)
4. Deactivate Dokan
5. Verify redirects are firing correctly
6. Confirm vendor dashboards are accessible
7. Disable maintenance mode
8. Monitor error logs for the first 24 hours

Vendor communication

Send vendors a clear email before going live:

• What’s changing and why
• Where their new dashboard is (include the direct URL)
• What they need to re-enter (shipping settings, most common task for vendors)
• A reminder to export their Dokan statements before the switch date if they haven’t already
• A support window for questions (“email us within 7 days if anything looks wrong”)

Vendors who find their dashboard has moved without warning will raise support tickets. A brief email prevents most of them.

Common Migration Issues (And How To Fix Them)

Here are the most common problems marketplace owners encounter when they migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors, and how to resolve each one:

Vendor store /store/ URLs returning 404

This means Dokan was deactivated before redirects were set up. Install the Redirection plugin, then add 301 redirects from each /store/{slug}/ to the corresponding WC Vendors vendor URL. Do this immediately; every day without redirects is lost SEO equity.

Products not showing in vendor dashboard

Check the _wcv_vendor_id post meta on affected products. It should contain the vendor’s WordPress user ID. If it’s missing or shows the old Dokan vendor ID format, update it manually or via WP-CLI.

Vendor login redirecting to WP Admin instead of vendor dashboard

Check that the user’s role is set to vendor (WC Vendors role), not dokan_seller. Go to Users → [vendor name] → Role and update. The WC Vendors dashboard redirect won’t trigger correctly until the role is correct.

Missing withdrawal history

Expected. This data lives in Dokan’s _dokan_withdraw table. If you exported it before deactivating, you have the records. If you didn’t, you’ll need to temporarily reactivate Dokan on a staging clone to extract the data.

Dokan shortcode errors on pages

Any [dokan-*] shortcode on an active page will throw an error after Dokan is deactivated. Audit all pages before deactivating. Use the WordPress search in Pages to find “dokan” and replace each instance with the WC Vendors equivalent shortcode.

Duplicate orders appearing in WooCommerce

These are likely Dokan sub-orders (see Step 5B). They are legitimate WooCommerce orders representing vendor-specific portions of multi-vendor checkouts. Do not delete them; they contain valid order data.

PHP errors in debug log after deactivating Dokan

Check for Dokan-specific hooks in your theme’s functions.php, child theme files, or custom plugins. Common culprits: dokan_dashboard_nav, dokan_store_tabs, dokan_settings_form_bottom. Remove or wrap them in function_exists() checks.

Commission amounts don’t match previous Dokan setup

Double-check whether Dokan was calculating the commission on the product price only or including shipping and tax. WC Vendors has a separate setting for this. Match it to your previous configuration.

Conclusion

Switching marketplace plugins sounds intimidating, but the reality is more straightforward than most store owners expect. The decision to migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors comes down to understanding one key fact: most of your critical data already lives in WooCommerce, not in Dokan. Your products, customers, and order history are safe.

Here are the steps how you can migrate from Dokan to WC Vendors:

• Step 1: Set up a staging environment 
• Step 2: Install WC Vendors on staging 
• Step 3: Export Dokan data 
• Step 4: Configure WC Vendors and update roles 
• Step 5.1: Verify products and orders 
• Step 5.2: Handle Dokan sub-orders 
• Step 6: Handle vendor store URLs and redirects 
• Step 7: Replace Dokan pages and shortcodes
• Step 8: Test, go live, and communicate with vendors 

If you are still in the evaluation stage, you can start by installing the WC Vendors plugin on a staging site alongside Dokan. Run through the setup wizard, compare the admin experience, and see how the vendor dashboard feels. Once you are ready to commit, follow this guide step by step and you will have a fully operational WC Vendors marketplace with all your data intact and your vendors onboarded in a single day.

Try WC Vendors free today →

Frequently Asked Questions