In this digital world, many Entrepreneurs are slowly moving from having a brick-and-mortar shop to an online store. This movement becomes essential to the growth and success of a business.
Most shop owners recognized that their potential customers are found online, in search of something new to purchase. Therefore, without a doubt, business owners venture into online shops or e-commerce.
However, with hundreds of choices, it’s a nuisance to choose the best site for your business. It’s not easy to choose a platform for your brand. There is a lot to consider before you can decide what is right for your business.
To make it simple, we have decided to take two of the biggest known e-commerce platforms, and share everything you need to know about them. So here is our detailed Shopify vs Magento platform comparison
WHAT IS E-COMMERCE?
E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods online. Together with selling and buying, e-commerce involves the transfer of money for the purchase of each item.
There are different ways to sell online. It could involve the selling of subscription, retail, dropshipping, digital products, or services.
For businesses to sell online, especially if they want to establish their brand, building an online store is always the best move. Therefore, it’s advisable to consider using an e-commerce platform.
SHOPIFY VS MAGENTO
In this article, we will breakdown the difference between the two biggest e-commerce platforms.
- Quick comparison or summary
- Pros and Cons
- Usage
- Security
- Themes
- Features or Add-ons
- Pricing
- SEO
- Summary
QUICK COMPARISON OR SUMMARY
Shopify
Shopify is a SaaS e-commerce platform that is best for beginners. It doesn’t host a free plan, although they allow users to have a 14-day trial of their platform.
As of June of last year, Shopify has 820,000 merchants using its platform.
Magento
Magento is another e-commerce platform that emerged in 2008. It is an open-source platform, which means users are free to change or add anything they need.
It requires users to provide their hosting as compared to Shopify, which is already part of its plan. Also, its features are for skilled professionals than for first time users. About 250,000 merchants use Magento to run their online business.
PROS AND CONS
Every e-commerce platform, no matter how popular it is, all have pros and cons. This comparison of pros and cons in Shopify vs Magento will enable users to determine which of the two will work better for their business.
Shopify
Pros
- Sell on multiple channels: Shopify allows merchants to increase their sales by integrating Shopify into other channels such as Facebook, Amazon, and Pinterest.
- Mobile-friendly themes: Since the number of smartphone online shoppers is increasing, Shopify has found a way to create themes that will work with mobile users. Therefore, whichever theme a user chooses, it will automatically fit on any device.
- “Buy Button:” The “Buy Button” allows merchants to increase their sales by integrating it into their website.
- 24/7 Support: When you have issues building your website, Shopify has a 24/7 online chat and email support. It also has a community where you can share ideas and ask questions to other users.
- Payment Processor: It allows the integration of different payment services. Therefore, making shopping easier for customers.
- Large selection of add-ons: Shopify has an online store that lets merchants purchase free or paid add-ons to customize their shop.
Cons
- Presence of transaction fee per sale: Shopify charges a certain amount every transaction. However, if users avail of a more expensive plan, the transaction fee decreases.
- Limited free themes: Despite having mobile-friendly themes, Shopify offers limited free themes.
- Most apps aren’t free: There are hundreds of apps to choose from the Shopify store. However, most of these apps require an upgrade of a plan before you can purchase it for free.
Magento
Pros
- Flexible: Since Magento is open-source software, users can manage to modify the code of it. Users can easily customize their website with whatever design they wished.
- Large community: Magento has a forum where users can ask questions and get quick support from fellow users or entrepreneurs. There are multiple ways to solve any problems encountered.
- Scalable: Users of this platform can start from a small shop, and as their sales and products increase, they can also expand their shop.
- Mobile-friendly: Similar to Shopify, Magento has also found a way to make their platform mobile-friendly. Therefore, merchants using Magento don’t have to worry about how their websites look like on mobile devices.
- Multiple features: Magento has more features to offer as compared to other e-commerce platforms. Users can create varying prices for a single product for different groups of their customers.
Cons
- More technical: If a user or merchant has no idea about coding, Magento is challenging to manage. Since it’s an open-source platform, it requires coding skills to add or change the site’s features to make it more fitting for a shop.
- Take time: Since Magento requires some coding skills, it takes some time out of users. If users are looking for a shop that is easy to set up, Magento cannot provide that for merchants.
- A lot more expensive: Although they offer a free version, when you want to expand your business, Magento is pretty much expensive.
- Requires own hosting: Magento requires its users to become the host and configure their shop. If the merchant has no idea how to do it, it needs the help of a developer.
USAGE
Shopify: Easy
Shopify is one of the friendliest e-commerce platforms known in the market. Users of this would not require any coding skills, unless if users desire some advanced features.
It’s more of a drag and drop website, making it easy to build a shop, integrate some products and payment, and quickly navigate customers.
Magento: Complicated
This platform is not designed for first-time users unless you have an idea in coding. Since Magento requires users to host and configure their shop, users with no coding skills need to hire a developer to make this possible.
It requires time and effort to get to know how to manage Magento. But once the user gets the hang of it, it would be easy to customize.
SECURITY
Shopify
Since Shopify is a Service-as-a-software, this means that security part of its package. It also includes an SSL certificate.
Magento
Magento’s security depends on how developers will fix a user or merchant’s website. They should include an SSL certification and also be responsible for updating apps or software on the site to stay secure and to avoid cyberattacks.
THEMES
Shopify
There are hundreds of themes to choose from in Shopify. With it being mobile-friendly, it’s easy for customers to navigate through a merchants’ shop. Also, users of Shopify can easily customize the themes. Users can change the color, integrate social media accounts, add pages, and more. However, Shopify’s free themes are limited.
Magento
There is also a more extensive option of themes for Magento. Although not as much as Shopify.
However, users of Magento can customize their themes as much as they want it to look or appear. Magento users can also create their theme, but good coding skill is required.
FEATURES OR ADD-ONS
Shopify
Shopify has thousands of apps available in its store. Their apps enable users to add more features to their shop and enhance sales. However, some of Shopify’s add-ons or apps require payment and coding.
Benefits of Shopify’s add-ons:
- Help reduce cart abandonment
- Adds analytics on merchant’s page
- Allows integration of different social media platforms
- Allows promotions via email marketing
Magento
Magento has more add-ons as compared to Shopify. Also, there is no requirement of intense coding for their apps.
The apps of Magento have similar qualities to Shopify, but users can also add more complex functions to their apps.
Shopify vs Magento: PRICING
Shopify
There are different plans offered by Shopify. Their lowest price starts at $13 per month, but with limited features only. The lower the plan is, the higher each transaction fee will cost.
All of Shopify’s plans have the following features:
- Ecommerce website and blog
- Unlimited product listing
- 24/7 support
- Discount codes
- SSL certificate
- Abandoned cart recovery
You can try Shopify for free for 14 days before you decide to purchase which plan you want.
Magento
Magento’s Open Source is free for those who don’t want to spend much, but users still have to get their hosting, find a developer to secure their website and pay for some designs.
If merchants want a plan with more support packages, they can register with Magento’s Enterprise Edition. However, this is more expensive than Shopify, which can cost thousands of dollars a year.
SEO
When it comes to its SEO feature, both platforms are great. They can drive organic traffic to a merchant’s shop by being visible on Google’s search engine. There are some add-ons or apps available on Shopify’s and Magento’s stores add to a website. However, Magento’s SEO apps are a little bit expensive than Shopify’s.
CONCLUSION
Both platforms have excellent features that are helpful for any entrepreneur. The above list of comparisons of Shopify vs Magento is not to choose which platform is the best, but to enlighten business owners who are planning on taking their business into the next step.
Shopify is a platform created for users who have no coding skills and are starting with their business. Meanwhile, Magento is best for larger enterprises with thousands of products and a large number of customers.
There are also other e-commerce platforms in the market that business owners can find. All you need is to see which one best fits your business’s needs.
