Selecting the right eCommerce platform is not an easy job. You need to look into multiple aspects of your online business before finalizing one. Also, you can seek the service of the best web development company to assist you in understanding which eCommerce platform suits your business best.
With the advent of online selling, the demand for a reliable platform by online retailers rises. They want to connect with buyers quickly, showcase products in a pleasant way, and give their customers the best checkout experience. Thus, you need an eCommerce platform that ticks all of these boxes and gives you complete peace of mind.
No wonder, Magento and Shopify both are popular and widely-used platforms in the eCommerce industry today. And, the list of e-commerce websites in the world built through these two platforms is endless. The reasons for these two being so famous are many, which we’ll be discussing in detail in the post. However, before we start off with their features, pros & cons, let’s first understand the key points of differences between the two.
As per the latest reports by Builtwith.com, over 4.1 million ecommerce sites are built with Shopify that are currently live. And, there are nearly 1.6 million Magento sites in the world.
Shopify is a globally hosted platform that eCommerce business owners can use to set up their online store. They can manage everything from a single streamlined dashboard. It is an easy-to-use platform and hence very popular among small and mid-sized retailers. Besides, for large-scale merchants seeking enterprise-grade ecommerce solutions, there is a premium platform called Shopify Plus.
Magento, on the other hand, is an open-source platform, somewhat like WordPress, which you can install anytime to get started. You can also configure the program of this powerful platform so that it aligns perfectly with your eCommerce business needs. Owned by Adobe, Magento is now known as Adobe commerce and is used by big brands like Ford, Landrover, Nestle Nespresso, etc.
An experienced eCommerce website development company can help you with stunning online store development on any of these two platforms. Now, let’s dive into the core differences between the two.
To run your ecommerce store on the Shopify platform, you need to have good knowledge of HTML and CSS. The framework that Shopify supports and has been used for a longer period of time is Ruby on Rails.
Magento is a more complex platform compared to Shopify and hence needs both backend and frontend developers. The coding languages that Magento developers use are PHP, MySQL, JS, HTML, CSS, and XML. Hire developers in India who are proficient in these languages and have the technical expertise to handle the complex features of your Magento-based website.
Shopify is a subscription-based sales platform with fees ranging from $1/ month to $299/month. You can also enjoy your free trial for 3 days before picking up any suitable plan. Or, you can reach out to a Shopify development company to help you choose the right subscription plan for your store.
As for Magento, no subscription is required. The basic website development fee charged by Magento development company is around $15,000. Adobe Magento pricing can vary depending on your domain & hosting provider. Prices can rise up to $ 40,000 if you want to integrate several specific features into your website.
Shopify has its own POS from where you can manage orders and track inventory and sales. It ensures that all your customer data and inventory records are completely synced when any sale is initiated from your online store. Also, the mobile POS provides quick assistance to customers with checkout.
However, in Magento, there is no POS of its own. Magento store owners need to get feature-rich extensions to track sales, manage inventory and help customers with the checkout process.
The payment gateways of an online store facilitate easy acceptance of online payments. Shopify’s payment processor offers you high-grade security and great convenience while making a payment via credit or debit cards, net banking, UPI, and other wallet systems. Around 100+ gateways are supported by Shopify, out of which the most popular are Amazon Pay, PayPal, and Stripe. A minimal transaction fee is required to initiate any online transaction through any of these gateways.
Although Magento doesn’t have its own payment processor, you can install processors from the Magento marketplace. Like Shopify, Magento also charges a transaction fee for each order processed. Hire the top eCommerce web development company to integrate top payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. Large entrepreneurs use the Magento platform for online business as it supports more than 150 gateways.
Shopify has an upper hand when it comes to the design and availability of stock themes. It gives you an opportunity to give a sophisticated and contemporary look to your site that blends well with the brand image. Also, you can apply some changes or tweaks in terms of color schemes used, customized product images, adding newsletter signup boxes, modifying the navigation text, and many more.
Magento offers both ready-made themes and custom themes. However, you need the professional help of Magento developers from an E-commerce web design and development company to get a site exactly the way you want. The customizing theme in Magento requires coding skills but at the same time offers you great rewards. Your store will be built uniquely having featured carousels, an advanced cart, high-functional search features, innovative product sliders, and a lot more.
Often online retailers feel the need for installing any extension or exclusive tool to improve the user experience of site visitors. Enhancing the site’s functionality is possible in both Shopify and Magento with their exclusive add-on facilities. You can access various features to add to your Shopify site from the Shopify App store. Besides, it keeps updating its store with the latest and advanced apps. Its security also ensures no harmful app is installed on your site.
Magento also offers a wide variety of add-ons and extensions to enhance the usability of your online marketplace. With over more than 5000 add-on apps and extensions (free and paid), Magento has become the most preferred platform for big business entrepreneurs.
Shopify definitely gets more brownie points when it comes to navigation, drag-and-drop interface, and adding new pages. Merchants can set up their stores easily and get them running in minimum time. To top it all, Shopify has an exclusive feature called wizard mode that allows novice retailers or beginners to build a well-designed store.
Since Magento is an open-source and not a hosted platform, you need to procure a hosting provider to get started. Setting up an online store on Magento requires specific skills and coding knowledge that only a Magento development company possesses. The developers there know how to integrate rich functionalities and customizations. Magento has its own vast collection of innovative extensions that can make your site stand out from the crowd. This is the reason most big enterprises prefer Magento over Shopify to provide their customers with an incredible user experience.
Ecommerce is incomplete without marketing and hence you need powerful marketing tools to promote your products and win new customers every day. Shopify offers brilliant marketing features that aid in easy email marketing, and direct selling on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. Through easy integration of third-party tools, Shopify helps you to advertise and sell your products on multilingual sites.
Magento too has its own marketplace from where you can install various marketing tools to set up email marketing or other ad campaigns. However, this requires the distinct skills of a Magento developer and hence you need to get in touch with a trusted eCommerce website development company to help you install these tools.
Now, comes the most important question – How do you select one between Shopify and Magento? To answer this, we’ve pointed out the advantages and disadvantages that these two platforms bring along.
| Pros | Cons |
| You can sell it on multiple platforms or channels like Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, eBay, etc.
| You would’ve to spend a transaction fee for every sale you made through 3rd party payment gateways. Only for Shopify Payments, no fee is required. |
| Themes are mobile-responsive and also most of them are available for free which requires no coding skills. | There are lots of paid apps available which tempt you to download right away thus increasing your costs. |
| It is cheaper compared to other eCommerce platforms. | Fewer options for customizations or adding extensions. Compared to Magento, Shopify provides a lesser number of functionalities and add-on features. |
| This platform is easily manageable and accessible easily from a single point or place. |
|
| Pros | Cons |
| Large and supportive user community. Magento’s extensive and loyal users make it the most trustworthy open-source platform for eCommerce businesses. | Not a beginner’s friendly platform. Deep knowledge and coding skills of developers are required to set up a store in Magento. |
| High ROI. With the options for cart customization, Magento makes a customer’s purchasing journey smoother and hassle-free. | Complex installation process. Although it’s open-source software, you need to find a hosting provider. |
| Advanced and versatile functionalities. Unlike Shopify, Magento offers a great variety of add-on features and functionalities to online merchants. | Expensive compared to Shopify. Hosting an ecommerce store needs a hefty amount of dollars and hence is not an affordable option for small businesses. |
| Magento is a flexible eCommerce platform because you can design and customize it the way you want with the help of Magento developers of an eCommerce web development company. |
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Now that you know the key features and pros & cons of both platforms, it’s become easy for you to pick your ideal one.
However, you should weigh the pros and cons, and consider your business size, and budget before making a choice. If you are seeking a user-friendly marketplace and is a beginner in the eCommerce space, then Shopify would suit you best.
Next, if you consider the ease–of–use factor, Shopify again wins here. Since it is a fully managed and self-hosted platform, you can get your store set up and running in no time.
Magento, on the contrary, is more suitable for large-scale projects which require time, rich knowledge, and distinctive coding skills to bring it into reality. This is the reason, large and esteemed business houses rely on Magento to give their customers personalized user experiences.
The list of companies using Magento is Burger King, Asus, Liverpool, Landrover, Ford, Nestle Nespresso, Olympus, Court Asia, and many other such giants.
To conclude, the platform you need to choose mostly depends on your store requirements as well as customers’ needs. For instance, if you desire to have a one-of-a-kind ecommerce site that would give your users a unique shopping experience, then Magento is the place for you.
Also, in terms of functionality, Shopify cannot beat Magento. Driven by an incredibly large community of users, Magento offers great add-on features and high functionality to align with your store needs effortlessly.
Whereas, if you are aiming for a more simple and easy-to-use platform, then Shopify is the answer. It is ideal for small merchants willing to invest less in site design and development. Plus, Shopify can be set up without rich technical experience.
If you’re still in a dilemma and can’t decide on one platform, then reach out to an eCommerce web development company. They can help you build a full-fledged ecommerce store on whichever platform they deem necessary as per your business requirements.
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