Choosing the right platform for your eCommerce business is one of the most important decisions for your online business. All eCommerce platforms have their unique assets that can determine the success of your eCommerce store.

Shopify and Magento are the two biggest eCommerce platforms in the battleship for the best eCommerce platform. Their differences are large when it comes to specific areas such as development, ease of use, SEO, hosting, etc. In this article, we will point out the best features of each platform that can help you save time and get your eCommerce website results.

Magento eCommerce

Magento is a PHP-based platform that is used by a third of all eCommerce websites in the world. It is a free open-source platform and is highly successful because of its large development community. Magento is optimizable in many ways. Developers who are experienced in Magento development can customize your eCommerce store to give a unique customer experience to your visitors.

Shopify

Shopify is a hosted eCommerce platform built on Ruby that is used by millions of businesses worldwide. It has suitable options for startups and mid-size businesses and can be customized based on your online store needs. It is simple to use, but unlike Magento, it is not free, which could be a deciding factor if you are a startup.

Ease of use

When it comes to development, Magento developers have open hands in experimentation with different modules, code, and solutions to increase the Magento store performance. This gives you the option to create a store from scratch based on your unique wishes and requirements. Magento is supported by a large community of developers with an active help center. Handling the Magento CMS system, however, requires the user to learn to interpret the fundamental code.

Shopify is far easier to use for the content managers and other personnel that is not a part of the development team because it has drag-and-drop options that help you change things on the website easier and quicker.

Themes comparison

Shopify allows you to choose from tens of free and premium themes. The Shopify themes are responsive for mobile devices and you can customize elements, colors, and objects.

Magento offers themes that are ready to use and do not require customization, but also custom themes that can be adjusted by professional developers, which is a good solution for large online stores.

Magento vs Shopify SEO

When it comes to SEO, Magento is simply a level above Shopify. Magento has a lot of built-in SEO features, while Shopify relies on the apps. As your online store grows, SEO will be an unavoidable part of your business strategy. Because Magento features can be customized by the developers, you could have a customized solution tailored to your need, rather than having to rely on the plugins in the Shopify app store. However, if you are a small business, the plugins can be extremely helpful, and give you a quick solution.

Upgrades

In June 2020 Magento has stopped providing support for Magento 1. Magento 2 has improved the framework, product catalogs, and improved admin panel and user experience.

Shopify has also come up with a solution for its businesses that had greater needs and presented them with a Shopify plus upgrade that has new extensions and features for big businesses.

Magento vs Shopify payment options

Both Shopify and Magento are easy to connect with different payment processors.

Magento supports 150+ different payment gateways that are suited for world-wide businesses. You can connect with any payment gateway by downloading and installing them from the Magento marketplace. Besides, Magento does not require any transaction fees when users are purchasing from your Magento store.

Shopify has developed their own payment processor, which is known as Shopify payments, that does not require any transaction fees. However, if you have a Shopify store and use another option for payment processors you will have to pay extra fees per transaction.

Magento vs Shopify hosting

Shopify is a popular hosted solution. Therefore you do not have to worry about finding a hosting solution for your website. From the developer's side of view, this can be seen as a con, because it is not hosted on your server, but on the other side, if you are a small business this can be helpful.

Magento does not have a hosting solution, but this gives you the option to have control over where you want your website to be hosted. The only condition that you have to fulfill is to make sure that the hosting provider supports Magento commerce.

Magento vs Shopify pricing

Magento and Shopify have different pricing because they are suited for different types of businesses. Magento is an open-source solution which means that the cost depends on your requirements. Shopify plans have fixed prices with monthly fees, that are cheaper, but you also have to pay for Shopify apps and themes.

Magento vs Shopify: Advantages and disadvantages

Magento has regular updates that keep the platform up to date. This allows the platform to have an admin interface that is intuitive, multiple payment options and can manage big traffic on the website. Magento Commerce allows you to customize your store with thousands of plugins and extensions for your sales, marketing, and SEO efforts.

Magento requires developers to achieve its full potential. This can seem like a time-consuming and pricey option, but if you have a team of developers who are skilled and experienced in Magento, you can customize anything in your store, and meet your user-specific needs and your exact requirements. Magento is more suitable for growing businesses and enterprises. It is open-source but you are responsible for the fees of hosting, domain, and extensions.

Shopify is a solution that can be handled by users with basic technical knowledge, it is easy to set up and has timely updates. It also has great speed, conversion rate, advanced analytics capability, and a variety of apps that can help you improve your sales and marketing efforts.

Because it is a solution that is easy to use, the price is not cheap and you have to pay for the apps. However, you don't have to pay for the hosting, but you will not have unlimited control over your store like you would on Magento.


 

 

Magento

Shopify

Solution

Open Source

Hosted

Built with

PHP

Ruby

Latest upgrade

Magento 2

Shopify plus

Ideal for:

Mid-size businesses

Large businesses

Startups

Small businesses

Mid-size businesses

Ease of use

Medium

Easy

SEO

Built-in SEO features

Additional apps required for SEO

Themes

Ready-made and customizable themes

A wider range of customizable themes

Sales tools

Built-in features and extensions required

Wide range of built-in features

Marketing

Extensions

Built-in tools

Payment processors

Over 150 payment gateways

Sell directly through Amazon with Magento based inventory

Over 100 payment gateways

Extra fees per transactions

Help and support

Magento community-based forum with excellent step-by-step user guides by Magento developers and support team

24/7 live chat support

Email support

Community forum

Hosting

Self-hosted

Provided by Shopify

Pricing

Free

Additional payments for Magento extensions

Monthly rates from $29-$299

Conclusion

Both eCommerce solutions have various parameters that are worth taking into consideration before making an informed decision. Before making decisions, think of your needs and if the platform will be able to provide you with the level of customization that you need. If you are not sure on your own which platform would be the right solution for you, you can always contact eCommerce experts to help you decide.

Zendev has a long experience in developing both Shopify and Magento solutions for a variety of clients. We will do a free consultation and analysis study to determine which solution would fit your business the best. You are welcome to contact us to start growing your online eCommerce business according to your specific requirements.

 

Read also: Magento vs Umbraco: A Comprehensive Comparison of Two Leading CMS Platforms

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