If you are about to set up an online business, choosing the best suitable platform for the e-commerce website is the first and most imperative step. There are a number of choices available in the market, which further make the job more cumbersome. However, the most popular choices are Magento and Shopify, with their unique set of attributes. While Shopify was leading interms of content management, the Magento 2 release has boosted its popularity in the market.
Before we jump on competing for the two powerful platforms for online stores, it is a must to run a little background check:
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Shopify
Shopify is a highly user-friendly platform that allows e-commerce businessman to develop complex systems for their online stores. At a very early stage, the platform came up with many new and innovative features that increased its weight in the market, for example, the integration with Amazon. It is a platform where you can easily build an online community without dealing with the complications of technical consideration. Some of the additional features offered by Shopify includes Facebook stores, buy buttons for campaigns, quick and easy POS integration and more.
Magento
One of the most popular and widely used content management systems, Magento has recently come up with it’s the latest update- Magento 2. It currently fosters a community of over 240,000 merchant users hailing from different geographical locations. The platform offers a high level of customization features along with integration capabilities. Because of this versatility, it is being more preferred by people for building online stores. From individuals to reputed brands like Nike, Hermes, Ford and more, Magento is successfully catering to the needs of businesses working online.
Here is a quick comparison of Magento & Shopify
| Features | Magento | Shopify |
| Store Functionality | Despite being versatile, the store built on this platform are user-friendly. You can easily manage and use it. | Shopify is better than Magento in terms of functionality and ease of setup. |
| Inventory Management | By using Magento Community Edition, a free tool, merchants can easily add unlimited items to their inventory. | Shopify Starter Plan comes at a price of $14 per month. The number of items that a merchant can add to its website is also restricted to 25 only. |
| Coupons and Discounts | Magento or Magento 2, one can easily access the coupon codes or discount codes on all versions of Magento. | If you have subscribed to Shopify Starter Plan, you cannot use discount codes or coupon codes. |
| Shipping Charge Calculations | You enjoy accuracy and flexibility with Magento’s built-in tool for Shipping charge calculation. | Shopify too offers a powerful shipping charge calculation tool with a due amount of flexibility. |
| Payment Gateways | You can use over 50 payment gateways on Magento platform. | Shopify extends its support to 70 payment gateways. |
| Themes and templates | You can enjoy a versatile collection of themes at Magento. These themes are both free and premium. | There are many templates or themes to play within Shopify. The choices are limited, giving all the stores more or less the similar appearance. |
| Multi-lingual support | There is a fully-functional, built-in multilingual support system in Magento. | No multi-lingual, built-in system is provided by Shopify. |
| Extensions/ Add-ons | There is a pool of over 5000 add-ons listed under the Magento extension store. All these add-ons boost the functionality of the website. | There are only 100 add-ons available on Shopify, however, the platform is working on adding more to the list to boost the functionality of online stores built on this platform. |
After we have compared, these platforms on a number of aspects, we hope that you have got a better idea about these platforms and their compatibility with your requirements. To help you further asses Magento and Shopify, mentioned below are the prime benefits of both the platforms:
Key benefits of Shopify
- Shopify extends its services to both large businesses as well as start-ups. It is an affordable platform that caters to all the elementary level requirements of the businesses at a very lower price. Compared to other platforms, it is the only one to provide a complete range of features in its starter plan.
- It is a little expensive than Magento, but, when it comes to value for the price, it certainly beats Magento with good points. Everything that it takes to build a powerful and feature packed e-commerce website is available in the starter pack of Shopify.
- Moreover, Shopify is also popular because of the SEO features it extends. It is important for businesses to be found online and for this, Shopify has best marketing tools and SEO features. Because of this feature, it also makes a great platform for startups to develop their online stores and build an online presence at a relatively lower cost.
- Even with the basic subscription of this platform, the user can take advantages of a range of SEO features along with E-Commerce analytics. This helps in analyzing the market, assessing your market presence and devising strategies for the future.
Key benefits of Magento
- The most popular and reliable content management platform, Magento boasts about its extensions marketplace, the most. These extensions allow users to customize their websites to the best as per requirements. Currently, the platform has over 5000 community-driven extensions and the market extension have been the most widely used extension out of all. While you can enjoy most of these extensions free of cost, the ones listed for a price aren’t that expensive.
- Compared to Shopify, with only 100 extensions, Magento surely has a competitive edge. This is the reason they are used by a wider and larger marketplace and players. Many existing market players have already installed a number of extensions on their websites and are enjoying the functionality they provide. Besides increasing the functional value, these extensions also make Magento websites more performance-centric and highly user-friendly. From the customer’s point of view, business owners can be rest assured that the interface is the best for the end-users and they can easily understand and enjoy their shopping experience.
Cost
When the cost of the platforms and the features associated with it are considered, there is a real gap between these two platforms. Besides downloading the CE software, which is free in case of Magento, you will also have to hire a developer and web designer to make you the best e-commerce website. You can anyhow save this cost if you have technical skills.
In case of both the platforms, you will also have to buy below-mentioned items
- Merchandising module (something like visual merchandiser)
- Search solution (either module or SaaS)
- Product reviews solution (such as Yotpo)
- One-page checkout module
- Payment gateway module
- SEO module
In case of Shopify, you get four different plans- Lite, Basic, Pro, and Unlimited. The Basic, Pro and Unlimited also come with an online store setup.
Conclusion
Each content management system comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The needs of different businesses are compatible with either one of the platform and choosing the best remains an individual decision. For anyone searching for functionality, usability and customizability, Magento comes up as a better choice, however, for those looking for more automation, Shopify is the best. Both the platforms aren’t very expensive and can be considered based on their features, price and your budget.
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