Today, we’ve decided to bring to you the ultimate showdown: Magento vs Shopify vs WooCommerce.
Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce are the three biggest names in the eCommerce industry in the world. They have outdone their competitors by a large margin.
These platforms are structured differently and cater to different types of eCommerce needs. One needs to take different key aspects into account before making a choice. We’re going to compare these eCommerce giants on the basis of different criteria and give suggestions on which platform you should use in which situation.
MAGENTO
Magento is by far the most customizable eCommerce platform one can find. It was started in 2007 and soon went on to have 500,000 users. Magento has two services: One is Open Source, which means anyone can sign up and make a website for free, and the other is Magento Commerce, which is a paid plan that provides all hosting services.
Currently, Magento has around 250,000 eCommerce websites, with a 10% share in the top 1 million eCommerce websites in the world.
WOOCOMMERCE
As of now, WooCommerce runs 29.1% of all eCommerce stores, which amounts to around 3 million stores. WooCommerce is essentially a WordPress plugin that one has to install after they’ve bought a domain for a WordPress website. The reason why WooCommerce currently holds the largest market share is that it’s easy to build an online store on this platform if you’re already a WordPress user.
The user interface is pretty easy, but one does need some basic HTML or CSS knowledge to maintain their online store on WooCommerce.
SHOPIFY
Shopify had initially started as an online store called Snowdevil in 2004. It went on to become an eCommerce platform in 2007, its retailers acquiring a net sales of $100 million in 2009. Presently, Shopify has 820,000 merchants using its platform.
Shopify is such a big hit among users today because it’s more like a software-as-a-service where non-technical folks can easily sign up and get their online store running in no time. There’s no learning curve involved and the interface is pretty intuitive.
MAGENTO VS WOOCOMMERCE VS SHOPIFY: WHICH IS BETTER?
1. SEO EFFECTIVENESS
MAGENTO
It provides advanced SEO features along with inbuilt analytics. It generates SEO friendly URLs and meta descriptions, integrates Google site maps that are auto-generated in websites, automates watermarking and image resizing, etc.
Along with these features, SEO can be easily customized suiting your website needs if you have the required skill set. A study in 2017 revealed that Magento had an SEO score of 100 out of 100.
Use this Magento SEO guide to improve your store’s organic ranking.
SHOPIFY
Being an eCommerce first store Shopify is definitely optimized for SEO. The only problem is that it doesn’t give much room for customizations. There might be some SEO practices that are specific for your business, but you won’t be able to carry them out if Shopify doesn’t allow you to.
WOOCOMMERCE
Thanks to the abundance of plugins and extensions available in WooCommerce, it offers a good degree of SEO. Users can also tweak the settings as they like to suit their website better.
WINNER: TIE BETWEEN MAGENTO & WOOCOMMERCE
2.PERFORMANCE & SCALABILITY
MAGENTO
Magento is extremely powerful and can easily accommodate thousands and thousands of products along with high website traffic.
If you have a big business or have big plans for future expansion then Magento’s robust content management system will definitely complement those plans and you won’t have to migrate to more powerful software.
Magento is also easily scalable, so you can easily increase or decrease the resources your server requires depending on website traffic. This means you won’t have to experience any slowdown in speed or website crashes during sudden traffic surges.
SHOPIFY
When it comes to site speed and performance, Shopify fares well. In fact, site speed is one of its main advantages.
When it comes to scalability it doesn’t do well compared to the other two, which can prove to be a hindrance if your business grows. If you want smooth scalability for when your business grows, then you’ll have to use Shopify Plus, which can increase your costs dramatically.
WOOCOMMERCE
WooCommerce allows for scalability, but individuals inexperienced with code might find it difficult to scale their websites according to needs. If you don’t have any coding background then you can say that WooCommerce isn’t scalable for you at all.
WINNER: MAGENTO
3. SUPPORT
MAGENTO
Magento has a strong community of around 300,000 members. With amateurs and certified members alike contributing to these communities, it’s not hard to find help if you’re having any issues. However, their direct customer support might not be as prompt as one would want.
SHOPIFY
Shopify prides itself in its 24×7 customer support. The response time is good and they’re usually prompt with their replies and solutions. You can reach their customer service through live chat, email or phone.
WOOCOMMERCE:
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, and the WordPress community is huge. You can easily take help and benefit from codes or plugins created by others in the community to enhance your website’s functionality.
WINNER: SHOPIFY
4. EASE OF USE
MAGENTO
Magento has a high learning curve. One cannot maintain a website on this platform without getting a developing expert’s help or hosting service. You need to have a working knowledge of PHP, cloud hosting, HTML, etc, otherwise, it’s impossible to run a website on Magento.
SHOPIFY
Like we’ve said before, Shopify requires no prior knowledge of coding or website development. The platform provides software and hosting itself, which means the users only have to worry about setting up and designing their store (for which plugins and themes are available).
WOOCOMMERCE
If you’re okay with running your WooCommerce websites on its free themes and plugins, then it’s very easy to use. But, in most cases, you will require some customizations, which is when WooCommerce will get tricky, especially if you have no coding literacy.
WINNER: SHOPIFY
5.SECURITY
MAGENTO
Security will not be a problem in Magento if you have efficient developers and hosting services at your disposal. Magento being an eCommerce first platform is made keeping security in mind. It keeps releasing security patches and there are a lot of security extensions and plugins offered for a higher level of security.
SHOPIFY
Since everything on Shopify is globally hosted, the platform is quite secure and reliable. Shopify takes care of your server-side maintenance and regulates it. It also provides you a free SSL certificate and takes care of PCI compliance for you.
WOOCOMMERCE
WordPress keeps updating for bug fixing and security. The users don’t have to worry about any security as WooCommerce team constantly monitors and changes the code to minimize such threats. Apart from that, there are a lot of security plugins too that protect your website from hackers and virus attacks.
WINNER: MAGENTO
6.CUSTOMIZABILITY
MAGENTO
Out of the three, Magento offers the most room for customizations. There’s no limit to how you can change theme features, SEO settings, layouts and more. Since there’s developing required, your website can be as unique as you want it to be.
SHOPIFY
Shopify is not very customizable, so users are stuck with the core features of whatever themes they choose. There’s an extra fee charged if you use payment gateways that are not installed in Shopify.
WOOCOMMERCE
WooCommerce gives more air for customizations so that you can give your website a unique look. You are free to add or change the core features of your themes, create your own extensions or plugins, tweak your website layout as you want. There is access to CSS, PHP, HTML type code and if you know how to code, then customizing your website should be a piece of cake!
CONCLUSION
THE WINNER: MAGENTO
Phew! We’ve really tried to encompass all that is required for a Magento Vs Shopify Vs WooCoomerce comparison.
If you still find it difficult to make a decision, just consider the broad criteria: Cost, technical support, themes, customizability, & performance. Once you have a brief idea of your requirement levels, look at your future plans of expansion and make a decision!
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