Online shopping has become an indispensable part of our daily life. From grocery shopping to ordering medicines online, it has touched the lives of millions. The extreme demand in eCommerce stores has given rise to multiple platforms that can help businesses like yours build feature-rich and sustainable online stores.
Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, and Laravel are a few names in this context. However, we will keep our discussion limited to Magento and Shopify in this blog.
By the end of this, you will be able to choose the best one based on your needs and hire dedicated Magento 2 developer or Shopify developers accordingly.
Introduction to Magento and Shopify
Shopify
Today recognized as a leading eCommerce platform, Shopify was founded in Canada in 2006. It is popularly used for building and setting up online stores and retail POS systems. Used in more than 175 countries all around, it is used for over 4.1 million eCommerce stores.
Examples of Shopify-built stores – are Taylor Stitch, UgMonk, BioLite, Brilliant, Kylie Cosmetics, So Worth Loving, and more.
Pros –
- Easy to use interface.
- Theme variety.
- Multiple payment processors.
- 24/7 customer support.
- Support for multiple niche eCommerce.
- A built-in app store with over 2200 apps.
- No dependency on the hosting server.
- Highly customizable.
Cons –
- The various Shopify plans range from $29 for the basic Shopify version with limited features. If you want to leverage more of the platform you would have to upgrade your plan to either $79/month or $299/month.
- No email hosting is available.
- If you don’t plan to run your store with Shopify for a long time, it might not be the best option for you. The reason is that when you exit or wind up your store from Shopify and want to migrate to someplace else, you only get the CSV report during exit.
Magento –
This PHP-based, open-source framework was first released in 2008. Later, in 2018, Adobe Inc acquired it. Magneto is popularly known for its flexibility.
Examples of Magneto-built websites – are Ford, Sigma Beauty, Liverpool, Landrover, Jaguar, Olympus, etc.
Pros –
- Feature-rich platform.
- Flexible.
- Mobile-friendly.
- Highly scalable.
Cons –
- Few Magento programmers.
- Expensive.
- Time-consuming.
- Poor product support.
- Require a dedicated server.
Magento Vs Shopify: Head-to-Head Comparison
| Magento | Shopify | |
| Type | It is open-source software and one can easily download it without paying any cost. | If you want to build an online store with Shopify, the pricing starts from $29 and can go up to $299/per month. You would further have to pay a transaction fee for each transaction made by your customers. |
| Business size | Since it involves heavy customization, it is most appropriate for eCommerce development by large enterprises. Custom development also increases the cost of development, making it not quite affordable for SMBs. | Shopify is most suitable for small to medium-scale businesses because of its easy setup option, pop-up store, selling from social media accounts, and so on. Moreover, the site is hosted in Shopify itself and doesn’t need any separate hosting, making it not appropriate for large enterprises. |
| Multilingual support | With Magento, you can create numerous store views based on your preferred language as it supports multiple languages. | Shopify doesn’t provide complete multilingual capabilities. So, creating multiple store views might not be possible here. |
| Third-party app integration | Magento integration allows third-party apps to connect and work seamlessly with your online store. | Here, Shopify has a number of stores in its app stores and you can easily integrate them to leverage their features. However, most of the Shopify apps come at a cost and you will have to pay to use them. |
| Contribution | Magento is an open-source software framework and requires help from its wide community members for new upgrades and features. | Shopify is a ready-to-use software that provides commercial services. The developers take care of all the updates. |
| Transaction fee | You can sell directly or via Amazon without having to pay any transaction fee at all. This is extremely convenient, especially if you have a huge range of products to sell. And the huge Amazon marketplace is available to you. | Shopify levies a transaction fee on each order based on the version you use. For the basic version, it is 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, for Shopify intermediate, it is 2.6% + 30 ¢ per transaction, and for Shopify advanced, it is 2.4% + 30¢ per transaction. |
| Payment gateways | It supports more than 150 payment gateways. However, most of them are intended for big eCommerce businesses. You can also use gateways like Square or Stripe by installing them from the marketplace. | Shopify supports more than 100 payment gateways where an additional transaction fee is imposed. Some of the payment gateways used by Shopify merchants are Paypal, Amazon Pay, Stripe, Apple Pay, etc. |
| SEO | Magento helps its users with search engine optimization as it extends SEO guides and prompts for the same. You can edit metadata or alt tags for images directly from its backend. | Unlike Magento, Shopify doesn’t offer much to its users on this front. You have to look for SEO apps from the app store to implement more SEO strategies. |
| Hosting | It is a self-hosted platform. Thus, you will have to take care of your hosting, extensions, and security on your own. | When you avail of a Shopify plan, your hosting is already covered in the plan. So, you don’t have to worry about hosting with this hosted platform. |
These are some of the key differences between the two platforms for developing eCommerce stores. While Magneto offers immense flexibility and customization options, Shopify is easier to use and set up your store with.
Even if you have limited technical expertise, Shopify works marvelously with its easy user interface. You can further hire Shopify web developer to customize your online store. It is most suitable for small to medium businesses.
However, if you are a large enterprise or want to build a huge eCommerce marketplace, you may consider Magento. While the software is free to use, you need to hire Magento expert for development and take care of hosting yourself.
Subsequently, consider these pointers to pick between Magento and Shopify as your preferred eCommerce platform.
Summary: Magento and Shopify, both are leading names when it comes to eCommerce development software. Here, look at the benefits, drawbacks, and differences between both platforms to pick the best for your project.
Author Bio: Maulik Shah is the CEO of BiztechCS, a development company. He often takes the front seat in the company’s development projects, because he enjoys solving problems through technology. When it comes to writing for any blog, his contribution is priceless. Maulik ensures that his interaction with development is frequent enough, and his industry knowledge is ever-evolving so that he can share it. Despite his packed days, Maulik’s door is always open and he is generous with sharing this knowledge and experience.
