Shopify vs Magento vs WooCommerce - What should you choose in 2023

To create, manage, and keep an online store, the best e-commerce platform must be selected. The future success or failure of your business may depend on that. Due to their constrained resources and budgets, small businesses need to consider this.

These days, our choices are Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento. Each of them has a variety of distinctive qualities, as well as advantages and disadvantages and we will walk you through every aspect of these platforms, guiding you towards picking the best one for your company.

Overview of Shopify

In 2004, three enthusiasts determined to open a snowboard store and as fate would have it ended up founding Shopify. Shopify was named one of the year's most successful startups in 2006. In fact, Amazon shut down its store builder in 2015 and advised users to use Shopify instead.

A functioning online store can be set up with Shopify in under 15 minutes. The platform is based on a subscription model, with the Basic plan starting at $29 per month. It offers unlimited file storage, discount codes, round-the-clock customer service, two admin accounts, and many other features.

Shopify hosts its app store with many extensions and offers one-click Google Analytics integration. Avada, Mailchimp, and customer email capture pop-up mechanisms are integrated with Shopify.

Shopify is also a tailored solution for small businesses. You can still look for the best option for your business even if you do not have any plans for an online hypermarket. You can reach customers using Shopify Lite through popular websites like Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Product purchases can be made through Facebook Messenger.

Advantages

• WordPress blogs and social network integration
• Simple to establish a store
• Buying a custom domain name is simple.
• Maintain a vibrant app store with a large selection of apps with tremendous functionality
• 24/7 assistance

Shopify compares itself to WooCommerce and Magento on its landing page. Additionally, they highlight the advantages of selecting Shopify over the other two platforms.

Disadvantages

• Every time a sale is made, a transaction fee is necessary.
• Search Engine Optimisation cannot be best achieved with URL structure.
• Less control on site and its integrations, especially checkout page unless you switch to higher plans

Overview of WooCommerce

WordPress has an e-commerce plugin called WooCommerce. When it comes to sales and reach, WooCommerce is an amazing e-commerce platform. Over 5 million websites currently use WooCommerce. It is based on WordPress blog and if Wordpress is something you like, you would love this.

WooCommerce is free and open-source. As a result, you can add some paid extensions or buy a customised theme for your store to improve the functionality of your website. Using its built-in features, you can sell physical, virtual, and affiliate goods.

You can add sophisticated features, like product comparison, quick browsing, pop-up notifications, various payment options, and desired product listing if you use paid WooCommerce plugins. Additionally, you can publish your WooCommerce products on eBay, upload them to Amazon, or even use Shopify's Buy Now Button to take advantage of both platforms.

Advantages

• For large-scale online businesses, advanced features
• Support for customer and store administrator accounts
• Numerous WooCommerce themes, both free and paid
• Options for flexible customisation

Disadvantages

• Because WooCommerce is an open-source platform, you may need some coding knowledge.
• It does not support maintenance-related, including web hosting and site security. You will either have to find a provider or maintain it yourself.
• For small businesses, adding extra features can be expensive.

Overview of Magento

Since 2018, Adobe has owned the Magento CMS, first released in March 2008. More than 700,000 websites worldwide are using Magento at the moment. Time Out, Olympus, and 20th Century Fox all use Magento for their online businesses.

Numerous built-in features are available with Magento. Languages and currencies can be easily changed; coupons can be added, detailed reports can be created, discounts can be applied to specific products or loyal customers, etc.

Magento Open Source also offers a wide selection of extensions and templates. You can even change the HTML or PHP code to display special features specific to your store.

Additionally, Magento enables you to manage numerous online stores from a single admin panel. If several people manage your online store, you can designate distinct roles for programmers, managers, copywriters, etc.

Advantages

• Several integrated features
• a sizable developer and user community
• Numerous extensions are accessible on Magento Connect
• Magento commerce requires no coding experience.
• Several beautiful themes

Disadvantages

• There are multiple costs associated with starting a business.
• The Magento Commerce solution is the only one that is supported.
• Due to Magento's size, it would be best to use only a dedicated server to host it.
• The setup process is challenging and time-consuming.

Comparison of Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento

These three platforms will be compared based on various criteria.

Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento: User Experience

Shopify's User-Friendliness

Store owners frequently cite Shopify as being the most user-friendly platform available. Shopify offers a drag-and-drop store builder and many intuitive built-in tools to make running and managing your business easier.

• You do not need design expertise because you can choose from pre-made designs.
• The responsive design of the templates makes it easy to adapt your website to any screen size, including those desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.
• Your online payments are already configured. There is no need to handle private credit card information. In addition, you can market to your Facebook contacts.
  

WooCommerce's User-Friendliness

Before using WooCommerce, you must put the following into practice:

• Obtain a domain name
• Create a hosting account.
• Download WordPress
• Install a theme for WordPress

Once you have completed the tasks above, you can only install the WooCommerce plugin on your WordPress site. The domain and WordPress installation can be handled by a specific WordPress hosting company you can hire. You only manage the WooCommerce portion.

After installing and activating the WooCommerce plugin on your website, you will see the on-screen setup wizard. It lets you choose the store's primary parameters and properly configure everything. For instance, some crucial steps deal with shipping, tax, and payment gateway settings. You can start using your shop and adding items once the installation is complete.

Magento's User-Friendliness

It can be challenging to work with Magento. For the development of your website, this platform does not provide on-site developers. You must hire developers and a hosting company to run your Magento store. It takes a while to learn Magento. If you choose to use this solution, you must have prior knowledge of cloud hosting, HTML, etc.

Performance and Scalability Comparison of Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento

Performance and Scalability of Shopify

When it comes to speed and website performance, Shopify does well. But Shopify's scalability may become an issue as your store expands. The use of Shopify Plus is something you should think about if you want seamless scalability.

Performance and Scalability of WooCommerce

WooCommerce allows for scalability, but those without practical coding skills might find it difficult to scale their store websites to meet their needs.

Performance and Scalability of Magento

Magento 2.0 comes with a long list of performance and scalability improvements, including:

• Web page optimisation for faster delivery
• Boost the speed of the server for all website actions.
• Boost backend operations' effectiveness
• Boost database scalability and flexibility to handle peak loads.
  

Design and Customisation Comparison of Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento

Design and Customisation for Shopify

The superior themes offered by Shopify are one of its strongest selling points. Users can easily download and use Shopify themes to enhance their stores.

In its theme store, Shopify currently has over 70 different themes available. These themes support a wide range of business types with numerous colour options and are mobile device optimised. As a result, users can choose a theme that complements the features of their company.

Shopify's platform limits customisation options due to its proprietary codebase. However, you can take advantage of Shopify's specialised "Liquid" language to enhance the design of your store and distinguish your brand from the competition.

Design and Customisation for WooCommerce

Users of WooCommerce can customise their purchases indefinitely. All plugins, themes, and extensions can be modified and coded to improve the appearance and functionality of your website. This gives you more control over the look of your website and allows you to add distinctive features to meet your company's needs. To improve the aesthetics of your website, you can, for instance, change the WooCommerce product gallery, edit the shop page, website header, etc.

Design and Customisation for Magento

Magento comes with two default themes: Luma, a demonstration theme, and Blank, which can be used to build custom themes. These themes were developed using a responsive design, which adapts the appearance of your storefront to various devices.

Additionally, Magento offers 16 ready-made store themes in its marketplace, with prices ranging from $0 to $499. Alternatively, you can check out this platform's more feature-rich design options at ThemeForest, Magenest, and Template Monster.

Because Magento is an open-source platform, you have limitless options for customising the look of your store. You can flexibly customise anything or create your themes from scratch without being constrained to a specific integration level.

Cost comparison of Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento

Pricing for Shopify

It gives several price options with more features based on whatever tier you pick, which varies from $29 to $299 monthly. There is web hosting, an SSL certificate, and a domain name for each price level.

Nevertheless, you may need to acquire third-party add-ons and tools for specific helpful capabilities. When your firm expands, these expenditures will pile up. Besides, Shopify demands an extra cost if you pick other payment providers instead of Shopify, which is between 0.5% - 2% for each transaction, depending on your tier.

Moreover, Shopify provides the Shopify Lite plan at $9/month. Remember that this tier won’t provide you with a comprehensive online shop. It allows you to sell on social media and place a Shopify purchase button on your site to leverage the shopping cart features.

Pricing for WooCommerce

You are not charged to use WordPress or WooCommerce. You may get them from the website. Hence, tiny and low-budget firms can exploit this platform to develop online storefronts.

However, to operate your WooCommerce store, you must pay for a domain name, SSL certificate, or website hosting. Typically, a domain name costs $14.99 annually, an SSL certificate costs $70 annually, and a hosting plan costs $8 monthly.

Besides, as your business expands, you can notice the primary WooCommerce store is confined in its potential. Therefore, you must pay for third-party plugins to increase your store’s functionality.

Pricing for Magento

Magento is free, primarily when you exclusively utilise Magento Open Source. This version is simply downloadable and cost-free to use.

However, if you pick the Magento Commerce edition, you must invest much money. This edition’s yearly licencing price starts at $22,000.00 for business owners who make less than $1 million in revenue. This fee will grow proportional to your business’s expected gross selling income. That implies the more money you produce, the more you need to pay.

If you run your shop on Magento Commerce Cloud, the license charge is twice more for the same gross sales revenue tier as Magento Commerce, running from $40,000.00 to $190,000.00. Therefore, you should only pay for this edition if you have a substantial firm.

In a Nutshell

What is the best platform for your platform, then? The optimal platform for your company will ultimately depend on criteria like your budget, technological know-how, scalability demands, and particular requirements. Consider carefully which platform best fits your company objectives by comparing its features, costs, and support alternatives.

Whichever, eCommerce platforrm you choose, you will need to understand the behavior or your users and their proclivity towards sales. You can use Browsee's Shopify Plugin to do just that. In case, you are more inclined to WooCommerce, Browsee's Wordpress Plugin can be your best friend. Or you could just integrate Browsee using GTM/Javascript Snippet and let it roll.

Wishing you lots of luck!