Due to the digital transformation of businesses, it’s becoming increasingly important to have a solid online presence. According to statics, retail e-commerce sales were 4.9 trillion US dollars in 2020. This figure could grow by 50%, reaching about 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025.

 

As a business owner, it is pretty sure you’re looking to build an online store. But your store’s potential success is bound to your choice of the right e-commerce platform. But selecting the one with sought and honed capabilities is not a piece of cake.

 

Today we’re going to discuss the two most popular e-commerce platforms. The Magento and Shopify. They both have established reputations, but having a clear understanding is a must to choosing one.

 

Often we overlook their key differences, which might lead to complications. Having a comprehensive and crystal clear understanding is a must. We’d like to pit Magento vs Shopify to help you decide which platform is better for you.

Magento vs Shopify: A Short Introduction

Both platforms share outstanding features and attributes, but it’s obvious they have many distinctions as well. Their individual analysis is necessary before indulging in a brief comparison.

It will set a clear ground for us to understand them well.

Magento

The main speciality is that Magento is an open-source coding-based platform. It offers its users the ease of flexibility and customisation.  You can manage and review content, build unique websites, and stand out in the crowd with your creativity. It was established in 2007 by Magento inc. in 2018, Adobe inc. acquired it for 1.68 billion US dollars.

 

Although Magento is highly flexible, it operates using PHP coding frameworks. You need a level of coding expertise to do the job correctly. Seeing this, it often suits large enterprises and businesses with their own development teams. Presuming that you have some coding knowledge, there are no limitations on how far you go to customise and personalise your store.

 

It is an open-source platform, so you need to incorporate your own hosting solutions. Some big brands use Magento, like Nike, Jaguar, Nestle, Liverpool FC, and Cox & Cox.

 

If you have coding skills and international aspirations, go for Magento. It gives you complete creative freedom. You can create wonders if you have time to invest in it.

Source: business.adobe.com

Shopify

When it comes to Shopify,  it was founded by Tobias Lütke, Scott Lake, and Daniel Wienand. The key difference compared to Magento is that it requires no coding skills. Also, it is a fully hosted platform offering its users an easy-to-use interface. One with mediocre qualifications can run its online store efficiently. There is a theme editor available you can take help and customise your store.

 

It operates on the Ruby and Rails framework and offers an effortless solution to scale your online business. You can further boost its customisation if you’re a developer and add more functionality and flexibility.

 

Due to its easy-to-use mechanisms, it suits small businesses. Even bouillon dollar companies can make good use of it. It is an all-in-one solution for startups to big giants in the business field.

Some prominent brands using Shopify are The New York Times, BBC, Raymond, Kylie, Gymshark, Red Bull Gmbh, Heinz, David Beckham, and Nescafe.

Source: Shopify.com

1-Ease of Use

Operating an online store is critical, especially if you are new.  When choosing an online platform for starting a business, make sure it has simple tools to build a website. You can better manage your store and provide your customers with the best shopping experience. Also, you can boost sales in the very beginning.

 

Assessing your previous knowledge and expertise further helps you choose the right platform. Let’s look at what Magento and Shopify offer:

Magento

Being an open-source platform, Magento offers complete freedom of customisation and personalised design of the website. But it comes at a price. You should have a sound knowledge of programming. You just can’t start from scratch; otherwise, you struggle to manage it. Here you need an experienced Magento developer or an agency to manage your store.

 

So, Magento is the best fit for medium to large-sized businesses with bigger budgets and development teams at the back.

Shopify

It offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop approach to building and customising an online store. Users from all backgrounds can quickly develop their store without any technical jargon or coding. It is not only cheaper but also gets functional in moments. Also, if you find any trouble, your hosting provider is there to help you.

 

But this ease comes with a cost. Easy customisation has its limitations. You cannot customise everything, for example, the checkout process.

Verdict about Ease of Use

Shopify is easier to use but less flexible in customisation.

2-Themes and Templates

The first impression is the last impression. To make a positive image a good themes matters a lot. It creates attractiveness and a positive brand image. Customers feel satisfied when they land on your web page.

 

Here is a Magento vs Shopify comparison:

Magento

When it comes to Majento, you’ll get a mix of ready-made and custom themes. The average cost is somewhere around 100$. As previously discussed, Magento is very flexible in terms of customisation. Here you can customise your own theme if you have a coding background. You can hire an agency for this service if you have enough budget.

 

Naturally, custom themes are suitable for large businesses with significant capital investments.

Source: Marketplace.magento.com

Shopify

Shopify prefers simplicity and easy-to-use module. So it offers a ready-made collection of 100+ themes. Shopify editor further helps you customise themes and make changes as per your needs. You can even create themes from scratch using its drag and drop builder. Also, there is flexibility in adding images, logos, and content.

 

There is not too much variety in the looks of Shopify theses — that is both modern and contemporary.

Source: Shopify.com

Verdict about Ease of Use

More users prefer Shopifyas it offers more themes and easy customisation. Don’t go with the crowd; instead, make your choice after care3fullyb foreseeing the future needs of your business.

3-Speed and Performance

Speed and performance a critical factors to remaining competitive in today’s business world. Page speed is essential for attracting and retaining customers. According to a survey from Google, the probability of bounce rate increases by 32% for a delay of 1 to 3 seconds.

Both Magento and Shopify offer great features for speed and performance.

Magento

For speed and performance, Magento provides two modes.

• Magento open-source
• Magento commerce

provides flexibility in choosing desired server capabilities matching your business requirements. Open-source suite to those who want to build a store right from the ground. Magento commerce is an all-in-one cloud solution. Magento Commerce provides the ability to host your store on Magento’s cloud platform. This leads to the seamless integration of third-party apps, and you will advanced premium features.

Shopify

The module of Shopify is different. Shopify relies on third-party hosting, so you don’t need to worry about store performance and page loading speed. In Shopify, system speed decides what will be the outcome of your business during peak demand. The main downside is that you have very little control over server adjustment and optimization.

Verdict about Speed and Performance

Shopify store’s performance is bound to the overall system, where some users may feel restricted. Magento is a better option due to flexibility in performance optimization.

4-Apps and Add-Ons

Usually, built-in features are not enough to provide outstanding functionality. As a business owner, you definitely look to improve your store’s capability in the best way possible. Integration of third-party apps and extensions is necessary to harness full capabilities. Both Magento and Shopify provide installing and integrating apps and add-ons. Let’s analyze them individually.

Magento

Magento has over 5000 applications to choose from. They offer multiple benefits from integrating with Facebook, marketing features, and payment processing. These applications are complex and significantly improve performance. You have to have basic knowledge of coding to install them. You can use filters to find specific category apps as per your needs.

Additionally, you have to pay for getting services of integrated extensions.

Shopify,

The  App Store of Shopify is home to thousands of applications. They serve multiple functions like email marketing, add-to-cart option, etc.  Shopify also provides recommendations to help new users find compatible apps geared to serve their required functions. Many applications are free to use on the Shopify platform compared to Magento.

Verdict about Apps and Add-ons

Overall, both platforms provide useful apps, but for Magento, the integration process is complex due to coding requirements. Shopify apps mainly require a one-click integration process.

5-Payment Processors and Transaction Fees

Magento and Shopify both provide the facility of connecting with online payment processors. Without payment processors, you cannot sell or buy products online. Also, some services allow you to take credit card payments from your customers. Which platform is better?

Magento

Magento has more than 150 payment gateways. Some prominent names are AMAZON PAY, PAYPAL, STRIFE, and AUTHORIZE.NET. These multiple payment processors make it possible to grow business worldwide without any language considerations. Not only this, Magento allows you to sell via Amazon, further multiplying business growth.

Shopify

Shopify has its own payments processor called Shop Payments. Its application process is simple and allows users to manage payments directly from the interface. You make more money per sale if you use Shop Payments. But it is susceptible to security and can cease accounts for mere suspicion of fraud. It supports over 100 payment gateways and comes with a transition fee imposed.

Verdict about Apps and Add-ons

Shopify payment module is quite restrictive due to transaction fees and strict terms. Although the application process of Magento is complex, it provides more payment gateways favorable for multi-regional transactions.

7-SEO and Marketing

Undoubtedly, revenue generation is the sole purpose of choosing the right platform.  Once you finish developing a marvelous store, your next step would be to promote it to make it visible to potential customers. Make sure whether your chosen eCommerce platform provides you with enough tools to cater to marketing needs or not.

Magento

From a marketing perspective, Magento is a little weak than Shopify. It has essential tools like abandoned cart recovery, fixed price setting, checkout customization, and multi-channel selling using Amazon, eBay, and Instagram.

 

When it comes to SEO, Magento is quite advanced. It gives you prompts and guides to better utilize best SEO practices. Magento has a built-in feature to edit image Alt tags and customize URLs to rank higher in Google searches.

Shopify

Shopify offers comprehensive marketing tools to create effective marketing strategies. It helps to increase product visibility and offers multi-channel selling opportunities. The leading practices are building promotions, offering gift cards, and encouraging users to give reviews. Even beginner-level store owners make good use of these practices.

 

Shopify lags behind in terms of SEO services. It usually relies on third-party extensions to optimize content, customize URLs, and edit image Alt tags.

Verdict about SEO and Marketing

Shopify has the upper hand for selling and marketing, while Magento is best regarding SEO.

8-Help and Support

Customer support is necessary for the consistent and smooth running of your store. This is especially important when you don’t have in-depth knowledge of solving issues.  Let’s take a look at the features of both Magento and Shopify.

Magento

Magento provides excellent community-based support and has over 260,000 developers worldwide. They have a comprehensive and user-friendly guide to running your store. Using open-source, you can access videos, tutorials, and more. Also, there is a 24/7 dedicated support team in Magento commerce.

Shopify

Shopify also has an extensive network of support systems. Its services are spread across social media, community forums, and advanced specialist support. You can also get live support. They will ask you to search the community platform first for the answer. Although it’s a standard practice of many help desks, it is quite annoying for some users.

Verdict about Help and Support

Magento surely wins the competition of providing better customer support. Their professional developers offer high caliber and authentic guidelines.  Shopify is trending and getting more user-friendly day by day. Make your choice after carefully assessing the future potential of both platforms.

9-Pricing

Shopify is hosted platform which offers complete freedom from worries about hosting. Shopify charges you a combined package including all the expenses monthly.  Magento is an open-source platform that provides a free start. You have to pay for expenses as you proceed in developing your store.

 

Magento

Initially, it is free to start, but you have to pay for hosting, extensions, and theme development. Magento is an open-source platform, so there is no fixed price rate. Your business requirements usually decide what your cost would be. Magento is suitable for large businesses. You have to spend a significant chunk of money to harness the full potential of its capabilities.

 

Shopify

has three plans starting from 29$. The price of the advanced plan goes up to 299$. Different plans have different features. It all depends on your needs. Shopify does not charge any fees if you use Shopify payment. Additional charges apply for using any other payment gateway.

Source: Shopify.com

Verdict about Pricing

It is difficult to draw a final conclusion about who is the winner. Both Magento and Shopify offer prices differently. Magento is an open-source platform and is very attractive for large businesses. Store building and customization require a considerable sum of money, and Magento is quite complicated. Shopify is easy to operate, and you can launch a running store quickly.

Conclusion

Both Magento and Shopify have their features and competencies. The functionality of both platforms is clearly dependent on the needs of your business. Choosing the right platform ensures the success of your business. Here are the pros and cons of both platforms to help you gain further clarity.

 

Features	Magento	Shopify
Ease of use	Complicated to use, requires knowledge of coding or help from developers.	Easy-to-use drag and drop mechanism, no jargon of coding
Customisation	Very flexible but complicated due to coding, complete freedom of creativity	Very easy to customize and set up a store quickly, less flexible than Magento
Performance	Control over adjustment of performance; you can optimize it according to need, The open-source platform, so you have more control.	Involves hosting, so performance relies on the system, less control than Magento.
Third-party extension	For up to 5000 applications, the integration process is complex as it involves coding knowledge.	Shopify App Store offers thousands of apps, a one-click integration process, and is easy to operate.
Payment gateways	150+ payment gateways, the complex application process, no extra transaction fees involved once a method is set	The built-in payment method ( Shopify Payment) also iintegrates100+ more payment gateways, additional transaction fees involved.
Marketing capabilities and SEO	Less marketing capabilities than Shopify, SEO optimization is better.	Robust marketing capabilities, weaker than Magento regarding SEO
Customer Support	260,000 Certified developers in support communities, effective and concise guides	Live support with little complexity also provides community support, which is less effective than Magento
Pricing	Free Extra costs involved	$29- 299$ Combined monthly plans