To create, manage, and maintain an eCommerce store efficiently, it is important you pick a reliable e-commerce platform, which is suitable for your business niche from every aspect.
When choosing an e-commerce platform never compromise on quality, as it could be a factor responsible for either fame or failure of your online store.
Nowadays, numerous e-commerce platforms have emerged into the market that promise to provide a reliable service. However, your first preference should be picking up the platform, which is competent to fulfill current as well the future requirements of your online store.
Right now, Shopify and Magento are two well-known names in the marketplace that seem promising.
Both platforms have its own set of strengths. If you’re getting confused between these two platforms, read this review till last. And If you want to read the reviews of other e-commerce platforms, you may visit Hostinger.com tutorials.
This review will compare the different features of these two platforms and help you to pick the best one for your business. But before this, let’s know some core differences between these two giant e-commerce platforms.
Shopify is subscription based service for which you pay some amount every month while Magento is open-source software which is free. (if you’re using free edition).
Shopify is a self-hosted and readily available platform whereas to set up a store with Magento you need to set up your own hosting.
Setting Up Procedure:
Shopify:
As mentioned above, Shopify is a subscription-based and readily available platform, which means you need to buy web hosting separately.
You can directly install Shopify store by visiting their official website i.e. Shopify.com. Here you will find ‘Get Started button’ on the right top corner, just click on it and following screen will open in front of you.
Fill the asked information i.e. email address, password and the name of your store and then click ‘Create Your Store’ button.
Now you will go through a setup wizard that will be followed by 2 steps. Where you have to fill your personal information and online store details.
Magento
Right now, Magento is one of the most flexible e-commerce platforms. Even developer loves it as it is an open-source platform that supports a lot of customization.
The platform provides a lot of opportunity for customization for tech-savvy owners. However, newbies may find difficulty while customization. Therefore, most people hire a Magento specialist to set up their online store.
Also read: Infographic-WooCommerce plugins – 69 Facts You Need to Know
On the basis of this review, we can say, Shopify is more beginner friendly whereas to set up a store in Magento you may need to hire a Magento developer that will cost you extra.
Pricing:
Pricing is another major factor you must consider before finalizing any eCommerce platform. Let’s see how these two platform handle operating cost.
Shopify:-
At Shopify, you get 14-day free trial offer and after that, you need to purchase a monthly subscription. There are 3 subscription plans available.
- Basic Shopify
- Shopify
- Advanced Shopify
The basic plan has been designed for startups and users who just need to run a basic-feature store. The basic plan cost $29 per month. The ‘Shopify’ and ‘Advanced Shopify’ are premium subscription plans which are usually preferred by medium and large enterprises. The cost of ‘Shopify’ plan is $79 whereas for ‘Advanced Shopify’ you will have to pay$299 every month.
Shopify is a self-hosted platform. However, the transaction charges and credit card fee could be extra.
See the following screenshot.
Magento:
Opposed to Shopify, Magento is an open-source platform that is free to download and use. Like Shopify, you need to buy any subscription plan in Magento.
Magento can be a good option for small and mid-sized businesses. In free subscription plan, Magento comes with the limited features.
However, you can upgrade to Magento Enterprise Edition anytime, which is a paid version of Magento. And the price of the same depends on the size of your business, which means there is no fixed price. To know the exact cost, you may contact Magento specialist and request for quote.
Review–
The costing of Magento depends on the costing of your hosting providers and add-ons you choose whereas in Shopify the least package you can buy is ‘Basic Shopify’ that costs $29/mo.
Themes and Design Options
Eye-pleasing templates and designs are crucial to attracting audience. So always make sure you invest in e-commerce platform that provides adequate options for themes and templates. Let’s evaluate theme and design options of Shopify and Magento.
Shopify
Shopify has its theme store where you can look for elegantly designed, mobile-responsive themes.
Magento:-
Magento is a popular and old platform. Therefore, it delivers a wide range of options when it comes to the template and responsive themes.
Good SEO Score
SEO plays an important role in the search engine ranking results. Therefore, invest in the platform that supports various advanced SEO features.
Shopify: Shopify is SEO friendly platform that allows you to perform various basic and advanced SEO tasks, including, meta tags, alt tags, image optimization, title optimization, etc.
Magento:
Like Shopify, Magento is SEO friendly platform as well. You can perform SEO tasks like image optimization, meta tags, robot.txt file, etc.
Review:
If we talk about the SEO score, we find that Shopify SEO score is 98 whereas Magento’s is 95.
Final Words:
Both platforms have a lot of stunning features and keep enough potential to run any kind of online store efficiently. However, if compare user-friendliness, SEO capability and other features, we find Shopify wins over Magento.
| About the Guest Author:
Laura Ramonaitytė
