“Efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing the right things.”
– Peter Drucker
Choosing a right eCommerce platform is vital for the success of your business. In other words, unless you do the right thing (find the right platform) you can never achieve the right results in terms of revenue and growth. However, it is easily said than done. The online industry is booming and breakthroughs are a common phenomenon. eCommerce platforms are evolving so rapidly that it has become a little difficult to keep a track of all the advancements. But, the scenario isn’t as messed up as it seems. There are many eCommerce software that have managed to say ahead of the pack, making it a little easier to choose the right one for your business.
So, today we will be discussing two popular eCommerce carts – Magento and Shopify, what makes them unique, a glimpse at their strengths and weaknesses and which one should you choose. So, sit back and read on.
Magento vs Shopify – An Overview:
Magento and Shopify, both are complete eCommerce stores offering options to create, manage and maintain your online store. From managing your inventory and sales to multiple payment options, both the stores offer a host of features via add-ons. Generally referred to as “extensions” on Magento and “apps” on Shopify, both the platforms offer a multitude of add-ons to choose from. You can incorporate numerous functions into your store ranging from UGC displays to accounting software.
Besides this, when it comes to themes and SEO features, both have these in spades. Basically, both the stores fair well in terms of features necessary for setting up your store. Here the similarities end and both the shopping platforms part their ways as they work in completely different ways.
Magento vs Shopify – Under The Hood:
Shopify offers a 14 days free trial, after which you have to choose from one of their paid plans. You can easily build and manage your store even if you have zero experience in coding or designing a store. The interface is pretty friendly with well-structured sections for everything. You can easily install anything from payment gateways to themes and modify it as per your liking. Shopify also offers its own domain and hosting plans, thereby, eliminating the hassle to choose a hosting service and domain.
Magento, on the contrary, is an open-source platform. You don’t really have to pay anything to use it. However, you have to get your own domain and hosting services. You also need to have some level of tech know-how to build your store and modify it as per your own requirement.
Ease Of Use And Customization:
Shopify, as compared to Magento, is easy to use and manage. Even with zero technical experience, you can easily set up and customize your SEO optimized store. A great fit for SMEs, it comes with an advanced theme editor, allowing you to modify the look of your store and also hide specific sections.
Magento is the best choice when it comes to setting up large stores with multiple categories and unlimited products. In spite of being an open-source platform, it requires you to hire dedicated Magento developer to ensure the store turns out to be the way you want it. The admin panel is simple and allows easy store management.
SEO Capabilities:
Shopify, as well as Magento, offer great SEO capabilities. Besides the default SEO features, you can install various extension and plugins to ensure proper utilization of the resources. In short, when it comes to SEO, both the platforms measure up well.
Final Verdict:
In the fight of Magento vs Shopify, there isn’t any sure shot winner. Both the platforms have great potential in terms of SEO, inventory management, ease of usage and user engagement. It all comes down to your business requirements, the size of your business, your budget and how much you intend to invest in the future. However, one thing for which these platforms are made for is online selling, and both are really great at it.
Author Bio:
Vachell Ladd, a Sr. Magento Developer at Magentio likes to explore new technologies and provide his insights via blogs and articles. When not writing codes, he loves reading tech news or enjoying a movie with his family.
