With the right choice and successful deployment of an e-commerce platform, you can kill multiple birds with one stone: Build and optimize your customer base, gain new customers, attract the “sleeping” part of your target audience, and start tracking KPIs.
First of all, you need to find the most suitable system for your business. And here’s a better understanding of the industry giants’ stubborn billboards – Shopify vs WooCommerce vs Magento. Each of them is full of unique traits, strengths, and weaknesses. We’ll show you the details of each of these platforms so you can choose the right one for your business.
Magento
Magento is by far the most customizable e-commerce platform you can find. It was launched in 2007 and soon had 500,000 users. Magento offers two services, one is open source, which means anyone can sign up and create a website for free, and the other is a paid Magento Commerce package that offers all hosting services.
Magento currently has around 250,000 e-commerce websites, 10% of the one million e-commerce websites globally. Also, Magento Open Source offers a variety of extensions and templates. You can even edit the HTML or PHP code to show the specifics of your business.
Additionally, you can create multiple online stores with Magento and manage them through the admin panel. If many people operate your online store, you can assign different roles to developers, administrators, editors, and so on.
Magento runs on its new Magento 2 platform. They now have a cloud-based and on-premises enterprise solution as well as a widely-used open-source version. Magento is still the most powerful solution of the three and is best suited for complex B2B websites or international websites.
Shopify
Shopify was launched in 2004 when three enthusiasts decided to open a snowboard shop. In 2006 Shopify was named one of the most successful startups of the year. In 2015, Amazon closed its website and encouraged its customers to use Shopify.
With Shopify, you can have a working online store in 15 minutes. The platform is a subscription and starts at $ 29 for a basic package per month. It offers unlimited product creation, unlimited file storage, promotional codes, non-stop support, two administrator accounts, and much more.
Shopify offers one-click Google Analytics integration and has its app store with many extensions. Shopify also integrates with popular email platforms such as Open, Mailchimp, and Pop-up Engines to collect email customers.
Besides, Shopify is a customized solution for small businesses. Even if you don’t have an online store plan, you can still find the right one for your business. With Shopify Lite, you can reach customers through popular web channels such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Customers can purchase products through Facebook Messenger.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress developers. Today this online store is the most popular free solution for website developers. However, keep in mind that dedicated hosting is not included by default, and you will have to find it yourself.
Flaming websites such as Porter & York, EcoKitty, Apogee CE, and You have been created around this plugin. If we look at the statistics on the use of add-ons for the 10,000 most popular websites, the coverage is not the most extensive but still significant – every tenth online store is created in WooCommerce.
Suppose you choose this popular WordPress plugin for your project. In that case, there are thousands of fully customizable themes for this platform that come with a graphical editor and custom CSS, HTML, or PHP codes, a simple list of products, bulk emails, and Inventory. WooCommerce provides the best solutions for making your content look attractive with the help of WooCommerce product video and image plugins that ultimately result in more conversions.
Magento vs WooCommerce vs Shopify | Which One to Choose
Now to the main question: which CMS to choose between Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento’s endless battle? To dive deeper into the topic, we compare existing systems based on an essential aspect that defines the project.
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Ease of Use
If you’re looking for a simpler engine, Shopify has the most challenging user interface and functionality. You don’t have to write a single line of code to create an updated and accessible online store after a few evenings.
After Shopify goes to WooCommerce, this is great for those who have understood the basics of WordPress. The fact that the tool is completely free makes it even more interesting for inexperienced e-shop developers.
Magento is the least simple solution. Intervention with a platform without Internet programming capabilities is ineffective. In this case, it is best to choose from a range of engines with many custom templates to build the foundation for a competitive solution.
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SEO Effectiveness
It offers advanced SEO features with built-in analysis. It generates SEO-optimized URLs and meta descriptions, integrates automatically generated Google sitemaps into websites, automates partner programs and image enhancements, and much more. In addition to these features, SEO can easily be tailored to your website’s needs if you have the skills required. A 2017 survey found Magento SEO ranked 100th out of 100. Use this Magento SEO guide to help improve your store’s organic ranking.
As the first e-commerce store, Shopify is definitely SEO optimized. The only problem is that there is not much room for customization. Some SEO techniques may be specific to your business, but you will not be able to follow them unless Shopify allows it.
With the plethora of add-ons and extensions available in WooCommerce, it offers a good level of SEO. Users can also customize the settings to their liking.
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Security
Shopify provides you with all the security resources. So you don’t have to worry about accepting or hacking SSL. Shopify gives you a built-in SSL certificate. SSL is a secure socket layer that usually gives you everything you need to protect your site and prevent information loss. Shopify’s built-in SSL ensures that there’s a small locked image next to your URL every time someone visits your site.
This certificate helps ensure security in the processing of personal data and payments made by consumers. Also, your customers can feel safe while browsing the website. Plus, Shopify is fully PCI-DSS compliant, so your website can accept all credit card payments under the latest guidelines. You can pay for your expenses directly by credit or debit card or you can use any IT service.
Unlike Shopify, you need to manage your WooCommerce store’s security as it is a standalone solution. You may need the help of your host provider to obtain an SSL certificate. However, WordPress is continually updated due to security issues. The team constantly monitors and edits the code to minimize threats.
If you have enough developers and hosting services, security in Magento is not an issue. Security patches and timely notifications are released on an ongoing basis to keep merchants informed of security issues. Also, there are a variety of Magento security extensions. You can predict restrictions or block threats, strengthen passwords, and search for changed files and vulnerabilities.
