Welcome to the 21st century, where hundreds of new e-commerce stores are started every day. In fact, there are between 12 and 24 million e-commerce websites online today! Two of the top-rated platforms on the market today are Shopify and Magento. Both platforms allow their users to make professional-looking websites. However, they are completely different. So which platform should you choose?
What type of business do you have?
Business Scales & Target Audiences
One of the largest differences between Shopify and Magneto is their targeted audiences. Shopify’s target audience includes individuals and small businesses that are just getting started. In fact, Shopify has hundreds of built-in solutions to help small startups scale and grow their businesses. In comparison, Magento targets larger scale businesses that are already established. This is clearly reflected in how each platform organized the look and feel of their homepages.
Magento
When you go to Magento’s website, you are greeted with an orange and white business-quality webpage. The first item on their homepage is their infographic informing visitors they can request a free demo. Most ecommerce platforms that target smaller businesses or individuals don’t offer “free demos” upon request. Instead, they offer free trials. By making it harder to try the product, they are more likely to only get potential clients who are serious about using their services.
Shopify
In comparison to Magento, Shopify designed their homepage with first-time store owners in mind. When you first land on Shopify’s homepage, you’ll see images of entrepreneurship. In two locations on the homepage, the visitor is urged to start a free trial. By offering a free trial, they essentially let anyone who would like to try their platform try it for free to determine if it’s the right platform for them. Since they offer a no strings attached agreement, their potential clients are more likely to try out the platform.
Don’t base your decision on this alone. There is a reason why they do not always obtain business from only their target audience; they simply aren’t for everyone.
What will it cost?
Cheap or Accommodating?
The costs of starting and maintaining your online store can vary substantially. When you first start creating a website, you can choose from many well-built themes to modify on both Shopify and Magento. However, if you would like a more professional-looking design, you’ll have to reach a bit deeper into your pockets. Shopify offers about 10 free themes, and 64 themes that you can buy. The paid themes available range in price from $140 to $180. You can even hire a professional to make a theme for you or purchase it elsewhere online and upload it onto Shopify. Magento also offers a few free themes you can choose from. However, if you would like to purchase a theme on Magento, the theme can cost upwards of $499.
In addition to the startup cost of a theme, you’ll also need to pay a monthly subscription fee. Shopify’s subscription fee ranges from $8.10 – $269.10. The price you pay mainly depends on how many products you plan on selling. Additionally, you can choose to add a la cart items (such as advanced shipping rules) to your base monthly subscription fee. On the other hand, with Magento, there is no monthly subscription fee. However, you will need to pay another company for your website hosting, whereas Shopify does this for you free of charge. By going through another company for your hosting, this fee can range anywhere from $4 to $1,000/month.
Some business owners will choose a platform based only on the overall price. Please be sure to consider all aspects before making a decision. Otherwise, you may come to regret it.
Which is more user-friendly?
On a Scale of Easy-To-Use to Kill-Me-Now
If you are an amateur who has no coding skills, Shopify is the platform for you. With Shopify, all you need to do is click and drag to create and modify your website. On the other hand, Magento requires that you have some coding knowledge to build and customize your website. Due to this, Magento also takes much longer to set up and become operational. In comparison, you can have a website created and live within half an hour on Shopify.
One way many users in both Magento and Shopify alike get their websites up and running faster is by using apps. Both platforms have their own app store where you can purchase and install different programs to make your store run more smoothly. On Shopify, you will find hundreds of very helpful free apps, as well as great paid apps. Although Magento has some free apps as well, many of their apps will charge the user a yearly subscription fee of $100.00.
After your store has been set up, there is still the problem of managing your store. With Shopify, you can log into your store online from anywhere in the world. Additionally, Shopify offers easy-to-understand navigation menus so you can quickly find what you were looking for. However, with Magento, in order to do anything, you will first need to download their software onto your computer. Without it, you won’t be able to make any changes to your website, or add products. Overall, Shopify wins the award for ease of use when creating your store and getting it operational. However, the stores are equally matched in ease of use when it comes to obtaining business reports, sales records, and other data.
Which is more secure?
Digital Alcatraz vs Broken Dam
Security is a large factor that comes into play in the ecommerce world. Since Shopify is designed for first-time website owners, they try to take care of their clients as much as possible. Due to this, they will handle the integration of your SSL certificate, as well as patch and update any security settings or codes for you. However, Magento targets large-scale businesses who already have their own IT department. As a result, they require that you take care of all this yourself.
What’s the final answer?
Which Platform is Better?
The answer; it depends! If you are a small-business that does not have its own IT department, then you need Shopify. Its ease of use and self-maintenance makes it the perfect program for anyone who is not very technical or is just starting out.
On the other hand, if you are a large-scale business that does have its own IT department, you might prefer Magento. You should take advantage of both Magento’s free demo offer and Shopify’s free trial offer before making your final decision.
Switching from Magento to Shopify
Do You Need to Start Over?
Did you perhaps build an online store on Magento and come to regret it? The good news is, you don’t have to start over completely from scratch. Shopify offers integrations in their app store that allows users to easily transfer all of their products and variants to their online store. Certain apps even double as product management software. They can make it easier for you to import products from anywhere, and manage/update your data feeds. Click here to learn more about how to switch from Magento to Shopify.
