WooCommerce vs Magento vs Shopify
Choosing the right ecommerce technology is critical to guarantee the success of any ecommerce website. With so many robust ecommerce offerings, it can be challenging to choose. As you consider upgrading your existing ecommerce platform or switching to a new platform, we’ve outlined a few key areas to guide your investigation that can help you make an educated decision and provide stakeholders with the necessary information to make this serious decision. Click here to view the Rainfire Media ecommerce development process that describes how we help you build your business online. Below we compare the top three of the most popular ecommerce solutions available, Woocommerce, Shopify and Magento.
Overview
The basics of Woocommerce, Shopify and Magento
Magento
Magento is a corporate-level e-commerce platform tailored to web development professionals and medium to large online stores. It offers one of the most robust feature sets in the field, which makes it ideal for stores with high expectations.
Shopify
Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that enables you to create an online store, manage your products, and handle orders all within a single dashboard.
Woocommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce solution built on top of WordPress. It works as a WordPress plugin and enables you to run a functional online store. It offers all the features you’d expect from an e-commerce platform.
Prominence
How popular the ecommerce platform is
250,000
Merchants use Magento ecommerce
400,000
Merchants using Shopify
3,876,748
2020 Live websites using Woocommerce
Cost
Free to monthly to annual costs
Public and Premium
$$$$$ - Minimal public site free, enterprise costs much more
Basic - <$1M Sales
Year = $40,000.00
General - $5-10M Sales
Year = $80,000.00
Advanced - >$25M Sales
Year = $190,000.00
From: $81.50/mo.
$$$ - Monthly rate plus transaction fees
Basic - $81.50/mo.
Year = $978.00
General - $127.00/mo.
Year = $1,524.00
Advanced - $344/mo.
Year = $4,128.00
Plus - $2,040/mo.
Year=$24,480.00
Free
WooCommerce is a Free plugin used with WordPress CMS
Basic - FREE
Hosting = $7.00/mo.
Mid-Range - FREE
Hosting = $9.00/mo.
Advanced - FREE
Hosting = $12.00/mo.
Hosting
Annual hosting costs
Magento Hosting
Community version need domain and hosting account additional costs. Premium offerings include hosting.
Shopify Hosting
Comes with a Free myshopify.com subdomain for all plans. You can hook up as custom domain name. Hosting included.
WordPress Hosting
Domain name and hosting not included. Additional investment required.
Store Size
Data storage limits
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Sales Orders
Merchant orders processed
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Extensions
Plugins and additional functionality
Free and Premium
Premium
Free and Premium
Themes
Styles and theme variations
Free and Premium
Premium
Free and Premium
Security
Data encryption security
Advanced Security
SSL Included
SSL Included
Analytics
Traffic and website metrics
Analytics Included
Custom analytics tool build into Magento system
Analytics Included
Plus Google Analytics integration
Google Analytics
And multiple additional plugins i.e. Lucky Orange
User Friendly
Implementation learning curve
3/5 Stars
Not recommended for novice users. Large learning curve.
5 Stars
Easy for novice users, good online support
4.5 Stars
Easy for novice users, advanced capabilities could be a challenge, good online support
Conclusion
Our overall evaluation from years of using all ecommerce platforms outlined here.
Magento
Magento feels more geared towards developers than regular users. The steep learning curve might be too challenging if you’re not ready to either hire someone to help you with the platform or have the required experience yourself.
Shopify
Shopify is the way to go for users who don’t want to deal with a complicated setup process and need premium support. The service guarantees a smooth ride at the expense of a monthly subscription.
Woocommerce
WooCommerce is the perfect solution for people who want to launch an online store and own their store and data, who aren’t afraid of installing a couple of plugins, themes, and working with WordPress overall.
Wrap Up
Each business is unique in its own right, and there are many factors and variables to consider when selecting the right ecommerce solution to meet your business needs. We have outlined a small subset of these here to help guide you in the right direction. This is just a starting place and that is where we come in. Things you should know about Magento – read about the Magento End-of-Life Options BLOG