Shopify Vs Magento: What’s good for you in 2023?

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If you're a business owner of any kind, you've probably heard of Shopify and Magento.Today, Shopify and Magento are two of the most popular ecommerce platforms for businesses and entrepreneurs.?

Shopify, with more than 4.1 million online stores, is a user-friendly content management system (CMS) to build and maintain online or e-commerce stores. Users need to pay a monthly fee, and businesses of any size can use the platform.?

Magento, which powers over 2.3% of e-commerce stores worldwide, is an open-source platform that is free to install on any computer. However, users have to pay for web hosting, security, and extensions (that work like different applications).?

What’s new in Shopify?

In June 2022, Shopify rolled out a set of new features. Among them are:

# Shopify Audiences - a new app that offers insights to identify buyers searching for your products.?

# Shop Cash - a facility that provides buyers with Shop Cash bonuses in millions of dollars as an incentive.?

# Twitter Shopping - Merchants can now sell products directly from their Twitter profiles.?

# B2B on Shopify - Shopify Admin now has wholesale capabilities built right in to allow sellers to run their entire business on the platform.??

# Shopify Point of Sale (POS) - a POS software that allows payments from an iPhone and sells anywhere there is Shopify POS hardware.?

# Linkpop - is a free link-in bio tool designed for commerce through social media and powered by a fast and secure checkout. You can put this shoppable link on your blog, social media handles, playlists, podcasts, etc.?

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What’s new in Magento?

A new version of Magento 2.4.5 was released in August 2022. Some of its features are -?

# Security enhancements - These new features support security patches, and protect the admin section through two-factor authentication, a VPN, strong passwords, and IP-allow listing. In addition, there are security features such as -?

• Access Control List (ACL)?
• Google reCAPTCHA support added to Wish List sharing, Gift Card forms, or for creating customer accounts?
• HTML Purifier now includes a MaliciousCode filter.

# Platform enhancements - Composer 2.2 support has been added to Magento open-source. There are improvements in Magento B2B commerce catalogues while Duplicate SKU data from shared catalogues has been removed.?

# Accessibility improvements: - Keyword accessibility and keyboard contrast have been improved, while now screen readers will be informed of every new page load.?

# Payment upgrades - Apple Pay and PayPal Later options have been added.?

# GTag - Google Tags will now aid in smarter Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

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Shopify or Magento: Which should you choose?

First up, the decision to choose Shopify or Magento or to switch from one to another should not be based purely on new or old features. The basis of your decision should be your current business goals, the scalability of your business operations, and your 2023 targets.?

Although pricing will be an important factor, it is vital to note that while Shopify’s monthly subscription costs less, its add-on features will amount to the equivalent of the extra costs of hosting and security features that Magento charges for.???

Here’s a comparison of the two platforms? -?

Shopify?

The big idea behind Shopify is to give business owners the key features to set up an online store in exchange for a monthly subscription. When you buy more Shopify apps, you can go further in terms of customization.?

Pros?

• Offers 11 free and 95 premium fully responsive themes?
• Easy drag-and-drop editor to custom, switch, add, remove, and resize elements?
• Multi-channel integration?
• 100+ payment gateways?
• 1200+ apps?
• No coding knowledge is required.
• Round-the-clock customer support?
• Good for beginners as well as larger stores?

Cons?

• The editing tool is not as intuitive and takes some learning curve?
• Overly reliant on paid apps?
• Except for Shopify payments, the transaction fee is expensive?
• The use of apps may hike up monthly costing for retailers?

Magento?

Being a free open-source platform, Magento allows for changing of the code that allows for customization of templates and functionality. Here are some pros and cons.?

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Pros?

• A wide range of features allows for multiple stores, multiple locations, languages, pricing, and currencies.?
• Mobile-friendly, and allows for easy creation of a mobile site?
• High scalability, it can support up to 500,000 users and thousands of transactions per hour?
• Great security features?
• Highly flexible?

Cons?

• Can become time-consuming due to coding requirements or customization?
• You need a dedicated server to host Magento.
• Product support is expensive?
• May need coding?

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Final thoughts?

While Shopify offers a no-coding and user-friendly platform that can help you run an online shop in no time, Magento’s flexibility may help you scale faster. We suggest you make a decision based on the size of your business, and your future goals. For more information on building an online store that clicks with your customers, feel free to call us.?