Shopify vs Magento vs WooCommerce - choosing the best e-commerce platform. PART II
Binary Future
We are Shopify professionals with a solid background in the e-commerce and retail industries.
Within the series of knowledge-sharing articles by Binary Future, we take a look and analyze three of the best e-commerce platforms and compare their features and limitations - in three dimensions: technical, marketing, and business. In PART II, we focus on Magento, an open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP and ranked the TOP 3 e-commerce platforms worldwide.
If you missed PART I - Shopify edition, follow the link to learn more.
As we have already discussed in PART I, e-commerce platforms are the heart and backbone that enable customers to experience an interactive self-service when purchasing goods. These platforms feature OOB (out-of-the-box) capabilities or APIs support. They also allow easy development of all necessary elements from a storefront to a customer account.?That's the main reason why SME businesses and startups prefer using platforms to build up their stores instead of making them from scratch.
Many of our customers ask why to use Magento and what are the benefits of utilizing Magento for e-commerce. Yes, sometimes multi-purpose Shopify is not the best fit for them. So what's Magento and what is it eaten with?
Magento has two different platforms: Magento Open Source (formerly Magento Community Edition) and Magento Commerce; the latter is available both as an on-premises version and as PaaS. Once Magento 2 was released in 2015, both versions Magento 1 and 2 existed simultaneously.
Let's compare the TOP 10 most important features of the architecture and differences to take into consideration between Magento 1 and Magento 2:
Truly speaking, support of RWD themes (i.e. responsive?web design) is the only common feature between Magento 1 and Magento 2. Note, supporting Magento open source requires additional development resources, and it is not suitable for easy changes "on-demand."
Moreover, it's wort to mention that later in 2021, Magento Commerce was rebranded to Adobe Commerce. The company describes updated product like
One of the most flexible and extensive cloud commerce suites on the market incorporating digital commerce, order management, business intelligence, and shipping to manage all aspects of the commerce experience.
Want to learn more details about the difference between Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce? Read the article at the link.
For who?
So, the critical difference is that Magento has always been a choice for enterprise-level clients with traffic volumes and, more significantly, website maintenance and scaling budgets. Big players like Ford, Bvlgary, Landrover, and Jaguar have chosen Magento as their digital commerce platforms due to high requirements for the website - it must be robust and secure. Though Magento can be used for smaller businesses.
Out of our experience, the top industries where Magento performs best are:
Adobe Commerce (previously Magento Commerce) would be a great choice for global B2B, D2C, and B2C merchants.
Magento pricing
Magento doesn’t require a monthly/yearly subscription or buying a license for the launch. Which is a plus. Instead, the platform is an open-source solution; you can download and install it for free. The only what you need to pay for is a domain and hosting. Once you upgrade your solution, you will need to install add-ons that may be expensive (up to 15 000 USD).
For larger enterprises requiring advanced features, the price for the license will vary depending on their gross sales revenue but starts from 22 000 USD / year, though, the cloud solution is even more expensive.
Technical advantages of Magento Open Source
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Marketing Features
Business advantages of Magento
Magento disadvantages
As the practice shows, Magento is not a perfect solution for some businesses, for example, those with limited access to professional development teams. Usually, these are startups and middle-sized organizations. Moreover, Magento has evident drawbacks which must always be considered before the launch:
Conclusions to PART II
Magento is one of the best choices among all exciting digital commerce platforms. Though, it's used mostly by global merchants, some SMBs also opt for it. We suggest using Magento / Adobe Commerce in case if you have global sales and volumes of traffic, and, of course, available development resources ready to help on demand.
Need assistance with choosing the right platform made for you? Contact us!
If you missed PART I - Shopify edition, follow the link to learn more.
About Binary Future
We are Binary Future, a team of E-commerce knowers combining solid development skills, design-thinking, and entrepreneurial spirit.
We focus on providing e-commerce solutions from basic setups to end-to-end service experience for companies of any size - from startups and scaleups to SME.?What makes us so unique??Our goal is to help our clients surpass the competition and bring their business to the next level, using technologies and unique talents of our team. Why? Every client’s success is one more step in our own success journey. We are all passionate about delivering great projects that are both technically excellent and visually awesome.
For more information, visit?binaryfuture.io