Deciding which e-commerce platform to build an online store on is a pivotal question to say the least. Choose wrong and you’ll live with the painful consequences that can cost you more money in the long run than necessary.
Let’s dive in and compare these top platforms for online stores.
Magento Pros & Cons
The Magento platform is truly recommended for larger e-commerce stores, as it is an absolute beast.
Developers love Magento because they can build whatever they want without restriction that otherwise exists in the “theme-driven” Shopify and WooCommerce stores.
Here are the pros and cons of Magento:
Pros:
- superB extensibility, if you know how
- Heavy customization capabilities
- Intuitive
Cons:
- Most Expensive in the Long Run
- Relatively high development costs
- The Admin Side UI definitely feels old, and there are lots of things to look out for. (requires training?)
Sidenote: There’s this thing called Magento 2, which is still new, but has promise. Maybe next year this time around…
Shopify Pros & Cons
If you’re just starting out with e-commerce, chances are a Shopify store will be exactly what you need.
It’s simple to understand, and is very user friendly, which makes it easy to navigate and learn along the way.
Pros:
- Braindead simple
- Easy to use, but compared to the other guys, you actually have to pay for it
- Literally requires no skills whatso ever. Plain, simple, fun!
Definitely Best choice for small shops.
Cons:
- Addons/Plugins can negatively impact website speed performance
- Limited Customization; can be difficult to implement “outside the box” ideas
WooCommerce Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Similarly easy to use as Shopify.
- Good points on extensibility
Cons:
- Runs on wordpress (that’s actually both good and bad)
- Constantly patch the site or you can bump into some security problems (wp sites get hacked quite often, if the owner misses out on updates)
- Doesn’t handle high volume of products well.
A summary
Generally, these are definitely the best 3 platforms on the market, and switching to anything else than these is a risk.
- Magento for large businesses,
- Shopify if you don’t want to think about development, but you don’t have expectations either.
- WooCommerce/Wordpress when you want to keep costs low and you want flexibility (and you have proper dev know how)
Launch Your Store on Magento, Shopify, or WooCommerce Store Today
Frasca Digital can help with designing, developing, marketing, SEOing, and just about anything else you could need for a new e-commerce store.
Contact us today and let us help get you started with the single most important decision of your online store.
