What is Magento? And how is it differs from any others?

Choosing an e-commerce platform to build your business has never been easy for a business owner. You might know your business needs and goals but are still confused about which e-commerce platform is best for your business.  

Besides, building an online e-commerce business requires a lot of planning and strategy to ensure that the products you sell reach the widest audience. You have to ensure that your website’s e-commerce platform is secure, easy to use, has a strong foundation, and is designed to provide excellent performance and scalability. 

With these factors taken into account, your e-commerce website will be successful, and customers will be greeted with a productive and efficient way to purchase products. 

You can choose different e-commerce strategies to spread your message throughout your website. Initially, focus on developing and building the best websites on the best platforms. It is where Magento has many advantages for your online shop. 

This article will share some essential benefits that will help you determine if this platform is best suited for e-business by comparing it with the most popular e-commerce platforms. You can see how Magento vs Shopify vs WooCommerce vs BigCommerce. We will compare various criteria, including themes and customization, price and fees, ease of use, extensions and integration, security, and support. 

What is Magento?

Magento is an e-commerce platform based on open source technology that provides online merchants with a flexible shopping cart system to control the look, content, and functionality. Magento provides a feature-rich and powerful tool for marketing, search engine optimization, and catalog management. 

It is designed to be fully scalable from minimum to maximum setup and is backed by an extensive support network. Magento provides enterprises with the ultimate e-commerce solution. Magento can be used as an open-source or a solution hosted through Adobe Commerce (the company behind Magento).

Get Closer to Magento’s competitors?

If you think that every e-commerce platforms are the same, the fact is that it has its strength and weaknesses. No eCommerce will serve all purposes: each has strengths and downsides. As the leading e-commerce platform, Magento has numerous benefits, but the price is quite pricey. So, get closer to Magento’s competitor and compare its pros and cons to give you a clear understanding. 

Shopify

Shopify is a subscription-based e-commerce platform that allows anyone can create an online store without knowing how to code. Its primary focus is simplicity and ease of use, perfect for anyone new to e-commerce or looking to expand their user base.

Woocommerce

If you are familiar with WordPress or even using WordPress, you can change your website into e-commerce with Woocoomerce. Woocomerce is a customizable, open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress, one of the world’s most popular content management systems (CMS). It offers a variety of options and customization and has become one of the most used and best-performing e-commerce platforms.

BigCommerce

Similar to Shopify, BigCommerce is a SaaS platform that combines eCommerce software functionality with the support of an ongoing service that operates on a closed system. It means that support and maintenance are included in the subscriptions. It provides open API, over 100 themes, hundreds of apps, and almost unlimited options to customize and scale enterprise retail or wholesale businesses.

How does Magento differ from any e-commerce platform?

Magento, Shopify, Woocommerce, and Bigcommerce are the big four e-commerce platforms solution. Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, but let’s see how Magento differs from the three other platforms. 

1. Themes and customization

The appearance of the store has a significant impact on sales. All four platforms have a variety of great themes to choose from according to your brand guideline and style. This comparison shows that beginners, not designers or developers, can easily customize the themes and templates available on these platforms. 

Magento 

Magento is highly customizable. As an open-source platform, you can access thousands of different templates created by the Magento community. And for those who prefer to code their templates or have someone code them, Magento’s structure makes it easy to implement custom themes. 

Shopify 

Shopify has a limited selection of free themes, but if you’re willing to pay for premium themes, you’ll get some great themes that will make your shop stand out. Unlike Magento and WooCommerce, Shopify doesn’t have access to the source code. If you code something that needs to change Shopify’s core, you can’t change it. 

However, it is scarce for a company to have such a requirement. You can edit the theme code, but doing so may make the web store unsuitable for automatic upgrades. If you’re looking for a platform that gives you control over your web store, Shopify isn’t the best choice. 

WooCommerce 

With WooCommerce, you can use many of the same themes available in WordPress. There is also a unique marketplace where you can purchase themes designed for your e-commerce store.

BigCommerce

Similar to Shopify, BigCommerce offers a minimal selection of free themes. Unless you’re willing to pay for premium themes, BigCommerce provides around 180 paid-for templates. Or, if you’re not happy or satisfied with the template offered, you can also choose templates from third-party providers like Themeforest and Template Monster. 

2. Ease of use

The reason why businesses use e-commerce platforms is to make it easier to manage their store. Some platforms may be easier to use than others, depending on your technical capabilities and your existing back-end systems knowledge. 

Magento 

Magento can be a complex and huge thing that requires knowledge of Apache servers, MySQL databases, and PHP code. However, most companies work with developers or agencies to build and manage their stores and choose professional assistance on the technical side. The  Magento is so robust that it can be challenging, especially for first-time users with no coding or web development experience. 

Shopify 

Shopify’s main selling point is simplicity. There is no server to set up and no software installation. Once you sign up for your account, Shopify will guide you through the setup process. In most cases, you can get your business up and running within a day. 

WooCommerce 

WooCommerce was developed for WordPress, known for its intuition and ease of use. The content management system also comes with various themes and plugins that you can use in your e-commerce store. With these features, you can quickly create a website without coding everything from scratch.

BigCommerce

Compared to Shopify, BigCommerce is more challenging to use. Even though Shopify and BigCommerce have very similar user interfaces, which are both well-designed, bug-free, and provide a ton of helpful documentation and guidance to get you started. BigCommerce is less easy to learn because it offers many features!

3. Price and fees

You must consider three types of costs: software costs or the fees you pay for the software itself plus any plugins or apps you choose to add on, hosting costs, and transaction fees which some platforms charge a fee for every transaction that goes through your shop, as well as a percentage of every sale.

Magento 

Cost: Magento has two versions: Magento Open Source, which is free but must be installed and configured on your server or by a hosting company, and Adobe Commerce, formerly the Magento Enterprise version, which is a paid solution, and pricing is upon contact with the Adobe Commerce team. 

Other costs to consider: hosting, premium themes and extensions, and custom development.

Associated costs with Magento vary widely depending on the customization and support you need. You can set up a good-looking online store for just a few thousand dollars or spend hundreds of thousands creating highly customized e-commerce solutions with enterprise-level support. 

Shopify 

Cost: Ranges from US$19 to US$299 per month, depending on your chosen plan. 

Other Charges to Consider: Premium apps with features not available by default and additional transaction charges if you are processing transactions using something different than Shopify Payments. 

Shopify is a hosted solution. That means no servers or maintenance is required, but monthly subscriptions and transaction fees exist. There is an additional charge for apps and extensions. 

WooCommerce 

Cost: Free to download and install on your website. 

Other Fees to Consider: Hosting, Premium Themes, Extensions, Custom Development 

Like Magento, WordPress can be downloaded free and installed on your server web host. Similarly, WooCommerce is a free plugin that you install to add e-commerce capabilities to your WordPress CMS.

BigCommerce

Cost: Ranges from US$30 to US$300 per month, depending on your chosen plan.

Other Fees to Consider: Domains, Premium Themes, additional apps or plugins, credit, and debit card processing fees

Like Shopify, BigCommerce is a hosted solution where you can take advantage of the various features to build a full-featured online store, and choosing a higher plan will give you more features.

4. Security

E-commerce websites are a common target for hackers because they keep huge customers’ personal and financial information. That’s why ensuring the security of your website could avoid legal issues and increases customer confidence in your business. And here are the security capabilities of the four platforms. 

Magento

Magento is PHP 7 compliant and has a robust set of security options. It provides SHA256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 256) for passwords that protect your shop from dictionary attacks. Other security options include Signified, Composer, Zend Framework, and SSL authentication. Besides, Magento updates security features and releases older versions of security patches. It helps keep Magento’s entire user base secure. 

Another significant feature of Magento is its built-in Security Scan Tool, and the advantages include:

• Security status check-in real-time
• Security fixes for resolving issues faster
• Track historical reports and monitor progress
• Merchants can run over 21,000 security tests
• Failed tests will be reported along with recommended actions

Shopify 

Because Shopify is a hosted solution, all merchant security updates are handled by Shopify. They keep updating all websites with patches and improving the platform against threats. 

WooCommerce 

From Wordfence, which allows two-factor authentication for admin logins, to Sucuri, which protects and monitors popular websites, there are third-party plugins for WordPress that help secure your site. Like Magento, developers can support WooCommerce sites by regularly installing WordPress security patches and third-party plugins.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce has strong security against hacking. It offers PCI compliance and ISO/IEC 27001 certification as a hosted platform, the gold standard for protecting customer data. In addition, BigCommerce provides security features such as firewall software to detect intruders.

5. Third-Party Extensions

Enterprises have complex needs, and it is not always possible to find a platform that meets all of them at once. Find how these four platforms could accommodate what your business needs. 

Magento

There are many Magento extensions,  from simple features such as various payment gateways to more advanced features such as accounting software integration and personalized customer recommendations. Its flexibility makes it suitable for e-commerce businesses with complex tools and workflows. Magento’s open-source design means virtually no restrictions on the types of integrations you can build. 

Shopify 

You can access various apps or extensions from the Shopify App Store. It includes apps for marketing, sales channels, store management, accounting, shipping, and more. 

WooCommerce 

The WordPress plugin repository offers thousands of plugins, most of which are free. WooCommerce is open-source, and you can edit its code to your heart’s content. Many third-party developers have created premium plugins for WooCommerce and sold them on their websites.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce offers free and premium extensions on the marketplace to extend the store’s technology, management, and customer experience capabilities. You can choose whatever you need from 600 apps available on the marketplace.

6. Integrations

You’re probably using several systems in-house to complement your e-commerce strategies, such as ERP, PIM, CRM, point-of-sale POS, and inventory management. These systems need to be integrated with e-commerce websites for a smoother workflow and a better user experience. 

Magento 

Magento is tightly integrated with other platforms, making it relatively easy to create a seamless experience for your customers. In addition, Magento has a solid community to help new users find solutions to third-party integration issues. Many integrations are available through the extension, but you may need a developer to do the technical configuration. 

Shopify 

Shopify is a hosted solution, so you can’t install software on your server. However, that does not mean that there are no customization options. Shopify provides a simple, clean API and extensive documentation to help developers quickly get their apps up and running. 

WooCommerce 

WooCommerce also provides native integration via API, making it easy to use all the software you need for your business without worrying about integration.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce needs to be integrated with other platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, eBay, and other fulfillment software such as ERP and POS for a smooth business flow. With some customization, it has a robust API with unlimited API calls for customers to quickly transfer data between the store and other software. Here, real-time data exchange minimizes the possibility of systems locking up due to overload.

7. Product Management

Product management is one of the most important aspects of running an online shop. Organizing and displaying products makes it easier for shoppers to find and purchase products. 

Magento 

If your main focus is product management, Magento is a strong competitor. There is no limit to the number of products you can include and the categories you can organize. You can also schedule the product to be published at a specific time. It will help you prepare for upcoming sales events and new product releases. You can even set special prices for loyal visitors based on the discount code or account they create on your website. 

Shopify 

Shopify offers both basic and advanced product management options. Shopify doesn’t limit the number of products you can add to your Shopify store, even with a base plan. Shopify is suitable for various online retailers, from small to large businesses. 

WooCommerce 

WooCommerce is suitable for small businesses with few SKUs but wants to use WordPress content and blogging capabilities.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce doesn`t impose limits on catalog size or storage space. It is genuine even at its entry-stage “Standard” tier, so you don`t ought to buy a higher plan to feature more excellent merchandise or get higher loading times. 

8. Marketing and SEO

Digital marketing and SEO are now essential aspects of your business. No matter how well customized and eye-catching your store is, you still won`t get sales if customers don`t find their way to your shop. Here`s how the four platforms support your marketing strategy. 

Magento 

Adobe Commerce (previously Magento Enterprise, Magento`s paid and hosted version) has built-in marketing tools that allow you to create and manage coupon codes, upsell and cross-sell products, and set up email campaigns. Besides, Magento allows integrating your store with Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and Facebook. 

Meanwhile, Magento was built from scratch with SEO in mind. Adding page titles, descriptions, and URLs for all products and categories is easy. Magento will automatically generate the URL and title according to your shop settings. It also provides a powerful tool for controlling duplicate content issues and uses canonical tags site-wide. 

Shopify 

Shopify has a built-in blogging platform that allows you to create posts automatically shared on Twitter and Facebook. It also includes an abandoned cart database to track away customers before purchasing. You can also use Shopify to connect your store to Facebook and allow users to shop directly from the page. 

You can use many apps to run marketing campaigns, just like Magento and WooCommerce. Like Magento, Shopify provides URL, meta tag, and title customization options for each product and category page on your site. You can also create a 301 redirect when you change the URL or remove a page from your site to maintain the strength of your search ranking. 

WooCommerce 

The WooCommerce plugin has many marketing extensions that you can purchase. You can use coupon codes for discounts, make limited-time offers, give customers points for purchases or sign-ups, send email newsletters, integrate with various social networks, set up affiliate programs, etc. There is an extension to make it. 

WordPress has native SEO capabilities, but there are also many valuable plugins. You can also use the YoastSEO plugin to control meta tags, improve your XML sitemap, and set legitimate URLs to prevent Google from penalizing duplicate content.

BigCommerce 

BigCommerce is equipped with proper marketing capabilities to increase traffic to your online store. Such as built-in SEO tools, social sharing, customer loyalty programs, customer segmentation, etc. And interestingly, you can also plan branding and conversion-oriented email campaigns.

9. Support

Besides paying attention to the features, customer support is another thing to consider before choosing an e-commerce platform. Is it reliable enough when something happens? Not only the customer support but also is there any community that will help or guide or even discusses the platform update and anything related. 

Magento

Magento has a very active developer community on Magento’s official website, Facebook group, and dedicated support forums or portals. There is no official guarantee that you will always find the help you need, but there is a good chance that you will be able to connect with other users who can answer your questions and Magento experts. 

Shopify 

Shopify support is generally good for both merchants and developers. You can contact support 24/7 by live chat, email, or phone. Besides, Shopify also provides an extensive library of FAQs and tutorials to help you learn how to use Shopify. 

WooCommerce 

WooCommerce has its support team available via email to resolve issues. There is no support from WordPress itself, but you can find a lot of information on the WordPress website, Facebook groups, and similar sources. There is also an active community of WordPress users who build their e-commerce websites and share their knowledge through blogs and forums.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce provides 24/7 support by phone, email, and live chat. It also has its user forum and a help center full of helpful guides. You who sign up for BigCommerce’s enterprise plan will also get a personal onboarding consultant and account manager. BigCommerce experts are ready to help if you encounter problems using the platform.

The Wrap Up

When it comes to e-commerce platforms, there is no one-size-fits-all size. It will depend on your business needs, goals, and other criteria. Therefore, you need to do your homework to find the best system for your needs by creating a list of essentials. 

If you need support or consultation about Magento Development Services, please contact us, and our business development will gladly assist and help you answer your questions or doubts.