Shopify Vs Magento - The Basic Differences

By Author: Rosario Berry
Total Articles: 304
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When you want to build an online store or migrate your existing store to a different platform, Shopify and Magento are among the most common platforms that will come to your mind. These are widely popular ecommerce platforms, but it can be difficult to make a choice between the two.

Shopify powers over a million websites and provides an easy-to-use solution for developing online stores. The platform is capable of supporting both new and high-volume ecommerce businesses. Magento, on the other hand, is an open-source platform that is free to install. There are plans for web hosting, extensions, and security.

So, which platform is best for your online business? Find out in this guide.

The Basic Differences

There are some major basic differences between Shopify and Magento. It is important to be aware of them before you explore each one’s features:

Shopify is a commercial product and Magento is an open-source application.

Shopify is a hosted solution. The platform will host your online store. Magento requires you to handle the hosting, installation, setup, and configuration.

Shopify ...
... can be used by anyone, including beginners. Magento requires you to have some degree of development skills.

Shopify stands out for its easy-to-use UI. Magento has many features but is more suited for advanced developers.

A Comparison

The following factors provide you with an in-depth comparison between the two platforms:

1. Pros & Cons of Magento & Shopify

Both Shopify and Magento have their unique sets of benefits, but there are also points where one may not serve the best for your online store.

Pros of Shopify

A large number of elegant responsive store themes
Suited for extending your ecommerce store’s functionality
Comprehensive ecommerce builder
Excellent customer support
Several checkout options and payment processors
Ease of use
A large community

Cons of Shopify

Most themes are paid
A fee is attached to every transaction
App integration into the store can be complicated
Pros of Magento
Flexible platform that offers a high degree of customization
Open-source platform, free to use
A wide range of themes
A large and supportive community
Phone support
Access to Magento 2 extensions
Cons of Magento
Magento is an open-source ecommerce platform and has a learning curve
Requires more time for set up
May not be suited for beginners

2. Ease of Use

When picking an ecommerce platform, it is best to select one that is easy to use. Shopify stands out in this area. It offers a drag-and-drop website builder that allows you to easily customize your ecommerce store. Thus, Shopify is suited for users will all levels of technical abilities and Magento is better for developers.

Magento has a steeper learning curve. You will be required to work with code to develop a custom online store. The other option is to hire the services of a developer.

3. Themes & Design

An aesthetically appealing website has its own unique benefits. Aesthetics not only refers to attracting more potential customers but also simplifying navigation. Access to more and well-designed themes can allow you to deliver a better user experience (UX) to your visitors. It will also help you stand out.

Shopify offers beautiful, well-designed, and customizable themes. The platform’s themes are also easier to start working on. If you have your own products and content,

Shopify may be the ideal choice. Shopify’s themes also adhere to responsive design. However, most of the Shopify themes are paid. If you have a larger budget, you shouldn’t have any issues leveraging the tons of customization options offered by this platform.

Magento has a much fewer themes and there are both paid and free options. Only a few select have responsive design. You can add your own theme and customize the designs using backend access. However, doing this with Magento requires some developer knowledge.

At the same time, Magento offers many customization options. Examples include:
Add product sliders to the home page

Implementing animations
Including newsletter functionality to the footer

While Shopify offers greater options in terms of themes, Magento stands out by offering a greater number of powerful features.

4. Sales Tools

You cannot imagine succeeding with your online store without access to powerful tools. Sales is the core function that an ecommerce platform should be focused on.

Some of the key features that make Shopify a great platform for selling products are as follows:

Multi-Channel Sales: You can sell on Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, and Pinterest using a built-in feature.

Partnerships: Shopify has partnerships with DHL, UPS, UPSP, and Canada Post, enabling hassle-free shipping.

Abandoned Cart Recovery: Drive back potentially lost sales by sending out automatic emails and messages to potential customers that left the shopping cart before placing their orders.

Shopify allows you to sell both physical and digital products.

Magento has an impressive inventory system. Some of the key sales tools offered include:

Multi-Channel Sales: Magento allows installing extensions to integrate your ecommerce store with Facebook, eBay, and Instagram.

Customize Checkout: It allows you to create a completely customized checkout process.

Easier to set fixed price/percentage discounts
Abandoned cart recovery feature

Overall, Shopify seems to offer a more impressive range of tools for driving your online store’s sales.

5. Apps & Extensions

All online stores will need additional functionality to drive better results. Both these platforms make it easy to install apps, add-ons, and extensions. The Shopify App Store offers more than 6,000 apps, including free and paid ones.

Some of the most popular ones include:

MailChimp
Trust Hero
Analytics Buddy
Trackr

The apps cover different areas of business including social media promotion, shipping, payment processing, email marketing, and more.

The Magento Marketplace has more than 5,000 extensions with around 2,000 being free. It costs to integrate your ecommerce store with Facebook, which is free on
Shopify. Some of the popular ones include:

Product Pre-Order
Amasty Multiple Coupons
Banner Slider
Remarkety

The Shopify App Market is simpler to use. Magento offers more apps but they require some development knowledge for installation.

Thus, Shopify is a more user-friendly platform for creating your ecommerce store. You can online faster. On the other hand, Magento is a project and requires some technical knowledge to create a customized website. So, you should consider these differences when choosing the perfect option between the two platforms.

About the Author:

Rosario Berry is a professional freelance writer, like to introduce Website Design and Development Company in Oceanside, CA. A website design firm providing Custom Website Design services in Oceanside, CA.

Rosario Berry is an eminent author writing and publishing articles on various topics.