Magento Vs Shopify: Which Ecommerce Platform You Should Choose For Your Online Store?

For the majority of businesses online, choosing suitable e-commerce is a challenging task. Several website platforms are available today, and some of the most prominent e-commerce platforms include Magento 2 (Adobe commerce) and Shopify.

It is very important to choose a suitable platform before you end up starting your new business online. You must know everything about Magento vs. Shopify before selecting anyone platform.

Depending on the website platform, your online business can either be a failure or a success. Under this guide, you can understand everything related to Magento (Adobe commerce) and Shopify.

Shopify and Magento – Detailed Introduction

Magento was released in 2008 and is prominent for its flexibility, scalability, and customization. Magento comes with two editions, Magento commerce and Magento open source.

Magento open source is a free and self-hosted platform that features different functions and also helps you build and develop a unique store online from scratch.

Furthermore, Magento commerce is one of the best beds for merchants and developers who want an all-in-one cloud solution to optimize store website performance and improve sales.

Experts say that Magento was one of the three platforms merchants migrated to most in 2020, and it was mentioned in lit extensions’ in-house data. Magento has also been listed as one of the ten leading e-commerce platforms globally by techlaince.

Shopify is an eCommerce platform that is subscription-based and allows you to sell products or services online without relying on coding. It was launched back in 2006. Shopify has a user-friendly nature.

Shopify has a 6.6% market share of all websites using CMS as of March 2022. Shopify earned more than $319 million in net income during the pandemic. Hence the Magento vs. Shopify market share says everything.

Is Magento free to use?

The cost of setting up or operating the Magento e-commerce website would depend on the organization and complexity. One of the Magentos’ advantage, it is free, but many people wonder why; of course, it is because its open source is available free of charge.

You can easily download the package from the Magento official website, install it on the server, make configuration adjustments, or even personalize the source code to fulfill the business requirement.

You can also use different Magento themes or free extensions provided by the extension builders to improve the website. But launching the online business is beyond downloading or installing the platform.

You need to pay for the domain and hosting services. In return, the flexibility depends on your technical skills. You must hire a developer or agency to set up the system well and implement personalization or maintenance.

What is Magento used for?

Magento is used for different purposes. You can use the platform for customer services, marketing security accounting, finance site optimization, and shipping and fulfillment. It is your best bet if you want to add something special to your store and improve something already in your store.

Magento 2 is the latest version of the e-commerce platform and has some great features that users can enjoy. Some of them include customer experiences, flexible architecture for the website, great loading speeds, a Better Business experience, and secure payments.

Is Magento better than Shopify?

Under the Magento vs. Shopify comparison, you can understand whether Magento is better than Shopify or vice versa. You can conclude that both Shopify and Magento are powerful e-commerce platforms. Shopify provides better ease of use as it is hosted and managed service completely.

Magento is free but requires you to buy hosting and carry out all the software or system setup and installation procedures, which tech-savvy individuals can only do. Shopify comes out as a winner when choosing the best eCommerce platform for building an online store with great ease of use and powerful capabilities.

In short, whether you want to choose Magento or Shopify depends on your individual needs. To create customization, you should rely on Magento because it offers great customized experiences that customers could not find anywhere else. At the same time, if you are looking for simplicity, then Shopify is your best bet because it is something that merchants are always looking forward to developing a simple eCommerce site.

Additionally, Shopify also requires minimum coding or technical experience. To make the best decision, you must check the Magento vs. Shopify pricing and decide whether it aligns with your budget. Magento’s functionality is like no other, and the open-source version has an incredible community you would not find anywhere else.

Shopify can provide you with a great customer-friendly storefront if you are busy or do not have the time or resources to invest in creating unique experiences. Finally, it is highly recommended for you to use Magento if you have a team of experts or developers.

What are the pros and cons of Magento vs. Shopify?

With Magento 2 vs. Shopify, you can understand the pros and cons.

Magento Pros:

• The best part about using Magento is that it works well with optimizations and integrations, which would be personalized to your specific needs and business objectives.
• Magento also has a great suite of SEO that works as index management, allowing you to control the link that would get passed on to Google or any other search engine.
• The global cloud foundation of Magento shares maximum operational uptime and scalability, irrespective of your geographical location. You can deploy the websites depending on your site.
• You might find resources to help with projects of small to large sizes as Magento more than 2,60,000 developers globally.
• The platform provides the best quality audit extensions, allowing them to add and expand quickly.
• Magento is not only highly personalizable but also flexible at the same time, which has great features and functions that you can add in the future whenever you want to expand.
• It will also integrate with different 3rd party solutions that allow you to integrate other digital tools to elevate your customer experience.
• The platform is made to support the business demands, and it is easy to start with one channel while you expand in others, and there is no need to re-platform.

Magento Cons:

• Platform stores need a lot of time. You cannot expect it to get life in just a few days. Magento is not your best bet if you are looking forward to launching a store from the start or are just willing to test the business idea.
• Requires many technical skills and understanding of the courts; you must also memorize the extensions. Besides, having a sense of everything will connect.
• The website would be completely down if your developer gets even one coding wrong.
• You need to sell out money to stay updated, so you should not think this platform is pocket friendly.

Shopify Pros:

• Shopify is a hosted platform, and it is different from Magento. You don’t have to worry about buying web hosting on installing the software.
• It has a clean and nice contemporary interface that needs a minimum of basic knowledge about the website’s operation.
• The software works like a service tool, meaning you don’t have to own it but pay monthly fees to use it. In simple terms, you have to invest the lump sum amount. If you are running a small or medium size business, this will benefit you.
• Even if you have an existing website, you can integrate the new version as the Shopify buy button helps it easily incorporate into the existing platform. It is a useful feature for you if you are unsatisfied with your current website, like WordPress, but want to integrate some Shopify e-commerce functions.
• The SEO feature set is great and will compare favorably with other platforms, while the building blocks of on-page SEO are when you learn about Magento vs. Shopify, so you can get an idea that SEO is very easy to maintain in Shopify.
• You can connect with the Shopify support team 24/7 because it is available on live chat or form and comprehensive.

Shopify Cons:

• The payment options for Shopify are available in only a few countries like Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom.
• Shopify provides only a few free eCommerce templates or themes.
• You need a 3rd party developer if you want any premium template.
• Shopify Facebook integration is not perfect for all the centers. As, you don’t get an add to cart option, so the clients can only buy one thing at a time.
• If you go for the Shopify Lite plan, it does not work or allow you to build a functional standalone store online.

Is Shopify the same as Magento?

While you are wondering whether you should choose Magento 2 or Shopify, you need to understand if Magento is similar to Shopify. Firstly, you need to know that Shopify differs from Magento in several ways.

Features:

Magento 2 is supported with over 5000 add-on extensions that you can get from Magento marketplace easily, while Shopify has only 100 apps and adds ONS for the free and paid version, which you can get on Shopify app store. As a result, Shopify is not as diverse as Magento 2. Additionally, Magento 2 and Shopify are similar here when it comes to themes and templates.

Security:

Security is important whenever you are running an online business. Several websites are hacked every day. You need to ensure that the best security plugins and updates are used on the website to keep the website away from security hacks. Interestingly, Shopify features SSL encryption that helps the site to be protected automatically. Conversely, Magento offers you the flexibility to enhance the security of your website all by yourself. You can add security extensions to protect the information completely.

Performance comparison:

For the success of any eCommerce store, speed and performance are crucial factors. None of the online customers look forward to waiting for a long time to browse through the product and make the purchase. You don’t have to worry about the speed or loading of the eCommerce store because Shopify is a well-known Hosted solution.

On the other hand, Magento is prominent for control and hosting flexibility. You can select your server and make all the adjustments to improve the performance of your website, as it is a self-hosted platform.

If you want just a small shop that peacefully lies on the flip side, then nothing can be more suitable than Shopify.

Conclusion:

If you want to develop a business to be a global company or brand, then you should pick Magento2. Shopify is perfect for small and simple interactions, which can be concluded after comparing both eCommerce platforms.

However, if you are still confused about which to choose for your online store, you don’t need to worry as we are with you; Rock Technolabs have 9+ years of industry experience in providing Magento 2 and Shopify ecommerce stores at affordable prices and has helped businesses to grow from scratch, just reach out to us or have a look at our site to know what we have done for many other businesses.

You should also check out our newly launched shopify apps as it helps in improving the user shopping experience, grow business and increase conversions.