Magento vs Shopify - which is better? This is a question a lot of businesses (particularly startups) find themselves asking, and in this article, we are going to put these two crowned kings of online stores and the eCommerce world to the test.

Magento vs Shopify - Which one is Better for eCommerce in 2023

Introduction

Magento vs Shopify - which is better? This is a question a lot of businesses (particularly startups) find themselves asking, and in this article, we are going to put these two crowned kings of online stores and the eCommerce world to the test.

Let’s take a detailed look at both of them and their key features & functionalities, and the reasons why you might choose one of them over the other when building an e-commerce site. Let’s find out who stands out against each other.

By the end of this article, you will have a much better idea of which platform out of Shopify or Magento will serve your business’ needs best.

Table of Content:

Let’s start with a quick and short description of each platform.

  • 1. Overview

    Magento Overview :

    Magento , one of the best eCommerce platforms today, was released in 2007. It is one of the widely used open-source eCommerce platforms to build an online store. In 2015, Magento came up with a new version i.e. Magento 2 with more advanced features and functionalities for the online merchants and the customers.

    Magento is the big player in the eCommerce world and is free, open-source software that requires you to provide your own installation, hosting, setup and configuration before starting your own online eCommerce store. Additionally, it came up with the features that require a medium to a high level of coding skills and advance Magento Developer.

    Shopify overview :

    Shopify , a fully hosted, SaaS (Software as a Service) based eCommerce platform that was founded in 2004 is suitable for any kind of business. It is one of the most popular and easiest to use platforms with all the features you will ever need to run your customized online store. It is specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses with all the functionalities you need to launch your online store.

    Let’s go through the comprehensive Magento vs Shopify 2023 comparison that helps you out to choose the one that fits the best for your business.

  • 2. Magento vs Shopify: Pros and Cons

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  • 3. Ease of use

    One of the most important things to be considered during the Shopify vs Magento comparison is Ease of Use. And there is no doubt both the platforms are user-friendly and come up with a well-designed user interface.

    But if we look into the fair comparison then Magento is more complex as compared to Shopify and requires a certain level of coding skills to set up an online store. You must have some technical expertise or should hire an intermediate or advanced skilled Magento developer to build an eCommerce store for your brand.

    While on the other hand, it’s way easier to set up a store with Shopify as it is a whole online website builder with a drag and drop functionality. Using this, a normal person can also set up and customize their store very easily by moving required elements around the website page.

    So, it’s clear that in terms of ease of use, Shopify is easier to use compared to Magento.

  • 4. Magento vs Shopify: Pricing/cost

    Let us share with you the pricing difference between Magento vs Shopify so that you can easily decide your budget for an online store.

    As stated above in the article that Shopify is a hosted platform and Magento is a Self-hosted one. So being a hosted platform, Shopify takes care of all the hosting costs within the set monthly plan without any extra cost. While on the other hand, Magento is free to install but you have to pay for hosting service, security, domain, extensions, add ons, etc.

    It’s difficult to say who the winner in a comparison of pricing is because Shopify is more manageable compared to Magento because of its monthly pricing plan but then again Magento is free. And if you look into overall pricing then you may have other big expenses if you decide to go with Magento.

  • 5. Magento vs Shopify: Performance

    Performance of the website plays an important role as it’s one of the key factors to make the customer's experience better while they are in your online store. The performance which is also known as the loading speed of the website which refers to the amount of time taken by the website content to load and display.

    While ranking the website of top search engines consider the fast loading speed as one of the key factors. And also customers get irritated if a website takes much time to load the content which indirectly leads to a bad experience and also affects your sales.

    Below we have shared how quickly the web page loads for both the platforms based on the program named PageSpeed Insights:

    If you look at the speed indexes then you can easily know that the speed indexes on the desktop of Magento and Shopify are 22.2 and 3.4s correspondingly. So in terms of performance, Shopify is clearly a winner while Magento still lacks on this point.

  • 6. Apps and add-ons

    To make the website more attractive, themes are the solution but to make your store more user friendly you need to add more functionality for which extensions and add ons are the solution. App stores and extensions are offered by all systems and some of them are just a click away and boom new features added to your eCommerce site. Let’s compare some of them below:

    Magento Extensions: Nearly 3000+ free and premium extensions have been provided through Magento Marketplace. It’s true that no advanced skills or knowledge would be required to install and implement these apps and extensions (Read more about MUST HAVE MAGENTO 2 EXTENSIONS IN 2021 ).

    There are some of the great extensions that are helping merchants a lot. For example, Magento 2 Free Gift extension allows store owners to provide customers with free gifts on purchasing particular products. This Plugin is an effective solution to build customer trust and drive sales significantly.

    Shopify Apps: Shopify is not less in providing great extensions and apps. It offers nearly 4200+ free and paid apps that help in managing your store, boosting sales, and improving conversion rates. Shopify has great email marketing plugins that are helpful in marketing strategies.

  • 7. Marketing Features comparison

    We all know that marketing tools are an excellent way to reach new customers, boost sales and increase conversion rates. Which merchant will not love having powerful marketing tools for their store?

    There is no doubt that Shopify has awesome marketing tools including the all-in-one email plugins using which store owners can run email campaigns. It also allows you to sell and market your products on social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Additionally, it also helps to sell products in various languages because Shopify supports multilingual.

    On the other hand, Magento is dependent on its Marketplace for marketing tools. You need to install the extensions and also rely on the developers to integrate such marketing tools to run your store. Whereas Shopify comes with so many built-in marketing tools to help you with your store.

    For the most important and must-have marketing features like email campaigns and much more, both platforms rely on their respective app markets. But Shopify enables you to market on social media as a built-in feature.

  • 8. Magento vs Shopify: Payment processors

    Accept online payments at your online store using Payment Processors. Thankfully both platforms make it easy to connect the payment processor and your store in just a few clicks. But the question is which one has the best offerings for your eCommerce store?

    Shopify offers 100+ Payment Gateways for you to choose from but you need to pay a transaction fee. Additionally, it also has its own payment processor, Shopify Payments, and imposes zero transaction fees. This is an advanced feature of this website builder.

    Magento doesn’t have its own Payment processor but supports over 150 payment gateways. This means you have to download the extension of the payment processor through the Magento marketplace, and then pay a transaction fee for them.

  • 9. Theme

    Website design is one of the key factors that attract customers and also determines the store’s success. Magento and Shopify offer numerous themes for you to choose from both free and paid. And in general, most of the templates offered by these platforms are mobile-friendly and responsive.

  • 10. Magento vs Shopify – Help & Support

    Magento and Shopify both provide support to their customers but there is a huge difference between them.

  • 11. Focus on customer support

    The concern of product quality and exchange keeps new online shoppers thinking about purchasing. As they're making their purchase online for the first time, you have to guide them and assure them that they will have a warranty and even replacements

    To sort out all their queries at ease, they would be seeking customer support's help in such a case. A live chat or toll-free number would help them clear all their doubts and make them trust you.

Magento vs Shopify: Conclusion

So here the battle of two eCommerce giants Magento vs Shopify comes to an end and we are sure that you can clearly get the differences and key similarities between Shopify and Magento. Both the platforms are fairly powerful in the eCommerce world and have their own place. Shopify is way better in terms of ease of use, marketing tools, themes, etc.

While Magento is more users friendly and offers more customization options, it requires some advanced skills and technical knowledge to run the store.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and create that perfect eCommerce store that you’ve always dreamed of having using the one platform that you think fits the best based on your business needs, budget plans, and other things.

If you still have any queries regarding Shopify or Magento, the MageAnts team is here to help you! You can contact us to get more tips on an eCommerce store, Magento Migration, Magento 2 Theme, Extensions, etc. You can also go through our catalog of high-quality Extensions for Magento 2 developed and built professionally by MageAnts to enhance your online store.

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