What comes first in your mind when you think about setting up e commerce business? Magento or Shopify, the question has many answers according to the relevance and requirement of the user. Choosing the right platform as a fundamental block defines the success of your business. Choosing the right platform according to the budget and resources is very critical. Magento and Shopify are the two biggest names in the industry of E commerce development.
Magento is enjoying leading positions for many years but now Shopify is giving good competition. Shopify is a kind of “all-in-one” platform and Magento is larger, complexed with many add-ons and extensions. They are different on many parameters lets discuss some differences.
Planning to start an E commerce store or migrating from one platform to another Shopify and Magento are two acclaimed E commerce creation and management platforms. With recent updates in Magento, developers and Magento development companies are switching to the latest version with many new features.
Cost of the Platform
Magento is an open source software whereas Shopify is a commercial product that comes with license fees.
Popularity
Magento was launched in 2004. Since then it is the most widely used platform for the creation of E commerce store and is incredibly reliable and flexible. Shopify in the last few years has seen exponential growth. Shopify is used to build approx. 22% of E commerce store.
Complexity
Magento is for technical developers and development companies. It includes complex coding, extensions, and tools and if not used aptly, it will impact website speed and performance. Shopify is an easy to use platform hence it is suitable for many small-scale businesses across various industries. Magento is all in one platform with exceptional features and updates and therefore, is heaven for Magento developers and Magento development Companies.
Type of Coding
When it comes to code and technical knowledge Magento and Shopify are vastly different. Magneto uses PHP whereas Shopify uses a coding language called _Liquid. _Magneto template code can be modified or altered according to the need of the store. For simple store, Shopify is an ideal solution but for a complex structured E commerce store, Magento is the right platform.
Hosting
Shopify is a self-hosted platform that means the data is stored on the Shopify server hence it has many advantages. Magento requires hosting with installed setup and configuration before creating E commerce website. Sometimes it requires high level web development skills and detailed technical knowledge.
Scalability
The aim of any business is growth. Choosing the platform having scalability is necessary. Shopify is having simpler tool for creating building e commerce websites. Shopify is easy to use and does not require extensive coding knowledge. Magento is highly flexible and customizable hence is suitable for high intensity website with an add-on and 3rd party extension.
Pros and Cons of Magento
Pros
- Excellent community with support
- Robust and flexible platform
- Variety of Themes
- Support through the Phone line
- Less coding knowledge for Magento Commerce
- Open source
- An added feature, extensions.
Cons
- Bit of learning curve
- Not so easy for beginners
- Time taking for setup
- Some external associated cost
Pros and Cons of Shopify
Pros
- Responsive and beautiful themes
- Comprehensive E commerce building platform
- Good customer support
- Easy to use
- Checkouts and payments options
Cons
- Priced theme
- Integration is complex
- Fees for every payment (except Shopify payment gateway)
Hiring Magento developers is not an easy task. Magento development companies take care of theme development, custom extension development, and ongoing enhancement. While hiring Magento developers one should look for the developers who can manage the Magento Community and Enterprise edition. Fees and experience are two important parameters one should look before hiring Magento developers.
Before hiring a Shopify developer, the critical step is to understand the process and analyze the strategy. Wrapping up the business is always a big task, an experienced Shopify developer look for the problem and the solution related to the e commerce structure and functionalities. Professional and passionate Shopify developers will help you with cost efficiency and customer focused IT solutions.
