Magento vs Shopify choose best ecommerce platform for your ecommerce business

I-VERVE INC
Magento vs Shopify
Clash between to ecommerce platform choose the right one for your
ecommerce business
Magento vs Shopify top ecommerce platforms detail comparison so that
enterprise can choose the best platform for their ecommerce website
development and can increase business globally.

There is a myriad of e-commerce platforms available for an online store but
they are not all the same. You need to understand what differentiates one from
the other in order to make sure you choose the right platform for your website.
Determining which CMS software will be the best is a cumbersome task, and at
the same times, a pivotal one. To make it easy for you, we have made a
comparison between two of the most popular content management platforms
– Shopify and Magento.

Most often retails get confused in choosing the right platform for developing
their online store.
Check out our Complete eCommerce Platforms Guide
As ecommerce development company, we are experts in delivering perfect and
clearly coded CMS and e-commerce web development solutions. Here is honest
comparison of these two leading ecommerce store development platforms
highlighting some of the benefits and downsides of the two popular solutions –
Magento and Shopify – to help you make the right decision for your business.

LET’S START WITH YOUR EXPECTATIONS FROM YOUR E-COMMERCE STORES.
A good place to start is by outlining what you need from your store, which can
help you match those goals up with the platform that offers the best solution
for you.
HOW BIG IS YOUR SHOP?
Just like a physical store, the number of items you want to have on your store
will determine your store size. Both the platforms allow you to put an unlimited
number of items on your store, no matter what plan you choose.
This is an important consideration for choosing an ecommerce platform –
especially if you’re a small merchant or a one-man-band.
SHOPIFY STORE DEVELOPMENT:
Shopify has a really simple, intuitive admin interface which is really easy to use
and get the hang of. Simple things like adding and editing your products,
changing copy, creating and managing categories, adding modules etc are very
easy and will take seconds.
Obviously Shopify does give you control over more advanced areas required for
running an ecommerce store too (such as tax settings, order confirmation
emails, delivery options and the front-end code editor etc) – however they’re
mostly in one place and they provide different permission levels for users to
facilitate for different people working on the site.
MAGENTO WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT:
Magento on the other hand is far more complex – mainly because it’s designed
to facilitate for much larger merchants (but it is still used by smaller ones).
Magento is hugely flexible as a platform and this means that there’s a lot more
built into the admin section.
Also – things like handling re-indexing, setting up products (dependent on how
you need them to work), applying patches, using static blocks etc are a lot more
complex in Magento than in Shopify – I’d say there’s a much bigger learning
curve with Magento as a developer and an admin.

The admin interface in Magento 2.0 community edition is more similar to
Shopify and I’d definitely say it’s more intuitive for a non-super user.
In terms of managing and maintaining the store – I’d say Magento is more
suitable for a slightly larger retailer – whereas Shopify (due to its simplicity), is
better for smaller retailers.
Have advanced feature requirements (e.g. back-end requirements, rich
search, complex product catalog, complex internationalization etc)
Are likely to require more advanced integrations in the future (e.g. POS
system, stock management system, marketplace integration etc)
Use a back-office system, ERP etc
Require a multi-store setup
Have a complex SKU / product / catalog setup
Magento can be heavily extended with modules that will allow you to make use
of things like hreflang, structured data, and control over dynamic pages,
redirect management, control over the robots.txt file, canonical URLs etc.
However with Shopify – the vast majority of these features can’t be achieved,
which can cause issues – especially for larger stores.
WHAT’S YOUR BUDGET?
I’d suggest consulting an expert before making a decision on Magento hosting
as it is more complex than you might think. Depending on your needs, this can
cost anywhere from $1,000 (if you decide to use a lower-end solution or offshore
developers) to $100k+, depending on the level of complexity of the site,
whether you want a custom theme, any integrations that are required etc.
Shopify currently has four plans (Lite, Basic, Pro, and Unlimited), which range
from $9 per month to $100 per month. All plans offer unlimited products and
bandwidth, and the Basic, Pro, and Unlimited plans come with an online store.

WHAT’S YOUR TIMELINE?
Installation, configuration, and setup can take longer on Community version of
Magento. If time is a constraint, Shopify will make your site be up and running
faster than Magento.
Magento has its own framework and is easy for an experienced software
engineer to set up, customize and manage.
HOW SIMPLE (OR COMPLEX) ARE YOUR PRODUCTS?
Magento is complex compared to Shopify because it is built for higher-end
online stores and multi-store ecommerce solutions. If dream project is of mid to
enterprise level then Magento has got better solutions for you in long run.
Earlier, Shopify used to charge as per the storage capacity, but now even the
basic plan is available with an unlimited product and storage capacity.
WHAT’S YOUR SERVER CAPACITY?
Both, Magento as well as Shopify are scalable; you can add theoretically an
unlimited number of items provided your server capacity is good. If you are
personalize and custom solution lover then you has to keep the entire
infrastructure at highest level for Magento based ecommerce stores.
If your server speed is not very good, you should choose Shopify over Magento
HOW MANY USERS, CONTRIBUTORS, OR ADMINS ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE?
Magneto: We can create multiple admins and provide him role for necessary
access for the security purpose. N numbers of customer and wholesaler and
contributors, we can add in Magento as per your requirements. Magento
developers have made it as secure as any other platform.
Shopify on the other hand is written in Liquid language and has a reputation of
being one of the most secure ecommerce platform. The number of staff
accounts available is determined by your Shopify pricing plan:

The Shopify Lite plan includes 2 staff accounts
The Basic Shopify plan includes 2 staff accounts
The Shopify plan includes 5 staff accounts
The Advanced Shopify plan includes 15 staff accounts
The Shopify Plus plan includes unlimited staff accounts.
WHAT’S YOUR IN-HOUSE WEB DEVELOPER’S SKILL LEVEL?
As discussed earlier, the free-version of Magento doesn’t provide you any
customer support. There are community forums dedicated to troubleshooting
and providing free training courses which can help you if you encounter a
problem. This will require you to have a good knowledge of website
development.
With Shopify, you don’t need to know have such skills since, the website is
hosted by the company itself. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at the
two leading ecommerce platforms Magento & Shopify.
MAGENTO VS. SHOPIFY: THE DIFFERENCES
Purpose: Both are the market leaders in providing CMS platforms to
ecommerce websites. It is important that you decide on the basis of your
unique business requirement.
E-Commerce Plugin: Although there are a large number of Plugin
available on Shopify, Magento has far more Plugin and add-ons which
can be either free or paid.
Security: After fixing the 2015 “shoplift bug”, Magento has become really
secure. One can count on either of the two platforms for their website
security.
Development: Magento is complex as compared to Shopify and hence, it
needs developers to be highly skilled to be able to work on it.
Scalability: As far as scalability is concerned, Shopify has an upper hand.
As the number of items grows on your website, Magento may make your
website to load slower.
Price: Magento is an open-source and free CMS platform, whereas
Shopify has different monthly plans for its websites.

Customization: There are many more templates available on Magento
than there are on Shopify. Nevertheless, comparatively, customization is
way easier on Shopify.
Ease of handling: Since Shopify is a hosted solution; it is easier for a small
shop owner to go with it. Magento needs you to host your website by
yourself.
About Author:
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