It is never an easy task to select a perfect eCommerce platform. The reason being, there are loads of options available online. Even if, you wish to look for the best, it is difficult to select one of several. But, nowadays it has been found that Shopify and Magento are the two most prominent platforms available for eCommerce development. The most critical thing that one can do is to closely scrutinize Shopify vs. Magento to find out whether to go for Shopify development or Magento development.
We have done exactly that in this write-up. In the forthcoming sections of this write-up, you will be able to decipher the Shopify vs. Magento platform and determine which one to select out of these two popular platforms.
But, the most important thing that needs to be answered is what brings about the comparison between Shopify and Magento. Let’s try and find out the answer to that. The very first thing that comes to mind when we talk about both these platforms is its popularity amongst developers in the eCommerce domain. However, despite this fact, there are several merchants and marketers who are unaware of the reason to choose either of these two for eCommerce store.
Remember, the decision that you make is going to have a long-term effect on the success of your online business. By selecting the best platform, you can derive the best user experience, get the highest possible conversions, and reach the financial goals.
Shopify vs. Magento: The Major Differences
The Total Number of Apps and Add-ons
As far as the Shopify app store is concerned, you can currently avail 2294 extensions from dozens of categories. About 60% of those are paid while the rest are open-source. On the other hand, Magento Marketplace has 4117 add-ons and extensions available. Most of them were developed by the Community and are open-source. As we are writing, there are more add-ons and extensions for Magento 2 than Magento 1. Out of those, 30% are available free to download and use.
App and Add-on Prices
It is extremely difficult to tell you the exact price of the extensions for either of the platform. The reason being, it varies greatly. As far as Magento is concerned, several of them are available for less than $100, but you can even find one priced at $13,000. You also need to factor in the cost of Magento developer who can install it on your eCommerce store without any problem. In the case of Shopify, the cost is the same. However, there are lots of add-ons available on trail periods before the monthly billing cycle commences. On the other hand, you can even purchase the product.
The Total Number of Themes & Their Prices
There are only a handful of themes available on both platforms. You can always get both free and paid themes from third-party sites, marketplace, and forums.
As we are writing, the official number of themes available are:
- Shopify: 73
- Magento: 14
The price range also differs but we are giving you an average:
- Shopify Theme: $170
- Magento Theme: $120
Support Service
Shopify has a 24×7 support service that is extremely user-friendly. It is possible to reach out to their customer care team to resolve your problems, ask your doubts, and get guidance through live chat, phone or email. You also get access to a forum through which it is possible to exchange ideas and get knowledge from other Shopify developers. Their partner community is smaller in comparison to Magento. Since it is based in the US, there is not much support available for international users.
Magento does not have full-fledged support service. However, they have Sales or Technical Support departments whom you talk with to get adequate support. Instead of the dedicated support service, they have an FAQ and knowledgebase which is available on their site.
There is a community that helps users to get information, search for solutions of their problems, raise queries, and also share experiences. You can even count on experienced professionals to resolve your issues.
Dropshipping
Today, dropshipping is a very trendy thing in the eCommerce domain. The reason being, it requires very low investment by the merchant. You can also sell just about anything without much work and the order keeps on coming.
Magento has several off-the-rack solutions especially for dropshipping. It is very easy to add one of the existing extensions. You can even create one on your own. Although there is no in-built functionality, still it is effortless to commence a dropshipping business through it.
Shopify supports the dropshipping model. There are different guides and case studies that provide you useful information to commence dropshipping business using this platform.
SEO
Both platforms are good in terms of SEO practices. The reason being, both provide the basic functionality required on top of similar features. You can consider both of them to be Google-friendly. However, that is not enough in itself and so you can always download several extensions available for each platform.
It should be noted that neither of the two platforms was developed as a CMS like WordPress. However, it is still possible to integrate blogs to both of them with the help of extensions and plug-ins. This way, it is possible to derive maximum out of the two platforms as far as SEO is concerned to get better ranks on Google SERPs.
The Final Call
If you are looking for a cost-effective and quick alternative with no additional features on your online store, we recommend you to go for Shopify. The reason being, it can easily handle larger stores. It even has its own hosting which eases the task of the merchant. If you are opting for a large-scale business operation with huge profits, Magento is the right platform in the long run.
The reason being, it takes a long time to develop and even require a larger budget. Overall it requires investment in all the areas but it can also be customized in every way possible. It is possible to add services, channels or even create completely new functions to run a scalable business.
In case you opt for Shopify contact an experienced Magento development company in the USA to avail their creative Shopify development services today!
Harshal Shah has countless experience in the field of Information Technology. Also, he is the CEO of Elsner Technologies Pvt Ltd: Magento Development Company that offers various Magento Development services to the clients across the globe. Mr. Harshal is a huge tech enthusiastic person who has written major & genuine articles as well as blogs on topics that are relevant to various CMS platforms.
