Choosing the best eCommerce platform for the purpose of creating, managing and operating an online shop is crucial for the success and failure of a business. This particular thing is important for all kinds of businesses. Two of the most important platforms for the creation of a good online store are Shopify and Magento.

Shopify has a good hold as all in one platform while Magento is one of the best options when it comes to larger and complex eCommerce websites. Although these are very different platforms, in this article we will have a look at the comparison between Magento and Shopify to understand which one is the best for an online business.

To ensure that the businesses get the maximum return from the eCommerce project, the companies must empower their online store with the best platform. The best way to make that happen is to choose one out of the best platforms that have been dominating the industry.

If the business owners are planning to create a good online store or migrate from one store to another then Shopify and Magento can be great options. Where once Shopify is a commercial, hosted and simple product, Magento is free, installation oriented and packed with many features of open-source software.

Let’s understand more about this with a detailed comparison of Magento and Shopify. Magento development services

FUNDAMENTAL STORE FUNCTIONALITY: Shopify and Magento, both of the online shopping stores offer the fundamental store functionalities that are very important for using and maintaining a business on a consistent basis. 

Shopify is much easier to set up and use when it comes to comparison with Magento. You will see that the basic features like shopping carts, multiple account handling, collections, and different product pages are all there in online stores like Magento and Shopify. 

The primary difference is the fact that Magento has a lot more intermediate and high tech features that are built in the system. However, when it comes to Shopify, chances are that you will have to get an application for getting extended functionality.

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT: All of the plans that are included in Shopify allow selling unlimited products in the online store. Magento also allows a person to create, sell and market as many products as the online businessmen are interested in selling. 

It is possible to create products and form them in collections on both platforms. Shopify offers direct integration with inventor apps like Oberlo and the functionality of Magento can be enhanced with the assistance of multiple extensions.

 It must be noted here that although Magento allows an unlimited number of products, it is important to be careful with the speed of the website and the server performance.

EASE OF CODING: When it comes to coding, Magento and Shopify differ from each other immensely. Magento uses the PHP language extensively and Shopify uses a coding language called Liquid. 

Magento is an open-source platform which is a great benefit because it helps in deciding the perfect platform and what must be done with it. An open-source code essentially means that the source code is available freely and can be modified whereas propriety code means that the code cannot be modified as much. 

When it comes to Magento, template code can be changed to match the specific needs of the online store, while in Shopify this is not possible. Although this makes Shopify a fine solution for simple online stores but not so ideal for the complex online stores that have many advanced functions to be performed like changing source code.

GENERAL CAPABILITIES: Magento is a robust tool for business owners. It has almost 5000 extensions, both free and paid which make it one of the most beneficial tools when it comes to general capabilities. When this is compared to around 100 apps and add-ons that are given on Shopify, Magento wins. 

Any ideas that a person might be having right along the way can be used to integrate with the online store made on Magento. In case you wish to add coupon any message or the facility of multiple employee logins with Magento, it can be done with the help of Magento extensions. 

Even if a person is not from a coding background, it is pretty easy to work with Magento because the possibilities are plenty. With the assistance of Magento, almost every aspect of the website is within the direct control of the business owner. This particular thing is very valuable for businessmen based on their goals. 

Admin can create and manage multiple stores right within the same admin panel. Furthermore, Magento also offers frontend features for customers such as coupon codes, products, wish lists, customer dashboards, order status, etc.

BRANDING OPTIONS: Creating and managing a successful online store requires building the reputation of a brand that any customers recognize and find worthy of. A significant part of this is designing.

Magento and Shopify both offer many free and costly themes. Multiple themes designed for both platforms are responsive to varied screen sizes. Also, with a mobile-friendly online store, an increasing number of customers are able to use mobile devices effectively for shopping online. 

Since the themes sold by Shopify are proprietary, there is no room for extensive changes. Whereas, Magento allows many options for making changes that can be implemented by both people who know coding and the ones who do not.

USER EXPERIENCE: Many people think that when it comes to the difference between using these two platforms, Shopify is a lot easier than Magento. This is why it is preferred by people who are not from the development background. It is easy and quick to set up a shop right after signing up for Shopify. 

It comes with a tool for website building which can very well be used for customizing the store in-house. With the integration of multiple extensions, Magento becomes very easy to use. It also does not need coding because simple solutions are readily available. 

The second version of Magento 2 has a user-friendly admin panel as it is much simpler to learn for anyone who is new to Magento. When compared with Shopify, it is simple for admin to complete tasks such as payment processors, advanced reports, market products, etc. 

It is simple for admin to look after the store without learning any advanced development skills. Admins are able to acquire a lot more in a relatively shorter time which is a great add on for the business that is struggling to manage or achieve big objectives.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: Due to the prevalence of digital portals, most of the purchases start with an online search. Since most people search for products online through Google and other search engines, it is very important to do high-quality search engine optimization. 

Therefore, eCommerce platforms must come with search engine optimization capabilities. Some of the SEO features include features like Meta descriptions, headings, URLs, titles, etc. With pretty comparable SEO capabilities, online platforms like Shopify and Magento help in driving heavy traffic, mostly organic to the online store.

SPEED OF THE ONLINE STORE: The speed of a website is an important ranking factor for search engine optimization and it also helps in deciding whether the customers can buy from an online store or not. 

In case more than three to five seconds for a page to load then there are very high chances for the customers to leave the website and shift to the competitor’s website. This can reduce conversion rates significantly. 

An online store with a good speed means better chances of becoming successful. Many users have described Magento as being slow when compared to Shopify which makes a complete winner when it comes to speed.

RESPONSIVE CHECKOUT: A quick and user-friendly checkout is an important factor when it comes to Shopify and Magento. The new version of Magento 2 is exceptionally amazing when it comes to a more responsive checkout. 

Not only is it packed with features such as easy and automatic checkout but it also comes with features like one-click account creation and a two-step checkout. There is also an option to place the discount code box on the checkout option to make the entire process a lot more simple and intuitive. 

The shipping and payment information can be differentiated to reduce any type of confusion. Shopify also has a good checkout system with a minimal introduction of single-page responsive checkout.

CUSTOMIZATION: Both Magento and Shopify offer great customization options with the help of an advanced interface that helps to edit HTML/CSS code directly. This allows staying in complete control over the design and the look of an online store. 

However, just as it has been stated in the previous points, using Shopify is very simple as compared to Magento. There is a simple menu-driven process that is followed in Shopify. 

Whereas in Magento, the customization capabilities are high because the code is entirely open source. The best use of the customization features can only be made by those people who have complete knowledge of working with these platforms.

CONCLUSION:

While comparing Magento and Shopify, it is a little tough to say which e-commerce platform is better for which online store. A lot of reliance is on the kind of objectives, budget, and know-how of the operator. What might work for one online store, will not work for someone else? In case you are choosing an option between Magento and Shopify, assess which option do you think will work best with your business goals.

If it is just creating a quick online store that handles just 100 products then Shopify can be a great option. However, if you are going to develop an online store that has a lot of potential with respect to the features, scalability or customization then Magento is better. This is completely dependent on the requirements of a business.

Magento is full of many useful built-in features and can much more with the extensions. All these reasons make it one of the most preferable choices when it comes to e-commerce development. However, make sure that you hire a professional company to do the same for the best results.