While there are many options available if you are looking for an e-commerce platform for launching your store, yet today we will compare the two major players namely – Magento & WooCommerce. Though many have voiced their different opinion, many also thank us for assisting them in their decision-making process to which platform is better for their new e-commerce store.
By now it is a known fact that the platform you choose for your online store is the key to the success of your business.
Developing your online store on the right platform initially is essential to save you the trouble of migrating it later. Necessary research is fundamental before to zero in on any CMS that serves your immediate and near future planning. This will not only save you time and effort but will also save you a lot of costs.
We will compare both Magento and WooCommerce in the following categories:
- Features
- Performance and Speed
- Security
- Ease of Use
- Support
- Cost
Features
Every e-commerce platform available today comes loaded with features required to run an online store. However, how successful they make your store is a matter of time. With so much competition around, basic features are not enough and you need more than basics to be a success. While both the CMSs have plenty of basic features, it’s important to find out which one is more flexible and has more room for customization.
While WooCommerce comes with basic features, Magento gets the head start with more advanced features. Building anything complex can really be tricky with WooCommerce, while Magento, on the other hand, allows you to build a complex and feature-rich store catering to all your requirements. Magento is highly customizable with extra facilities and easy navigation options.
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin and comes across as a simple shopping cart. Magento, in contrast, is a full-fledged dedicated CMS for e-commerce trade.
Performance and Speed
Performance plays an important role in this decision-making process for picking a suitable platform for an online store. A successful store needs to be up all the time and shouldn’t take long to load. If that is the cars, there will be a significant drop in the visitors of your store. The customer may look elsewhere for similar products if your site is down during peak times.
Magento sometimes receives a negative response on being slow. However, the speed and performance of the store also depend on the development and the extensions one uses for the site. If your hosting service is slow, it will impact your business immensely. Hence, when both Magento and WooCommerce are compared there is no clear winner.
Security
Protecting your site from being hacked has become very important to run the business securely. With the advancement in technology and with hackers getting smarter by the day, it has become more important. Whether it’s a blog or an online store, optimum security is a must as a lot of customer information is saved in your store and that shouldn’t be leaked at any cost.
Both WooCommerce and Magento come with advanced security measures. Even though you may deploy security measures from your end, the CMS you choose must also address security concerns adequately. That’s where Magento sets itself apart.
Magento releases security patches to give its customer a sense of added security and comfort. It may be a bit complicated to apply them initially but with time one can understand it.
Ease of Use
WooCommerce is the winner here and will be for the time to come. Owing to its being a WordPress plugin, it is quite natural for it to be easy to use as WordPress is quite a cake walk in this category.
Magento on the other hand, is a robust CMS platform and comes with its own usability guide. While there are manuals available for users to learn a lot, there’s no way you master it on your own and develop into a functional online store. You must have at least intermediate knowledge of the platform, to begin with.
WooCommerce is beginner-friendly and even if you are not a technical person, you can easily find your way through with little effort in the right direction. With tutorial, it becomes all the more a safe bet.
Support
Both Magento and WooCommerce have large user community base and discussion forums and comes with their own advantage of providing support to other users.
However, WooCommerce is a relatively new entrant compared to Magento. With four years ahead of its release; Magento is the de facto king of the e-commerce industry. From the support point of view, you get a plethora of official documents and guides to help you set up your store initially.
The good news is that WooCommerce is not much far behind, but Magento has a far active and wider reach which makes him take the trophy in this case.
Cost
Both Magento and WooCommerce are open-source and therefore come free-of-charge. This saves the users of the initial investment which might be huge in some cases.
However, that does not mean you get everything free. Remember, there is no free lunch in this world. While WooCommerce is a great option for the newbies in the market, with time it shoes its limited capabilities. In contrast, Magento’s free version is more flexible and feature rich to support your endeavor and you can scale up your store without much difficulty.
Magento’s paid option is also available majorly suitable for large enterprises as its costs whopping $18000 a month.
Conclusion
And that brings our Magento vs. WooCommerce comparison to an end. While a lot depends on your business requirements, the choice is still clear. If you’re just starting up and entering the e-commerce realm for the first time, WooCommerce is a great option. However, if you have big plans or have been around in the market, wants to scale your business to be at par with other major players like Amazon and eBay, then the choice Magento for sure.
Apart from this, if your requirement hovers around hiring a team of experts to develop and design your Magento Site, you can reach out to WebBee Global for consultation and related services.
