Developing an ecommerce platform for enhancing the store presence in the digital world has been never an easy task. However, selecting right platform to make the ecommerce website perform actively plays vital part in achieving success for your online business. There are several different types of platforms which offers ready to go websites solutions for you to kick start your online sale. With the increase in the competitive edge along with the heating environment of the new customers, these platforms come up with the power to get an eye and attract more customers. This blog will show a detailed comparison between the four most liked ecommerce platforms namely BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, and Shopify, digging more informative and specialists which will permits us to understand which platform is right and best for your business.
Magento
Magento is one of the most powerful content management system (CMS) introduced on March 2008 offers in-built eBay integration. These platform gives the opportunity to customize the platform accordingly, suitable for large businesses and enterprises having the high level of complicated requirements. Nearly, 3 lakhs websites have been integrated on this platform. Nike, Ford, Helly Hansen, Nestle, etc. are using this ecommerce platform has their own full fledge platform. Through Magento, the consumers can inbuilt as well as add more items on their website.
Pros: Magento offers innumerable features including flexible customization options for every big and small enterprise to setup online stores. Being an open-source platform, it provides absolute control and power over your platform. It is extremely suitable for those businesses who have complex and unique4 technical requirement.
Cons: It can time taking and requires high cost for maintenance. The manual designing of websites in Magento is very complex and requires high level of technical expertise.
Shopify
Shopify is well known for its simple and easy to handle features. Users can different background and industries can easily cater their business in this ecommerce platform. This platform is commonly popular among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Various famous brands like Skinny Teatox, Taylor Stitch, HELM Boats, etc. has chosen this ecommerce platform to leverage their online store. By offering 3,000 applications and 70+ different gateways for payment, Shopify has become coolest and hassle-free platform for every user.
Pros: Shopify can be easily managed and controlled by the users, offering various in-built features for SEO. This ecommerce platform gives more than 6,000 extensions for self-customization and enhancing traffic on your websites. With the incorporation of this ecommerce platform, users can make their own website more responsive and faster in the mobile version. It gives the opportunity to the beginners to develop online store and start business through their wide collections of apps and themes.
Cons: For extensive customization, User must have knowledge about the Liquid programming language of Shopify. Similarly, the monthly renewable options require extra cost, mainly with the integration of other different apps.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is also an open source and freeware for the WordPress website development. Presently, it is highly famous for free website development solutions, offering the users to create a complete ecommerce platform with less effort and cost free. More than 10 thousand websites are this ecommerce platform among which few are most popular namely Yousli, Apogee CE, Porter & York, and EcoKitty.
Pros: The themes of WooCommerce can be easily customized by PHP, CSS, or HTML coding and even by the graphic editors. Users can manage countless features including listing of products, email marketing, managing inventories, keep an eye on analytics, etc. with the help of this ecommerce platform. Small and medium scale businesses can easily manage WooCommerce.
Cons: In several cases, the in-built plugin of WooCommerce does not meet the update of WordPress. Sometimes, the content of your websites does not look good by default. Maintenance cost is required because WooCommerce has no hosting and support. Otherwise, user have to pay cost for extension, themes, and hosting. To take on the benefits of additional features, technically sound person will be required for coding.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a big shot opportunity for the large sized enterprise as it has the in-built features which open the opportunity to the new users to directly integrate with the ecommerce platforms. This features can be easily used by for high valued projects to easily get integrated with Catalyst and GGV. Several big industries namely Camelbak, Natori, Rollie Nation, Skullcandy, Toyota, etc. are actively using this ecommerce platform.
Pros: This ecommerce platforms is as similar as Shopify related to bulk features and being easy to use, offering countless apps and templates for every big shot enterprises with the option to upload nearly products at one go along with integrated Mailchimp. BigCommerce is mostly suitable for those businesses which requires SEO-friendly and scalable ecommerce platforms. The subscription pack of this ecommerce platform includes domain and hosting.
Cons: Being an open opportunity for the big companies, BigCommerce doesnot offers many apps usage option as compared to its competitors. Less free themes collection areas. For the high customization, involvement of technical expertise is highly essential.
Comparion: Magento vs Shopify vs BigCommerce vs WooCommerce
| Particulars | Magento | Shopify | BigCommerce | WooCommerce |
| User Friendly | Technical support is neccessary | Self-customisable | Can be self-used but few additional apps requires technical support | WordPress handler can easily use |
| Flexibility | Fully customisation option available | Limited customisation can be done in comparison with Magento | Can be balanced between ease and customisation | Availability of high customisation option by using plugins
|
| Pricing Strategy | Starts with $1600 per month but possibility to use free themes | Subscription begins with $29 per month and varies higher accordingly | Standard subscription starts from $39 on a monthly basis | No cost for plugin but domain and hosting are chargeable |
| Payment Option | Innumerable payment facility | Gives countless option along with its own payment gateway feature | Support requires for payment facility | Plugins requires for starting payment function |
| Scalability | High | Medium | Low | High |
| SEO | High feature of SEO available | In-built SEO | High level of SEO | Plugin of WordPress is required for SEO |
| Support | Paid customer care support and has huge developer community | Availability of 24*7 customer care support | Offers support through community forums | Paid customer support through third party agencies |
Which Ecommerce Platform Is Best For You?
Picking the right ecommerce platform is very hard as well as crucial for your business because switching from one ecommerce platform to another might be hectic and make you feel pressure. Every ecommerce platform has its own specific feature like Shopify is the best option for the beginners as it does not requires any technical knowledge and can be self-customized. WooCommerce is best for the big scale companies with proper optimization and hosting, and this ecommerce platform is more flexible regarding cost as compared to BigCommerce and Shopify. Likewise, Shopify and BigCommerce both has high level of SEO option which also includes customization of Meta description and URLs to build data analytics.
So, what you think about these ecommerce platform? Which ecommerce platform are you experienced in using? What is your opinion regarding Magento vs Shopify vs BigCommerce vs WooCommerce ecommerce platform? Don’t forget to share your experience and impression regarding these ecommerce platform.
