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Shopify vs.
Magento
These two leading eCommerce platforms both have much to offer, including thousands of integrations, round-the-clock support, and strong security. However, there are also some big differences to uncover when comparing Shopify vs Magento.
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Shopify vs. Magento - Which One Is Best for Your Online Store?
The eCommerce industry is growing bigger—and more valuable—with every passing year. As the chart below from Precedence Research shows, that incredibly speedy growth shows no signs of slowing down.
Since this is such a fast-growing and high-value industry, it’s no surprise that many aspiring entrepreneurs are eager to get involved and grab their share of the pie. That’s why countless new online stores and eCommerce brands are established every single day.
However, not all of those stores will succeed. Many fail within the first couple of years, and a large part of that is due to the eCommerce platform they choose to work with.
The right platform can help you bring your eCommerce vision to life. It’ll connect you with your target audience, delivering the ideal experiences to bring them back for more.
Conversely, the wrong platform could hamper your business efforts, making it harder to reach your customers, market your brand, and make sales.
In other words, it’s important to make the right call.
Magento and Shopify are two of the top options, selected by huge numbers of merchants across the globe.
These two leading eCommerce platforms both have much to offer, including thousands of integrations, round-the-clock support, and strong security. However, there are also some big differences to uncover when comparing Shopify vs Magento.
In this guide, we’ll put these leading platforms side-by-side. We’ll compare Shopify and Magento in a range of key categories, such as pricing, sales features, and usability, in order to determine which one is best for the average eCommerce business.
So, if you’re hesitating between Shopify vs Magento, you should have a much clearer picture of which one to choose by the end.
The Importance of Choosing the Right eCommerce Platform
Before we start digging into the Shopify vs Magento comparison, you might be wondering why this all matters. Does your choice of eCommerce platform truly have such a big impact on whether or not your online store succeeds?
The short answer is “Yes.”
But let’s look at a slightly longer answer than that.
Shopify. WooCommerce. Magento. PrestaShop. As the chart above from MobiLoud shows, there are a lot of eCommerce platforms in use across the industry today.
They all have the same goal of helping merchants create and manage their online stores. But they go about it in totally different ways. They can have completely contrasting sets of features and functions, along with their own integrations, site-building systems, support levels, and customization options. Not to mention that the costs of using these tools can also vary massively from platform to platform.
In short, while eCommerce platforms may seem similar at first glance, there’s a lot that separates one from the next. Thanks to that, you may find that one platform is particularly well-suited to your store, while others just wouldn’t quite work with what you’re trying to do.
That’s why the choice is so important.
If you pick the wrong platform, you’ll effectively be giving yourself more hard work and headaches to overcome. This can lead to added financial burden as you try to set up your site, along with trickier and less effective marketing. All those negative effects can add up over time, potentially leading to the collapse of your store before it even has time to get going.
But if you can home in on the perfect platform for your needs, you’ll have a much happier experience. Everything will flow smoothly. Pricing will be fair and within your budget. The platform’s features and design will help, rather than hinder, your growth, and you should have a much stronger chance of long-term success.
With that in mind, let’s get into our Shopify vs Magento matchup.
What Is Shopify?
We’ll kick things off with a brief look at each platform, starting with Shopify.
Designed to help users start and manage an online business, Shopify is a leading eCommerce platform. From building an online store to marketing, managing sales, and processing payments, there’s little it can’t do.
The company was founded way back in 2006. That was when its co-founders, Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake, tried to open their own online store. They rapidly discovered how difficult it was. Thus, they decided to build their own eCommerce platform and shared it with the world, hoping to help people who were in a similar situation.
Their ultimate objective was to make it easier and more accessible for anyone—regardless of their background or technical knowledge—to create an online store and have a chance at building a winning brand.
In the years since then, Shopify has really taken off. It’s in use on well over 4 million eCommerce sites and enjoys a market share in excess of 20%.
It’s also received many updates and improvements as time has gone by, with fresh features and integrations added on a regular basis to make this platform more useful and give it broader appeal.
There are a lot of reasons behind Shopify’s successful surge up the ranks of eCommerce platforms. A lot of users cite its simplicity as one of the main reasons they choose it over other platforms. It’s easy to set up and work with, with no advanced technical expertise or coding knowledge needed. Many also love the all-in-one aspect of Shopify, as it lets you do so much, all from a single dashboard.
What Is Magento (Adobe Commerce)?
Next, meet Magento. Otherwise known as Adobe Commerce.
Just like Shopify, Magento is an eCommerce platform, aimed at helping users design, build, and manage successful online stores. It also packs in marketing, catalog management, and SEO features, among other functions, providing a similar “all-in-one” package to Shopify. It also stands out for being an open-source platform, which provides a lot of unique advantages (more on that later).
The Magento story starts just a little later than Shopify’s, in 2008. It didn’t take long to catch on, winning multiple awards and catching the eye of some major eCommerce names like eBay.
Over the years, Magento has undergone many big changes, like the release of Magento 2 in 2015. Faster, more efficient, and better in most areas compared to the original, Magento 2 represented a landmark moment in this platform’s lifecycle.
Another big moment came in 2018 when Magento was acquired by tech giant Adobe.
It has since been renamed “Adobe Commerce,” though the original Magento name is still widely known, recognized, and used among tech and eCommerce communities.
While it may not have the same massive market share as Shopify, Magento is one of the top dogs in terms of platforms used by big brands and leading sites.
As this chart from SmartInsights demonstrates, Magento is actually the second most-used platform among the top million eCommerce stores. Some very big brands—like Ford and Vizio—rely on it.
So, what sets Magento or Adobe Commerce apart? Well, the fact that it’s open-source is a very big deal. It means that there’s a huge community of Magento developers out there, always working on ways to fine-tune and enhance the experience or use the platform in new ways. Thanks to this, Magento is essentially in a state of never-ending optimization.
It’s also hugely customizable and scalable to suit companies as they grow and evolve. Plus, there are plenty of handy extensions and plugins that help you build the exact store you want. With that said Adobe Commerce is notably more complex than Shopify, which can make it a less appealing prospect to beginners.
Shopify vs. Magento - Comparing These Leading eCommerce Platforms
So, there it is. In one corner, Magento, the open-source underdog. In the other, Shopify, the eCommerce goliath.
If we look purely at the numbers, there’s an obvious winner. Despite Magento’s popularity among the top million stores, Shopify has a much larger market share overall. It’s the platform of choice for the majority of small and new stores, beloved by many for its simplicity and seamless design.
But numbers don’t always tell the full story. There are many reasons why people might be drawn to Magento over Shopify, and plenty of explanations why so many big brands favor this platform.
In truth, both Magento and Shopify are clearly great platforms with plenty to offer. But one of them might be a much better fit for your store than the other. Let’s put them to the test and see which one takes the crown between Magento vs Shopify.
Ease-of-Use
The average business owner has a lot on their plate.
They’ve got to think about managing their budget. Finding ways to attract and retain customers. Keeping up with their competitors. Helping their business survive, and finding ways to grow it. The list of responsibilities and objectives goes on and on.
With so much to do and think about, the last thing you might want is a complicated eCommerce platform slowing you down. Therefore, many users seek a system that is easy to work with, helping them save time and cut out any tricky or tedious tasks.
Shopify’s Ease-of-Use
In the simplicity stakes, Shopify reigns supreme. It’s widely regarded as one of, if not the easiest eCommerce platform to use. It boasts a clean and intuitive design that even total beginners should feel comfortable with.
Plus, it comes complete with an array of helpful features like a drag-and-drop page builder and preset themes, letting you create a professional, high-end site in a matter of minutes. It even has a personalized, intuitive setup guide to take new users through all the key features and functions.
Magento’s Relative Complexity
In contrast to Shopify, Magento (Adobe Commerce) is notably more complex. Indeed, a lot of eCommerce experts agree that this platform is hard to recommend to those without a good degree of technical knowledge.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t have easy-to-use aspects and helpful features. But it’s got a much steeper learning curve than Shopify, and it can take longer to get your store up and running.
The Verdict
No contest. Shopify is much easier to work with.
Pricing
Clearly, there’s much money to be made in eCommerce, with the industry rising in value year after year.
However, it also costs quite a lot to set up and run an eCommerce store. There are so many different things to pay for, from hosting to product sourcing, web design, marketing, taxes, and more.
As such, many business owners don’t want to overspend on their eCommerce platform. They want the best bang for their buck, with a fair price to fit their budget and a reasonable return on investment (ROI).
Well, when it comes to Magento vs. Shopify, their pricing systems are a little different.
Shopify’s Transparent Pricing
Price-wise, Shopify is clear and transparent about its charges. It has a series of premium plans that users can choose from, with prices and feature sets to suit businesses at different stages of their development.
Costs start as low as $29 per month, rising to $299 a month for the high-end Advanced plan. There are various optional extra costs you can pay for like premium Shopify themes and add-ons.
You also have to pay transaction fees for credit card payments made to your store on Shopify, which can be up to 2.9% of each transaction.
The Custom Costs of Adobe Commerce
Magento is far less transparent with its pricing. In fact, you have to contact the company directly to get a quote based on your business needs. According to reports, prices can start as high as $1,800 per month, vastly more than the Basic Shopify plan of $29.
You also have to consider potential extra costs with Magento/Adobe Commerce, like hosting, a domain name (provided at no extra cost on Shopify), an SSL certificate (also included by default with Shopify), and so on.
The Verdict
Shopify is significantly cheaper than Magento. It’s much more accessible to those on small budgets, while the high prices of Adobe Commerce may be beyond the reach of most startups.
Templates and Design Features
It only takes a fraction of a second for users to form an opinion about your website. The vast majority of those first impressions are formed based entirely on how the site looks.
Thus, it’s crucial if you want to succeed in eCommerce to create an engaging, attractive eCommerce store. You can’t run the risk of having a store that users find bland, boring, or ugly. Web design is incredibly important in this industry, especially with more and more new stores springing up all the time.
Both Magento and Shopify provide handy templates and design tools you can use to dress up your online storefront and impress visitors. But you might be wondering about which one does it best.
Shopify’s Impressive Template Library
There are 12 free Shopify themes for users to enjoy without having to spend any money whatsoever, as well as dozens more premium themes, with fees ranging between $180 and $360. Each one is customizable, letting you adjust the aesthetics to suit your needs, altering the colors and adding your own custom banners as desired.
The best part for those with limited technical skills is that you don’t need to be a coding pro to make those changes. Shopify makes it super simple to build the site of your dreams and wow your target audience.
Magento’s Customizable Themes
Magento once again can’t quite compete with Shopify in terms of quantity. It only offers nine themes in total. You can buy custom themes, but those can cost in the tens of thousands.
Of course, if you’re running a big, established brand with a large budget to match, such a high price might not be an obstacle. Magento gives you the freedom to develop a theme that fits your brand and audience down to the tiniest detail, adding animations, product sliders, newsletter options, cross-selling blocks, and more. But, again, this all costs more and is more complex than it would be on Shopify.
The Verdict
Overall, Shopify wins this round. It’s got more options at more affordable prices, and it’s straightforward to work with. But, if you value customization options above all else, Magento may be more appealing to you.
Sales Features
Sales figures are going up across the board in the eCommerce industry, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s so simple and convenient for people to log on to their favorite stores, compare prices from multiple brands, and order products in an instant, all from the comfort of home.
To claim your share of those impressive sales statistics, you need to ensure that your chosen eCommerce platform has suitable sales-related features. Here’s Magento vs Shopify stack up in the sales department.
Shopify’s POS Advantages
Where Shopify excels is in its point-of-sale (POS) software, which is all built-in with the platform by default. That means that all users get access to Shopify’s terrific POS features, including advanced inventory management, staff management, and multichannel sales processes.
Through Shopify, you can easily offer your customers a range of purchase options, including features like local delivery, online orders, and in-store pick-ups.
If you sell internationally, Shopify can handle that too. It lets you localize your store to suit the visitor’s region and automatically translate all text into their language of choice. Prices are also converted to suit the user’s currency, and Shopify makes it easy to manage import taxes and other international fees.
Magento’s B2B Sales Extensions
Magento doesn’t quite offer the same levels of in-depth POS functionality as Shopify. So, if you want to offer the kinds of features and functions discussed above, you’ll have to dig into the Adobe Commerce Marketplace and find suitable extensions to allow them.
However, where Magento stands out is in its B2B (business-to-business) sales functionality, which is fully integrated into the Adobe Commerce platform. This allows users to seamlessly manage their company accounts and allows customers to submit orders or request quotes with ease. You can even create curated catalogs to match your clients’ needs.
The Verdict
Magento offers great B2B functionality, while Shopify is more oriented around the B2C (business-to-consumer) sales process. The right choice for you will depend on what kind of online store you wish to run.
Marketing and SEO
Never underestimate the importance of marketing. Even if you’ve got a world-class product catalog and peerless standards of customer service, you can still struggle to build a successful online store without proper marketing.
It’s often the make-or-break factor that determines if a store lives or dies.
Therefore, you need to ensure that your chosen eCommerce platform provides adequate marketing tools and functionality, especially in the SEO department.
This chart from Digital Information World proves just how important it is to rank high on Google these days.
If you can get into that top-ranking spot, the benefits are clear to see. You’ll get way more clicks than the competition, which can easily result in better lead generation, strong conversion rates, and more sales.
Shopify’s Marketing Dashboard
Shopify comes with a built-in marketing dashboard and an impressive selection of marketing tools. It includes a range of KPIs (key performance indicators) that let you track your store’s performance, along with the ability to identify and integrate relevant keywords into your web pages and posts for SEO.
There are also marketing tools to help with automation through Shopify, saving you time when spreading the word about your brand. Plus, it syncs seamlessly with major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even the Google Merchant Center, letting you market your products to a broader audience.
There’s also a built-in email marketing tool with Shopify, called Shopify Email. This lets you create and integrate email marketing campaigns using a range of attractive templates to reach your target audience via their inboxes.
You also get detailed analytics with Shopify, including automatically generated financial reports and the ability to track sales performance for each product. This makes it easier to see how your store is performing and adjust your marketing accordingly.
Magento’s Advanced SEO Capabilities
Magento, or Adobe Commerce, excels when it comes to SEO. It comes complete with a useful array of SEO guides to help you understand the best ways to boost your site up the rankings, along with many features to enhance your SEO score.
You’re able to edit everything from URLs to image alt tags in order to push your way up the Google results, and there are hundreds of handy extensions to make and manage your SEO and marketing campaigns. However, you might need the help of developers and Magento marketing pros to make the most of those extensions.
In terms of reporting and analytics, Magento provides detailed insights and data to match Shopify. The Reports menu lets you see a range of statistics about your marketing campaigns, audience behavior, and sales performance. High-end Business Intelligence subscribers get even more dynamic, data-rich reports.
The Verdict
The fact that Shopify has built-in email marketing and that it supports integrating social media feeds gives it the edge here. However, from an SEO standpoint, Magento offers more. It’s also got deeper analytics.
Apps and Extensions
One of the best aspects of both Shopify and Magento is that they come with vast extension libraries. There’s the Shopify App Store, for example, filled with thousands of add-ons and extras to enhance your store. Then, there’s the Magento Marketplace, bringing its own broad range of extensions you can install to upgrade your eCommerce brand.
But which one does it best?
The Shopify App Store
The Shopify App Market is huge. In fact, according to the brand itself, the Shopify App Store offers more than 6,000 different apps in total. That gives you so many different ways to customize your store and fine-tune the way it works.
You can add apps to help you get more reviews and feedback from your customers, provide AI-powered messaging, or open up new payment methods. The options are numerous and varied, and Shopify boasts remarkable levels of compatibility with lots of popular tools and apps.
The Magento Marketplace
The Magento Marketplace offers a great number of Magento extensions to rival Shopify apps. Indeed, there are around 4,000 Magento extensions and add-ons in total. So, when we compare Magento and Shopify, Shopify wins in quantity, but Magento is no slouch.
With thousands of paid and premium extensions to play around with, there are lots of ways to upgrade and equip your Magento site. Plus, since it’s such a flexible platform, you can even create custom integrations or hire Magento developers to work on unique apps and add-ons to suit your needs.
The Verdict
In terms of the number of integrations offered, Shopify wins this battle. But Magento’s extensive customization potential should not be underestimated.
Customer Support
Sometimes, you might need a helping hand while using Magento or Shopify. You might encounter a feature you don’t quite understand. Or have to deal with a problem that you can’t quite resolve alone.
That’s where customer support comes in, and it’s an area in which both of these platforms aim to excel.
Shopify’s Round-the-Clock Support
Shopify boasts fantastic and genuinely round-the-clock user support, with 24/7 live chat and phone teams standing by, ready to help. Any time, any day of the week, you can get assistance with this platform.
There’s also social media support, combined with community forums and a comprehensive Help Center containing guides and video tutorials.
The Incredible Magento Community
Adobe Commerce has a ticket system you can rely on to get technical support. It also comes with a detailed library of tutorials and troubleshooting guides in the Help Center. Magento Enterprise (Adobe Commerce Enterprise) subscribers also get more advanced support and assistance.
But the real star of the show with Magento is its community. Thanks to the fact that it’s an open-source eCommerce platform, it’s got legions of loyal developers all over the world who can answer questions and provide guidance.
The Verdict
For the most reliable and rapid support, Shopify takes the win.
Strength of Security
Security should be one of the top concerns for any eCommerce store owner.
As this Statista chart shows, there are so many different kinds of cyber-attacks. What’s more, eCommerce businesses are often targets. It can be very profitable for a hacker to plant ransomware on an eCommerce store, demanding that the owner pay up while threatening to leak their customers’ sensitive data.
As such, leading eCommerce platforms have to have strong standards of security.
Shopify’s Strong Security Standards
Shopify takes care of most security issues on store owners’ behalf. It takes steps to ensure PCI compliance, while also automatically providing SSL certificates for every store and offering optional extras, like two-factor authentication.
Adobe Commerce’s Customizable Security Settings
Over on Adobe Commerce, users have a huge level of control over their store’s security settings and standards. You can install SSL certificates, as well as have the option to establish two-factor authentication, firewalls, and detection systems.
There isn’t the same level of security for you as Shopify, but the platform offers more freedom in terms of how you secure your online store.
The Verdict
This one is too close to call. Both platforms uphold strong standards of security. Shopify is best for business owners who prefer a hands-off approach, while Magento is more configurable.
Shopify vs. Magento - Which eCommerce Platform Comes Out On Top?
There you have it. Magento and Shopify compared in multiple key categories. So, what’s the result? Which platform emerges as the grand victor and No. 1 eCommerce option for the average store owner?
Well, if we look at each category one by one, it’s clear that Shopify wins in most of the important areas. It’s cheaper, easier to work with, and has a bigger library of extensions and design tools, too. For most users, it’s going to be the right choice, especially for smaller firms that are just starting.
However, that doesn’t mean you should rule out Magento right away. It still has much to offer, with greater customization options and scalability compared to Shopify, along with better suitability for big, successful brands and those in the B2B sphere.
Choose NEWMEDIA to Help You Build a Successful Online Store
Picking an eCommerce platform is one thing. Making the most of that platform is a whole different ball game. Whether you pick Magento or Shopify (or even some other platform, like BigCommerce or WooCommerce), it’s what you do with it that counts.
Many people unfortunately lack the technical experience and know-how needed to bring out the best in their online stores. Even on a proven and useful platform like Shopify or Magento, they don’t take full advantage of all the features and functions to support their store’s growth and success.
That’s why many eCommerce store owners turn to the experts. Like NEWMEDIA.
One of the world’s leading digital marketing firms, NEWMEDIA has been trusted to build up some of the biggest brands in the world. From startups to Fortune 500 firms, we work with every kind of online company, helping them all realize their full potential.
We can do the same for you. Whether you’re just getting started with Magento or looking for a helping hand with Shopify, our professional and highly experienced designers, developers, and marketers are ready to help out.
So, why wait? Get in touch with our Magento and Shopify experts today and let’s talk about how we can help you build an amazing eCommerce store.
Interested?
Get in touch – we have offices across the United States – to discover how NEWMEDIA can help you build your eCommerce platform using Shopify or Magento!
