WooCommerce, Shopify, or Magento? Which Will Work Best for You?

In Numbers

When it comes to sheer numbers, data released by BuiltWith indicates that Magento, WooCommerce, and Shopify account for 46% of eCommerce websites, based on 259,030 detections in the top one million websites.

• Shopify – 23%
• WooCommerce Checkout – 15%
• Magento – 8%

In terms of total number of live websites, Shopify leads the pack with over 4,600,000 live websites. WooCommerce accounts for more than 3,300,000 live websites, whereas Magento has close to 130,000 live websites.

The Background

All three platforms bring years of experience to the table. Magento saw the light of day in 2008, Shopify made its debut the following year, and WooCommerce has been around since 2011.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce functions as an open-source WordPress plugin. What this means is you use WordPress as your website and blogging platform, while also using the WooCommerce plugin to have eCommerce capabilities. If you are comfortable using WordPress, figuring out how this plugin works tends to take little time.

Shopify

Shopify comes in the form of a Software as a Service (SaaS). It doubles up as a hosting platform and a shopping cart solution. Shopify provides a range of solutions for website owners, ranging from hosting alternatives to SSL certificates. It rates highly on the ease of use front. For instance, even novices typically find it easy to navigate through the admin panel.

Magento

Written in PHP, Magento makes use of different frameworks such as Symfony and Lamina. As a result, people who don’t have some knowledge about coding might experience problems with user-friendliness. On the other hand, people with some technical know-how may benefit significantly through its plethora of features. This platform works well for small and big businesses alike, and offers great scope for scaling up.

Main Features and Advantages

While Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento give you the ability to enter the eCommerce space, they don’t function in the same manner. Here are the top features that need your attention.

WooCommerce

• Integrated blog
• Over 13,000 themes
• Around 850 official WooCommerce plugins and many more
• Great content management system (CMS) capabilities
• Extensive customization capabilities
• Automatic configuration of tax
• No transaction fees
• Options for free and flat rate shipping
• Multiple payment gateways
• Control over checkout process
• Complete control over code base for customization
• Large open source community contributes to its progress

Shopify

• Is an eCommerce-first platform
• A variety of easy to install add-ons/apps
• Setting up themes is simple
• Ease-of-use makes it ideal for beginners
• Catalog management is simple
• Recovery of abandoned carts
• Real-time shipping calculation
• Multiple payment gateways
• Ability to track user behavior
• Use advanced channels of selling such as Amazon, Facebook, and Pinterest
• Inbuilt search engine optimization (SEO) features and analytics
• Includes hosting and SSL

Magento

• Good inventory management/cataloguing
• Offers great flexibility and scalability
• Supports B2B eCommerce
• Responsive layouts for mobile devices
• Email marketing reminders
• Ability to handle large numbers of SKUs
• Multilingual support
• Supports payments in multiple currencies
• Choice of hosting service
• Inbuilt SEO features and analytics
• Allows handling of multiple websites through a single installation

The Drawbacks

Paying attention to the features on offer is important, but you also need to take into account potential drawbacks of Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce.

WooCommerce

• Does not serve as an eCommerce-first platform
• Absence of adequate customer support
• Need to pay for hosting
• Requires ongoing software and plugin updates
• Setting up from scratch can be complicated
• Staying secure requires considerable maintenance
• Might need to rely on a web development agency for maintenance and improvement
• Plugin conflicts can be problematic

Shopify

• Limited number of free themes from which to choose
• Need to pay a per transaction fee if you don’t use Shopify Payments
• Scaling up your Shopify version might come with significant fees
• Catalog scalability can be a challenge for large catalogs
• Does not offer complete flexibility
• Cannot do much beyond its core set of features and app market
• Websites with a lot of content may suffer due to poor CMS capabilities

Magento

• Need to get themes and apps from third-party developers
• Without knowledge about coding, need to work with a web developer
• Need to spend on hosting, unless you opt for the cloud version
• Typically high cost of ownership
• Implementation of themes can be problematic
• Comes with a high learning curve
• Requires regular software updates

Strongest Industries

Different industries tend to favor using one platform over the other because of the features on offer. The corresponding information gives you an indication of which platform might work well for your business based on the industry to which it belongs.

WooCommerce

• Consumer goods
• Cosmetics
• Fashion
• Jewelry and accessories
• Luxury goods
• Retail

Shopify

• Auto parts
• B2B
• Beauty
• Distribution
• Fashion
• Food and beverage
• Health
• International retail
• Manufacturing

Magento

• Content heavy websites
• Biotech
• Healthcare
• Publishing
• Life sciences
• Lifestyle brands
• Services

WooCommerce has found favor with leading names such as The Wall Street Journal, Spectator Shop, Men’s Health, Singer, Cosmos, and Blue Star Coffee.

Popular brands that have used Shopify to good effect include Budweiser, Heinz, The Economist, Penguin, and Tesla.

Some of the top brands that use Magento include Nike, Coca-Cola, Christian Louboutin, Ford, Paul Smith, Canon, and Olympus.

Pricing

What is the difference between Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento when it comes to pricing? Well, the cost can vary significantly depending on the platform and features you wish to use.

WooCommerce

The WooCommerce plugin is free to install. However, that’s just the start. Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, you need a WordPress website.

If you wish to use WordPress for its eCommerce capabilities, you get to choose from different pricing plans that vary in cost from $9 per month for the Starter Plan to $70 per month for the Entrepreneur Plan. Big businesses may consider signing up for the Enterprise Plan which starts at $25,000 per year. It is possible to upgrade to any WordPress paid plan to include eCommerce capabilities.

Next, you need to account for hosting costs. Depending on aspects such as existing requirements, ease of scalability, security, server uptime, and customer support, this may vary from as little as $5 per month to even $5,000 per month.

Registering your domain usually comes at a nominal cost, unless you wish to buy one from a private seller.

Optional costs come in the form of themes and plugins. Choosing to go with a paid theme can set you back by $20 to $100 per year.

WooCommerce provides a basic shipping extension for free. However, more advanced shipping plugins come at added costs. Examples include Table Rate Shipping, Distance Rate Shipping, and ShipStation Integration.

When it comes to fees for payments:

• There is no setup or monthly fee for using WooCommerce Payments.
• Each U.S.-based debit and credit card payment attracts 2.9% + $0.30 as fees; and international payments include an added fee of 1.50%.
• Affirm and Afterpay payments attract 6% + $0.30 as fees.

Other costs you might incur can relate to your website’s security, SEO, SSL certificate, and communication.

Shopify

When it comes to looking at the WooCommerce vs. Shopify pricing comparison, you will notice that the latter aims to keep its pricing model simple by providing all-in-one solutions. The corresponding information illustrates what different Shopify pricing plans have to offer.

Basic

• Monthly fee: $39
• Online card payments: 2.9% + $0.30
• In-person card payments: 2.6% + $0.10
• Shopify POS Pro: $89 per month
• Language translation: Yes
• Currency conversion: Yes
• Staff accounts: 2
• Inventory locations: 10
• Shipping insurance: No
• Custom reports: No
• Third-party calculated shipping rates: No

Shopify

• Monthly fee: $105
• Online card payments: 2.7% + $0.30
• In-person card payments: 2.5% + $0.10
• Shopify POS Pro: $89 per month
• Language translation: Yes
• Currency conversion: Yes
• Staff accounts: 5
• Inventory locations: 10
• Shipping insurance: Yes
• Custom reports: No
• Third-party calculated shipping rates: No

Advanced Shopify

• Monthly fee: $399
• Online card payments: 2.5% + $0.30
• In-person card payments: 2.4% + $0.10
• Shopify POS Pro: $89 per month
• Language translation: Yes
• Currency conversion: Yes
• Staff accounts: 15
• Inventory locations: 10
• Shipping insurance: Yes
• Custom reports: Yes
• Third-party calculated shipping rates: Yes

Magento

How much you might end up spending depends on which Magento package you select.

• Magento Community – from $15,000 per year
• Magento Commerce – from $22,000 per year
• Magento Commerce Cloud – from $40,000 per year

While you may install Magento Community for free, you need to pay extra for your website’s hosting, domain, security, as well as any web development needs you might have. Magento’s pricing model for its Commerce and Commerce Cloud solutions depends on annual gross merchandise value (GMV) as well as average order value (AOV).

The corresponding information indicates how much you might end up paying for Commerce and Commerce Cloud solutions per year, based on your annual revenue from sales.

Magento Commerce

• Less than $1,000,000: $22,000
• $1,000,000 to $5,000,000: $32,000
• $5,000,000 to $10,000,000: $49,000
• $10,000,000 to $25,000,000: $75,000
• More than $25,000,000: $125,000

Magento Commerce Cloud

• Less than $1,000,000: $40,000
• $1,000,000 to $5,000,000: $55,000
• $5,000,000 to $10,000,000: $80,000
• $10,000,000 to $25,000,000: $120,000
• More than $25,000,000: $190,000

Security

Website security is an aspect that requires every website owner’s attention, and it becomes doubly important in case of eCommerce websites. This is because you are responsible for handling sensitive personal and financial information of your customers. Incidentally, the Shopify vs. WooCommerce vs. Magento comparison requires your particular attention when it comes to security because their features vary significantly.

WooCommerce

Given that WooCommerce is a plugin and not a platform in itself, security might be a cause for concern. Since WooCommerce does not function as an end-to-end eCommerce solution, you are required to handle some aspects surrounding security on your own. Alternatively, you will need to use the services of third-party vendors.

Typical security threats that WooCommerce users experience surround the use of plugins and themes as well as web hosting. While WooCommerce provides different resources for its users so they may keep their sites protected, manual intervention from your side is required along the way.

Shopify

By aiming to serve as a one-stop-shop for businesses wanting to go the eCommerce way, Shopify ups the game in this aspect by handling and eliminating security threats for its customers. Shopify provides a secure shopping environment by implementing different tools and technologies. These include:

• Creating an SSL certificate when any customer sets up a new shop.
• Using the latest TLS protocol.
• Automatically certifies all its stores for Level 1 PCI DSS compliance (which translates to using data encryption, protecting payment transfers, preventing virus attacks on servers, and constant monitoring of all systems).
• Fraud analysis.

Magento

Magento continues to work on updating its already robust security system. It provides a best practices guide to its customers so they know what’s required from their end. The Magento Security Scan tool helps monitor websites for security threats, detects unauthorized access, and provides updates for malware patches.

Conclusion

While web design and development play a key role in the success of your eCommerce venture, know that selecting the right platform is equally important. You need to consider the size of your business and its expected growth before making a decision, and you need to account for any specific requirements that you have as well. Besides, aspects such as ease of use, security, and pricing also need your consideration.

If you are still confused between Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce, consider getting advice from a reliable eCommerce web development agency. This way, you won’t leave anything to chance.