The most crucial point that entrepreneurs and companies need to understand is that Shopify and Magento have nothing in common. Both offer different capabilities, functionalities, extensions, payment options for the e-shop, and the overall structure. Let’s take a look at several crucial differences. 

Shopify or Magento?

Around 26 percent of the e-commerce websites around the world run on Magento’s framework. One out of four business houses, including big names like Samsung, Olympus, and Nike, prefer opting for this enterprise-class open-source framework. 

The catalog management features combined with SEO and marketing tools along with intuitive administration interface are appreciated by developers as well as non-tech-savvy users. Every retailer can create a unique looking website with this framework by taking advantage of functionality widgets and great content.

Shopify, on the other hand, happens to be a hosted platform that has increasingly gained popularity amongst users who do not wish to get much into technical aspects. Users can select one from hundreds of themes, and create their dynamic online store with the help of widgets within minutes. The platform has giants like RedBull, Penguin Books, and The Economist as its clients. 

The Price Factor 

Pricing is one of the most considered factors, especially for small firms that have a limited budget. 

Magento has a free version as well as premium (enterprise) option. The self-hosted framework has also earned a reputation as the most popular e-commerce platform around the globe. 

Shopify charges a monthly subscription to users for using the commonly hosted infrastructure. It gets plus points from users for the simple dashboard that makes selecting theme and customization easy. Setting up a store and going online quickly was never so easy before the arrival of Shopify. 

Shopify works on a basic rule; you pay more if you wish to access the best features. The minimum monthly plans start from $29, and the best one costs $299 plus. Besides the plan costs, there are additional fees applicable, including transaction fees for payment gateways, etc. 

On the other hand, Magento’s monthly cost would depend on the hosting partner, and fees charged by the eCommerce web development company. There is no such fixed price for using the open-source platform. Everything has to be custom-designed to suit your business needs. 

The list of essential costs associated with Magento (2) includes the charges for a domain, hosting, website designing and development, fees for extension and widgets, as well as additional customization and maintenance cost.

Magento can prove to be a superb choice for companies that prefer to pay a premium to offer a great experience to the customer.

Support For Users 

As individuals without much knowledge about coding use Shopify, the platform offers dedicated customer service to help resolve user concerns. Magento users with a little bit of coding knowledge can get support from its community-driven by Magento certified individuals. Firms that have opted for services from custom eCommerce development company (Magento partners) for store creation get 24by7 support from service providers. 

Tools For Marketing And Search Engine Optimization 

Both the platforms can be fine-tuned with professional help to apply profound SEO principles.

Store level content can be adjusted for gaining better SERP positions. 

Server-level configurations are not possible with Shopify as it happens to be self-hosted. However, product pages on Shopify can be optimized; Meta tags can be edited, and image files can be modified to ensure search crawlers find their relevance. 

As far as SEO is concerned, the grass seems to be greener on Magento’s side. The platform allows developers to get maximum output from SEO strategy by tweaking, customizing store design. Digital marketing and SEO strategies can be integrated and implemented efficiently. 

Magento’s out-of-the-box tools are unavailable with Shopify.

Magento’s open-source, non-hosted nature also supports extension and API integration. Search engines find it easier to understand the structure of Magento websites due to canonical tags, redirects, no-follow links, and Meta content as well as permalinks that can be fine-tuned. 

Add-ons And Inventory Management 

Magento has more add-ons to offer compared to Shopify, which lacks vetted extensions as well. But the latter compensates the same by providing a more straightforward installation process and impressive functionality without the headache of writing code.

Offering discounts to registered customers and running promotional flash sales remains to be an easy task with Shopify. But, its straightforward and simple interface does not have much to offer for inventory management. It can be a good-to-go option for small startups or firms, but surely not appreciable for large online stores. 

Magento on the brighter side offers basic inventory upload, plus, ability to integrate with a third-party distribution network.  The platform’s advanced features also support various product colors and sizes. 

Payment Processing 

Developers can use add-ons and modules for setting up different payment gateways on Magento platforms. It helps in improving consumer confidence and extending the store’s capability. 

Shopify also supports most of the payment gateways and integration with custom-solutions. However, it comes with the additional burden of specific transaction fees applicable to orders that customers place on the online store. The fee amount varies according to the Shopify monthly plan that the business selects. 

Remember, this fee is in addition to the payment processing fees that payment gateway providers charge. So, Magento proves better here. 

Themes 

Both offer an impressive collection of free and paid themes that can be customized. Here, Shopify scores better due to easy installation and customization.  No doubt, Magento’s themes are flexible and impressive; however, their personalization can be complicated for firms that do not have in-house designers. 

But again, Shopify users remain restricted at a certain point when it comes to customization levels and the way the site looks. 

Magento offers mobile app extensions, and Shopify supports plugins.

Overall Performance 

Even a delay of two to three seconds can result in a loss of business for online store. Buyers, notably registered ones, appreciate online stores that quickly pass them through various buying stages journey. From the in-built product search option to loading time for the shopping cart and payment processing, everything needs to finish within seconds. The buyers are less likely to return for second purchase in case if he or she finds placing the first order as something inconvenient. 

With Shopify, sellers do not need to worry about performance or loading speed as it is a hosted solution. 

For Magento open-source platform users, the speed and performance depend on the hosting service provider. Site owners are free to choose hosting and server capabilities. Also, Magento offers users to either opt for their hosting service through a vendor or select Magento commerce, which comes with web support, hosting, and other e-commerce functionalities. 

If you need a vendor with ample experience in offering eCommerce development solutions, you should discuss your requirements with engineers at Smart Sight Innovations.