WooCommerce vs Magento – both pack a punch when it comes to features, as well as being wildly popular. It’s not easy to pick an overall winner, and weighing up the features of each platform could leave you scratching your head in confusion, while leaving your customers without a way to purchase from your site.

What each platform has to offer

For those of you who want the whole picture, we’ll cover all the information you’ll need to know about both platforms. Then we’ll go over the results together and decide which one deserves the crown.

 

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a familiar name to most WordPress users. This wildly popular e-commerce platform is home to 2,241,106 sites as of Feb 2018. It comes with almost all of the functionality you’ll need to open an online store, and it also has several advanced capabilities through its extension system.

Key features:

  • Supports an unlimited number of products.
  • Comes with a robust extension system, based on the WordPress plugin format.
  • Enables you to pick almost any payment processors you want using extensions.
  • Offers dozens of premium and free themes.

Pros:

  • Setting up a store is free, aside from your web hosting expenses.
  • It’s easy to pick up if you have any experience with WordPress.
  • There is extensive documentation available for its users.
  • Integrates with Google Analytics using an extension.
  • Includes SSL support, but you need to obtain your own certificate.

Cons:

  • If you don’t use WordPress, you need to learn two new platforms.
  • Premium themes and extension costs can add up quickly.

Is it good for beginners?

WooCommerce is a good pick for users with no e-commerce experience – doubly so if they’ve used WordPress before. Even those who haven’t will find WooCommerce’s excellent documentation, and abundance of online tutorials appealing.

Price:

This is a fully open-source platform – anyone can download and set it up on any server they want. That being said, its premium extensions tend to be expensive, and some require annual subscriptions. Aside from that, your web hosting costs will depend entirely on the size of your enterprise and the packages your provider offers. Web Developers are required to make your website look fantastic, add customisations and connect to any 3rd party platforms you maybe using like accounting, crm or analytics platforms to name a few.

Magento

Whereas WooCommerce bills itself as a community solution, Magento is more geared towards companies. However, that doesn’t mean small businesses can’t benefit from its functionality too. Magento offers both a free Community Edition – which is plenty powerful on its own – and an Enterprise Edition for large companies. For this comparison, we’ll focus on the Community Edition’s features.

Key Features:

  • Supports an unlimited number of products, as any respecting self-hosted platform should!
  • Comes with its own theming and layout system.
  • Includes efficient APIs that can connect with any third-party solution.
  • Intuitive admin interfaces and product creation tools.

Pros:

  • It’s built for scalability. Magento should have no problems handling large stores, as long as your host can manage them.
  • Shoppers can check out faster thanks to a streamlined process. Plus, guest checkout is turned on by default.
  • Integrates with PayPal, Authorize.Net, and Braintree right out of the box.

Cons:

  • Magento feels more geared towards developers than regular users, what with its steep learning curve.
  • Its Enterprise Edition can be quite costly, but that’s to be expected due to their target market.

Is it good for beginners?

Out of the box, Magento doesn’t feel as beginner-friendly when we look through the lens of WooCommerce vs Magento. However, users can overcome that by referring to the extensive documentation – and the platform does offer additional advantages for those who stick it out. It’s perfect for ambitious users who want to scale their shops quickly, and who also have the necessary time for mastering the platform.

Price:

Magento’s Community Edition is open-source and free for anyone to use, so your only cost will be based on your current hosting provider. On the other hand, users who are interested in the Enterprise Edition will have to shell out a pretty penny.

What about performance?

Loading times are a big deal for any website, but doubly so for e-commerce. If your website takes too long to load or feels sluggish, some people will leave, taking their money – and ultimately your income – with them.

When it comes to performance, it’s complicated to figure out which solution is the overall winner. Each online store – regardless of platform – will behave differently due to its functionality and size. Furthermore, there are several more factors at play here, such as your choice of web hosting provider, whether you’re using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), or even whether your images are optimized.

To put it simply, the performance of your online store will depend mostly on you, and your hosting provider. This round is a tie.

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WooCommerce vs Magento: Which Is the Best E-Commerce Platform?