In this comparison report between WooCommerce Vs. Magento, we are going to share with you which one will be the best for your eCommerce business.

The Ecommerce industry is growing and so is the demand for high-end eCommerce development platforms. When we talk about e-commerce platforms, the best options that come to mind are Woocommerce, Magento, Shopify, etc.

Now, WooCommerce and Magento are definitely two of the biggest and best e-commerce platforms in the market, and choosing the best out of these two is not just tough but nearly impossible. So, what you can and should do instead is try and find a platform that best fits your particular business needs. And that’s exactly what we are going to help you with.

Today, in this article, we discuss WooCommerce and Magento in detail, along with their various strengths and weaknesses in order to decide which platform is the best for e-commerce development in which case.

WooCommerce Vs. Magento

WooCommerce is an open-source web development framework that is primarily used for building eCommerce websites on WordPress. It is available in plugin form and works only with WordPress sites.

As of January 2020, “over 3.8 million websites around the world use WooCommerce Development,” and the framework has a 29.16% market share.

Magento is another very popular platform for e-Commerce Website Development. The platform is now used by more than 250,000 websites and has a market share of almost 6%.

When it comes to comparing these two eCommerce development frameworks, it’s better to start with the basics.

1: Basics Comparison

Of course, the best way to find out the best of the two is to start with the basics. Let’s find out which of the two beats the other in terms of pricing, hosting, and ease of use.

Pricing

Being open-source, both Magento and WooCommerce platforms are available to use for free. There is also a subscription version of Magento, called Magento’s Enterprise edition, which is suitable for big businesses with huge needs. WooCommerce has no paid option, it’s for everyone.

Even though Magento is free to use, the development may cost you higher. That’s because Magento development is more complex than Web Development in WooCommerce, which is why Magento developers charge a higher fee. Similarly, if you plan to use paid extensions/plugins of WooCommerce, you may need to pay for it.

Hosting

Both Magento and WooCommerce can be installed on almost all the popular servers (hosting). However, installing Magento may need some technical knowledge.

Ease of Use

One of the best things about WooCommerce and probably why it is so much popular is the ease of use. It’s super easy to install and use WooCommerce for anyone who has a basic understanding of how web hosting works.

Even customizing a WooCommerce theme or website is super smooth. Magento is not so easy to install and use, especially for newbies. But thankfully, it comes with a thorough help section and support community to help.

2: Plugins, Extensions, and Themes

Plugins and Extensions

Plugins are applications that can be used to extend the functionalities/abilities of another application. In this case, plugins are used by WordPress to provide their users with access to hundreds of new features and options. Magento also has a library of world-class extensions, but not as many as WooCommerce/WordPress.

Themes

Both Magento and WooCommerce have an abundance of free and paid themes, which you can choose and use on your website. In terms of features and functionality, Magento themes are a step ahead of WooCommerce. Even though the theme options are more in WordPress, features are better in Magento themes.

Customizing a WooCommerce theme is easy and there is almost nothing you can’t change if you have a little knowledge of coding. Magento is almost equally easy to customize, however, you might need to have good coding experience to change the advanced features or functionalities.

3: Scope

Scope in terms of product volume and variations allowed on the platform is another factor to consider when choosing between WooCommerce and Magento.

Both WooCommerce and Magento allow you to add unlimited products on their respective websites. However, it’s a general belief that WooCommerce should be used for small websites because of its limited functionality. Magento, however, has the scope for unlimited functionality and can be upgraded to even more resources as and when required.

Similarly, both WooCommerce and Magento support unlimited variants of a product. However, WooCommerce does not support multi-site installation, which Magento does.

4: Other eCommerce Features & Complexity

Each of the two eCommerce platforms has its own distinct features and unique ways to manage stores. Let’s discuss the same.

User-friendly and Ease of Use

Between the two, WooCommerce is more user-friendly and is comparatively easy to use, especially for beginners. Its CMS works on the drag-and-drop structure.

Open Source

Both WooCommerce and Magento are open-source and free for all.

Related Products

One of the features that you’ll see in many online stores is ‘related products’, where a product that the user is browning is accompanied by other similar or better products.

Both WooCommerce and Magento have this feature but works in a slightly different manner. Built-in options with WooCommerce are simpler but limited, and you may need to install widgets for advanced features. WooCommerce has more and better options.

Integration

Since WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, it’s naturally integrated and allows users to use all the features, including plugins and easy CMS, of WooCommerce. Magento, on the other hand, is not so sophisticated when it comes to CMS and requires separate extensions for even basic things like a blog.

Navigation

Both WooCommerce and Magento have great navigation and simplified Menu styles with support to filters.

Analytics

An analytics tool helps you track the performance of your eCommerce store. WooCommerce comes with its own built-in analytics, where you can track sales data, revenue, order details, customer details, etc. Magento doesn’t have this feature built-in, but it provides support for Google Analytics.

Performance

Overall, WooCommerce is good for small to midsize websites with limited functionality. Magento is ideal for big websites with the need for advanced features.

Security

Both WooCommerce and Magento are highly secure and backed by their respective communities of expert developers, who maintain the platform integrity and prevent attacks.

5. Search Engine Optimization

When your business is online, it’s important to consider that your website is optimized for search engines and user experience. This is where SEO comes in.

SEO

Thanks to the abundance of options (plugins) in WordPress, optimizing your WooCommerce website is very easy. You can use an SEO plugin to optimize almost everything, from meta to content, images, and user experience. Magento also has a vast number of built-in SEO options that you can use to SEO the look and search engine performance of your store. Read this guide to know more about Magento SEO service cost.

Support

In terms of support, Magento is slightly better than WooCommerce. Since WooCommerce is completely free, the official support is only provided in certain cases and for paid products/extensions.

However, you can always go seek help from the WooCommerce community of experts on forums and websites like Quora. Also, you can go to WordPress developers like SAG IPL for all WooCommerce related services, including consulting, development, and technical support.

Magento provides good support to its paid customers. Its global team can provide assistance with everything from installation and downloads, customization, coding, bugs, and more.

6: Marketing Tools & Features

Landing page

A landing page is a webpage made specifically for a marketing/advertising campaign. It can be a product page, shop page, or any other page on your eCommerce website. Depending on the e-commerce platform you’re using, the landing page can be integrated with multiple options, such as payment gateways, related products, reporting, and third-party APIs.

Both Magento and WooCommerce have dedicated extensions/plugins for building customized, sophisticated landing pages, which include affiliate tracking, payments, shipping options, etc. The exact features, however, may differ from platform to platform.

Newsletter

Newsletters are an email marketing product, which involves sending promotional emails to the brand subscribers using a dedicated tool. Both of the popular e-commerce platforms have dedicated extensions for the purpose.

For instance, WooCommerce has free plugins like MailChimp that can be used for setting up a complete email marketing campaign for an eCommerce website. Magento also has dedicated plugins for newsletter and email marketing.

Read this guide: WooCommerce vs Shopify, Which Is Better For E-Commerce Web Development.

Summary of WooCommerce Vs. Magento (Pros & Cons)

WooCommerce

Pros:

• Free to download and use
• Optimized for SEO, including build-in blogging and SEO plugins
• Scope to add unlimited products & categories
• Hundreds of clean & simple themes with unlimited possibilities for customization
• Thousands of free & paid plugins
• Built-in reporting for performance tracking
• Built-in payment options, including support to global payment gateways like PayPal
• Default responsive theme or Website design

Cons:

• Limited capabilities and support for large e-commerce sites
• Paid extensions can be costly

Magento

Pros:

• Hundreds of themes with easy & flexible customization
• Scope to add unlimited products, variants & categories
• Support for multiple payment methods and currencies
• Advanced filtering options for product search
• Multi-store features to add multiple websites with single Admin control
• Strong support with 24×7 availability
• Huge community support
• Ideal for large eCommerce stores and websites with advanced functionality requirements

Cons

• Can be somewhat technical to learn & use, especially for beginners
• Complex to code and customize
• Some extensive can be over-expensive
• May need dedicated resources, including server, for large websites

Choose the Best E-commerce Platform for Your Needs

In the end, it all boils down to your particular needs from an eCommerce platform. For instance, if you are looking to create a simple, entry-level online store, it’s recommended to go with a less complicated platform like WooCommerce that will cost you less. On the other hand, if you want a large online store with hundreds of products and categories, Magento is probably a better option for you.

Other things to consider when choosing an e-commerce platform for your business include the ease of working/using, design options, customization options, catalog, support, payment methods & currencies, shipping options, marketing & SEO, and more.

For example, some e-commerce platforms might be already accepting or soon start to accept digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies, which will be a really convenient thing for online stores that sell products globally.

Cost is another important thing to consider when creating an e-commerce website. If you are on a fixed budget and have limited needs, a free platform like WooCommerce might just be right for you.

Magento also has a free version, but for advanced features, you may need to buy the paid Enterprise version of Magento. WooCommerce plugins & themes are affordable compared to Magento.

Also, if you plan to do it yourself and have little knowledge about websites, you can still work well with WordPress, which is the easiest to use web development frameworks. It’s easy to build and customize a website in WordPress. Magento, however, requires technical knowledge and experience for sophisticated web development.

Who is WooCommerce ideal for?+

WooCommerce is preferred by small & medium businesses or startups with a limited development budget. It offers all the advanced features for free, which means the cost of setting up and maintaining a WooCommerce website is comparatively lower.

Those who already understand or have worked with WordPress will find it easier to build an eCommerce store on WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is also recommended for those businesses that plan to sell less than or equal to 1000 products via their online store. This is because the platform has limited capabilities, which might not fit well with the huge performance needs of large, enterprise businesses.

Also, WooCommerce is ideal for beginners and budding developers, as it’s super-easy to use and requires little to no coding knowledge. So, if you are creating your first e-commerce website or have no coding experience, go with WooCommerce. Since it doesn’t have the multi-store feature, opt for it only if you are planning to create one e-commerce store under one Admin.

Who should choose Magento?

Magento is an equally good platform for developing eCommerce websites. Due to its sophisticated nature and the range of advanced features/extensions, it’s usually preferred for building high-end websites. Magento is ideal for large businesses with a big development budget.

Also, websites that need more functionality and advanced features like more security, a wide variety of extensions, etc. should go with Magento. Unlike WooCommerce, Magento premium features cost more but can offer good value for big websites.

One of the easiest ways to choose between WooCommerce and Magento is this. If you plan to add more than 1000 products to your online store, choose Magento, otherwise, choose WooCommerce.

Also, developing a Magento website from scratch or customizing one according to your requirements will need good technical knowledge, so it’s preferred by those with a programming background or by companies with a budget to hire professional Magento developers.

Since Magento supports the multi-site feature, it is also preferred over WooCommerce when someone needs to build multiple websites on one backend. For example, if you want to create separate online stores for different products that you sell, you can use Magento to create multiple websites with a common Admin panel.

We have here discussed in detail both the advantages and limitations of WooCommerce vs. Magento. Coming to the conclusion, it would be right to say that both the e-commerce platforms are amazing in their own way. While WooCommerce is simple and very easy to use, Magento is more sophisticated, even though slightly more complex to work with.

Individuals, budding entrepreneurs, startups, and SMEs looking to create their first online store will most likely get more value with WooCommerce, as it costs less and offers everything you’ll ever need to build and run a feature-rich e-commerce website. Also, it allows unlimited customization with the help of available extensions and plugins, some of which are paid.

Large businesses looking to build more sophisticated, advanced online stores are, however, recommended to go with Magento that even though costs more but offers good value for money in terms of high-end features and functionality. The benefits, in the end, can justify the high cost of Magento development and maintenance.

SMEs with a big budget can still go with Magento, where they will find better value through many advanced, built-in features. Large businesses looking for a user-friendly and easy-to-use platform can opt for WooCommerce for their website development project.

To sum up, do your research, compare the features of both the platforms and analyze your specific requirements in order to choose the right e-commerce web development platform.

Looking to hire a WooCommerce/Magento, WordPress developer, or need help to customize your e-commerce website? Contact SAG IPL for all your web development needs.

We are a leading, global IT company with a dedicated team of experienced web developers & designers. We provide Magento development, WooCommerce development, WooCommerce Migration, Magento Migration, Customization, and other related services to companies worldwide.

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