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Keywords: Magento, Shopify, Comparison

With global online sales expected to hit $6.4 billion by 2024, it’s no wonder that over 830,000 businesses were registered in the UK last year. Internet sales as a percentage of all retail sales jumped from 19% in February 2020 to 35% in February 2021 and are expected to continue rising steadily.

Business owners are seeing what a powerful opportunity ecommerce is for their businesses as an additional revenue stream. But what’s the best ecommerce platform for businesses?

We’re going to be putting Magento and Shopify to the test. Pitting these two ecommerce giants against one another, we’re going to look at their pros and cons, features, costs and whether they are the perfect platform for your online business.

Shopify is a Canadian ecommerce business founded in 2006 and supports more than one million businesses worldwide. Whilst Shopify is a well known brand within the ecommerce space, every business has both its advantages and drawbacks. So let’s take a quick look at Shopify’s pros and cons.

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Easy to use

Lots of fully responsive themes to choose from

Good ecommerce builder

Multichannel selling

App store

Variety of payment and checkout options

Good option for dropshipping

Built in blog

Installation of apps are needed to fulfill some key functionalities

Basic email marketing functionality

Only 10 free themes

Transaction fees per sale

Restricted app store with some complex functionalities and integrations are unavailable

Magento was founded in 2008 and is an open source ecommerce software which was acquired by Adobe in May 2018 for $1.68bn. Magento is the market leader for open source software and used by thousands of companies each year.

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Magento pros

Large user community

Highly customisable

Lots of flexibility

More suited to larger enterprise businesses

Has a free to use version (Magento Open Source)

Magento cons

Not the best for those new to ecommerce

Hard to find a hosting provider

Significant costs, both initial investment and on-going

Lack of support

Requires advanced coding knowledge

While both have their benefits and drawbacks, whether one or the other is the right fit for your business will highly depend on what features, integrations and services your business needs as well as your budget and the stage of life your business is in.

Now you’ve seen the good and the bad of both, let’s take a deeper look into each of their features, themes, apps & extensions and of course, the costs.

Both Magento and Shopify cover all the basics when it comes to selling online - which you’d expect from two of the largest ecommerce providers. Shopify, however, is without a doubt much easier to use, maintain and has less of a learning curve for those new to ecommerce.

Whereas Magento isn't as easy to pick up. It requires technical coding knowledge for their paid edition (Magento Commerce) and continual maintenance is needed to ensure your site is running as it should be.

Both have great inventory management systems with unlimited capacity for products - but it’s usually Shopify that is favoured due to it’s easy integrations with dropshipping inventory apps.

While they both allow for unlimited products, with Magento if you have too many products your server performance and page loading speed may be affected. Which is something you don’t need to worry about with Shopify as it’s a fully hosted and managed platform.

Other features such as shipping methods, coupons and discount codes, access to popular payment gateway options and blogs are all included for both Magento and Shopify. You may need to upgrade to one of Shopify’s higher plans for coupons and discounts as they aren’t available on its Lite plan.

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Themes are perhaps one of the most important parts of your ecommerce site. They essentially act as your digital shop window. So they need to not only represent your brand, but showcase your products perfectly.

Both Shopify and Magento have hundreds of themes to choose from - most are paid themes though. Shopify only has a small number of free themes compared to Magento. Whilst the free themes are great if you have a restricted budget, a premium theme may suit your business better. But with Shopify’s premium themes starting at around $80, that’s where Magento shines with their premium themes starting from just $1.

Both have a great menu of choice when it comes to themes, some industry specific whilst others have an image heavy focus - lots of choice for finding what works for your business.

When it comes to apps, this is where Shopify falls flat. While they have a huge library of apps, and some of them free to install - some essential apps for your business are paid. Which means that some essential functionalities for your ecommerce shop may be behind yet another cost on top of the cost of the platform plan.

Magento whilst having both free and paid apps as well, it hosts over 5000+ apps, largely driven by its community. This is where Magento shines. Some other providers on the market include these integrations as part of their plan price. But you should take what apps you need and their associated costs into consideration during your decision making process.

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Support is also another large consideration for business owners looking for an ecommerce platform. This is usually where the decision is slightly made for you.

If you’re new to ecommerce and looking for a high level of both platform and general support, Shopify knocks it out of the park. Whatever type of support you’re looking for, Shopify are very easy to get in touch with and have a whole host of communication methods, including;

24/7 phone support

24/7 live chat support

Social media support

Community forum

Email support

Help center

Video tutorials

Advanced specialist support

And whilst Magento does have lots of guides to take you through the process of creating your ecommerce site, it lacks actual Magento team support. Which means no phone, email, live chat or any other form of support.

Most businesses who need support creating a Magento site, hire a developer or web agency to do so and then maintain the site on a full time basis. So the level of support you need is something to really take into consideration.

The cost comparison for Magento vs Shopify might also be a large deciding factor for you. Shopify’s plans start from just $29 per month and range up to $200 per month. Their enterprise plan Shopify Plus is a bespoke plan with custom pricing.

Magento on the other hand, targets larger enterprise businesses and because of it’s customisation and flexibility, a Magento website can set you back anywhere between $20,000 all the way up to $100,000 depending on your businesses needs.

Ultimately, the best platform for your ecommerce business is whichever meets your needs and budget better. If you’re new to ecommerce, Shopify may be the perfect place to start out but if you’re a more established enterprise, Magento may offer you better growth opportunities in the long term.