Choosing Between Shopify vs Magento for Your E-commerce Business 

BEHOLD online business owners – the eCommerce industry is full of opportunities. Today’s talented entrepreneurs can select from a huge range of eCommerce platforms to set up their online business, and this is to fulfil orders and sell products. Here, Shopify and Magento (Adobe Commerce) are considered to be among the most famous platform options. This is exactly why they attract the attention of today’s best ecommerce developers from all across the globe. 

Both of these big names offer support to a great many merchants from different parts of the world. They let retailers streamline their business operations, present seamless brand interactions, and customise their eCommerce store in great detail. Regardless, it could be that one is better suited than the other for a particular business entity. This goes on to raise the Shopify vs Magento debate, especially among those that offer the custom web development service. 

If you are also looking for a winner in the Shopify vs Magento debate, then read this entry till the end. It will assist you in deciding which is the best platform for you.

An Oversight into Shopify vs Magento 

Let’s look at Shopify first. This is an eCommerce platform that allows today’s merchants to build an online business with its simple interface and user-friendly website builder. It hosts wide-ranging eCommerce and sales functionalities alongside support for third-party digital tools. Additionally, today’s business owners can make immense use of the expertise of Shopify store setup experts.  

Magento (or Adobe Commerce) is a durable solution that offers much more than just the basics. Its offering of a consistent user experience is just one of its many positives. Businesses of all sorts can use it to deploy a host of multilingual websites and create multichannel experiences. By the time of this writing, Magento has around 3,600 native integrations for shipping and fulfilment, marketing, customer support, and site optimisation. This is why the services of a Magento store developer are in great demand nowadays. 

An Interesting Take 

It is understood by various Shopify plus agencies that since Shopify offers limited customisation and user-friendly capabilities, it is best for small and medium-sized businesses. Usually, these businesses seek an uncomplicated eCommerce solution. 

When looking at Magento, it is more appropriate for organisations that seek to include detailed functionalities in their website and aim to build special branded experiences. 

Measuring Up Magento and Shopify 

Pricing and Plans Analysis 

Sure, both platforms are excellent in their own nature and can potentially serve your business in more than one way. However, when it comes to pricing, many businesses take a keen interest in the numbers. This is often where the Shopify vs Magento debate heats up. 

Take note that Shopify offers you a host of plans, such as Plus, Advanced, and Basic. Every plan presents you with basic reports, staff accounts, shipping discounts, and as many as 1,000 inventory locations. Also, it includes 2% transaction fees in the case when users avoid dealing with the native Shopify Payments option and go with external payment getaways. 

Looking at Magento, it has two plans, which are Managed Services and Commerce Pro. Each platform has an app marketplace: Adobe Commerce Marketplace and Shopify App Store. 

Let’s first focus on Shopify’s plan: 

Shopify’s Plans 

The plans let users create an online store. Additionally, users have the option of selling on online marketplaces and social media, listing unlimited products, making use of point-of-sale systems, and receiving reports. 

It is true that Shopify features cost-effective pricing plans meant for companies of all sorts; they have different features and are appropriate for different company types. Note that Shopify’s Basic plan is restricted to two staff accounts. When we look at its Advanced plan, it offers as many as 15 staff accounts. 

Growing corporations may go with a Plus plan that starts at $2,000 monthly. This is not likely to be a good option for the majority of small business entities. 

Magento Plans 

Now regarded as Adobe Commerce, Magento presents a drag-and-drop page builder, robust reporting features, intuitive inventory management, and AI-powered product recommendations. It is a fact that you are required to contact the company directly to receive a quote; Magento presents you with two important plans: Managed Services and Commerce Pro. 

Managed Services comes as a reputed cloud-based technology service. It offers access to a host of expert resources, such as Customer Success Engineers and Advanced Support Engineers. It is because of these additional services that a given company can access premium technical support and properly manage escalated incidents. 

Commerce Pro comes as a complete package that is made for businesses of all sorts. Any given user can customise its site and access the cloud infrastructure, security features, and Adobe Commerce Application.  

Templates, Themes, and Design 

Let’s first focus on Magento: 

Magento 

The Platform offer users unlimited customisation and flexibility options through its drag-and-drop builder, a seamless personalisation editor, and nine cost-free design themes. There are a host of add-ons and plugins. This means that you can take charge of any aspect of your website, such as scaling your business online, managing inventory, and building a landing page. 

It is because of the customer segmentation feature that you can showcase display content, depending on shopping cart contents, customer address, and order history, that you can properly engage with a particular audience. Furthermore, its product recommendation feature is fully capable of suggesting products depending on product features and shopper behaviour.  

Shopify 

The platform offers 12 premium and free themes whose prices range from $180 to $360. As a user, you have the option to filter articles depending on features, catalogue size, and industry to narrow down your search. Every template that is being offered is a theme setting. This allows the associated users to include banners, customise their site, or alter colours without knowing cascading style sheets (CSS) or HTML. 

When you have selected a theme, you can effortlessly customise it by adding CSS and HTML code or using its website builder. 

Verdict 

Now comes the most interesting part for the Shopify vs Magento debaters – which is better? As it turns out, a host of industry experts who have a good knowledge of webapp development activity have come to the conclusion that Shopify’s free-of-cost web builder makes it easy for you to create an attractive storefront for your online store. 

Magento is generally considered to be a go-to choice if you seek more customisation options. 

Sales Features 

Let’s first discuss Shopify: 

Shopify 

Shopify presents you with highly effective point-of-sale (POS) software that has staff management capabilities, unified analytics, and inventory tracking. This means that merchants have the option of making effective omnichannel processes and fulfilling orders via curbside, pick up in-store (BOPIS), buy online, local delivery, or local pickup. Additionally, sellers can attain a POS kit with a barcode scanner, receipt printer, and card reader at a discounted price. 

Those merchants that are selling to global markets have the option of localising their online store. This is dependent on the geographical region. You can effortlessly translate your store into a host of languages, collect import taxes at checkout, set local payments, and convert prices depending on the customer’s local currency. 

Magento 

Looking at Magento, it presents a POS system via extensions. As it is well-known for catering to large enterprises and companies, it features a highly remarkable integrated B2B functionality. Any given user has the option of managing his company accounts, allowing buyers to request quotes, submitting purchase orders, and creating curated catalogues.  

Verdict 

When looking at both of the platforms and their capabilities in hindsight, it can be deduced that Shopify offers advanced sales features for POS and international sales. This ultimately makes it the right option for the majority of the merchants. At the same time, those B2B businesses that sell company accounts could see Magento as a more viable option. 

SEO and Marketing 

Let’s discuss Magento: 

Magento 

A host of experts that are associated with search engine optimisation services have deduced that Magento’s marketing features primarily depend on its extensions. It is important to highlight here that the platform presents at least 400 extensions for SEO/SEM, CRM, marketing automation, email marketing, and advertising. However, as a user, you may be required to have some technical expertise or the services of a developer if you need a successful integration. 

Shopify 

The platform has a remarkable built-in marketing dashboard. This is where you will come across automation, top marketing channels, and key performance indicators. Furthermore, it is possible for you to include keywords, perform optimisation of your site structure, and submit your sitemap for the sake of improving your search engine optimisation. 

If you are a merchant looking to sell on a host of channels, then you can set up Instagram and Facebook to sync your product catalogue with the stated social selling platforms. Also, you have the benefit of synching your products with Google Merchant Center. This will then allow you to showcase your items in the search listings of the Google Shopping tab. 

Verdict 

It can be deduced here that Shopify comes as an obvious winner since it has built-in marketing features. This means that it will be very easy for any given merchant to properly market his products, even though the person has very limited technical knowledge. 

Reporting and Analytics 

You can select any platform that you want. No matter which side you select in the Shopify vs Magento argument, it is seen that attaining your business’s overview is directly related to its success. Having stated this, it can be somewhat simple with the appropriate solutions. Both Magento and Shopify offer reporting and analytics features, which offer you a great deal of assistance in your attempts to conduct well-informed business decisions. 

Every Shopify plan features product analytics, financial reports, and analytics pages. Additional premium plans offer you access to customer reports, sales, and orders. As a user, you have the option of setting up Google Analytics 4 via your account, and this is the case when you demand a comprehensive amount of data. It will let you properly monitor sessions, customer behaviour, and visits. 

If you are looking to maximise the value of your data, the good news for you is that Magento lets you attain highly powerful insights. It is because of the report menu that you will be able to see a host of reports regarding your promotions, customers, products, and sales. 

Perhaps you are looking to activate a Business Intelligence account. In this case, you are allowed to access a personalised dashboard that has around 70 reports, which can be amended depending on your business’s requirements. Furthermore, the Advanced Reporting dashboard boasts easily understandable data visualisations, dynamic reports, and data-intensive dashboards. 

Verdict 

If you are associated with a big enterprise, then the helpful bit of news for you is that Magento will allow you access to dynamic and personalised reports. Moreover, small business entities could see that Shopify’s reports are all that they need to satisfy their existing requirements. Since there are a host of small-level WordPress website development agencies that rely on Shopify’s reports, they openly promote its usage. 

Payment Processing 

First, Shopify: 

Shopify 

Thanks to Shopify payments, merchants can make online payments without the aid of a third-party payment provider. You are required to pay transaction fees in case you utilise a third-party payment provider. The below-mentioned rates are dependent on the Shopify plan: 

• Basic: 2.7% in person; 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction for online. 

• Shopify: 2.5% in person; 2.6% plus 30 cents per transaction for online. 

• Advanced: 2.4% in person; 2.4% plus 30 cents per transaction for online. 

Magento 

Let’s now focus on Magento, which is different from Shopify in the sense that it does not feature a native payment gateway. It presents at least 300 payment extensions. Some renowned options are Amazon Payments, Stripe, and PayPal. Your pay amount depends on your preferred payment processor’s transaction fees. 

It must also be stated here that besides Magento, Shopify supports payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and Amazon Pay. However, they are coupled with transaction fees. 

Verdict 

Giving a final verdict here is often complicated for those who do the Shopify vs Magento analysis. It is true that Magento features a greater number of payment gateway options than Shopify. This is what makes it an obvious choice in this category. No doubt, Shopify Payments does highly effective management of transactions, but you have to pay a particular transaction fee if you care to integrate third-party payment options. 

Apps and Extensions 

It seems that there are some points of convergence among those who actively debate regarding Shopify vs Magento. One of these points is that the platforms present a massive library of apps and extensions. 

Shopify 

When it comes to overall integrations, Shopify indeed emerges as an obvious winner as it presents more than 8,000 apps than Magento, which has around 3,800 extensions. 

Many eCommerce experts are impressed by Shopify’s App Store, which has apps for customer support, store design, order management, marketing, and inventory management. On top of this, it offers seamless integrations with a host of renowned third-party platforms for social media (like TikTok), accounting software (like Xero), shipping carriers (UPS), and email marketing tools (like Klaviyo). 

Magento 

A very positive thing about Magento is that its marketplace presents paid and free extensions for sales, marketing, customer support, and accounting. Also, it permits extensive customisation and the making of custom integrations. This is why developers of various sorts have the option of creating special integrations that are according to a company’s unique requirements. 

Verdict 

There has been a great deal of work with regard to comparing integrations of Shopify vs Magento. Here, analysts have the opinion that Shopify is an obvious winner. However, it is pertinent to state here that Magento permits custom integrations, and this makes it excellent for those companies that require it to connect it with particular tools present in their respective workflow. 

Usability and Support 

First, Shopify: 

Shopify 

It is clear that Shopify’s user interface is intuitive, modern, and clean. At the same time, it is powered by straightforward navigation. This means that it will be rather simple to find and access features for marketing, finances, content, and products. Let’s say that you are a new user. In this case, it will be best for you to follow a personalised setup guide featuring tasks to run your store. 

If you need any sort of support from Shopify, then their customer support is available 24/7 via chat and email. Many critics have commended the fact that Shopify’s Help Center offers thorough documentation, helpful guides, and video tutorials. If you prefer connecting with other merchants or having a discussion on a particular issue, then you can go to the Shopify Community and establish some fresh connections. 

Magento 

When we look at Magento, its Admin dashboard lets merchants manage sales, perform administrative tasks, and set up products. Just like Shopify, Magento has a neat-looking dashboard, which is both intuitive and organised. However, it is because of its enterprise-level features that any given user could be required to put in a significant amount of time and effort with regard to understanding the platform’s configuration settings and workflows. 

Perhaps you have arrived at a situation where you require technical support. In this case, you should open a support ticket, check the status of already present tickets and approach the support team. 

Verdict 

It comes as a no-brainer that Shopify is much easier as compared to Magento. You may not have any technical expertise, but the fact stands that it will be easy for you to set up your online store and sell items. 

Concluding Remarks 

All those who are discussing Shopify vs Magento should understand that each of these platforms lets you build and sell products online. If you are a first-time entrepreneur with a modest budget, it would be best for you to select Shopify. This is because of the platform’s ease of use and simplicity. 

On the other hand, Magento is meant for businesses of every size, which are looking to make the most out of personalisation and customisation. It is true that the platform is significantly more expensive as compared to Shopify. However, this only goes on to showcase that it is best for medium and large corporations that have massive budgets at their disposal. 

Lastly, if you are interested in learning about topics such as Shopify vs Magento: Customisation or any other topic with regard to the discussed platforms, then contact FuturByte today. They come as a reputed web and application developer who is always looking to assist potential clients with their informational needs. 

Also Read: Hire Someone to build Shopify Store