Magento Vs. WooCommerce: Get What You Need

Understanding eCommerce and having an optimally-functioning online store is key for any business owner in the digital age. ECommerce refers to the activity of electronically buying or selling a product or service online. Nowadays, there are several eCommerce platforms to choose from. So, what is the best option for your store? This guide will compare two platforms, Magento and WooCommerce, their pros and cons, and determine which one is the best for eCommerce.

What is Magento?

Magento is an eCommerce platform that uses open source technology written in PHP. This provides online merchants with a lot of great eCommerce options, including a flexible shopping cart system, as well as full design and functionality control over all of the site’s content. Magento is a one-stop shop for all the eCommerce tools you could need, including social media and email marketing campaign development, search engine optimization, advanced payment data and inventory-management tools. Because Magento is open source, store owners can take their brand to the next level by creating unique customer experiences and interactions. The admin control panel is very intuitive and the product creation tools are easy to use. You can change every aspect of your site as needed with no interruption. As the platform was built on nexcess magento servers for hosting, loading speeds are fast and responsive.

As this is a platform designed to create long-lasting, professional websites, Magento is recommended for users that have a basic knowledge of web development. There is a steeper learning curve and the Enterprise Premium Edition is a bit costly – but the results are well worth the price.

What is WooCommerce?

Unlike Magento, WooCommerce is not a platform itself, but a featured plug-in for the WordPress platform. If you’ve already gotten comfortable with WordPress but want to scale your eCommerce store, WooCommerce offers all the same features you’d find from a platform solely dedicated to eCommerce. WooCommerce is 100% free and easy to use, and is extremely customizable. And, WooCommerce is home to almost 400,000 sites, so you know you’re in good company.

On WooCommerce, you can list an unlimited amount of products. The plug-in offers a wide range of extension options, including payment getaways, so your shoppers can choose how they’d like to make the transaction. You can quickly integrate your store with Google Analytics, which is great for understanding how much traffic you’re taking in and from where. WooCommerce markets itself as a community or small business solution than the larger Magento, which is primarily geared for major retailers of all industries. Unfortunately, with WooCommerce, if you don’t use WordPress, you will have to learn two platforms.

Which is better for eCommerce?

It’s a tie! Both platforms are customizable, offer advanced security and product management options and allow your store to get off the ground quickly. WooCommerce is cheaper and perhaps easier for beginners to learn, but Magento is perfect for scaling an existing company. You really can’t go wrong with either platform.