WooCommerce and Magento are the two most popular e-commerce development platforms in the market today. According to the sources of many debates done by bloggers, both of them have strengths and suitability for different needs. One of them is a standalone product whereas the other is a plugin.
WooCommerce came into e-commerce in 2011 and has now become the most popular plugins for WordPress. Almost all the WooCommerce backers are WordPress users. There is no need to migrate your site to any other platform if you are using WordPress using WooCommerce. WooCommerce is very easy to use.
Magento market place, on the other hand, is a standalone product which is now owned by ebay. People using ebay are committed supporters of this platform. The agencies which are managing e-commerce websites for their clients and with larger businesses use this platform.
If you are someone who is thinking to set up an online business, these two platforms will undoubtedly appear in your short list. Let’s find out which should you go for?
The Similarities
Find out what makes both of them similar to each other!
They are easy to set up
WooCommerce has proved to be an ideal platform for beginners as it allows customizing through WordPress which makes it easier as there are many plugins available. On the other hand, Magento’s flexibility regarding customization is legendary. It requires someone to work with design, developing and coding skills to make the most of it.
They are easy to use
If you know WordPress, using WooCommerce will be much easier for you. It has been designed specifically to work with WordPress. Magento once set up and running is not difficult to use too. As it is a standalone platform, using it may be more complex than WooCommerce. But it has an advantage of being platform independent.
They have minimal setup costs
As a new business owner, you will get these two things while working with WooCommerce and Magento :
- The initial product is free to use
- You will have an abundance of help from the community
Open source
Both WooCommerce and Magento are open source products. This, in turn, means that the original code is freely available to anyone and they can access it to build on it or modify it to create a product which works particularly for them.
Support
There are many reasons WooCommerce and Magento have such large communities. One of them is because the open source software used by these creates an appreciation of sharing. e-commerce Developers are able to share their own versions of the open source software to carry on this aspect of giving.
Customizability
You can make and customize your e-commerce store on your own with the help of these platforms. They not only allow you to build your store but are also available for you in case you need any help from the professional team while setting up your e-commerce store.
Unlimited products
The good news is that you can upload as many products as you want and manage them effectively with either of the two platforms. It provides you with a great classification of products which in turn is great for businesses with extensive product ranges.
Differences
Along with many similarities between WooCommerce and Magento, come certain differences as well.
Setting up
While starting up any business you need to face some hurdles but you never want the e-commerce platform to be the one. If you are already using WordPress then it makes sense to choose WooCommerce. Even if you don’t have a WordPress site, you can still start using WooCommerce as it is perfect for beginners. WordPress is easy to use in comparison with Magento which is quite complex.
Cost
As we know, initially both e-commerce platforms are free. You can easily download them and start working on them. However, there are certain things such as payment options that are essential for the growth of your business. WooCommerce has limited options for payments as compared to Magento which has a full range of payment options in it.
While working with Magento commerce, adding extensions is also necessary for growth and for this you will have to fork out money. It is harder to find Dedicated Magento Developers than WordPress developers so you need to install the extensions properly.
The Final Choice
Magento is a popular choice among larger businesses and agencies who manage e-commerce sites on behalf of their clients as it is scalable. On the other hand, WooCommerce through WordPress is something which is perfect for smaller businesses and those who have less experience in development.
In all, you need to go through all the features and details (even the little ones) while choosing the right platform for your own e-commerce store. Both WooCommerce and Magento provide you with a wide range of features such as themes and shopping cart facility.