Magento vs WooCommerce 2020: Which One Is Best?

Dharmin Shah

28 Sep, 2020

The first e-commerce entrepreneurs appeared in the late ’90s, and since then, the myriads of new online shops have crowded the market.

Whether you already run an online store or thinking to launch a new venture, you have possibly thought about the technical aspect of the deal.

The success of any e-commerce business largely depends on the platform behind it. The market is full of solutions to fit every taste. Any business owner from a small seller to a big vendor can find something that meets their expectations regarding costs, functionality, customization options, security, etc.

About Magento

As one of the most significant e-commerce platforms in the world, Magento comes with a wide range of features and functionality. There are two available editions of Magento: Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce.

Magento Open Source: A free platform that provides basic functions needed to run an e-commerce store.

Magento Commerce: A premium paid edition of Magento that is loaded with rich, out-of-the-box features to keep your store ahead of complex commerce operations and growing customer demands.

About WooCommerce

Launched in 2011, WooCommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world. It is a plugin for WordPress, so everyone can quickly turn their WordPress website into an e-commerce site. As an extendable, flexible, and open-sourced platform, WooCommerce allows customers to build the store they need and define your style with the storefront.

Features Comparison

1. Inventory Management

Both platforms allow you to add as many products as possible. You can add an unlimited number of products in your website

2. Discounts and Coupon Codes

You can create discount and import codes in Magento out-of-the-box, Woocommerce has this feature but the very basic feature of it which doesn’t solve this purpose.

3. Themes and Templates

Both platforms have many themes and Templates. You could find some of the themes are free and if you want more than what free themes have to offer, you have to pay.

4. Multi-Languages Support

Magento gets the edge here with support for several languages that come built-in. In Woocommerce, you have to buy WPML which allows you to run Woocommerce sites in multiple languages and multiple currencies.

5. SEO Capabilities

Magento is known for its SEO capabilities with SEO extension. Magento can go head to head in this department. Thanks to the power of SEO friendly, your store will raise the rank in the search engines and attract more and more traffic.

Price Comparison

Both Magento vs WooCommerce is open-source whose original code can be easily modified, improved to your requirements.

WooCommerce is a great option for a beginner-level store and after a short time, you will realize that it is limited in its capabilities. You may end up paying more of that cost if you opt for WooCommerce to give more features for your store. In contrast, you can download Magento 2 free version which makes it a great choice for most merchants who don’t have huge budgets with all basic features for your store. However, merchants will also have to purchase a hosting solution for Magento which has the price of $1-$200 per month but I believe that you will be satisfied with this fee because of its advantage of it.

Security Comparison

According to a study recently, there are more than 30,000 sites hacked every day, so keeping your site secure is a challenging and vital task for any online store owner. Because your e-commerce website contains a lot of customer information as well as payment details, optimum security must be a top priority.

Both WooCommerce and Magento let you implement several security measures, but mostly through extensions and manual processes.

WooCommerce is a great option for a beginner-level store and after a short time, you will realize that it is limited in its capabilities. You may end up paying more of that cost if you opt for WooCommerce to give more features for your store.

Plugins And Extensions

No e-commerce platform is perfect. That is why the development team of e-commerce platforms allows third-party developers to create extensions and plugins for them. Magento and Woocommerce are well-known for a large number of add-ons that enhance the functionality and appearance of the website.

Magento offers a mix of free and paid extensions for customer support; payments and security; marketing; accounting and finance; shipping and fulfilment; and even site optimization. Magento extensions are rich in features, so you can use them to discover new and customized functionality, in essential business categories, to accelerate your business. However, the minus point of Magento extensions is that you will need the help of Magento developers in installing the extension properly and making it work in case that you cannot do it yourself.

Conclusion

Above is a quick comparison between Magento 2 and WooCommerce. Honestly speaking, each platform comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. In light of this, WooCommerce is a more user-friendly platform, while Magento is well-known for a variety of powerful extensions. Hence, to decide which e-commerce platform is better, you always have to put the size as well as the needs of your online store into consideration. Instead of looking for the best platform, you should choose the right platform which matches your requirements the most.

If you want to start up a small business with enough performance and easy to use, nothing can be more suitable than WooCommerce. In contrast, if you plan to scale your business up to be a global brand, Magento 2 is the rightest choice for you.