If you are planning to build an eCommerce website and stuck which platform you should choose to get started with. Then this article is for you, as you know there are several eCommerce platforms in the market and it is tough to choose which one is the best.

Because there is always a battle between every platform like WooCommerce vs Magento, WooCommerce vs Shopify, Shopify vs Magento, Weebly vs Squarespace, BigCommerce vs Prestashop, etc. But if we compare all these platforms then WooCommerce and Magento always come on top.

Both of them are a pack of punch when it comes to features. Both platforms are wildly popular and it is very hard to choose the best from them. In this blog post, I am going to explore two of the most popular platforms eCommerce platform i.e, Magento vs WooCommerce.

Let’s compare both of these platforms based on their various factors like their features, prices, easy to use, etc. At the end of the post, you will have a clear understanding of which one is the best for your eCommerce store.

But first, you should know about both the platforms, so let’s have a quick look at what is WooCommerce and Magento.

1. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a versatile, open-source eCommerce solution built on WordPress. Whether you are launching a business, building an online store or designing websites for clients you can get started quickly and create exactly online shop you want.

Beyond provides you a functional, secure platform to create a store, WooCommerce is also easy to expand, which allows you to customize your online store to meet your needs.

It doesn’t matter whether you are running a small or large business, WooCommerce is simple to operate by everyone.

Over 28.19% of all online store powers by WooCommerce and around 22% of the top one million eCommerce websites use WooCommerce. It is the most popular plugin/module on the entire internet with around 68% usage distribution.

2. Magento

Like WooCommerce Magento is also an open-source eCommerce platform that provides online merchants a flexible shopping cart system, as well as control over the look, functionality, and content of their online store.

Magento offers robust marketing, catalog management, and search engine optimization tools. This platform can adapt well to change anything and has the potential to meet the requirement of store owners.

If I talk about the popularity of Magento then it powers 1.2% of the internet and accounts for 12% of eCommerce websites. It has a 1.9% share of the CMS market which is relatively low as compared to WooCommerce.

Comparison of WooCommerce vs Magento

#1 Hosting Comparison

Magento:

When choosing the best web hosting option for your eCommerce store, you will get benefit from prioritizing Magento Compatability upfront.

Magento complexity requires a robust dedicated server for smooth performance. Because the choice of an ordinary hosting provider would result in slow performance of the site and unhappy customers.

There are five major benefits of Magento hosting which you need to give focus:

• Easy installation
• No performance issues
• Assured compatibility
• Security

WooCommerce:

WooCommerce is light in weight that requires WordPress to be installed on the server first. Because it’s a tiny plugin that requires very little disk space.

The major benefit of WooCommerce hosting is that it can handle a lot of basic site maintenance, security, and set up for you. With the WooCommerce hosting you will get:

• Automated WordPress and WooCommerce setup.
• Increased security so you can protect your user’s information
• Daily backup for safe data.
• Supporting staff who are expert in WooCommerce

Suggested Read: – SiteGround Review: Fast and Secure Managed Web Hosting

#2 Easy To Use

One of the most crucial considerations when choosing an eCommerce platform is easy to use. Most of the online store owners don’t have enough coding and technical knowledge, so they prefer eCommerce platforms which are easy and convenient to use.

Magento:

If I talk about Magento, it’s steep learning curve may make you feel a little complicated. To make the most use of this platform’s potential, you need to learn some technical terms and code.

There is a ton of useful functions and features available in Magento, but you need a professional to make necessary configuration.

WooCommerce:

WooCommerce comes with an easy and simple installation process. It means that a non-technical person who barely knows much about the eCommerce platform can set up and run an online store without much effort.

This platform offers you a setup wizard that makes the whole installation process more comfortable. It comes with the intuitive design and navigation that makes WooCommerce easy to use platform.

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#3 Extensions and Plugins

No web platform is perfect, that is the reason the development team of eCommerce platform allows third-party developers to build plugins and extensions for them. WooCommerce and Magento are well known for a large number of add-ons that enhance the appearance and functionality of the website.

Magento

Magento provides a mix of paid and free extensions for customer support, marketing, finance, accounting, security and payments, shipping and fulfillment, and for website optimization also.

Magento extensions are very rich in features, so you can easily use them to discover new and customized functionality, important business categories to accelerate your business.

But there is one thing which you need to give focus, you might need the help of Magento developers for installing the extension properly and making it work in case you can’t do it by yourself.

WooCommerce

Just like Magento, WooCommerce also allows you to easily install a wide range of plugins to customize or personalize their site but it totally depends on your business requirements.

You can easily buy some simple plugins for your WooCommerce store when compared with Magento.

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#4 Speed And Performance

Magento

Magento needs to have more server power, you need to maintain your online Magento store from time to time so that it does not experience slow loading time.

Magento needs a dedicated server to run properly because your hosting server location can affect the SEO and the loading time of your online store.

But having a dedicated server can give an impact on your pocket, especially when it comes to managing it. So it is important to note that your hosting server plays a vital role in your WordPress & Magento eCommerce store’s performance.

But if you are using a powerful hosting provider then it becomes vigorous and delivers high performance and high-speed results.

WooCommerce

If you are using WooCommerce alone than you’ll never get a better site performance. But you can use some additional plugins to improve the performance and speed of your WordPress Website.

There are many free WordPress plugins which are capable enough to enhance the load time and other performance-related parameters.

But as per my consideration, you don’t need to use too many plugins because it will slow down the speed of our website. You can go with this option only when you required it.

Suggested Read: – How To Increase WordPress Website Speed And Performance

#5 Security

Magento

Magento gives you dedicated security patches. But as compare to the WooCommerce store, it provides you a little tough of Magento security patches.

Because all these security patches needs a technically proficient to employ user to your Magento store.

Magento also releases some new security patches for its users which is the big satisfaction for its users.

WooCommerce

Security is the most important factor for any type of website. And for eCommerce, it becomes even more important to make sure that your online store is completely secure.

WooCommerce takes lots of security measures to provide a safe environment for its users. There are many plugins that you can use to improve the security of your website.

WordPress is an open-source platform and it is more prone to external attacks. But it hardly affects the WooCommerce usage because the user always uses the best WordPress security plugins to keep their data safe.

Suggested Read: – How You Can Prevent Your WordPress Website From Being Hacked

6. Scalability

Magento

Magento is perfect for those who have big plans to scale their business in the future. This platform can handle large traffic with ease as long as your hosting plan can easily handle it.

If you want to handle large eCommerce stores, you will need to optimize your online stores for security, caching, backup and more. But if you don’t have expertise in it, you can take the help of any Magento professional but scaling a Magento eCommerce can slightly increase the costs than WooCommerce.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce stores also face the same challenges as a Magento store. But you can keep scaling your WooCommerce online store with the same features and pace at a low cost.

You can also add some caching options to improve the efficiency of your store. If you want to take the help of a professional WooCommerce developer for scaling your business then you can easily do it because it is easily affordable as compare to other eCommerce platforms.

#7 Design Options

Magento

Magento is specially designed to create an eCommerce website and it is best for building large scale eCommerce stores. The theme designers of Magento ensures that every theme will have user-friendly and responsive.

Magento has numerous of paid and free themes that you can choose as per your budget and needs.

WooCommerce

Your website design is the first impression of your business and it will directly affect the traffic of your site. An attractive design of your website easily grab user’s attention and they will spend more time on your site.

There are numerous ready to use design available when it comes to WooCommerce. You will get various paid as well as free themes to use. But if you want you can also create a WooCommerce theme on your own with the help of WooCommerce theme builder.

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#8 Pricing

Magento

Magento’s open-source edition is free and anyone can use it. You just have to pay for the hosting provider. But if you buy any paid extensions, themes or hire an expert then it will increase the cost of Magento.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free plugin, but you will need to pay for the hosting premium themes and plugins that you use. By using free themes and plugins, you can reduce the costs.

Suggested Read: – How to Quickly Start an Online Store Step-by-Step Guide

Wrapping Up

I hope the above comparison will help you to make your decision between WooCommerce vs Magento. Both the platforms have own features and specifications, you can choose according to your budget and needs.

But you need to be clear about your requirements. Because if you have a clear vision about what you are looking you can easily make your choice. Magento is best for building large scale store, on the other hand, it is a little tough for WooCommerce to support large scale products.

But both platforms are easy to integrate and use. It is just that you need to be clear about your business plans. Also, some factors like budget, business requirements, security, expansion, etc will help you to decide which is the right choice for your online business.