To have a successful online business site you need to choose the right shopping cart software first.  But choosing the right platform might be a bit tricky because there is a wide range of solutions to choose from.

Previously I have given you a detailed comparison of WooCommerce Vs Magento and WooCommerce Vs Shopify. Now its time to discuss WooCommerce Vs PrestaShop. Both the platform can be used to run your online store successfully but work differently.

As you know online shopping trend is increasing more and more each year. Recent studies show that over 25% of people purchase something online at least once a week. This increased popularity gives a great push to the online business.

And you need to know which platform is the best for your business. And WooCommerce and PrestaShop both can be used to run an online store successfully. But you should know how they are different from each other. So let’s have a quick discussion on it.

Brief Overview of  WooCommerce Vs PrestaShop

WooCommerce

WooCommerce was launched on September 27, 2011, by the theme developer WooThemes. It is the most popular eCommerce platform in the World that powers millions of online stores. It is very easy to add an online store to your WordPress site by just installing the plugin.

WordPress is one of the World’s biggest CMS that is perfect to build any type of website. With just a few clicks you can transform your site into a beautiful functional online store. This is the only reason why WooCommerce is considered the best eCommerce solution for WordPress.

WooCommerce has been on the market for many years and that is the reason it considered a very stable and mature solution that can be used by large and small stores and can be scaled to any point.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is an opensource platform that is completely FREE to download and use. It published under the open software license. The platform is written in the PHP programming language with the support of MySQL. Over 1,000,000 worldwide stores are using this platform at this moment.

The main difference between WooCommerce and PrestaShop is, PrestaShop is an independent eCommerce software, while WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. Also, PrestaShop is scaled and you can create any number of products which means you can expand your online store whenever you want.

The one amazing thing about PrestaShop is that you will have the option to run multiple stores via one dashboard which can come in handy if you are running more than one store. If you require a feature that didn’t come by default then you can easily add it with an extension that you can get from an official marketplace.

As it is an open-source platform, so the possibilities for a store design are unlimited. This platform also has some SEO tools that will help you to rank high on search engine results.

Suggested Read: – How to Build A SEO Friendly Website: 15 Proven Tips

A Detailed Comparison: WooCommerce Vs PrestaShop

#1 Design And Themes

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a simple but powerful plugin for WordPress, you can install it just like any other plugin. It is FREE and open-source software which means you don’t need any licenses and there are is no recurring monthly fees.

Just set up your WooCommerce store and you will be able to sell anything – digital products, subscriptions, physical stores, bookings, etc. You will also have the option of installing WooCommerce specific themes that were tailor-made and will give your online store a great outlook.

The place where you can start with is a storefront, which is the default online store theme in WooCommerce. If you need to customize the look of your online store then you an do it with the help of the child theme.

Suggested Read: – Most Popular and Best Themes for WordPress

Suggested Read: – Best Drag and Drop WordPress Page Builder Plugin

PrestaShop

With PrestaShop, you will have to buy a theme to design your website. There are a different lot of themes and templates available- around 1300+ available on their official website and thousands more on third party websites.

If I talk about the premium templates then it looks more professional and high in quality. Prestashop provides themes from certified partners and the price starts from around $84. And the price for the premium templates as $150 which is quite high.

When it comes to installing a theme, then you might need to do some efforts unless you have technical experience. In short, you will need to hire a professional to do the task.

#2 Pricing

WooCommerce

It is a free plugin for WordPress that allows you to transform your current site into a complete functional eCommerce store. Because it is free, you just need to cover other basic things that come with a running website.

Firstly, you will need to cover a monthly hosting bill which totally depends on the size of your website.

Secondly, you will need to buy a domain. After the initial basic expenses, you need to factor the additional expenses that you will have to buy for things like SEO and payment gateways.

PrestaShop

As I have already told you that PrestaShop is open-source software and is completely free to download and use. You can check their demo so that you can explore the storefront and dashboard. There is an ongoing expense for every store which will depend on many factors.

It is that easy to install PrestaShop, as its modules will interfere with one another. If you don’t have the necessary coding skills, then you will need to hire web designers and developers to fix each issue.

Modules and Add-ons usually come at a big price, like if you want to integrate Facebook, QuickBooks, etc, you will need to pay for this.

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

#3 Customer Support

WooCommerce

The best thing about Woocommerce is that it is nearly bug and error-free. Because developers are doing a great job by updating WooCommerce and its new version is released all the time.

The amazing thing about WooCommerce is, it provides you comprehensive support documentation that is easy to navigate and you will get answers to your every question there. Because it is a free WordPress plugin, the main spot to get help is via official WordPress forums.

There is also an option to go to the WooCommerce website, you need to create a free user account there and submit a ticket. The support is quite helpful and will resolve most of your issues.

PrestaShop

Like WooCommerce PrestaShop also provides you customer support who can answer all questions about the software. And the best would be the community forum and where you will find users who are ready to help you out.

There is also an option of submitting a ticket but there is a wait time for this. They provide you a support plan where you are limited to only several hours of help per year.

There is also a live chat option available, you can have chat with experts when you visit the PrestaShop website. You can discuss this with the representative about your queries.

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#4 Extensions And Add-Ons

WooCommerce

From payment processing, analytics to order fulfillment, accounting, and many others, WooCommerce allows you to integrate different extensions in your store. There are several free and paid add-on and extensions that will allow you to function in your online store.

WooCommerce allows you to install third-party extensions and plugins and it does not limit your choices like other shopping cart plugins. Some of the renowned extensions include payment processing, shipping, and accounting.

PrestaShop

In PrestaShop, you need to find what your online store needs in add-ons marketplace. The integrations are a one-time purchase. But modules range from payment security to advertising tools. You might need to pay some amount for add-ons.

#5 Customizability

WooCommerce

WooCommerce offers you more than 2100 free themes to choose from. If you want to choose the paid ones then there are over 30 thousand options available. So it is not hard for you to choose the one for you and customize it as per your convenience.

PrestaShop

In PrestaShop, you can create your online store for free from scratch. For this, you just need to use free templates. If you do so, you will get a lot of paid modules and themes that are available over 1500 on their official websites.

Suggested Read: – Top 11 Reasons Why You Should use WordPress for Your Website

#6 User Experience

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a plugin of WordPress so it is a little easy to use if you have a website on WordPress. If I give focus on options and features of WooCommerce they are much displayed in the same way as it is in WordPress. And we all know how user-friendly WordPress is.

PrestaShop

It might be a new experience for every user because the user interface is nice and new. But when once accustomed it is an easy ride for the user. It is very effective for the marketing of your online store. But when it comes to customization and installation, it will be a hectic task.

Suggested Read: – 13 Proven Tips On How To Make Website User-Friendly

#7 Features

WooCommerce

WooCommerce will allow you to sell physical and digital products, also you can use it for affiliate marketing. It provides you various payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal.

It also allows you to adjust your shipping rates per carries and also applicable taxes. You can upload an unlimited number of categories, products and you can fulfill orders.

WooCommerce allows you to use the familiar WordPress interface so that your day to day tasks will be easy to do.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop comes with many inbuilt features and you will have all the basics that you need to start. This platform is integrated with all major carriers like FedEx, USPS, and UPS. This provides an ease to customers because they can choose the option that they like.

With PrestaShop, you can add unlimited images, categories, products, and the feature of products. You can easily manage your inventory and make use of it for alerts and tracking.

Your customers will lot multiple payment options like wire, check, or credit card via a third-party payment processor.

Suggested Read: – How to Promote Your Business Online and Get More Clients

Final Words

Making a perfect choice for choosing the best eCommerce platform is crucial because switching a platform is quite a messy task. So you need to choose the right platform so that you can save yourself from switching.

In the above WooCommerce Vs PrestaShop comparison, I have provided you a clear picture of both the platforms so that you can easily make your choice.

So compare every specification of both the software decide on the bases of your choice and requirements.