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Are you planning to enter the world of ecommerce? Do you want to make the most out of your online store? Feeling lost amongst the many features offered by plenty of platforms? Well, we narrowed your choices to only 2: Shopify & Magento, two of the most popular ecommerce platforms today, with a main difference, which is that Shopify is a hosted platform, while Magento is self-hosted.
A hosted platform, such as Shopify, is easier for you as a beginner because you don’t have to worry about anything that involves technical issues since everything is taken care of by the provider. Meanwhile for Magento, a self-hosted platform, you get to have full control over your online store with the ultimate flexibility and customization and the company gives you the storage capacity to house everything.
For a clear overview of each platform, below you will find a table of the pros & cons of each:
| Shopify Pros | Shopify Cons |
| Multichannel Selling – sell on Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and eBay | High Transaction Fees – you’ll need to pay a massive transaction fee,Unless you use Shopify Payments. |
| Customer Support– offers its users 24/7 support, as well as access to its help center, discussion forums and e-commerce university. | Cost Of Apps – it’s easy to get carried away installing lots of paid apps |
| App Store – has over 7,000 apps that help you extend the functionality of your site | |
| Marketing– Shopify has advanced marketing capabilities like SEO optimization, loyalty programs, discounts, gift cards, social media integration and more. | |
| Extensive Payment Options
– supports over 100 payment options, in addition to their own Shopify Payments. |
| Magento Pros | Magento Cons |
| Flexibility – as long as you know how to code, you can design your store however you want. | Not Beginner-Friendly – you’ll need to know how to code. |
| Apps & Add-Ons – has over 5,000 extensions to choose from, and 1,970 of those are free. | Not Easy To Install – unlike other open-source software. |
| Excellent User Guides – takes you step by step through the online store building processes. | Doesn’t Have The Magento Payment – you’ll have to download the extension of the payment processor through the Magento marketplace, then pay a transaction fee for them |
| Advanced Site Management – allows you to control multiple websites and stores from one admin, in addition to creating, previewing and scheduling content updates. | |
| Excels In SEO – comes with plenty of SEO guides and prompts to help you get started. You can edit image alt tags and customize URLs. |
As a summary, choosing the perfect platform for your business depends on its size and your purposes, however you need to be aware of all the features and what the plan that you’ll purchase will offer you.
By Cyrine Dabbous
