WooCommerce vs Magento Shopping Cart – Which One Is Right For Me?

There is quite a debate going on today between e-commerce entrepreneurs and businesses and e-commerce aficionados about the merits of the two most popular e-commerce platforms – WooCommerce and Magento. Both of these e-commerce platforms operate as ‘freemiums’, meaning that you can use the most basic versions of them for free and you only pay for the upgrades.

On the other hand, if you are expecting to grow your online business you can bet your bottom dollar that you will eventually need those upgrades – and that is how both WooCommerce and Magento make their money. In additions to paying for upgrades to grow your shop you will also need to hire either a Magento website development company or a WooCommerce website development company – while this might cost you a bit more money initially it’s definitely preferable to making a lot of expensive mistakes if you decide to design and implement things on your own.

Magento is a stand-alone product owned by eBay while WooCommerce is a Wordpress plugin. One of the reasons why both of these platforms are extremely popular is because they are both open-source software. They have large communities of developers who freely work on the original code in an effort to create a better product.

But the biggest question here is which one of these platforms is suited for your business. Both Magento and WooCommerce have their strong points but they also have their differences.

1. Ease of setup
   It goes without saying that WordPress users will have an easier time using WooCommerce because the platform and the plugin are well-suited for beginners. WooCommerce has a devout following and it is easy to find tutorials online that will help you set up the store easily. Still, it might be a good idea to hire a WooCommerce website development company to avoid possible pitfalls and to get things right on the first go.
   

   Magento also has a very intuitive interface and has an installation wizard that helps guide you through the setup process. However, the management process grows increasingly difficult when you start expanding and adding extensions to the site. In this case, it might be a good idea to hire a good Magento website development company.
   
   

2. Features
   WooCommerce has fewer features than Magento and it is considered to be a ‘beginner’ e-commerce platform, targeted towards small businesses or businesses that are just starting out. On the other hand, WooCommerce can take advantage of numerous other WordPress features that are easy to manage and are most of the time free.

   If you want to start off with something more advanced then Magento should be your number one choice. It allows you to customize your site and expand it so your customers have more options when visiting it. Magento also allows you to manage numerous stores from one account and facilitates making localized versions of your shop this way. Magento also has access to a number of extensions which are available through Magento Connect. You can buy them and add them with ease but if you want them to work properly hiring a Magento website development professional is a must.
   
   
3. Themes
   Both Magento and WooCommerce are highly customizable when it comes to themes and you can choose between thousands of free and premium templates that will make your site unique and recognizable. Most of the themes are mobile responsive.
   
   
4. Cost
   As we already mentioned, both platforms are free to use in their basic form. However, you can expect to accumulate expenses when your store starts to grow. This is true for both WooCommerce and Magento. WooCommerce depends on different plugins in order to add additional payment options and manage your shop. Magento offers more in the beginning but it also requires you to consider hosting. While WooCommerce can be run using WordPress hosting, Magento is a little bit different. As your portfolio of products grows you will need to use dedicated servers in order to avoid slow loading times and reduced usability.
   
   Also, WooCommerce website development professionals are more present on the market. Magento website development is more complicated and companies who can do a good job with it are more difficult to find and charge more.
   
   

In the end, the choice between WooCommerce and Magento is easy and can be boiled down to this: do you see your business growing in the future? If the answer is yes then it might be smarter to invest a bit more at the beginning and go with Magento so you don’t have to struggle with a WooCommerce – Magento migration at some point. Whatever you end up choosing, make sure to contact Above1, a web development company that specializes in both WooCommerce website development and simply rocks Magento website development!