With the rise of e-commerce they are continually emerging new players in the field of ecommerce platforms to help small and large businesses to meet the challenge of selling online. This range of solutions can overwhelm us at first but we know how to separate, be patient and go filtering to find the solution that we fight every day. We have them all kinds, we can choose from solutions that allow us to have our catalog for sale in minutes to other solutions that require weeks of planning and configuration before you can jump into the ring.
One possible categorization of these platforms could be based on its conception where we can distinguish:
- independent carts for users with technical knowledge Not low.
- housed, software-as-a-service (SaaS), for all users.
- Ecommerce plugins to start selling and testing product / market.
Each type of solution has its own characteristics, pros and cons and should be studied carefully to succeed in our choice and not repenting soon be in production.
In this post we will discuss the three tools that take first place in this categorization: Magento, Shopify y WooCommerce without going into custom software. These are the most used and popular in its kind platform but does not mean that improvements are not optimal for your business.
Análisis Magento vs Shopify vs Woocommerce
MAGENTO
Magento is the market leading platform for years in the sector Open Source. Its myriad features, flexibility and customization are great strengths in its favor that attract companies with a clear bet on ecommerce who wish to disembark with all weapons in the complicated world of selling online. On the opposite side requires high technical expertise to modifications or customizations where the backend fails and it is necessary to resort to developers for it.
Some of the main features of Magento could be:
- Open Source.
- There is no limit product, or depth of these categories.
- Customizing catalog.
- Ability to add multiple payment methods and shipping systems. Paypal for example is included by default.
- With the installation have a wide range of basic features that come with installing other extensions (often pay) or simply not possible to reach that option without a large outlay.
- Multiple features in managing products and orders without adding extensions.
- Integration with third parties
- international adaptation
- Powerful marketing section with catalog price rules, in cart, discount coupons, Amount discount. The options are immense.
- Conceived for SEO. No additional extensions we can work intuitively SEO.
- Possibility of integrating Magento with WordPress to have the best of both systems.
- Possibility of multitienda.
- active community with many templates, Payment extensions, free or connecting with third services that enhance our e-commerce and expand our business.
Cons:
- Learning curve slower.
- Type of hosting needs higher.
- Recruiting Magento specialists to certain needs.
- Maintenance costs.
- Development times higher than other tools Open Source most basic.
- higher initial budgets.
- Not designed for companies that want to test a product .
SHOPIFY
Shopify is recognized as one of the easiest to use ecommerce platforms. Developed in Ruby on Rails, Payment is and has sales commissions but it's a very convenient platform without technical knowledge.
Features Shopify:
- No need to hire hosting, servers, advanced settings, etc. Just a few minutes it is necessary to start the store without technical knowledge.
- Except for the cheapest plan, no other product has limitations
- More of 100 Responsive templates and advanced HTML editor for a specific customization.
- Variety of payment methods and shipping options preconfigured.
- Intuitive order management and products.
- Marketing options default.
- SEO options but not as advanced as Magento
- Integration with WordPress
- It has different hiring plans to choose according to your needs.
In favor:
- Easy installation
- easy to set up customizations
- Economic
- Good customer service
- Launches short time
- No need for external hosting
- Management Panel Friendly.
Against:
- proprietary code
- Payment platform
- Limited customization code
- Limitations on customization.
- Shortly recommended for large catalogs
- Reportings limited
- Limitations depending on the contracted plan.
WOOCOMERCE
Launched in 2011 as WordPress plugin is having a high growth and success among small ecommerce due in part to the success of his father.
It allowed to sell products online without much effort everyone who already have CMS WordPress. With an intuitive panel, but with fewer options, it can be an ideal platform for those who want to sell without big headaches. These limitations, depending on our needs, They may be a problem or not in the short and long term.
characteristics:
- Easy to install.
- Unlimited number of products and categories but with large catalogs suffers and is not ready for management.
- Variety of templates.
- Shipping methods and basic payment start and possibility to extend with plugins paid or free.
- Creating coupons discounts.
- Just like his father, WordPress, Woocomerce has a wide range of options and configurations for SEO and other external plugins for advanced configurations.
- If you already have a blog on WordPress will manage from a single store and blog panel making it easy to get used to it.
Cons:
- Default functions limited
- Payment by simple plugins that other platforms have them base.
- limited documentation
- Unlike Shopify or Magento is a plugin for an engine not designed for ecommerce with everything that entails.
technical summary
Magento is the most flexible and powerful tool but with more technical needs.
Shopify is paid, easier to use but with certain limitations.
WooCommerce is free and flexible WordPress users who want to sell online without changing platform but with certain limitations and is designed as a plugin.
strategic summary
These three options are only options from hundreds of possibilities that gives us the market today. Analyzes business needs, the audience, competition, strategies short and medium term, budget and then you can study that adapts or better tool could be adapted (and under what price) your needs and not the other way as is done sometimes. As you dedicarias the time to choose a place for your business offline, online is no different. There is no good or bad software, but inappropriate for you and your business.