WooCommerce or Magento

This is a question I have been asking myself for a very long time, and even now more so than ever.

What platform should I build my e-Commerce site in?

In this post today, I will be researching the two e-Commerce platforms and detail my findings here, and there will be a lot of copy pasting from multiple sources.

WOOCOMMERCE - WORDPRESS

It is a popular plugin created for WordPress.

Out of the box, Woo Commerce isn’t as powerful as Magento but there are plenty of really good plugins available to meet additional requirements, including:

• Very easy to install and configure
• Highly customisable
• Backend management and reporting is very easy and simple to operate, without the knowledge of any coding
• Products and categories are easy to add and manage
• It’s one of the most secured eCommerce solutions (and has been approved by Sucuri Security)
• Search engine friendly

Some of the disadvantages and considerations include:

• Frequently large updates may cause a significantly lower version to break your site
• Some extensions come from third parties, and don’t have great support
• Some extensions are also little pricey

WooCommerce is a perfect system for small to medium-sized online retailers, and of course for any developer or business that is already familiar with the WordPress interface.

If you’re starting out, then WooCommerce is definitely the place to start, as it’s very simple to use, however it does lack functionalities that may be beneficial for an enterprise eCommerce solution.

MAGENTO

Magento is the most popular eCommerce solution for most online shopping stores – mainly because the platform offers a lot of flexibility and customization.  Like WordPress, Magento is open source, which means it allows developers to easily customize the look and functionality as required.

Magento development requires a higher level of coding skills, which means you need some experience with programming in order to setup your website. As a result, development costs can get expensive because of the complexities involved with customization.

There are many themes available to purchase for Magento, but like all websites, we always encourage clients to build a customized design from scratch – to create the ultimate experience for users.

Here are some of the main features and benefits of the Magento platform:

• Open Source Solution – you can host Magento on your own server, however it’s recommended you try and find a Magento hosting specialist
• Develop highly-creative and responsive web designs – Magento has great flexibility with all templates and themes
• A large number of payment gateways and shipping options can be included – including integration with major Australian banks and Australia Post
• It has a really good product and order management system – there are good bulk uploading features available to help manage catalogs
• Good marketing and promotional tools – includes related products, coupons, multi-tier pricing and product bundles
• Search engine friendly – ‘out of the box’ Magento needs a little configuration, however it’s very search engine friendly
• Manage multiple stores from the same account – this makes multiple websites easier to manage centrally

Larger retailers and international brands choose Magento because it offers a stack of ‘out of the box’ features that can be enhanced with plenty of third-party apps and modules.  It also provides endless possibilities for future growth.