You might be an individual entrepreneur or someone who runs a small business and you want to know about which ecommerce platform would be perfect for you to go online. 

You might have heard the debate between these two names Shopify and Magento, And now you are confused about it? Don’t worry, this post is perfect for you. Because it covers all the distinction aspects that differentiate both Shopify and Magento.

Before diving into the differences, Let me clarify some aspects of both platforms. Firstly, Both platforms are used by millions over the globe. And both offer an exceptional range of features and services for their customers to simplify their business needs. 

Now, Let’s talk about both platforms in detail.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an ecommerce platform where anyone can easily setup, Run and manage their business. Because Shopify is built especially for online businesses. Merchants can easily customise and manage everything about the store. Its simple user interface is another reason why it is so popular in the world. 

It has drag and drop features, So, that merchants can get every feature they want, easily. Shopify is a hosted and cloud-based platform which means that the customer doesn’t need to worry about the hosting, Maintenance and security of it. Which is its big plus point.

It provides flexibility to its merchants that they can easily manage their businesses from everywhere around the world with just an internet connection. 

Shopify provides all the tools, Templates and integrated systems like Payment processing systems to provide everything that a merchant wants to run their online store without any hassle. 

Shopify app store has many different small templates and software tools that are built by third-party developers, So, that the merchants can easily customise their stores without touching the code of the website. 

There are more than 5 million online stores that use Shopify which shows its adaptation around the globe. Its market size in E-commerce platforms is around 17.5% which makes it the second most preferred platform after WooCommerce.

What is Magento?

Magento is an open source ecommerce platform from Adobe, And is known for its versatile functionalities and support to many different ranges of programming languages and databases like MariaDB and MySQL. And it also supports the PHP programming language. 

Magento offers a huge range of features that can make online business run simpler and smoother. A list of its incredible features are:

1. Top-notch shopping cart system
2. Many Payment gateways
3. SEO and Catalog management tools
4. Different shipping methods

One of the reasons why big business and enterprises prefer magento is because of its huge scalability power. Its built-in-server-side apache improves the performance of the website. Magento provides better security and helps merchants to build unique stores as per their needs that stands out. 

Now that you have a basic understanding about both e-commerce platforms, So, let’s dive into their differences. 

Differences between Shopify and Magento

Hosting:

The most basic difference between these two platforms is hosting, Shopify is a hosted platform which means that the user is free from the stress to host, Manage and maintain hosting issues. While on the other side, Magento is not a hosted platform. That means that you have to host the website on your own and have to maintain it. 

Features and Customization Limitations:

Shopify is an easy-to-use platform. But it has a limited set of features and customization options, which limits merchants to doing something out-of-the-box. 

On the other hand, Magento is complex in terms of building, Setting up and running but it gives merchants a lot more accessibility and customization options and features to add and make their online business better. 

Pricing:

If we see the pricing then it is clear that shopify is affordable as compared to Magento. Shopify provides multiple pricing plans as per the business needs. While on the other side Magento is generally expensive. 

Now, Let’s look at the other aspects of both ecommerce platforms. 

Difference of Features between Shopify and Magento:

While both platforms provide enough features to the merchants to start and run their stores. But in between both, Shopify is simpler to set-up. 

The same basic functionalities are available in both platforms such as checkout option, Shopping cart functionality, Product pages and collection. 

When it comes to features Magento has more advanced or you can say sophisticated and scalable features available within the platform. While in shopify if you need to add more functionality then you have to add more third-party apps in it. But the number of apps available on shopify store gives a little edge to the users to integrate and use whatever feature or functionality they want. 

Difference of Usability between Shopify and Magento:

Both shopify and magento have a pretty good user interface which are highly engineered and well-developed. Shopify is a preferred option for beginners, who don’t have any kind of technical knowledge, While Magento is a bit complex, And is perfect for someone who has technical skills, Like coders. 

Another usability difference is that shopify provides a huge library of plugins, Themes, Features, And functionalities. That can be integrated easily with the store, And the merchant can make the changes without any extensive programming knowledge. 

But if someone wants to change, Upgrade or add new features into the Magento store then they should have good knowledge of the programming language. 

Pricing Differences between Shopify and Magento:

In pricing Shopify is definitely a WINNER without a doubt. Because usually business wants affordable and convenient options. And that is exactly what shopify is offering. 

Shopify offers different pricing plans to businesses as per their needs. The basic plan of shopify is $19/month. The standard plan is 49$, And advance plan is $299. However, it also has a plan specially for the enterprise clients which is of $2300/month. 

But Magento offers a Free version too but with the advanced features, Like one of its plans, Magento Ecommerce cloud is of $40,000/annual. And the more you spend, the more advanced features you can add. 

Difference of Security in Shopify and Magento:

If you are concerned about security then you don’t have to worry because both Shopify and Magento offer highly-secure environments for their customers and merchants. 

Shopify provides SSL Encryption, Two-factor authentication, And also fraud protection. With all the security options that shopify provides Magento provies one extra feature which is PCI compliance. But you shouldn’t be concerned about the security, As both platforms are secure and provide a safe and secure environment to run your stores. 

Shipping and Inventory Differences between Shopify and Magento:

One important factor that comes while selling physical products online is the shipping and inventory management system. Shopify has a very good POS ( Point-Of-Sale) with features like inventory tracking, Analytics and staff Management. Merchants can easily see detailed sales reports. 

On the other side Magento has all the features that Shopify provides and also has advanced features like you can create unlimited amounts of products and categories. 

Shopify provides more calculation features like shipping. And the dropshipping solutions with the right prices. So, Now you have every type of information you need, So, you can choose any platform which suits you.

Conclusion: 

Both Shopify and Magento are very good ecommerce platforms. But there are plenty of differences like shopify is more easy to use and you can integrate many features without knowledge of coding. But in Magento you need coding knowledge to add more features. Secondly, In pricing, Shopify wins by a large margin. Thirdly, in security, Shipping and Inventory both have almost the same options. The one word summary is, Shopify is a very prominent platform for beginners while Magento is best for large-scale enterprises who have teams to manage their stores.