WooCommerce is a familiar name to most WordPress users. This wildly popular e-commerce platform is home to almost 400,000 sites. It comes with almost all of the functionality you’ll need to open an online store, and it also has several advanced capabilities through its extension system.
Key features:
Supports an unlimited number of products.
Comes with a robust extension system, based on the WordPress plugin format.
Enables you to pick almost any payment processors you want using extensions.
Pros:
Setting up a store is free, aside from your web hosting expenses.
It’s easy to pick up if you have any experience with WordPress.
There is extensive documentation available for its users. Plus, you can contact the team behind the project if you have any additional questions.
Integrates with Google Analytics using an extension.
Includes SSL support, but you need to obtain your own certificate.
Is it good for beginners?
WooCommerce is a good pick for users with no e-commerce experience – doubly so if they’ve used WordPress before. Even those who haven’t will find WooCommerce’s excellent documentation, and abundance of online tutorials appealing.
Price:
This is a fully open-source platform – anyone can download and set it up on any server they want. That being said, its premium extensions tend to be expensive, and some require annual subscriptions. Aside from that, your web hosting costs will depend entirely on the size of your enterprise and the packages your provider offers.
There are a handful of quality web hosts that work well with WooCommerce, but the top ones we always recommend to our customers are SiteGround and InMotion. You can get either for around $8 / month (try not to opt for any of the cheaper plans, as they might not be optimized to run e-commerce setups).
Magento
The Magento homepage.
Whereas WooCommerce bills itself as a community solution, Magento is more geared towards companies. However, that doesn’t mean small businesses can’t benefit from its functionality too. Magento offers both a free Community Edition – which is plenty powerful on its own – and an Enterprise Edition for large companies. For this comparison, we’ll focus on the Community Edition’s features.
Key Features:
Supports an unlimited number of products, as any respecting self-hosted platform should!
Comes with its own theming and layout system.
Includes efficient APIs that can connect with any third-party solution.
Intuitive admin interfaces and product creation tools.
Pros:
It’s built for scalability. Magento should have no problems handling large stores, as long as your host can manage them.
Shoppers can check out faster thanks to a streamlined process. Plus, guest checkout is turned on by default.
Integrates with PayPal, Authorize.Net, and Braintree right out of the box.
Cons:
Magento feels more geared towards developers than regular users, what with its steep learning curve.
Its Enterprise Edition can be quite costly, but that’s to be expected due to their target market.
Is it good for beginners?
Out of the box, Magento doesn’t feel as beginner-friendly when we look through the lens of WooCommerce vs Magento. However, users can overcome that by referring to the extensive documentation – and the platform does offer additional advantages for those who stick it out. It’s perfect for ambitious users who want to scale their shops quickly, and who also have the necessary time for mastering the platform.
Price:
Magento’s Community Edition is open-source and free for anyone to use, so your only cost will be based on your current hosting provider. On the other hand, users who are interested in the Enterprise Edition will have to shell out a pretty penny.
What about performance?
Loading times are a big deal for any website, but doubly so for e-commerce. If your website takes too long to load or feels sluggish, some people will leave, taking their money – and ultimately your income – with them.
When it comes to performance, it’s complicated to figure out which solution is the overall winner. Each online store – regardless of platform – will behave differently due to its functionality and size. Furthermore, there are several more factors at play here, such as your choice of web hosting provider, whether you’re using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), or even whether your images are optimized.
To put it simply, the performance of your online store will depend mostly on you, and your hosting provider. This round is a tie.
What about security?
The importance of security when it comes to e-commerce platforms can’t be overstated. Customers expect both their private information and payment details to be protected – and you need to deliver.
Similarly to performance, your online store’s security is in large part up to you. Both WooCommerce and Magento enable you to implement several advanced security measures, but mostly through extensions and manual tweaks. However, while no platform can be 100% secure, Magento takes the lead in this aspect by offering dedicated security patches to its users.
The downside here is that Magento security patches aren’t particularly easy to apply. E-commerce newbies might feel out of their depth doing so on their own, which in turn leads to a significant amount of Magento stores being out of date.
What about product management?
If you’re looking for the perfect e-commerce store, good product management is likely on your list of priorities. WooCommerce offers a no-nonsense approach to product management, with options for both physical and digital products. Setting up new items is remarkably simple, especially if you’re already familiar with WordPress. Furthermore, you can always expand on the platform’s functionality using extensions such as Product Add-Ons:
The Product Add-Ons extension for WooCommerce.
Magento, on the other hand, offers several features that WooCommerce lacks without purchasing additional extensions. For example, it supports product reviews, grouped items, wish lists, advanced pricing rules, and product personalization. It clearly has an advantage in terms of functionality – but with that brings a steeper learning curve.
Overall, WooCommerce is the better choice for users who don’t need advanced features on their stores from the off. It enables you to get a store up and running quickly, which is preferable for small ventures, and you can choose to expand its features at a later date using extensions. Round three of WooCommerce vs Magento goes to the former.
Picking a winner between WooCommerce vs Magento wasn’t easy, since no single platform will fit the needs of every user perfectly. While some of you may agree with our decision to pick WooCommerce, others may find themselves more at home with Magento. You’ll need to take into consideration several criteria including performance, security, product management, and your overall budget – along with your own unique needs.
In the end, our decision in this WooCommerce vs Magento title fight was based on the following reasons:
WooCommerce is simpler for new users to pick up – especially if they’re already familiar with WordPress.
The platform has a wide library of great extensions.
It’s cheap to set up. Although your mileage may vary according to the scope of your store, of course.
