E-commerce is prevalent as businesses are fast going online these days, accelerated even more because of the Covid pandemic. Because of the virtual nature of your online business, you require a platform that lets you manage any and all aspects related to the website design of your digital firm. This is where platforms like Magento and Shopify come into play.
Why You Need Them
E-commerce platforms like Magento 2 and Shopify are like a storefront where you can go to browse through the products, list prices, descriptions, and checkouts. This platform also works at the back-end by providing programs to the capitalist for monitoring sales, managing receipts, and overlooking transactions that take place routinely.
Even though you can theoretically manage without an e-commerce platform, but if your business witnesses a large volume of activity daily, an e-commerce platform is a must.
Let’s Compare
Keeping the basics aside, here are the key points of differences between the two platforms.
- Multiple Stores
Magento 2 offers a multi-store management system for B2B and B2C interactions- of its best selling points. You can have multiple websites and various domain names, all hosted by a single platform.
With Shopify Plus, you can ‘clone’ your websites but you cannot host multiple ones on the same platform. It is a long way to manage more than a single storefront from one digital location.
- Accessibility of Source Code
Magento’s source code is of the open type, which means it can be accessed by individuals as well as parties for better ‘flexibility. You can customize according to your own tastes and requirements because you own the code.
Shopify Plus does not provide the ownership of the code to the businesses and thus, does not leave too much room for you to make changes according to your wishes. Even though it is more secure than Magento from the security point of view, it does come across a slightly more ‘rigid’ than its counterpart.
- Storage Type
Magento Enterprise is a Platform-based service (PaaS) and will not be providing you a ‘cloud’ storage.
Shopify Plus has a cloud-based storage system (SaaS), making it a fully hosting security solution for your business.
- Cost-Effectiveness
This is where Shopify Plus gives you a clear advantage over Magento. It provides a decent cost for the extensive array of services it provides, whereas Magento is an expensive platform that requires costly maintenance ($20,00 upwards).
- Security Type
Security solutions for your Shopify Plus e-commerce store will come as a part of your purchase package. Because of its SaaS nature, your website(s) remain fully secured and maintained.
Magento requires paid maintenance and security solutions to be valued by the developer.
- Other Key Features
Other key features like availability of multi-currency checkouts, language options, localized payment methods, and accommodation of more product variants are definitely better and more in Magento than in Shopify Plus, even though it provides multiple options of upgrade.
Which One To Go For?
Both Magento Enterprise, as well as Shopify Plus, provide separate brackets of benefits to B2B and B2C ventures. The question you need to ask is- what objectives are you looking at fulfilling via the platform? The choice is entirely based upon your requirements. If your business does not have an extensive online network yet, it is best to stick to Shopify development. But, if you already have a well-established online store and are looking to expand your reach and attract more customers, Magento Enterprise is your solution.
