If you are considering starting an eCommerce business, choosing the right platform goes a long way in determining your store’s success. The platform you decide not only determines the store’s functionality, but also the performance, scalability, user experience, and of course the operating costs. If you search ‘best eCommerce platforms 2024’, you’ll notice two recurring names in every search result – Magento and WordPress (WooCommerce).
They both offer robust features, extensive customisability, and more. Nevertheless, their target audience differs. You may be wondering how this can be, considering both are eCommerce platforms. This article will address this point by comparing the two platforms in detail and then helping you decide which platform is the best for your business. Before moving forward, let’s get a quick overview of both the platforms for better understanding.
WordPress and Magento – A Brief Overview
WordPress is a powerful, open-source content management system. It was originally designed as a blogging platform but over the years has transitioned into a leading website development platform. WordPress can easily cater to small and large websites. What makes WordPress stand out is the extensive library of plugins that allow users to add advanced functionality.
WooCommerce is also a WordPress plugin, allowing website owners to convert their websites into online stores.
Magento goes by another name nowadays – Adobe Commerce. Like WordPress, it is also an open-source platform. The platform is designed specifically for eCommerce stores. It offers a wide range of features, including enhanced security, endless customisability, and simplified maintenance, making it the go-to choice for online businesses worldwide. The latest version of Magento is Magento 2 which offers significant improvements over its predecessor, Magento 1.
Now, let’s compare the two platforms from different perspectives.
WordPress vs. Magento
If you ask a Magento development company, they will vote in favour of Magento. On the other hand, a WordPress agency will prefer WordPress. Instead of relying on either’s opinion, let’s compare the two in detail. This will allow you to decide which platform is the best for your requirements.
Ease of Use
Unless there’s a dedicated team to manage the store or you have considerable technical knowledge, ease of use must be a top priority. Otherwise, you will need to engage experts even for the slightest of tasks. WooCommerce is widely regarded as the best platform when it comes to ease of use. Even a beginner with little to no programming knowledge can easily set up and configure an online store. The below image shows the WooCommerce dashboard.
Everything an individual needs to manage their store is accessible from the left-hand menu. When it comes to adding advanced functionalities, users can download plugins. On the other hand, Magento is a complex platform. Without technical knowledge, users can forget about setting up the website, let alone manage it. The steep learning curve is what dissuades most merchants from selecting Magento 2. It is why any store running on Magento 2 is managed by a dedicated team.
Verdict
If you ask any Magento development company, they will only recommend Magento 2 for merchants with a dedicated team or advanced programming knowledge. If you don’t have the resources or the knowledge, opt for WordPress. There are countless tutorials available online for WordPress, allowing you to fix issues yourself.
Features and Flexibility
As stated earlier, WordPress started off as a blogging platform, before transitioning to a complete web development platform. Despite it, there are more than 50,000 plugins that can be used to add new functionality to your eCommerce store. Apart from it, the open-source nature of the platform allows merchants to customise each aspect of the store with considerable ease.
Nevertheless, WordPress does not come close to Magento when it comes to specialised eCommerce features, such as inventory management, shipping restrictions, and support for multiple storefronts. The reason is that Magento is specifically designed for online stores. Magento is known for its scalability, allowing businesses with large inventories to run smooth operations.
Verdict
Magento is the clear winner when it comes to features and flexibility. For the smaller, content-driven stores, WordPress gets the job done.
Customisation and Design
When designing an online store, you need to ensure that it stands out. The reason is that with so many options, why would a customer select your store? A unique and engaging website improves brand recognition. WordPress has thousands of themes (free + paid) for every eCommerce niche. Users can customise it based on their requirements and needs through custom code.
Magento 2 is no stranger to customisation and engaging website designs. While merchants can find countless templates available, the customisation is a bit more challenging, often require Magento development experts to implement any changes. Despite it, if you are looking for a professional website design that truly stands out, Magento remains the preferred choice.
Verdict
WordPress caters to all sorts of users, beginners and experts. On the other hand, customising and designing a Magento store requires expert-level knowledge.
SEO Capabilities
After setting up your online store, you need to market it to the audience. There are various marketing strategies one can implement, including search engine optimisation (SEO). What is SEO? It involves improving the quality and quantity of organic traffic to a website. In other words, it improves your search engine ranking for various keywords which are relevant to your niche. The next question is, which of the two eCommerce platforms is SEO-friendly i.e. offers the most features?
This is one area where it is difficult to differentiate the two. The reason is that both platforms offer advanced SEO-features right out of the box or through third-party extensions. For example, both support search-friendly URLs and allow for easy content optimisation. If you are having trouble ranking your site, pay close attention to the eCommerce SEO trends 2024. By following these trends, you can give your store a much-needed boost in search visibility.
Verdict
Both platforms cannot be differentiated in this area. Thus, both are the winners. While WordPress offers a user-friendly way to optimise the store, Magento offers a bit more advanced functionality. However, you need technical knowledge to configure these SEO settings.
Performance and Scalability
WooCommerce is ideal for managing small stores. As a store experiences growth and traffic increases, WooCommerce may deteriorate in performance. To avoid this, merchants will need to rely on plugins and third-party services. While this offers a quick fix, you may be compromising on your store’s long-term success. On the other hand, Magento 2 is designed to handle large, complex needs. Thus, there’s no risk of performance degradation whatsoever. It can easily handle large product catalogs and manage sudden spikes in traffic without any issue.
Verdict
Magento is the clear winner when it comes to performance and scalability. It is ideal for small to large sized online stores.
Security
WordPress is not loaded with security features by default, making it arguably the least secure eCommerce platform. The only way to ensure security is through third party plugins, but they still may not be enough. On other hand, Magento is widely recognised for its security. Apart from this, the platform is regularly updated to provide security patches. Nevertheless, configuring the security settings may require special expertise.
Verdict
Magento is the most secure eCommerce platform. Nevertheless, smaller stores don’t have the same security requirements as large stores. Thus, plugins may help address the shortcomings in WordPress.
Pricing
WordPress and WooCommerce are both free to use. The only costs merchants will incur are related to hosting and plugins for advanced functionality. Magento is also an open-source platform, meaning the only costs are hosting and third-party extensions. If you are looking for advanced functionality, you can opt for Adobe Commerce Cloud.
It the paid version of Magento, offering much more advanced features. For further information on Adobe Commerce Cloud, click here. It is pertinent to mention that Magento development costs are much higher compared to WordPress. Also, the hosting costs are higher since Magento 2 websites consume more resources.
Verdict
WordPress is a more affordable solution, whereas Magento 2 is suitable for businesses with complex needs.
Which eCommerce Platform Should You Use?
In conclusion, both are powerful eCommerce platforms that offer advanced features and unique benefits. Nevertheless, you can only set up your store on one platform. Therefore, to answer the question regarding which platform businesses should use, the choice is clear. For smaller stores, we recommend WordPress as it is affordable and easy to use. For stores with a large product catalog and complex requirements, Magento is the only viable option.
