Magento vs. Shopify vs. Woocommerce vs. Bigcommerce [2024]

Magento vs. Shopify vs. Woocommerce vs. Bigcommerce in 2024

magento vs shopify vs woocommerce vs bigcommerc

With over 200 eCommerce platforms available, choosing the right one may be difficult for newbies. Don’t worry, we’re here to guide you through the top four options: Magento vs Shopify vs WooCommerce vs  BigCommerce.

Each offers unique features to support your business’s success. To find your ideal match, let’s compare what each has to offer. Join us to discover the best fit for your online store!

Overview: Magento vs. Shopify vs. Woocommerce vs. Bigcommerce

Features

Ease of use

 

Magento

Most difficult; requires technical knowledge

 

Shopify 

Easiest to use; drag and drop interface

WooCommerce

Moderate; requires familiarity with WordPress

BigCommerce

User-friendly, good interface

Scalability

Highly scalable

Scalable with Shopify plus

Scalable with plugins

Highly scalable

SEO Capabilities

Yes; advanced customization

Yes; basic to moderate SEO

Requires additional plugins for advanced SEO

Yes; basic to moderate SEO

Domain name and hosting

Requires separate hosting

Domain included, hosted on Shopify’s servers

Requires separate WordPress hosting

Domain included, hosted on BigCommerce’s servers

Integration options

Extensive app marketplace

Large app store

Large Plugin Library

Good app marketplace

Customer Service

Community support, third-party services available

24/7 support via live chat, email, and phone

Community and forum support

24/7 support via live chat, email, and phone

Pricing model

Free open source edition, enterprise version with licensing fees

Subscription-based pricing with various plans

Free plugin with costs for hosting, themes, and extensions

Subscription-based pricing with various plans

Now, let’s delve a little deeper into each one:

Magento

Ford, Sigma Beauty, and Graze are among the big names that have used Magento. It’s ideal for large, complex online stores because it offers total control over your website’s design, features, and ability to scale.

The standout feature of Magento is its customization potential. You can tailor every part of your store’s look and functions, unlike with ready-made plugins.  However, this complexity comes at a price –  Magento needs a lot of technical skill and resources to set up and manage.

Shopify

If there’s any user-friendliness prize for eCommerce platforms, Shopify will take the crown. Famous for its  “get started fast” scheme, Shopify lets users quickly create a stunning online store without needing much tech know-how, thanks to its intuitive design and drag-and-drop features.

Shopify is also known for its wide range of themes and apps available. This all-inclusive platform helps owners build their stores, sell products, manage inventory, and accept payments quickly and easily.

While it’s true that Shopify’s platform is user-friendly and can be set up without coding skills, it’s always a good idea to consider hiring a Shopify expert like Craftberry to help you build and set up your store. This will ensure that your store has a converting design and that you have the necessary support to run it efficiently.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source plugin for WordPress, setting it apart from other hosted platforms in the list. It’s a great tool for businesses to manage orders, accept payments, and sell products.

To start using WooCommerce, you need a pre-existing WordPress website. The setup process may be more complicated than Shopify’s. But to compensate for this, its plugin library offers extended functionalities that cater to your specific requirements.

BigCommerce

Imagine a platform with robust features to serve scalable, all-in-one approaches. Between the Magento vs. BigCommerce vs. Shopify vs. WooCommerce battle,  BigCommerce is that hero!

This intuitive platform enables businesses to manage shipping, handle orders, process payments, and sell through multiple channels. It also offers a comprehensive set of marketing tools and built-in scalability to facilitate a business’s expansion.

Platform Showdown: A Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Now, understand a clearer picture of each platform by tapping into eight key features as follows.

Ease of Use and Customization

If you’re new to the eCommerce world and looking for a quick scheme to build your store, Shopify is a safe bet. As mentioned earlier, Shopify’s drag-and-drop functionality makes it a perfect companion for beginners with no coding experience.

Regarding customization, Shopify might be the least flexible platform on the list. However, it can work perfectly with Shopify builders like GemPages, providing merchants with various customization options to set their online stores apart.

Screenshot of store customization on Shopify
Building an online store on Shopify is simple, thanks to its drag-and-drop feature

BigCommerce is an ideal platform for beginners because it’s easy to use and also has plenty of options for those who want to customize their online store. It allows users to enhance functionality and adjust the design elements within the app’s parameters. 

For those who are familiar with WordPress, WooCommerce will be a great choice. However, if you’re not too tech-savvy, keeping up with plugin updates and management might be a bit of a hassle.

When it comes to requiring technical knowledge, Magento is at the top of the list. It’s free to download, but getting it all set up can be tough if you do not have advanced coding skills. You might even need to bring an expert to help sort things out. The upside? Magento gives you full control over your online store’s design, layout, features, and more to make it truly your own

Site Performance and Scalability

When it comes to online store performance, having a solid hosting solution is crucial, especially for platforms like Magento. It’s known for top-notch performance, but if it comes with an improper server, you might see slow load times. 

Thanks to its remarkable scalability, Magento is among the favorite choices of large brands and retailers. No matter what you desire to handle – massive product catalogs or high traffic volumes, Magento gets it. And, of course, it comes with a hefty price for server upgrades.

Sigma Beauty has leveraged Magento to construct its thriving online store, showcasing an extensive range of skincare, makeup, and fragrance items.

Shopify stores, on the other hand, are known for their smooth and reliable shopping experiences.  This is thanks to Shopify’s robust infrastructure. The platform is versatile, catering to businesses of various sizes with its different pricing levels. However, when it comes to handling capacity, it might not quite match Magento or BigCommerce.

About WooCommerce, its performance is largely influenced by the choice of hosting and plugins. A high-quality hosting plan leads to optimal speed and vice versa. Woocommerce also offers scalability options, but optimizing store management and growth typically requires some coding know-how.

BigCommerce is another platform built with performance and the ability to scale in mind. It’s designed to effortlessly manage traffic spikes, making it easier for businesses to grow without needing deep technical skills. 

Designs and Themes

All four platforms in the battle today can satisfy even the pickiest business owners with a diverse selection of themes and templates. Even better? Customization availability and mobile responsiveness are big wins for these contenders.

Shopify and BigCommerce offer a range of free and premium themes to enhance the appearance of online stores. Both platforms offer 12 free themes. Shopify provides 174 paid theme options, whereas BigCommerce offers 191. However, it’s worth mentioning that BigCommerce’s themes may have similar designs, meaning its larger number of themes doesn’t necessarily translate to a wider variety of design choices.

A big collection of themes on the Bigcommerce marketplace
BigCommerce's marketplace features a diverse selection of attractive and practical themes, categorized by various themes and industries.

For WooCommerce, you can get to pick from a huge range of WordPress themes. 

Magento offers a wide variety of themes and add-ons from its marketplace, giving you lots of options to customize your store just how you want it.

Marketing Features

Running a store on Magento comes with the advantages of its built-in marketing features. They often include SEO tools, coupon codes, email marketing functionalities, and customer segmentation.

Though equipped with this comprehensive toolkit, Magento still lacks advanced marketing automation and integrations with popular marketing platforms. Additional extensions might be necessary in this case.

The open-source solution WooCommerce also offers essential marketing features. Related plugins include basic functions for SEO optimization, email marketing, and social media sharing. Yet, with so many plugins to pick from, finding and managing the right ones can get tricky. 

Shopify and Bigcommerce make promotion easier by providing a wide range of tools, such as SEO, discount codes, gift cards, and social media integration. Users can also benefit from Shopify’s intuitive analytics dashboard and reports.

While Shopify’s standard plan has plenty of marketing tools, for more specialized features like targeted emails or automated reminders for abandoned carts, you might want to look at Shopify Plus for an upgrade.

Products and Orders

Extensive product management features make Magento a top choice for large business owners. With advanced inventory management, order tracking, and fulfillment capabilities, owners can create and manage complex product catalogs. And again, the more intricate it is, the more coding assistance it requires.

Another great solution for businesses with rapid expansion desires is BigCommerce. This platform provides advanced product options, variants, and store-keeping units, making it ideal for managing large-scale e-commerce operations.

A screenshot of the Skullcandy online store developed by BigCommerce
Skullcandy, a BigCommerce-based online store, remains at the forefront of the audio industry, delivering hundreds of cutting-edge audio products.

Shopify stands out for its simplicity in managing products and orders, making these tasks easier than on other platforms.

On the other hand, WooCommerce, built on WordPress, allows for detailed customization of product listings and offers a variety of shipping choices, automatic tax calculations, order tracking for teams, and more flexible product management options.

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Checkout and Payments

Magento excels at managing large and diverse product ranges, making it ideal for businesses with high sales volumes or a wide range of offerings.

Its standout features are flexible checkout options and deep customization, appealing to businesses with specific needs at checkout. However, the need for technical expertise could be a hurdle.

For those looking for an easy setup and straightforward management of checkout and payment processes, Shopify is a great solution. No coding knowledge is required for basic operations.

Shopify is known for its smooth checkout experience, thanks to a built-in process designed to reduce the steps customers need to take, thereby improving conversion.

Businesses can adapt to diverse customer payment options thanks to Shopify Payments and its integration with over 100 popular payment processors (PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net, to name a few). Additionally, Shopify has its own one-click checkout option for returning customers, called Shop Pay, which is another advantage that contributes to its fast checkout process.

Shop Pay is one of the payment solutions that Cowboy uses on its checkout process

Alt-text: A screenshot of the checkout page on Cowboy

Once again, WooCommerce relies on plugins to extend the checkout and payment features. Through plugins, you can integrate with popular payment processors like Stripe and PayPal. Moreover, with some plugins, you can customize the checkout process, such as by adding additional steps or changing the layout.

Like other platforms, BigCommerce integrates with PayPal and many other popular payment processors to offer a variety of payment choices. This platform strikes a good balance between a user-friendly checkout flow and the ability to customize the process.

Integrations and Ecosystem

Strong API support gives Magento the power to integrate with thousands of third-party systems for different needs like payments, shipping, and marketing. However, setting these up requires technical know-how.

Shopify’s App Store is packed with various apps for marketing, accounting, shipping, and more.  While not as extensive as Magento, Shopify’s app store makes it a go-to solution for those seeking a user-friendly interface and an easy installation process.

BigCommerce also has an Apps Marketplace with plenty of apps and integrations. It simplifies the connectivity with enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM), and shipping solutions, helping businesses tailor their operations to enhance their productivity.

WooCommerce takes advantage of the vast WordPress plugin ecosystem. Businesses can access thousands of plugins and extensions when it comes to managing payments, orders, product variations, and more.

Customer Support

Shopify and BigCommerce satisfy and retain their users by offering dedicated customer support. They provide 24/7 assistance via phone, email, and live chat so that users can reach out to them whenever they face issues or need advice.

If that’s not enough, remember that both platforms offer indirect support via extensive documentation, guides, and tutorials on their websites.

On the other hand, Magento and WooCommerce primarily rely on community-based support. They offer a wealth of documentation, forums, and resources for assistance and guidance.

However, it’s important to mention that Magento provides different levels of support plans. The basic support mentioned earlier is just the start. When you upgrade to the Enterprise Edition, you get access to priority support and specialized technical help.

Magento vs. Shopify vs. Woocommerce vs. Bigcommerce: How Much Does Each Platform Cost?

Getting to know the features of each platform thoroughly can give businesses a clearer idea of what fits their needs best. But choosing the best among WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce isn’t just about features; it also needs to align with your budget.

Scroll down to explore the pricing plans of the four players and decide which will be your ideal companion.

Magento

Magento is available for free as an open-source platform, but it also has paid versions like Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud, which come with added benefits but at a higher cost. 

  • Magento Open Source: Free to download and use. 
  • Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud:  Prices start at around $22,000 and $40,000 per year, respectively.  These costs can go up significantly for larger or more complex businesses, especially since Magento Commerce adds fees based on your transaction volume.

Running a store requires other costs too, like hosting, domain names, development, add-ons, and design.  Fees can vary depending on which providers and plans you choose. For instance, a domain name can cost you $10–$400 annually.

Shopify

Shopify caters to a variety of business needs with three distinct pricing plans, each packed with its own features and advantages. For those seeking advanced capabilities, Shopify’s Plus plan is available. 

Even better? Shopify provides an appealing deal: a 3-day free trial, followed by the first month at only $1. This allows you to explore Shopify’s robust features and begin creating your online store risk-free.

Now, let’s dig a little deeper into its plans.

  • Basic: Priced at $25 monthly ($19 if paid yearly), ideal for solo entrepreneurs. Offers essential features like product listings, 24/7 support, POS Lite, and selling in 3 markets. 

Note: It includes a 2% transaction fee for third-party payments and is limited to one user.

  • Shopify

At $65 monthly ($49 yearly), this plan suits small teams with all Basic features plus five staff accounts and reduced transaction fees to 1%.

  • Advanced

For growing businesses, this plan is $399 a month ($299 yearly), offering expanded global selling to 50 markets, custom reports, and 10x checkout capacity.

  • Plus

Starting at $2,300, tailored for complex operations with significant inventory and checkout needs.

Woocommerce

In the Magento vs. BigCommerce vs. Shopify vs. WooCommerce comparison, WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin, offering basic features like product management, inventory tracking, and secure checkout right out of the box.

So, what cost does it take to run your business using WooCommerce?

Like Magento, you need to invest in hosting and domain registration. 

While WordPress offers access to a wide range of free extensions and themes, many advanced functionalities require additional paid extensions.

For instance, payment gateways, theme customization, shipping integrations, or marketing extensions will have fees associated with them, ranging from a few dollars to hundreds per year.

BigCommerce

Like Shopify, BigCommerce tiers its pricing plan to meet the different business needs and scales. It includes three main plans and a custom Enterprise package. Here’s a breakdown of the core features of each plan:

  • Standard ($39/month or $29/month annually)

Ideal for new business. 

It offers unlimited products, a mobile-optimized store, SEO tools, live support, professional reports, a blog, product reviews, and more. 

However, it misses out on features like abandoned cart recovery and product filtering.

  • Plus ($105/month or $79/month annually)

Perfect for businesses making up to $180k a year.

It covers all the features that the Standard plan has, plus:

  • Abandoned cart saver
  • Persistent cart
  • Customer groups and segmentation
  • Stored credit cards

These powerful supplements help you enhance customer engagement and maximize sales opportunities.

  • Pro ($399/month or $299/month annually)

For growing businesses needing more than the Plus plan. 

The Pro plan adds features like Google customer reviews, which can be shown on product pages and in search results and ads, increasing trust and sales. It also offers advanced product filtering to improve the shopping experience. 

While more expensive, the Pro plan is worth it for businesses earning less than $400k annually, offering significant growth potential. 

Important note: BigCommerce does not charge transaction fees on any of its plans.

Pros and Cons of Each Platform: Choosing Your Champion

Before wrapping up this comparison of Magento vs. WooCommerce vs. Shopify vs. BigCommerce, let’s summarize the pros and cons of each contender. Then, we’ll give you some tips to choose an ideal companion.

Magento

Pros

Cons

  • Free open-source platform
  • Highly customizable
  • Scalable for large businesses
  • High technical expertise required
  • Complex to manage
  • Additional costs required

 

Tips: Magento is suitable for large businesses with complex, high-volume stores, large budgets, and in-house technical expertise or a dedicated development team.

Shopify

Pros

Cons

  • User-friendly interface
  • An app store with limitless integration options
  • Built-in Shopify Payments
  • 24/7 customer support
  • Flexible price plans for beginners
  • Advanced functionalities require higher costs
  • Transaction fees for external payment gateways

Tips: Shopify is ideal for newcomers and small- to medium-sized businesses looking for an easy-to-use, all-in-one e-commerce platform. You can start small with its low-price plan which has essential features, and upgrade to more advanced plans as your store expands.

Woocommerce

Pros

Cons

  • Free plugins
  • Extensive customization options
  • Good SEO and other marketing features
  • Vast plugins in the WordPress ecosystem
  • Complex for non-technical users
  • Require separate hosting and domain registration

Tips: WooCommerce is a perfect solution for budget-conscious businesses and those with some technical expertise, willing to manage a self-hosted platform.

BigCommerce

Pros

Cons

  • User-friendly interface
  • Scalable for growing businesses
  • No transaction fees
  • 24/7 support
  • Higher pricing compared to other platforms
  • Fewer integration options than Shopify

Tips: BigCommerce suits businesses of all sizes, especially those prioritizing scalability and reliability, and are comfortable with a higher price point.

Final Thoughts

So, who is your top choice in the Magento vs. BigCommerce vs. Shopify vs. WooCommerce showdown?

When looking into these platforms (and possibly others), remember to consider all crucial features like user-friendliness, scalability, SEO capabilities, integration options, and pricing structures to find the best fit for your business.

In the end, you’ll want a platform that not only showcases your brand but also connects you with your audience and drives your business. With the insights from this comparison, your choice can set the stage for your online success.

About GemPages Academy

GemPages Academy is a knowledge hub for storefront optimization and achieving overall eCommerce success. In collaboration with industry experts and leveraging cutting-edge Shopify applications, GemPages Academy offers a diverse array of content in various formats, including insightful blogs, intuitive tutorials, comprehensive webinars, and educational courses.

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