If you want to build a robust and reliable store then you have got to select from WordPress vs Adobe eCommerce. They are the top platforms in the market but the battle is raging on for a long time to decide the best eCommerce solution. It’s tough to find the right answer when there are so many options available in the market.
Even though experts have been debating and comparing Magento and WordPress in detail for a while now, there is no telltale sign of a clear winner yet. Because on the one hand, the Magento developers in India are offering top-notch quality eCommerce development services around the world leveraging the feature-rich platform.
On the other hand, WordPress is empowering nearly 40% of websites on the internet. So, there is no surprise why Woocommerce, a WordPress eCommerce solution, is giving a solid fight to Magento (Adobe eCommerce).
But you need a suitable platform for our project, so we need to decide which one works for you. For that, we will look at these platforms individually, considering their features, pros, and cons, and then compare them against a few parameters. From that, you can gain enough insights to make an informed decision.
WordPress
WordPress is a popular CMS platform. And because it is open-source, it is easily accessible to people as well as can offer unlimited customization options, and thousands of add-ons, as well as having support from a large active community.
But the catch here is that WordPress doesn’t have any inherent features that can help you with eCommerce development. It offers a third-party integration, a plugin for WooCommerce created explicitly to help developers build online stores. WooCommerce here comes with a storefront, shopping cart, checkout button, and more store management features to help you grow your eCommerce business.
Pros:
- The combination of WordPress and WooCommerce provides a robust CMS platform
- WooCommerce is flexible so its functionalities can be easily extended using thousands of plugins and integrations offered by WordPress.
- Has the support of a strong active community
- Documentation and resources are easily available online
- User friendly
- If you already have a WordPress website, then it is easy to transform it into an online store
- SEO friendly
Cons:
- To get access to advanced features, you have to pay for their plugins
- Costly
- WordPress has basic functionality, so if you don’t like it, you can’t work with the WooCommerce store
Features:
WordPress users have access to thousands of free and paid themes and plugins. Such limitless customization makes this CMS very powerful. And if you add the WooCommerce plugin to the mix, you get a whole lot of eCommerce features too.
Similar to Magento, WordPress also enables you to sell an unlimited number of products. You can also change the measurement units, language, and currency as per your requirements or offer the same for the customers if your online business is spread globally.
CSV exporter by WooCommerce enables you to import and export product catalogs. This feature helps keep backups in case you ever want to migrate your content to another platform.
Using WooCommerce also makes it easy for customers to leave product reviews on product pages which can be easily seen by all visitors. A search bar is also provided for the convenience of the visitor with various categories like price, ratings, popularity, and more to filter through the results. And to make the product look more appealing and realistic, you can add as many images as you want to the product gallery.
Visitors can buy products from you through their customer account or simply surf through the site using guest accounts, it’s completely up to them. Managing orders, inventories, and one-click refunds, all of these are now easily available on the WordPress platform.
And the thousands of themes of WordPress we talked about earlier, are easily compatible with Woocommerce. You can select anyone you like. And you don’t have to worry about them because most of these themes are SEO-optimized, have faster loading speeds, and offer a mobile-friendly experience. You can edit any part of your website by editing its code to gain granular control.
Magento
Empowered by Adobe, Magento is still an open-source eCommerce development platform. Magento is more developer friendly in comparison to WordPress. The latter is useful for non-technical personnel or someone who doesn’t have much coding experience.
As Megento is completely relying on coding for eCommerce store development, the learning curve of this platform is very steep. It also encourages developers to use as many APIs as possible. However, web-savvy users can freely enjoy this online store.
In addition to that, Magento, like its competitor, offers a variety of extensions to extend the functionalities of your eCOmmerce store.
Pros:
- Feature-rich framework
- Scalable
- Easy to use
- Most of the features are in-built so you don’t have to rely on external plugins or extensions
- A large array of themes is available
- SEO friendly
Cons:
- Magento is developer-friendly not consumer friendly
- Steep learning curve
- Magento‘s enterprise solution is costly
- Sometimes the technical support is poor.
Features:
Magento’s amazing features can help you deliver an enhanced shopping experience. And there isn’t any limit on the number of products you can sell. It also allows you to easily add product descriptions, images, attributes, prices, and many more.
In addition to that, Magento page builder comes with drag-and-drop features and a wide range of widgets which makes your job of building and configuring web pages a whole lot easier. This intuitive drag-and-drop interface can also be applied to asset management, previewing, and content staging.
Based on their buying interests and preferences, you can provide them with personalized offers, product recommendations, promotions, and more. Magento allows you to segment your customers by location, gender, and order history which can help offer customized content and promotion.
You get an update about the product’s availability in real time with the help of the Magento inventory management features. It also allows you to sync your inventories to bridge the gap between online and offline stores and help you implement a centralized order fulfillment system.
Moreover, Magento’s dashboard enables you to handle deliveries, cancellations, backorders, refunds, and more. Magento also offers some B2B functionalities like streamlined requests for quote workflows, quick order forms, requisition lists, and seller-assisted shopping. You can use Magento to integrate with Amazon to build multiple stores and serve customers from all around the world.
A wide array of themes are available in Magento for you to choose from for your online store. The added benefit is that most of them are high-responsive, easily customizable, and SEO-friendly. In case you are looking for more then visit the Magento marketplace to obtain premium themes and extensions to increase the capabilities of your Magento store.
Price comparison
Magento and WordPress are both open-source frameworks so they are free to download, install, and use. But you have to pay for using the WooCommerce plugin and without that plugin, eCommerce development isn’t possible in WordPress.
Magento offers a pro package where you have to pay for getting advanced services like disaster recovery and data retention, 50 GB testing, Business Intelligence, core application support, and more.
This paid eCommerce solution from Magento is well-suited for enterprises including B2B and B2C merchants. You can also get a customized plan which might cost you somewhere between $22,000 and $125,000 per year depending on your requirement.
Since both platforms are open-source, you have to secure a domain name and web hosting on your own. The charges for a domain name would be around $15 per year.
Apart from that, there are many more costs to consider. For example, if you want to extend the hosting capabilities of your store then you have to purchase premium plugins for it or if you want to give an elegant look to your website then you have to shop for a premium theme. So, depending on your requirements, you have to consider the costs of those extra integrations and more.
Comparing support
As both platforms are open-source, there aren’t any customer support services to expect. You have to rely on the self-help documentation and the online community to help you sort out your eCommerce development issues.
Although both platforms have a large and active community, WordPress has an edge because its community is the most engaged and extensive. So there is never a shortage of documentation, self-help guides, and more. And you will have experts helping you solve your problems.
Magento has certain solution partners. You can take their help on specific projects for a fee. And if you wish to launch your online store soon then Magento renders a rapid deployment package with budgetary guidance.
However, it is worth noting that the Magento community is monitored poorly. If you need technical help on some topic, then you can’t get through without the annoyance of spam adverts.
Summary
We saw in this article how feature-rich both eCommerce platforms; Magento and WordPress are and what substantial amount of market they serve.
In terms of eCommerce development, Magento might be better as it can offer reliable and scalable enterprise eCommerce solutions. It might also be cheaper to build and run in comparison to WooCommerce and WordPress’s integration. But Magento can’t be labeled as user-friendly if you are a solopreneur. Handling that in Magento would be just overwhelming.
Additionally, you should have a little knowledge regarding web development, if you wish to work with WordPress’s WooCommerce plugin. Still, it’s very simple to set up teh eCommerce website and with all those amazing features, you can even run a small to midsize online store on WordPress as well.
