There are a number of renowned names that we hear about as it comes to eCommerce hosting platforms. Among the many, the two big names that come out are Magento and PrestaShop, as both of these platforms have a lot to offer to their audience. Now as it comes to making the big decision over which one you should be using, then for that it is advised to find information and work of how both of these platforms work.
In order to give a better understanding of both these platforms, we compare both Magento and PrestaShop on several criteria, such as Performance, Security, Ability to Customize, Site Management, and Ease of Use. So, In the end, you must get a good idea about which of these two eCommerce platforms is the right choice for your website, so here let’s begin.
An open-source eCommerce platform written in PHP language, Magento was originally developed in 2007, and today it has become the most prominent CMS with several products & versions. Some of the recent statistics even reveal that Magento is powering 250000 eCommerce websites and has more than 2.5 million downloads.
Just as the Magento, PrestaShop again is a free eCommerce platform that is written in PHP. There is no need to pay the monthly fee or commissions to use Magento. However, like Magento, PrestaShop doesn’t offer any enterprise edition, and this is the very first difference between these two platforms. So far, more than 300,000 online shops all over the world have chosen this eCommerce platform and it is available in 60 different languages.
Now as both Magento & PrestaShop are open-source, so they can be easily customized in various ways. Like with PrestaShop, it gives a lot of functionalities, making site management easy, providing many SEO benefits, giving user analytics, reporting, and a lot more. Also, there are more than 125000 online eCommerce stores using PrestaShop at the moment, and this way it gets easier to find help with the program.
On the other hand, Magento is the leader in the eCommerce Shopping Cart solutions, providing a number of tools, features, and customization options. With Magento, you get a lot better SEO benefits as compared to other shopping carts available in the market, having targeted promotion & merchandising. Also, they allow multiple payment & shipping options and there are a number of large-scale businesses who have placed their trust in Magento for their shopping cart needs.
In the past, a lot of flak came in the way of Magento owing to its performance issues, in the form of backend issues faced by users and developers. When not resolved, these issues led to slowing down the websites. On the other hand, the performance of PrestaShop is simply on-point and it has no heavy-duty CMS like Magento, which has the ability to slow the website performance. On the other hand, as it comes to PrestaShop, its performance is absolutely on point and there is no intense CMS as Magento has and is responsible for slowing the website performance. So, in terms of performance, Magento is better as it offers a seamless experience to its customers.
Now both of these platforms are free to access, however it does involve other costs that need to be incurred for structuring the business. It is easy to set up basic stores using free versions with both of these platforms, but for taking full advantage of these platforms, it is vital to spend money. And when spending money, Magento’s Enterprise edition is the best investment value-wise.
To work with Magento, one needs extensive knowledge and immense experience. Being a CMS, for beginners, Magento can be intimidating as even its installation is a tough job. Whereas PrestaShop has a comparatively easier installation process and it doesn’t require great knowledge of the platform. Also, even after the installation, often developers find it difficult to handle Magento. So, you either need the necessary product knowledge or an adept and experienced developer to work with Magento. So, as it comes to the ‘ease-of-use, Magento is a sure-shot winner.
With Magento & PrestaShop, the customers and the store get better security. They are both designed in a manner to offer robust security to your store as well as your customers. Now even though both of these platforms offer a great level of security, still it is vital to put considerable time & effort into ensuring there is no vulnerability exposed for exploitation. And in that aspect, Magento offers robust functionalities with enhanced security.
It is through documentation & the communities across the globe that open-source platforms get the support. However, both of these platforms offer extensive official documentation & large user communities that are helpful in resolving the issues and providing the required support.
But again, as Magento is a CMS and CMS has more popularity across the world, so it certainly has a larger community. And with the size of enterprises that Magento has, it is easier to have all queries answered.
Also, it is since 2007 that PrestaShop is here while Magento was founded in 2001, and it can be said that Magento enjoys a larger user base that offers huge support. Furthermore, with PrestaShop, one needs to rely on the users & documentation as it has no official support team, whereas, with Magento, you get the official support for all the problems encountered.
Final Note: Ultimately, both the platforms are great, and you should make the choice depending on your business needs. In case looking to set up a basic eCommerce store of small-medium scale, then PrestaShop can be a good choice, whereas to grow your business exponentially and to reach a wider audience, Magento should be your go-to for its scalability & professional support.
All in all, both the platforms have its pros and cons and the final decision depends on your business scale and your priorities. In case of PrestaShop, even though it is open-source, it is still easy-to-use and manage, and covers the key eCommerce functionalities with millions of add-ons. Its open-source nature, makes it flexible for customization. And for these reasons PrestaShop is seen as an ideal choice for the beginners or small-to-medium scale business aiming cost-efficiency. And in case of Magento, the store owners may not favor it as it comes to ease-of-use & pricing, but this platform definitely outshines as it comes to the large-scale eCommerce stores.
