WooCommerce vs Magento 2: which one to choose?

Luckily, we are here to rescue you from this head-scratching confusion. There is no ultimate guide to help you choose the best one. But, this article will give enough information to make the right choice as per your needs and taste. Here, all the facts are combined to help you in making the right decision. Take a moment to read and know which e-commerce solution is right for you?

Detailed Overview – WooCommerce vs Magento 2 Ecommerce

WooCommerce: What is it?

WooCommerce is a self-hosted open-source platform. It was launched in 2011. This is the most powerful plugin of WordPress. It also helps turn your WordPress website into an eCommerce store. This flexible and popular website builder is supporting almost 400,000 websites.

This eCommerce platform performs functions well in the backend and frontend. It has themes to create an appealing front. Store owners can create online stores in a few clicks with WooCommerce. It can help to customize the store to cater to the business needs.

Key Features:

• Allow you to host stores on your server with the least effort.
• Unlimited plugins to handle your eCommerce store.
• Free and premium themes to customize the site.
• Pre-built security features and third-party security extensions to make your job easier.
• Setting up a store is free, keeping aside the hosting expenses.
• Use extensions to integrate Google Analytics.
• Easy to include an SSL certificate for security.

Magento 2: What is it?

Magento 2 is the updated version of Magento 1, which took the eCommerce world by storm in 2015. It has more advanced features and excellent functionalities compared to the Magento 1. This open-source platform is free to use for enterprise-level companies. Besides, It has a set of powerful tools to improve site performance and optimize conversion rates.

Magneto has three editions to meet the different needs of your large business:
Open-source: It is a free edition that includes all the important functions to run an eCommerce business.
Commerce and Cloud-based: They are paid editions to get out-of-the-box features. It helps your store to expand to cater to customer demands. You need to do a large initial investment to stay ahead in the eCommerce world.
Key Features:

• Handle thousands of products as a Self-hosted platform sh
• In-built themes and templates to choose from.
• Install any third-party extension using efficient APIs.
• Intuitive admin interfaces and product creation tools.
• Offer discounts, coupons, and rewards to promote products.
• Robust multi-store management and order management.
• Provide advanced SEO extensions to achieve search engine rankings.
• Relevant APIs to integrate to make payments and logistics easier.

General Comparisons: Magento vs WooCommerce

• Performance

  Loading speed is a crucial part of deciding the performance of your website. If the speed is slow, visitors will leave the store. You can lose potential customers, which can further cause a drop in business sales.

  Both performance and speed matter to find the right platform for your online stores. They depend on a few certain factors:-

  • Size of images
  • No. of installed extensions and custom modules.
  • Type and quality of hosting

  So, many factors decide the performance and speed of your store. Hence, there is no clear winner in this round. With Magento, you can use PWA technology for better performance and boost sales.

• Ease of Use

  WordPress: Online business owners are looking for convenient options. WooCommerce is easy to install eCommerce platform. Someone who doesn’t know about technology. They can set it up in a single click.

  As you know, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. So, go to WordPress and install WooCommerce by going to Dashboard > Plugins > WooCommerce. It offers a setup wizard to complete the installation process effortlessly and comfortably.

  Magento: It brings a ton of features to improve user experience. Magento 2 allows you to manage many stores for free using third-party extensions. But, it requires technical experts to configure and organize for further business expansion.

• Payment Options

  WooCommerce: It supports many payment options. This platform is perfect for small businesses to reach global markets. As you can install payment extensions with just a single click. Store owners can integrate payment options of PayPal, Visa, Master Cards, Google Play, and Amazon payments.

  Magento: It also offers many payment extensions for its users. It supports cash on delivery, net banking, and credit/debit card options for payments. Users can also set their shipping charges while setting up a Magento store to automate shipping calculations. Further, third-party extensions available with Magento support popular payment gateways, including Stripe, Paypal, Braintree, etc.

• Plugins and Extensions

  Both platforms provide free and paid extensions to enhance website appearance and performance. WooCommerce and Magento allow developers to create customized extensions to fulfill the merchant’s expectations.

  Magento: It offers a wide range of free and paid Magento 2 extensions. There are over 4500 extensions available in the Magento marketplace. Community developers have built Magento 2 plugins for various purposes, including website optimization, marketing, accounting and finance, shipping, payment, and more.

  WooCommerce has many free extensions to install and personalize your store. Its marketplace offers 400 extensions to customize brand stores as per your business requirements. You can also go for paid ones to enhance functionality. WooCommerce plugins cost you much less than Magento.

  Here, None wins. Both have free and powerful extensions to use.

• Pricing:

  WooCommerce is a free platform. You don’t need to spend a single penny to download from the website. It offers a ready eCommerce store to launch with the basic themes. However, if your store needs additional functionalities, you will need to purchase plugins for modifications.

  Magento’s open-source platform is a free edition. It offers all the basic features to run an online store. It is an excellent option for growing sellers who don’t have a high budget. But, business owners may need to pay for hosting services. With the Magento eCommerce edition, the hosting fee is already included.

• Support:

  WooCommerce: It has huge community support. As it has a lot of resources to help store owners and fix the issues. It covers a major part of the eCommerce market. It can easily integrate with WordPress, so it gets massive support from the WordPress community too.

  Magneto: It offers Magento Commerce editions, which offer live chat and email support features. This open-source edition provides all kinds of resources and official channels to help you step up the Magento store. Although Magento is stronger than WooCommerce, it still gets less support from the community.

  WooCommerce is the winner in this round.

Final Result: Which should I choose for my project?

In Conclusion, both platforms are popular and best for different purposes. But, deciding to decide on the right platform still takes more time. Magento and Woocommerce are perfect platforms, in terms of their performance, security, server management, usability, customization, usability, etc. Now, you can decide based on their features and pros and cons. Here are key takeaways to take the final decision: