Magento® 2 and WooCommerce are two of the largest and most popular platforms used for setting up eCommerce stores. While they both have many positives, there are still differences between them. In this article, we will be providing a detailed breakdown of the two platforms, so you can decide which one is best for your business.
Difference Between Magento 2 and WooCommerce
Let’s make eCommerce platforms comparison between WooCommerce vs Magento 2018. First things you should consider are each platforms usability, the community behind them, and which kind of business should choose Magento and WooCommerce.
Packages and Pricing
Here we can define the average or fixed WooCommerce price and also how much is Magento price? Use the infographics below.
Magento 2 and WooCommerce: eCommerce Functionality
While WordPress or Magento for eCommerce are popular and effective, there are certain areas where one may be stronger than the other. Below you will find a breakdown of all the key features, and how each platform performs in that category.
Payment Methods
Magento checkout and payment features are optimized, smooth and convert very well. Magento takes credit card payments on your store automatically after the user makes a purchase. Paypal is also accepted as a form of payment.
WooCommerce has a similarly effective checkout process, and like Magento, it accepts a majority of the popular payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe and Amazon Pay.
Shipping Methods
WooCommerce brings flexibility, which comes in handy when you consider different shipping settings per product. It has various plugins that allow you to provide more shipping options. These include local pickup, international shipping, and the ability to edit shipping fees (flat fees, percentages, etc.)
Magento also brings adaptability and allows you to use a lot of customizable processes to allow you to create the exact shipping options you want to provide per product. As well as that you are able to set your own shipping options, which range from all types of popular delivery methods and delivery charges.
SEO Features
Let’s compare 2 platforms and see who is more SEO-friendly Magento or WooCommerce. You can set multiple different discounts, prices, upsells, downsells, and in general create much more advanced and effective funnels with Magento SEO. The site offers many tools that will increase your results. The layout of your site can change depending on the viewer, taking advantage of their previous viewing and purchase history. Having your site optimized for every individual will greatly increase your business success with regards to revenue.
WooCommerce does provide plugins that will aid SEO, and you can also find plugins that can generate more effective funnels to improve your sales.
Plugins and Extensions
Magento Marketplace has over a thousand extensions you can add to improve your site. The majority of the extensions are paid extensions, but there are hundreds of free extensions that will greatly improve your site. Regarding Magento customization, it is easy with the development team and you can scale any feature according to your needs. This will help you solve more business tasks and handle more operations.
WooCommerce offers a large number of widgets that can improve the functionality of your site, both for the front end and the back end. As for WooCommerce customization, you can perform it on a basic level. However, with plugins, you can add necessary functionality to your store.
Server Requirements
WooCommerce is a WordPress based plugin that operates as an online store and requires fewer resources to run it.
| Technology Stack Used | Description |
|---|---|
| Memory | 128MB or higher |
| Technologies | MySQL 5.6 or greater and PHP 5.6 or greater. |
Magento, on the other hand, requires more resources to work with it.
| Technology Stack Used | Description |
|---|---|
| Web Server | Apache 2.2 or 2.4 |
| Memory | at least 2GB of RAM |
| Technologies | PHP 7.0.2, 7.0.4, 7.0.6–7.0.x and 7.1.x. MySQL 5.6, 5.7 |
Speed and Performance
Both platforms provide stable and robust performance, as long as you setup your settings correctly. For sure WooCommerce vs Magento speed is a bit differ due to the functionality and size of the platform. Fail to optimize, and you could see issues. There are guides online that will help you easily get the best out of your platform speed-wise.
Useful for you:
Security
As both platforms are open source, you have the opportunity to add your own measures when it comes to security. The systems themselves also come with their own security features. In this case, however, Magento is clearly superior.
WooCommerce has basic security features. The main feature is their security plugin. It provides you protection from brute force hacking and has its own malware scanner. It also has an SSL certificate.
Magento employs security features that are forever changing and becoming stronger and more efficient as time goes on. Magento Commerce, in particular, has an Admin Actions Log that will keep a log of everything that is done on your site. Should you see any suspicious behavior, or evidence of any actions you did not make, then you know how to act fast and protect yourself. You can use different tools like a TripWire to scan for malware and edit the configuration settings, your system’s security, so security settings can be optimized for every user.
They release new patches on a regular basis, meaning your security is always up to date and is never vulnerable to becoming obsolete in the face of new threats.
Usability
Usability is vital when it comes to eCommerce. A lot of people underrate its importance, but it can make or break your business. A site that loads faster has higher levels of accessibility and will convert much better than a website that doesn’t meet the same standards of usability.
WooCommerce is excellent at usability, mainly as it utilizes itself as a WordPress plugin. However, its ease of use is also a part of its weakness. The fact that it is a WordPress plugin means that it has fewer functions than its competitor, who have more extensive, stand-alone system.
Magento gives you the ability to create products, orders, and manage them. Their analytics features are detailed, and advanced reports you receive from your site will significantly improve your decision making. Features that optimize SEO, tools increase lead generations stats, and marketing campaigns all make up a part of why Magento is so useful.
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Community Support
Magento, in particular, has built up the platform over 15 years, thanks to its community of developers and merchants, it continues to grow with technologies and additional tools to become the best platform for eCommerce. Magento Help Center will help you to handle all the issues and find the answers to your questions. If it is not enough for you, you can find Magento technical support at the Magento Stack Exchange or eCommerce-related forums.
WooCommerce also has a community behind it but it’s a newer platform, meaning it has started to grow now. That is why the queries could be solved slower than it does with Magento. As for WooCommerce technical support, you can refer to their Customer Service page or to WordPress Support.
Installation and Usage
Magento has a pretty organized admin panel. All the main features you can find in Sales, Catalog, Customers, Marketing, etc. To check the Demo version, you need to request it from the official website. Or, you can check our Demo overview to learn more about the functionality.
On the one hand, Magento is not easy to install. You need 1-3 hours and a developer. On the other hand, Magento provides customers with constant updates and choice between full or partial update.
If we look at WooCommerce installation, firstly you need to download WordPress, then you can add WooCommerce plugin from WordPress admin. It is easy and doesn’t require additional help from the development side. As for the usage, the admin panel is pretty intuitive. However, to extend functionality, you have to choose other plugins.
We’ve compared all the main features, pricing plans and server resources. Now we can continue with the pros and cons of each platform.
What Suits Your Business
The real question is which platform will suit your business better? If you have a medium to large store, Magento has an advantage. WooCommerce is good for smaller stores and beginners, but once you start to progress, you will realize that you are disabled in a lot of ways. Magento provides a lot more room for growth, with upgrades, new feature, and scalability.
Magento vs. WooCommerce: Usage Prospects
Magento Customers
Magento is gaining the popularity and currently hosts around 1.42% of the top million and almost 2.47% of the entire Internet. This number continues to grow as Magento continues to improve its existing features and adding new ones.
The tendency of Magento 2 stores’ popularity in the US among other countries remain stable – it is around 49% of others. Other companies that prefer Magento are based in the Netherlands – 9% or the United Kingdom – 6% according to the following statistics.
WooCommerce Customers
As for WooCommerce, it has a big amount of stores around the globe. That’s because WooCommerce is good for the start of the business, it has the necessary amount of functions for the simple shop. WooCommerce site with a checkout has 2.4% of the top million and 3.2% of the entire Internet.
There are nearly 70% of stores that use WooCommerce in the US, the other amount relies on other countries – 30%.
Magento 2 vs WooCommerce: Which Platform Wins?
Overall both platforms are very good at what they do. You can’t really go wrong with either, but if we were to suggest one, it would definitely be Magento 2. It offers you much better opportunities for scaling up and making more money down the line. It is also stronger than WooCommerce in security and user support. For these reasons, Magento 2 is the best CMS out there today.
