WooCommerce or Magento?
If you’re looking to create an online store, you’ll need an e-commerce platform. Magento and WooCommerce are two of the most popular options you can go with.
In this article we’ll have a quick compare pf the two platforms against each other to help you make the best decision for your future on-line business goals. We’ll explain the important features, costs, start up ease, product management and overall performance. Hopefully this will help you make an informed decision how to take forward your ecommerce web design requirements and which platform is right for you.
WooCommerce Key Features
- The platform is totally free
- You’ll need your own web host as per WordPress which costs.
- Product support is unlimited.
- Easy to use platform.
- Supports an unlimited number of products.
- Comes with a large extension system, based on the WordPress plugin format.
- As far as payment goes, you can pick nearly any payment processor.
- There are many free or premium themes to choose from.
Magento Key Features
- A free community version is available as well as premium services for larger businesses.
- The community version is self-hosted.
- Unlimited availability for products.
- The system is theme-based with many options.
- A huge marketplace of support extensions.
- Recommended for those with basic level web development knowledge. Many business owners opt to hire Magento developers in Toronto.
WooCommerce for Your E-Commerce Needs
There are nearly 400,000 sites that are using WooCommerce for their online stores. WooCommerce is familiar for those people who are already using WordPress and setting up the store is totally free. The great thing about WooCommerce is its direct attachment to WordPress. You can take advantage of SEO yoast for example which helps your store get seen more.
For those who are WordPress savvy you’ll be able to start your e-commerce platform on your own, it’s really very simple. However, there are many advanced options through the extension system that a WooCommerce company in Toronto can help you with.
Support with WooCommerce
WooCommerce has a lot of documentation to help you with any questions you have. You can also contact the WooCommerce team to help you. I have heard that they can be quite slow in getting back to you and there is no support phone number to call. The best bet is finding your answers online, or if you’re lucky enough to have a web design company to work with pick their brains!
Analyzing Your Sales
WooCommerce integrates with Google Analytics when you use the extension. You will get different sales reports and you can export them with a .csv format.
Security with WooCommerce
It’s essential that you protect your WordPress site as it’s likely someone will try to hack you at some point. This is based on the reports of attacks. There are robots that are systematically checking for user names and passwords in order to get into your account. They can come in through cheap third party plugins and templates.
WordPress has stepped up to the plate to offer additional security. If you’re using WooCommerce, you may want to get a WooCommerce Toronto expert to take measures to keep you secure. They can install the right security plugins and update your version of WordPress.
Considerations Before Choosing WooCommerce
If you’ve never used WordPress, you are now going to have to learn two platforms. With that being said, there is a lot of support online with video tutorials and forums. It is easy to use so it shouldn’t take long to learn. As WooCommerce is so basic, having extra themes and extensions can add up. WooCommerce isn’t as meaty as Magento so you may lose out on some of the options that the more robust Magento offers.
WooCommerce Costs
WooCommerce is totally open-source which means anybody can download it and use it on any server. So while you can begin free of charge, premium extensions can get costly and may even require you to subscribe every year.
How much you pay really will depend on what you want. Again, if you’re a small business and you don’t need much, you can use WooCommerce for a low price. If you want to develop a beautiful, functional site that increases sales, you might want to seek out web design company specializing in WooCommerce Toronto.
WooCommerce for Smaller Business
WooCommerce is good for those who run a pretty small business and don’t have a lot of developing knowledge. If you are just looking to sell products while you grow, you can add plugins. Some of them come at a cost while others are free. If you don’t have a budget to start your online store, WooCommerce is a good solution.
So that’s food for thought with WooCommerce. How about Magento?
Magento for Your E-Commerce Needs
Magento is a more intense ecommerce platform that was developed for web developers. Saying that, you shouldn’t have a problem setting it up if you are technically minded as it does have a user-friendly interface. When you start to require more extensions to make your website function and look the way you want it to, you’ll likely want some assistance. Magento developers in Toronto can customize your site just the way you want it.
Support with Magento
Magento, being open-source like WooCommerce, has a huge community involved with it. There are Magento developers in Toronto and worldwide that have come up with solutions to problems. Magento also has a dedicated community that is always improving the platforms and checking code. Therefore if you hit a technical hitch you should be able to find whatever solutions you’re looking for.
You might be used to using a call center but the simple support system gets you answers more quickly. Asking questions in forums will be read and answered by various professionals and experts on any topic.
Magento Analytics
The Magento platform is used by some big players for many reasons. One of the big reasons is the detailed statistical database that supports Magento, allowing users to break down what’s working and what isn’t. While Google Analytics can be installed in WooCommerce, Magento goes one step more. It can be extended with the Enhance E-commerce application. This gives you a lot more information which then allows you to make improvements.
You can find out what products have been viewed the most, searched the most, and which are generally more popular.
Considerations Before Choosing Magento
If you’re just dabbling with sales online, you may not want to invest your time and money in this robust system. It really is for those who have high hopes of creating a site that will maximize sales. If you’ve created a blog that is doing well and want to sell some products on the side, then I’d recommend WooCommerce as a good platform to choose.
Magento was primarily developed for e-commerce purposes which it does very well. It exceeds WooCommerce for sales in many ways due to its adaptability and flexibility. WordPress was originally created as a source for content, showing portfolios and creating informative sites. Magento does have basic content creation features but content management isn’t as cohesive as WooCommerce is being connected to WordPress.
Magento Costs
If you’re committed to making money online, you will need some kind of budget to make it happen. WooCommerce and Magento have the same no-cost start up, but I’d say that you’re going to be more inclined to get a Magento company in Toronto to help you develop your online store. The complexity of the program means that some of the development process could cause things to ‘break’. A professional Magento Toronto company will use the proper procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen to you.
It is because Magento is so sophisticated that it costs more than WooCommerce. Is it worth the investment? Most likely, yes. Magento users often reduce their business spending by half and see a noticeable increase in sales.
Magento Security
While WooCommerce is hacked fairly often, Magento is less likely to be hacked. This is thanks to the built-in features that reduce the risk of installing more extensions. Still, you should install all security patches from the very beginning.
Magento and Its Robust System
If you have grand plans for your business, Magento is the way to go. Once you have Magento developers in Toronto install your extensions, you’ll be amazed at what your site can do. Your budget will need to be larger than if you were using WooCommerce.
The Magento platform is a dedicated e-commerce solution while WooCommerce was an afterthought attached to a content management platform. If you want a well-built store that does everything you want it to, Magento is worth the investment.
I hope that helps you decide which e-commerce platform would best suit your needs.
