Magento 2 vs Shopify Plus: Who wins in 2023 for E-commerce Development?

For any online business, making a choice for a suitable E-commerce development platform is a challenging job. There are several platforms nowadays making selection work more complicated. But we will discuss the two most popular platforms Magento Vs Shopify Plus to ease your overhead. It is important to choose a suitable platform before starting an online selling business. 

The reality behind a store’s success depends on the website platform it is based. To help you have a perfect start in your business making a smart decision is important. In this blog post, we will make a detailed comparison of the two platforms to highlight their differences and help you decide whether Magento 2 development is suitable or Shopify development. But before that, some introduction is required for better understanding. 

A Brief Overview of Magento and Shopify:

What is Magento?

Magento was launched in 2007 and is known for its flexibility, customization, and scalability. With its latest version Magento 2, it is offered as Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce.

• Magento Open Source: A Free and self-hosted platform providing functions to build and develop a unique online store.
• Magento Commerce: The premium version is recommended for merchants and Magento 2 developer who are looking for a cloud solution to optimize the store performance.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a commercial platform allowing business owners to build their online stores without going deep into technical knowledge. There are two options provided: Shopify and Shopify Plus.

• Shopify: A hosted solution allowing online stores to customize storefronts, sell products, run and grow businesses.
• Shopify Plus: An advanced platform offering a better level of customization, support, and other useful features.

Also read this: Magento Commerce Vs Salesforce Commerce

We have discussed the most significant points of difference to help you make a wise decision while selecting CMS.

1. Hosting

Shopify Plus: Shopify Plus is SaaS based which operates on a different server and comes fully hosted. It is a perfect alternative to self-hosted software and companies are moving from traditional hosting to SaaS models. The availability of the site’s security is the real reason for its popularity. Shopify takes care of SSL certificates to PCI compliance. This help in saving resources on manual site updates.

Magento 2: Magento is a self-hosted platform needing third-party hosting for the E-commerce store. A robust server is needed which results in smooth customization. Magento Support can be availed from the community when facing any downtime or technical issues. That’s why most companies consult Magento developers to host their website and manage security. All security patches are integrated by experts adding monthly cost.

2. Ease of Use

Shopify Plus: Shopify is a simple-to-use E-commerce platform, focusing on store merchants and the backend features include simple drag and drop. A user can customize the homepage, and navigation with a few clicks. Although Shopify Plus and Magento 2 have several common features Shopify offers small changes without developer assistance.

Magento 2: Magento needs technical skills to set up, and a bit difficult to use on a daily basis. It needs deep learning and unless you hold expertise or have to hire Magento developer, you’ll find it tough to go with it and perform changes. Magento has several unique features making it a preferred choice for the E-commerce industry. It lacks drag-and-drop functionality, but its customizing is not tough for store owners having CMS knowledge.

3. Multi-Stores

Magento 2: With the global audience in mind E-commerce needs multi-stores to engage them for higher sales. One of Magento’s advantages is the availability of multiple stores with a single interface, helping different websites for different countries. With the presence of local domains, native languages, and currencies, customers love buying from the stores.

This multi-store means product catalogues are offered in the local language and feature to apply changes across all websites. For this reason, international brands prefer Magento 2 development.

Shopify Plus: Shopify Plus provides the creation of different store views, but unlike Magento, they require separate interfaces making complex for store admin. The data can be shared between the stores using content syncing, but it requires more effort than Magento. So, if you’ve decided on having different stores, go with Magento 2 development.

Shopify Plus has the functionality to sell in multiple currencies, but the prices will revert to your main currency during the checkout. This approach isn’t a perfect customer experience and requires proper changes for desired results.

4. Customer Support

Shopify Plus: Shopify Plus offer users 24/7 support over the phone, email and live chat. Each user is assigned a Merchant manager for personalized support service. In addition, Shopify by default handles updates and security making users less likely to access support.

Magento 2: Customers get 24/7 Magento support through forums and the community in case of any trouble. In addition, support from Magento’s account management team is offered, but at an additional price. For self-hosted users, most of the support-related queries are fixed through the hosting provider, making things complicated. Unlike Shopify Plus, which has flat charges, Magento offers support according to your plan.

5. Content Marketing

Shopify Plus: Shopify is known to offer advanced default marketing tools to engage prospects and grow ROI. It is easy to sell directly and promote on social channels for marketing. Seguno and Klaviyo can be integrated to perform email campaigns. Shopify even gives access to multilingual websites. Shopify may have diverse in-built marketing features, but it is not good with the SEO functionality. It is impossible to make changes to the default marketing features of Shopify. Major ones include URL structure, hierarchy, and not to miss server-level configurations.  

Magento 2: On the other hand, Magento focus on marketing features with the support of its Marketplace. For example, it is important to install extensions including Remarkety to perform email campaigns. In addition, you need to hire 2 Magento developer to integrate marketing tools. Magento offers merchants more marketing features in comparison to Shopify. In addition, the Magento eCommerce website’s structure can be modified in terms of meta tags, images, and URLs change.  

6. Security Updates

Shopify Plus: Shopify offers advanced security features to protect eCommerce websites. It has default SSL encryption, password manager and PCI-DSS compliance functionality. In addition, with the presence of a strong community, it becomes simple for eCommerce businesses to manage customer data sensitively. 

Magento 2: Magento lacks default security features, but it is flexible to support merchants to make their websites secure. Also, merchants get access to the regular release of updates and fixes to keep the website secure. Magento 2 even lets you install security extensions to protect your valuable data. While Shopify has default security features for users but lacks the facility of regular updates like Magento. 

7. Apps & Extensions 

Shopify Plus: More than 4000+ free and paid extensions are present on Shopify App Store to enhance business productivity.  

Here are the renowned extensions: 

• Trust Hero: This extension shows trust icons to eCommerce shoppers, reducing the cart abandonment rate. 
• MailChimp: This extension successfully integrates advanced email marketing campaigns for higher productivity. 
• Analytics Buddy: This extension offers valuable information by accessing all your Google Analytics information straight from the website dashboard. 

Magento 2: More than 3600+ extensions are available from Adobe Commerce. With limited coding skills, you can install and implement these Magento extensions into your website.  

Here are the renowned extensions: 

• Amasty Multiple Coupons: This extension boosts repeat purchases and ensures customers feel valued. Shoppers can add custom discount coupons for the best deal.  
• Product Pre-order: This extension can be used to send an automatic email to prospects when new product is launched or any offer is available.  
• Remarkety: This extension helps to integrate email campaigns and social channels with your website.  

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. Which is better Shopify or Magento?

When it comes to making a selection between Magento Vs Shopify, several factors comes into the picture. Hosting and Security is key difference-making factor to make a better choice. Shopify is a hosted platform while Magento is a self-hosted one. Magento is better in terms of security and Shopify needs monthly expenses to mange security.  

2. Why invest in Magento 2 for eCommerce?

Magento is a highly-flexible, robust and SEO-friendly platform when it comes to eCommerce business. Popular brands like Nike and Nestle are already using Magento for eCommmerce operations. It is one of the most preferred platforms in terms of advanced features, security and support.

3. Is your experts proficient to work with existing eCommerce websites?   

Yes. Our team of Magento developers can offer eCommerce development to both existing and new websites. They can perform customization, development, and migration to meet your business needs. 

4. Do you follow data security process? 

We have a strict policy when it comes to data security of client business. NDA is signed to ensure no data leak happens during eCommerce website development. Every Magento developer assigned for development work strictly follows NDA.  

5. Do your Magento developer need any prerequisite training? 

No. Our Magento developers are well versed with latest technology and eCommerce development trends. They have served clients from different business domains and industry sectors. We share regular project progress reports to stakeholders for timely feedback and implementation.  

Wrapping Up:

Both platforms have their advantages & disadvantages. Therefore, the decision to choose between the two CMSs completely depends on the business requirements. Major factors for selection are cost, security, hosting, support, and available resources. If we compare major features and Magento 2 is a better platform to invest. You can avail of Magento 2 Development services from a reputed agency like Agento Support for smooth migration, upgrade and boost conversion rate. This will make you far ahead of the competitors with minimum effort.