Which is Better for an E-commerce Website: Magento, Shopify, or BigCommerce

Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce are all platforms that can help you build an e-commerce website. So which platform should we use?

This article helps you choose the most suitable e-commerce system by comparing the pros, cons, and differences of Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce.

When preparing to build an e-commerce website, you should have a plan for your website, including operations, marketing, etc., and also consider which platform is more suitable for your website operation plan.

When choosing a platform, many factors should be considered.Which e-commerce platform is best for building a website?? Let's first understandWhat are the differences between Magento, Shopify, and BigCommercenow.

Understanding Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce

The most likely misconception about Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce is that these three platforms are very similar. In reality, they are quite different, including their core structure, payment methods, how they handle extensions, and many other features.

Magento is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world. It is a self-hosted platform that powers thousands of stores, with a large user base ranging from individual store owners to some well-known brands. Magento (open source) was launched in 2007, offering a free version (Community) and a premium version (Enterprise). The platform is highly flexible, providing unlimited possibilities for customizing online stores.

Shopify, an e-commerce hosting platform, also has a growing user base and can meet the needs of retailers who are less concerned about the technical aspects of the website. To use Shopify, you need to pay a monthly service fee. You can set up an online store on Shopify in just a few minutes.

Like Shopify, BigCommerce is another hosted e-commerce platform. Suitable for small and medium-sized businesses with limited budgets. BigCommerce also has a considerable user support base.

To use BigCommerce, you also need to pay a monthly hosting fee. BigCommerce will handle any technical issues with the website, so you don't have to worry.

Next, let's look at what these three have in common.

Common Points of Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce

All three platforms offer rich extension capabilities.

Most people are satisfied with the e-commerce websites they provide. When scaling an e-commerce store, Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce can facilitate growth and expansion (although they take very different paths in this regard).

It is safe to say that no matter which platform you choose, you can build a satisfactory e-commerce website.

Differences between Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce

No single platform can meet all needs, so there will always be various options, and no one-size-fits-all situation will occur.

The differences between Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce include the following aspects.

Popularity

Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify are all very popular platforms in the e-commerce industry. The latest report on the state of the e-commerce industry shows that Shopify has approximately 240,000 registered domains. On the other hand, Magento powers nearly 160,000 websites, and BigCommerce supports 25,000 websites. However, it's important to clearly distinguish the types of websites that use these platforms.

Typically,small online stores tend to prefer Shopify due to its creative and dynamic marketing activities. This is due to its ease of use (often a marketable feature) that appeals to beginners and inexperienced online store owners.

When it comes toMagento(which is an alternative to BigCommerce), it is widely believed that the platform is the是preferred choice formedium and large online stores. But the truth is, Magento is also a good option for small online stores that wish to scale effortlessly in the future.

BigCommerce offers small and medium-sized businesses the option to manage their online storeswithout worrying about hosting hassles. It has different packages, but in most cases,it is suitable for medium-sized businesses with limited budgets for hosting。

Control and Customization

Customization and control are one of the most prominent and fundamental differences between Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify.

Magento is self-hosted, so you have full control over server and hosting choices. Combined with its open-source nature, you can achieve unlimited customization possibilities in the design and operation of your store. You can freely update and customize the store without being limited by specific levels of integration.

Shopify is a hosted solution. With it, you don't need a high level of development expertise. You can disregard the technical issues of the website and server, but you alsocannot modify the source code, therebylimiting the scope of store customization。

Another Shopify alternative, BigCommerce also offers hosted e-commerce solutions. You will have to get an account and launch your website with them. This may deprive you of freedom as it will not allow you to make any kind of customization. However, the benefit of a hosted platform is that the company will handle all hosting issues. So,with BigCommerce, you will have less control, fewer customization options, and fewer worries.

User-Friendliness

To compensate for all the limitations in customizability, Shopify provides its merchants with user-friendly tools. You can easily modify the basic properties of your store using tools and a drag-and-drop interface.

Like Shopify, BigCommerce is also a beginner-friendly e-commerce platform. You can launch an e-commerce website in minutes. Keep in mind that it does not allow any type of customization. Therefore, if you want to add pop-ups, CTAs, or custom plugins, you cannot, and you will have to find workarounds to solve the problem.

Magento has a steep learning curve, but that's only because it aims to provide merchants with flexibility and accommodate various customization options. Magento is very flexible, but at the cost of user-friendliness. This platform can do a lot.If you are the owner of a large online store and possess the necessary Magento development skills, then user-friendliness is not an issue.

Speed and Performance

Speed and performance are critical to the success of every e-commerce store. Users do not want to wait too long for a website to load. This also applies to online stores. If the speed and performance of an online store are not up to par, users are unlikely to return for a second purchase or even convert on the first visit.

Shopify is a hosted solution. With Shopify, you don't have to worry about page load speed or the overall performance of your e-commerce store. At the same time, you have almost no control over the hosting environment and server-level adjustments.

Similarly, BigCommerce is also a hosted platform. BuiltWith emphasizes that BigCommerce uses AWS hosting infrastructure to host its websites, and AWS is fast. However, since users will not have the ability to customize their e-commerce websites, they will not be able to freely market their stores. In the long run, this may affect sales. Therefore, BigCommerce is only suitable for beginners entering the e-commerce industry.

On the other hand, Magento combines control and hosting flexibility, known for its strong performance and unique performance tuning. Since it is a self-hosted platform (meaning you set up your own server and website program), you can choose the server and make all necessary adjustments to improve performance metrics. However, these optimizations require professional technical personnel to achieve.

Magento offers you two options: Open Source (formerly Community Edition) and Commerce (formerly Enterprise Edition). With the open-source version, you have complete control over your website„s code. According to Magento, open source truly allows you to “meet the basic commerce needs of today„s businesses,“ but that doesn„t mean just any beginner can set up a Magento website on their own.

However, if you choose Magento's hosting service, you can ensure that your site will always be online.

Payment Gateway Options

Offering multiple payment gateways is one of the most important factors affecting user conversion. Shopify makes payments easy by integrating custom solutions and other popular payment options.

In addition to Shopify, BigCommerce also offers multiple payment methods, including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and other payment gateways (such as Sage Pay, Adyen, etc.).

Magento also offers multiple payment methods to extend the functionality of your e-commerce store, but requires modules. You can find different modules and add-ons for configuring and setting up different payment methods.

Themes and Templates

Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify offer a large number of free and paid themes.

Meanwhile, all three e-commerce platforms have the ability to customize themes.

Installing Shopify and BigCommerce themes is relatively easy. They offer limited customization options. Magento, on the other hand, provides templates that can completely change the functionality and layout of the theme. It has sufficient flexibility and room for customization.

Inventory Management

Each platform has a customizable inventory management option. Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce will meet your needs; you must choose one that helps you streamline inventory management operations. Standard features include: inventory import, categorization and filtering, and product and price variations.

Shopify is not suitable for large online stores. The platform offers a simple and clear interface where you can control inventory. There are several extensions that provide advanced features, such as promotional flash sales, discounts for registered users, etc.

BigCommerce's features are also quite limited, and it can only handle medium-sized enterprise inventory at its highest performance. Large enterprises do not like BigCommerce because of its limited hosting infrastructure. As for inventory, BigCommerce promises unlimited products, but the product size varies with each package.

Magento comes with a basic inventory management system, just like Shopify. However, the platform stands out in terms of advanced features. For example, it offers many possibilities for integrating distribution networks (such as product sizes and colors) and a large number of third-party services. This may require more effort, but it will make a difference in the long run.

Extensions

Magento offers a wide range of extension plugins that can smoothly integrate with the Magento backend, thanks to its vivid and user-friendly design. Hundreds of reviewed extensions can extend the out-of-the-box functionality of the CMS. With these extensions, you can enhance the functionality of your e-commerce store without worrying about writing code.

BigCommerce add-ons are not available in the basic version. However, users can upgrade to the advanced version to enjoy multiple features, including API access, SSL, shopping cart abandonment tracker, lead generation tools, etc.

Shopify has a small repository of add-ons. The platform offers a simple installation process and helps improve store functionality.

SEO and Marketing

When you run an online store, you don't want to waste all your efforts without using powerful SEO techniques. From an SEO and marketing perspective, Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify offer various features and integrations with marketing tools to maximize the return on your work investment. These platforms allow basic functionality to optimize store-level content to ensure higher SERP positions directly translate into store revenue.

Shopify offers a basic set of SEO options. For example, you can edit meta tags and optimize inventory and product pages. Additionally, this platform allows for deep optimization, which involves modifying file structures to make it easier for search crawlers to do their job. The biggest limitation is that Shopify stores are self-hosted, so you cannot perform any server-level configurations.

Similarly, BigCommerce brings basic SEO features such as MT, MD, keyword optimization. You can easily optimize your e-commerce store.

On the other hand, Magento can help you integrate and implement custom SEO and digital marketing strategies without any hassle. It allows you to customize and adjust store design and SEO strategies for maximum output. Magento's open-source nature makes it an SEO-friendly platform.

You can fine-tune the permalinks of inventory items as well as meta content. More importantly, Magento makes full use of nofollow links, redirects, and canonical tags. These features of Magento make it easier for search engines to index e-commerce websites and understand their structure.

Customer Support

Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer dedicated customer service and support. On the other hand, Magento offers community-based dedicated support, which includes experts, Magento-certified individuals, and backend and frontend developers. Magento is known for its large and helpful community, which continues to grow.

If you have any support-related questions, you can always visit the Magento forum to share and discuss your concerns with the community. You can also get support from a Magento partner agency, which can help you with store creation, setup, and management.

Price

Shopify and BigCommerce both offer subscription-based models. You can start with a free trial, but soon you will need to pay for the service. The most affordable plans start at $29 per month, but the Advanced Shopify plan costs up to $299, and the Advanced BigCommerce plan costs up to $245. By paying more, you can access a wider range of features, such as advanced statistics, gift cards, etc. Additionally, themes and extensions can also be expensive.

When it comes to „hidden fees,“ you must know that Shopify charges transaction fees for payments made through external payment gateways. However, BigCommerce does not charge any transaction fees. You can use payment gateways such as PayPal, Braintree, etc.

If you are using Magento, the cost of Magento e-commerce web hosting will depend on where you choose to host. Generally, Magento, especially Magento Commerce Cloud, does not have a fixed price because everything is customized according to your online store and your needs. If we compare Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce, Magento becomes a more powerful platform than Shopify and BigCommerce and can charge more for that premium experience, but you won't know the exact price until you interact with a Magento partner or the Magento team and outline your needs and goals.

Magento VS Shopify VS BigCommerce: What's Your Deal Breaker?

In fact, there is no winner in this comparison, because no single platform can enjoy all the benefits. Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify each have their own strengths and unique features. You just need to determine which one best suits your business model.

Meanwhile, Shopify is easy to use, but you may need to consider the fees associated with its services and the potential for future store expansion. Similarly, Magento requires professional technical knowledge, but you don't have to pay for installation or daily transactions in a Magento store. Knowing that your store can scale with a powerful platform will give you peace of mind.

Therefore, to help you choose the second (whatever it may be), I contacted some industry influencers, store owners, and developers to get their opinions on these two platforms and the reasons.

I recommend Shopify to my clients who have a small budget and very simple e-commerce operations (e.g., regular e-commerce). On the other hand, when my clients want to create a complete shopping experience, I strongly recommend Magento.

– Roberto Carlos Castillo Medina, CEO of Reevolution Consulting Group,

I prefer Magento because it is more customizable and scalable for large enterprises.

– Will Brammer, Magento Support Manager at TwoJay

After listening to the stories of various e-commerce store owners, I wanted to gain some insights into the issues faced by Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify. Therefore, I conducted a survey and asked them if they wished their favorite e-commerce platform was different.

I have used all the other platforms listed ([major e-commerce platforms]), but they were all disappointing at some stage of the business, so we needed to migrate to a more powerful platform. Compared to other platforms, customers who started with Magento had a higher growth rate. With Magento, the possibilities are endless. You can do anything and scale to any limit. The community is very strong on both the supply and demand sides. Most importantly, it is the safest e-commerce platform for large enterprises. What I really like about Magento is its innovation and constant updates. If you start with Magento, you can surpass limits.

– Shetul Majithiya, E-commerce Community Manager at Empiro Technology

Build easy-to-use, scalable, secure platforms without IT assistance (also customizable). One issue I see with Shopify is that due to its ease of use, it lacks the custom flexibility of Magento. Magento has the opposite problem. While you can use the open-source version, it is so complex and requires extensive developer help to launch, run, and manage that sometimes the cost becomes too high. Some sites will require greater flexibility, and those store owners will continue to use Magento, but for most users, Shopify or similar platforms are sufficient. My experience involves dealing with store owners with online revenues of $3 million and above.

– Ramon Vela from Bronto

Magento VS Shopify VS BigCommerce Comparison Table

Summary

Based on the above analysis, from the analysis results, the features of Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopifycan all meet the needs of your basic e-commerce website.。

Shopify and BigCommerce have lower monthly fees and are easy to install.You can have your e-commerce website up and running within a few hours. However, both e-commerce platformshave poor customization capabilities.Therefore, once your store starts to gain popularity, you may need to migrate to a self-hosted e-commerce platform.

Even without a monthly subscription, usingMagentoto build an e-commerce website, youalso need to invest a significant amount of capital,such as servers and technical personnel. However, it providesMore powerful features，Complete customization capabilities and scalability for future expansion of online store needs。

Finally, which platform will you choose to build your e-commerce website?