Which is better for e-commerce websites: 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 for yourself by comparing the pros, cons, and differences between Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce. When preparing to build an e-commerce website, you should have a plan for your site, including operations, marketing, etc., and also need to 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 better for building a website?? Let's first understandWhat are the differences between Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce?.

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, approach to handling extensions, and many other features. Magento is one of the world's most popular e-commerce platforms. It is a self-hosted platform that powers thousands of stores, and its large user base ranges 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 hosted platform, also has a growing number of users 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. It is suitable for small and medium-sized businesses with limited budgets. BigCommerce also has considerable user support. 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 see what these three have in common.

Common Points of Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce

All three platforms offer rich extension capabilities.Most people are quite satisfied with the e-commerce websites they provide. When expanding an e-commerce store, Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce can facilitate growth and scaling (although they take very different paths in this regard). It's safe to say that whichever platform you choose, you can build a satisfactory e-commerce website.

Differences Between Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce

One platform cannot meet all needs, so there will always be various choices, and there won't be a situation where one dominates everything. 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 powers 25,000 websites. However,, it's important to clearly distinguish the types of websites that use these platforms.Usually,Small online stores tend to prefer Shopify due to its creative and dynamic marketing activities. This is because its ease of use (often the functionality of market sales) appeals to beginners and inexperienced online store owners. When it comes toMagento(This is an alternative to BigCommerce) When people generally think of this platform是for medium and large online storesPreferred choice. But the truth is, Magento is also a good choice for small online stores that hope to scale effortlessly in the future.BigCommerce provides small and medium-sized businesses with options to manage their online stores, without worrying about hosting hassles. It has different packages, but in most cases,It is suitable for medium-sized enterprises with limited budgets for hosting。

Control and Customization

Customization and control are one of the most prominent and fundamental differences among 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 gain unlimited customization possibilities in store design and operations. You can update and customize the store at will, without being limited to specific levels of integration.Shopify is a hosted solution, with it, you don't need a high level of development expertise. You can ignore 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 a hosted e-commerce solution. You will have to get an account and launch your website with them. This may deprive you of freedom, as it will not allow any form of customization. However, the benefit of a hosted platform is that the company will handle all hosting issues. Therefore,with BigCommerce, you will have less control, fewer customization options, and fewer worries.

User-Friendliness

To compensate for all limitations in customizability, Shopify provides user-friendly tools for its merchants. You can easily modify basic store attributes 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 within minutes. Remember, it does not allow any type of customization. So, if you want to add pop-ups, CTAs, or custom plugins, you cannot, and you will have to find workarounds. Magento has a steeper learning curve, but this is only because it aims to provide merchants with flexibility and adapt to various customization scenarios. 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 have the necessary Magento development skills, then user-friendliness is not an issue.

Speed and Performance

Speed and performance are crucial for 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 do not meet requirements, users are unlikely to return for a second purchase, or even convert during initial use. Shopify is a hosted solution. With Shopify, you don„t have to worry about page loading 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 hosts its websites using AWS hosting infrastructure, and AWS is fast. However, since users will not have the right to customize their e-commerce websites, they will not be free to 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-oriented adjustments. Since it is a self-hosted platform (meaning you build 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 choices: open source (formerly Community Edition) and commercial (formerly Enterprise Edition). With the open-source version, you have complete control over your website“s code and program. According to Magento, open source indeed allows you to „meet the basic business needs of today“s enterprises,„ but this does not mean any newcomer can set up a Magento website on their own. However, if you choose Magento“s hosting service, it guarantees your site will always be online.

Payment Gateway Options

Providing 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. Besides Shopify, BigCommerce also offers multiple payment methods, including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and other payment gateways like Sage pay, Adyen, etc. Magento similarly provides multiple payment methods to extend the functionality of your e-commerce store, but requires the help of 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. At the same time, these three e-commerce platforms have the function of customizing themes. Installing Shopify and BigCommerce themes is relatively easy. They offer limited customization options. While Magento provides templates that help you completely change the functionality and layout of themes. It has enough flexibility and customization space.

Inventory management

Each platform has customizable inventory management options. Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce will meet your needs; you must choose a product that helps simplify your 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 provides a simple and clear interface where you can control inventory. There are several extensions that offer advanced features, such as promotional quick sales, discounts for registered users, etc. BigCommerce's features are also quite limited and can only handle medium-sized enterprise inventory at its highest performance. Large enterprises do not prefer BigCommerce due to its limited hosting infrastructure. As for inventory, BigCommerce promises an unlimited number of products, but each package varies in product dimensions. Magento comes with a basic inventory management system, just like Shopify. However, the platform stands out in advanced features. For example, it offers many possibilities for integrating distribution networks (such as product dimensions and colors) and a large number of third-party services. This may require more effort but makes a difference in the long run.

Extensions

Magento offers a wide collection of extensions that integrate smoothly with the Magento backend, thanks to its lively and user-friendly design; hundreds of reviewed extensions can extend the CMS's out-of-the-box functionality. 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 a premium version to enjoy various features, including API access, SSL, shopping cart abandonment trackers, lead generators, etc. Shopify has a small add-on repository. The platform provides a simple installation process and helps improve store functionality.

Search Engine Optimization 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 your work's ROI. These platforms allow basic functions to optimize store-level content, ensuring higher SERP positions directly translate into the store's revenue sources. Shopify provides a set of basic SEO options. For example, you can edit meta tags and optimize inventory and product pages. Additionally, this platform allows deep optimization, which involves modifying file structure to facilitate search crawlers in performing their work. The biggest limitation is that Shopify stores are self-hosted, so you cannot make any server-level configurations. Similarly, BigCommerce brings basic SEO features like MT, MD, keyword optimization, etc. You can easily optimize your e-commerce store. On the other hand, Magento helps 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 permalinks for inventory items as well as meta content. More importantly, Magento makes full use of nofollow links, redirects, and canonical tags. These characteristics 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 provides community-based dedicated support, which includes experts, Magento-certified personnel, backend and frontend developers. Magento is renowned for its large and helpful community, which continues to grow. If you have any support-related questions, you can always visit the Magento forums to share and discuss your concerns with the community. You can also obtain support from Magento partner agencies, which can assist you with tasks such as store creation, setup, and management.

Price

Both Shopify and BigCommerce 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 gain access to a broader set of features, such as advanced statistics, gift cards, etc. Additionally, themes and extensions can also be high-priced. When it comes to „hidden fees,“ you must be aware 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 the hosting location you choose. Generally speaking, Magento, especially Magento Commerce Cloud, does not have a fixed price, as everything is customized based on 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 yourself 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, as no single platform can enjoy all the benefits. All three—Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify—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 costs associated with its service and the potential for future store expansion. Similarly, Magento requires specialized technical knowledge, but you don't have to pay for installation or daily transactions in a store using Magento. Knowing that your store can scale with a powerful platform will give you lasting peace of mind. Therefore, to help you choose the second (whatever that may be), I contacted some industry influencers, store owners, and developers to get their opinions on these two platforms and the reasons why.

I recommend Shopify to my clients who have a limited budget and whose e-commerce operations are very straightforward (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 stories from 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 what they wished was different about their favorite e-commerce platform.

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. Clients who start with Magento have a higher growth rate compared to other platforms. 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 there. 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 an easy-to-use, scalable, secure platform without the help of IT (and also customizable). One issue I see with Shopify is that, because it's easy to 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 so much developer help to launch, run, and manage that sometimes the cost becomes too much. Some sites will require greater flexibility, and those store owners will continue to use Magento, but for most users, Shopify or something similar is sufficient. My experience involves dealing with store owners whose online revenue reaches $3 million and above.– Ramon Vela from Bronto

 

Magento VS Shopify VS BigCommerce Comparison Table

Features	Magento	Shopify	BigCommerce
Price	Free	Starts at $29	Starts at $29
Scalability	Unlimited	Limited	Limited
Market Share	10%	19%	1%
Customization	Unlimited	Limited	Limited
User-Friendliness	是	是	是
Performance	Self-hosted	Hosted	Hosted
Payment Gateway	Unlimited	Limited	Limited
Themes	Free and Paid	Free and Paid	Free and Paid
Plugins	Free and Paid	Paid	Paid
SEO/Marketing	是	是	是
Customer Support	No	是	是
Inventory management	Unlimited	Limited	Limited

Summary

Based on the above analysis, from the results, the functionalities of Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopifycan all meet the basic needs of your 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 of these e-commerce platformshave poor customizability.Therefore, once your store starts gaining 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 offersmore powerful features,，complete customization capabilities, and scalability to meet future expansion needs of your online store.Finally, which platform would you choose to build your own e-commerce website?