Magento Vs. Shopify – Which Is Right for Your Business?

Are you looking for the merchant’s top choice eCommerce platform then surely your search ends with these two platforms i.e., Magento and Shopify. Both platforms have exceptional capabilities, advanced functionalities, and excellent support.

However, choosing between these two platforms will completely depend on your business needs and objectives.

Magento is an excellent open-source platform like WordPress which offers detailed customizations and scalability options that are mainly suited for enterprise-level businesses which require complex customization. On the other hand, Shopify is an easy-to-use and beginner-friendly platform that can help all sizes of businesses quickly set up their feature-rich store online without any technical expertise.

Still, you are struggling to choose the best-fit platform for your business. Don’t worry!

In this article, we will make a detailed comparison between Magento and Shopify, including:

• Key Differences 
• Pros and Cons
• FAQs

And many other comparisons will help you identify the best-fit platform that can fulfill your business needs.

Let’s start with a basic understanding of both platforms.

Magento Vs. Shopify – Platforms at a Glance

Let’s dive into both platforms separately to get a basic understanding:

Understanding Magento

Magento is one of the most powerful OpenSource eCommerce platforms with extreme customization capabilities and scalability options that suit large enterprises with advanced business needs. The platform, Magento, is also known as Adobe Commerce as Adobe acquired it in 2018 to make it more efficient.

Magento was first released in 2008 and developed in PHP. It requires technical expertise to set up and run an online store for businesses with self-hosting, domain, and templates.

With Magento, businesses will have complete control over their online stores and be capable of configuring all kinds of customizations via coding and extensions.

Many of the world’s top brands, like Coca-Cola, Canon, HP, Ford, etc, use Magento because of its scalability and advanced features. 

Some of the key features are multi-store management, endless customizations, catalog management, advanced reporting, extensive extension marketplace,  PWA studio, mobile responsive, built-in SEO, robust security, and much more. Currently, More than 250,000 stores are running on Magento.

For large and enterprise-level businesses, Magento is an excellent choice because it has everything a large enterprise needs to run and scale its business and easily handle B2B/B2C functionalities.

Understanding Shopify

Shopify is an all-in-one user-friendly eCommerce platform that allows all sizes of businesses to build, run, and manage their online stores in one place.

It’s a beginner-friendly subscription platform that offers drag-and-drop builders, pre-built themes and templates, and tons of apps for integration, which make it easier to set up an entire store without any technical expertise. However, with Shopify, advanced customizations are mainly dependent on third-party apps.

Shopify is a SaaS platform that was launched in 2006. It currently has more than 2 million merchants selling products globally and stands out in such a competitive market.

One of the key selling features of Shopify is allowing merchants to use multiple sales channels including website, In-person sales, social channels, and Marketplace to boost conversion rates. 

Some other top-notch features are pre-built customizable themes, thousands of apps in different categories, built-in POS, AI chatbot, advanced analytics, excellent support 24/7, and much more.

From small startups to large growing businesses, Shopify is a go-to choice for those businesses who want all-in-one solutions in one place, from setting up stores, inventory management, shipping, and payments to marketing and reporting.

Many big brands are using Shopify, including Red Bull, Gymshark, Netflix, Kylie Cosmetics, Allbirds, and more.

Now that we’ve gained a basic understanding of both platforms. Let’s do a detailed comparison between Magento and Shopify to identify which one is best for your business needs.

Magento Vs. Shopify — The Main Difference

The main difference between Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce boils down to the amount of control you get over customization and the ease of use. Magento Offers high control over customization; however, it requires technical knowledge or developer resources to set up and manage. Shopify, on the other hand, prioritizes ease of use with a user-friendly interface and offers limited customization compared to Magento.

Let’s compare both of these eCommerce platforms for the following parameters:

1. Ease of use
2. Feature Set
3. Customization Capabilities
4. Security
5. Pricing
6. Time to Market
7. Support
8. Scalability

Here, we begin a detailed discussion comparing both platforms to help you understand what your journey will look like if you choose to grow with either option.

1. Ease of Use

It’s very obvious to know that not every merchant is a web designer or developer. Most of them are looking for a platform that can easily set up their store without any technical complexities. 

Let’s explore which one is more easy to use:

Magento is an open-source platform that is especially designed for large enterprises who want complete control over their website and require complex customizations via coding and tools that mostly require technical expertise.

Here’s a sneak peek at Magento’s admin panel.

When you finish the complex setup of Magento, you’ll get a friendly dashboard. Still, the inside operations are complex and require technical expertise to operate.

So, we cannot state Magento as a beginner-friendly platform as it has a steep learning curve with limited free themes to build and manage Magento stores.

On the flip side, Shopify is known for its user-friendly interface and simplicity. It’s a beginner-friendly platform and comes up with tons of pre-built themes, third-party apps, and drag-and-drop editors.

Here’s a glimpse of Shopify’s admin dashboard.

It helps merchants quickly set up and design their Shopify store without any coding.

Overall, when it comes to comparing the ease of usability, both platforms are well-designed and feature-rich. However, Shopify stands out in ease of access because it’s a beginner-friendly platform that allows customization without coding, while Magento requires technical experts to make changes.

2. Feature Set

Features are the essential factor to identify which platform has the thing your business needs the most. Just for that, here, I’m adding attractive features offered by both of the platforms.

Out-of-the-Box Features of Both Platforms
Magento	Shopify
Advanced Catalog Search	One-page Checkout
Advanced Targeting and Customer Segmentation	Built-in POS System
Support B2B and B2C Functionalities	Automation Flow Created with ‘Shopify Flow’
Multi-store Management	Shopify Magic for Image Enhancement
Multi-currency and Multi-language Support	Advanced Analytic Reports
Automated Email Marketing Reminders	AI Chatbots
5,660+ Advanced Magento Extensions	8000+ Shopify Apps in Different Categories
Open-source Platform	Cross-selling from Cart
Private Sales & Events	Shopify Subscription App
Backup and Rollback System	Headless Commerce
Full-scale customization	Over 100 payment gateways
Catalog Management	Excellent Customer Support 24/7

You can see that both of these platforms offer extensive functionality. However, choosing between them will completely depend on your business requirements.

• If you’re a large enterprise looking for a highly customizable platform that provides limitless functionalities and can handle technical complexities — Magento can be your go-to choice.
• On the other hand, if you’re a small to medium-sized business that needs a friendly platform with a range of themes, functionalities, and customization capabilities — Shopify is worth considering.

3. Customization Capabilities

Customization is one of the biggest features that businesses need to build their website as per their brand look and provide a better customer experience. 

So, which platform has better customization capabilities? Let’s find out!

Magento is known for its limitless customization capabilities. It’s a perfect match for those large enterprises who want full control over customization without just relying on third-party apps.

There are numerous ways to do customization on Magento, including:

• Pre-built Themes: Magento offers various (free & paid) pre-built themes; you can simply pick the best match theme for your brand and make changes.
• Third-party Extensions: More than 3,720+ extensions are available in the Magento marketplace including drag-and-drop builders, which allow developers to customize the Magento theme as per their requirements.
• Code Modifications: This is the most advanced and best customization approach for businesses to do complex customization, which can’t be possible via third-party extensions. An extensive developer is a must-have for doing code modifications in the Magento store.

These are the three most advanced customization options that Magento offers to let the business customize their store’s user experience and drive more conversions.

On the other hand, Shopify is a beginner-friendly platform that allows merchants to customize their websites without any technical expertise.

There is a wide range of (free & paid) pre-built themes and 8000+ apps available in the Shopify marketplace, which allow merchants to work on their unique ideas to build a better store with it and add useful functionalities.

However, Shopify customization mostly relies on theme editors and third-party apps, which makes it suitable for those businesses that don’t have complex customization, just friendly editing that includes customizing layouts, modifying colors, fonts, logos, designs, and more.

Shopify gives a moderate level of control when it comes to customization, and it’s good for small to midsize businesses to set up their user-friendly store. Also, If you want advanced customizations, you can rely on coding.

Overall, Magento is a clear winner for its extensive customization capabilities that allow large enterprises to deliver personalized experiences for their customers without any limitations.

4. Security

Shopify and Magento are both the most secure and reliable eCommerce platforms and have various built-in security features.

Magento, as an eCommerce platform, ensures security with continuous updates over time that help minimize risk levels. Also, they follow multiple security procedures to keep your Magento store safe, some of which include:

• Requirement for SSL Certificate: It will keep the Magento website encrypted and authentic.
• TLS Protocol (TLS 1.3): It will keep the communication secured on the website.
• Includes Level 1 PCI DSS Compliance: It ensures that the Magento website transmits, stores, and processes credit card data to the highest security standard.

Plus, Magento gives the merchants flexibility to improve their security parameters by themselves by allowing integration into third-party security software.

Shopify also has various security standards to follow, including SSL Certification, two-factor authentication, built-in fraud analysis, PCI DSS compliance, and GDPR compliance, which ensure the website is secure with security standards.

So yes, both platforms are secure enough for all sizes of businesses.

However, Magento is an open-source platform that demands high-security measurements from the merchant’s side.

5. Pricing

Your budget is another big factor to consider when choosing the platform that best fits your business, so, let’s explore both platforms for costs attached with them.

Magento is an open-source platform, which means it is free to download, install and use.

It’s not a subscription model where merchants need to pay a monthly fee to use the platform. The pricing for Magento is flexible depending on the business requirements. However, merchants need to spend on additionally incurring costs such as hosting, domain, development costs, and more.

Here’s the estimated Magento pricing with additional costs to consider:

	Magento Open-source	Magento Commerce Pro	Adobe Commerce Cloud
Magento License Cost	$0	$22,000 – $125,000/year	$40,000 – $190,000/year
Hosting	From $100/year	From $500/year	Included in this Plan
Development	From $1,800	From $10,000	From $10,000
Maintenance	$50 – 100/hour	$70 – $140+/hour	$70 – $140+/hour
SSL Certificate	$50 – 300/year	$50 – 300/year	$50 – 300/year
Payment Integration	2.9%+ $0.30 Per transaction	2.9%+ $0.30 Per transaction	2.9%+ $0.30 Per transaction

On the other hand, Shopify is a subscription-based eCommerce platform which means merchants need to pay a certain amount monthly to build and run their online store on Shopify. 

It has four paid plans that include everything from hosting, domain, to SSL.

Let’s explore all paid plans in a handy table.

	Basic	Shopify	Advanced	Plus
Pricing	$29/month	$79/month	$299/month	$2,300/month
Additional Staff Accounts	❌	5	15	Unlimited ♾️
Transaction Fees	2.9% + 30¢ per transaction	2.6% + 30¢ per transaction	2.4% + 30¢ per transaction	Competitive rates for high-volume merchants
Custom Reports & Analytics	❌	❌	Standard ✅	Advanced ✅
Inventory Locations	10	10	10	200
Localized Selling	Allows in 3 Markets	Allows in 3 Markets	Allows in 3 markets and allows adding markets for $59/month each	Allows in 50 Markets
POS Lite by Shopify	✅	✅	✅	Includes POS Pro ✅
Wholesale / B2B	❌	❌	❌	✅

That shares quite a clear idea on pricing plans. Also, it’s worth noting that Shopify offers a 14-day free trial on three paid plans. So that businesses can check and identify which plan is more suitable and fulfill their business needs.

Overall, the winner will depend on what your business requires and can afford. While Shopify is budget friendly, Magento brings in better flexibility for your business to grow.

6. Time to Market

It’s a fast-growing world and businesses need to quickly launch their product/services in the market to stand out from the competition. That’s why Time to Market (TTM) is one of the crucial factors for businesses. 

Let’s compare both platforms and identify which has the fastest speed of launching an online store:

As Magento is an open-source platform, installing and configuring it can be a time-consuming process, especially if you lack technical expertise. Here are some key factors that make Magento Longer TTM:

• Complex Setup: Setting up a Magento store is complex because it’s an open-source platform and involves various steps such as configuring domain and hosting, installing Magento and extension integration which is a time-consuming process.
• Extensive Customization: Magento is mostly preferred by businesses that want complex customization, which leads to longer development time.
• Technical Expertise Required: Not every merchant is a developer and they’ll need to find a Magento developer that brings in development efficiency and set up a store.

Shopify offers an all-in-one eCommerce solution where merchants can easily set up their online store, pick relevant themes, and make basic customizations without coding to launch their feature-rich online store. Some key factors that make TTM fast on Shopify:

• Easy Setup: Shopify is a beginner-friendly platform that allows merchants to easily set up their online store without any coding.
• Pre-built Themes and Apps: A wide range of pre-built themes and tools are available on the market. Businesses can pick the most expensive theme as per their brand and customize it with drag-and-drop editor tools.
• Excellent Support: Shopify is known for its excellent customer support 24/7 to resolve their merchants issues immediately and keep the development faster.

So yes, we can declare Shopify to be the winner for providing quicker time-to-market.

7. Support

Every new platform has its own complications, and not everyone is aware of them.

This is where support systems help resolve issues at any point. In terms of support, let’s see which platform can provide you with excellent support:

Magento is surely a big eCommerce platform, but it has limited customer support. It doesn’t offer live chat, call, or email support for its merchants in any plan. This is because Magento is an OpenSource platform. So, if you choose to work on Magento on your own without having a technical person by your side, there are chances of several issues.

Shopify, on the other hand, is popularly known for its excellent customer support 24/7 to immediately solve their merchants’ queries and ensure complete satisfaction. There are different options to get support from Shopify, including live chat, call, or even email to get the answers. Plus, Shopify also comes with a large community, helpful articles, and API documentation that provide valuable insights.

8. Scalability

One of the major aims of every business is to scale globally. So, which platform is more suitable for your business scalability? Let’s find out!

	Magento	Shopify
Platform Architecture	Open-source architecture	SaaS Model with reliable infrastructure
Traffic Handling	It can handle millions of visitors per month with proper optimization Will depend on your chosen hosting plan	It can handle hundreds of thousands of visitors per month depending on the plan you choose
Product Volume Handling	It supports large product catalogs efficiently	It supports bulk products well but has certain limitations for extremely large catalogs
Performance	Robust platform with strong hosting can leads to high performance	Strong performance because of built-in optimization
Flexibility for Customization	It offers extensive customization capabilities via apps, extension and coding	It has limited customization options mainly rely on third-party apps in the marketplace
Scalability Management	It requires Magento-certified developers for scalability and growth	It can easily scale without technical expertise

Magento is a best-fit platform for large enterprises to scale their business because it has all the required features and capabilities to manage their store operations, including traffic, a large product catalog, and much more. And Shopify is an ideal choice for small to midsize businesses who want to scale their business with ease and efficiency without any technical issues.

Finally! You need to know the key differences between Magento and Shopify. But wait, still got some doubts? I’m sharing some useful insights in the next section, they might help. Let’s move to it. 😀

Magento Vs. Shopify — Table Comparison

If you’re still confused between choosing the right platform. Here’s the brief comparison between Magento and Shopify:

	Magento	Shopify
Overall Rating	4/5	4.5/5
Live Websites	130,000+	4,700,000+
Themes	115+	200+
Hosting	Requires self-hosting with third-party hosting providers	Fully-hosted
Customization options	Extensive Customization Options	Limited Customization Options
Payment Gateways	Doesn’t charge transaction fees other than those charged by payment providers	Has built-in payment system+100+ payment gateways+Lower transaction fee when using shopify payments
Marketing Features & Sales Tools	Multi-channel support+Advanced SEO+Flexible coupons system	Built-in email marketing tool+Basic SEO functionalities+Multi-channels options
Cost	Free to download	Subscription fee around ($29-$2300/month)
Extensions & Apps	5,660+ Extensions	8,000+ Apps
Report & Analytics	Custom reporting options	Advanced analytical reporting
Support	Email, phone, and community support	Live chat, email, call, community forum, API documentation, video tutorials and tickets

Now, you know exactly the key difference between Magento and Shopify. It’s time to make your decisions about which platform is suitable for your business.

Below, we’ve highlighted some points below that will help you choose the right platform.

Finalizing eCommerce Platform For Your Business!

Finally, we’re here to make our final decisions between Magento and Shopify.  

Well, both platforms have immersive capabilities and benefits. But the choice will completely depend on your business needs. So, here’s how you can find the right platform:

Choose Magento If:

If you are a large enterprise looking for a platform with full control over customization and scalability, then Magento is all you need for your eCommerce growth.

Choose Shopify If:

It’s a beginner-friendly platform which is perfect for small to midsize businesses who want to quickly launch their online store and scale effortlessly without worrying about technical complexities.

Whether it’s Magento or Shopify, you need to carefully evaluate your business needs and then come up with the right choice of platform. Still doubt?

Let our experts at Aureate Labs help you find the right eCommerce platform for your business by understanding your business needs and objectives. Get a free consultation with our eCommerce experts today!

FAQS – Magento Vs. Shopify

Q.1 Is Magento or Shopify easier to use?

Shopify is a beginner-friendly platform with drag-and-drop customization, which makes it a better option as compared to Magento that requires technical expertise for customization.

Q.2 Is Magento or Shopify more scalable?

Magento is an open-source platform which makes it a great choice for scalability for large enterprises. However, Shopify is also having good scalability plans for high-growing businesses.

Q.3 Is Shopify more affordable than Magento?

Shopify is a subscription-based platform which has clear paid plans that includes everything from domain, hosting, ssl to development. On the other hand, Magento is a free platform but has several additional costs including hosting, domain, development and potential developers to set up a store.

Q.4 What are the built-in marketing features of Shopify?

Some of the built-in marketing features of Shopify are multiple languages, email marketing, Shopify magic editor, multi-channel selling, built-in POS, coupons, promotions, advanced reporting, and more.