PrestaShop, Shopify, Magento or WooCommerce: Which is the best?

Today, there are a myriad of applications to create and manage your ecommerce. Then, it can seem like an impossible task to decide which is the best choice for you, given their software classification.

Magento? PrestaShop? WooCommerce? How many of these have you already come across, and how many questions do you have to know which one is the best for any integration? Then, we’ll help you compare them in detail, step-by-step, so you can form an overall map that’s much easier to navigate.

PrestaShop vs. Shopify

• The pros (and cons) of PrestaShop

First of all, PrestaShop is an open-source ecommerce platform that can be downloaded and used for free. Which could actually be considered its most obvious advantage, especially for those small businesses that don’t have a large budget to invest in managing their online store.

However, it won’t end up being 100% free, as many important features are not included by default, and you will have to hire some plugins and extensions needed to create the online store of your dreams. Among the advantages of PrestaShop for online stores, this platform includes many useful features:

• Customization through PHP
• Free integration with payment gateways like PayPal
• Preconfigured checkout on a single page
• Multi-language version and international sales option
• Shipment and logistics management options
• Tools for SEO
• Creation of a customer database
• Over 10,000 free and paid modules to complete your online store experience

Regarding its disadvantages. Then, we must inform you that you will need quite a lot of technical knowledge if you want to configure the platform to your liking, and its technical service is only available if you hire it as part of a premium plan.

• The pros (and cons) of Shopify

Okay, Shopify has an advantage and a disadvantage that go hand in hand. As you will see, it is more convenient and easier to use because the platform is configured in advance and includes all the features without having to use code, but this comes at a higher cost than an open-source CMS.

What this means is that in this interface, you have to sign up for a plan and pay a monthly or annual fee (discounts are available for these). Nevertheless, if you can afford it, Shopify includes some powerful features:

• Web hosting
• SSL security certificate
• 24/7 performance monitoring of your online store
• Automatic updates and maintenance
• Customizable payment process
• App for managing your online store from your mobile phone
• 24/7 customer service by chat and phone
• An unlimited number of products can be added to your store
• Generation of discount coupons
• Option for recovering abandoned shopping baskets
• Printing of shipping labels
• Discounts with partner courier companies

So, we have seen above that PrestaShop is free, open-source software, but it requires more work to be able to customize it and add modules with all the features you need, as well as to calculate the total cost of maintenance.

On the other hand, Shopify only gives access to certain features depending on the plan you’ve paid for, and its customization margin is less than PrestaShop, as you’ll find just over 70 designs in its official template store. not to mention that the plans can be a bit expensive for small businesses.

Verdict: PrestaShop vs. Shopify

PrestaShop is the most customizable ecommerce platform, thanks to its thousands of modules. It is perfect for international sales and very intuitive to use. Shopify is best suited for businesses that want to know in advance what their online store maintenance costs will be, have a consistent payment setup, and have features included and configured from the start.

PrestaShop vs. WooCommerce

• The pros (and cons) of WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, which means it is the fastest and most convenient option if your website was created through this platform. If that is the case, creating an online store will be simple and will not involve system migrations. 

Then, just like PrestaShop, WooCommerce is an open-source CMS that is free to install, and it also has important features already included, such as:

• A wide variety of templates
• Both free and paid modules
• SEO analysis
• Integration with payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe
• Connection of your online store to a WordPress blog

Meanwhile, to use PrestaShop, you will need a bit more technical skill, as its control panel is much more complex than WooCommerce’s. Another interesting difference is that the multi-language option is free in WooCommerce, but in PrestaShop it is paid.

Although WooCommerce is not entirely immune because it is linked to WordPress, the performance of the plugin is dependent on keeping the most recent versions of the plugin updated in your system at all times. 

So it may happen that at some point you forget to apply an update, and this will affect the technical performance of your online store. Moreover, some features like shipping customization are included in PrestaShop while they are not in WooCommerce, so you may have to look for separate modules.

Verdict: PrestaShop vs. WooCommerce

If you are just starting out and your business is small and you are looking to create a hassle-free online store, both WooCommerce and PrestaShop are good options that are very similar to each other. You can decide which add-ons you need and which ones would be cheaper and easier to install on either platform.

Magento vs. PrestaShop

• The pros (and cons) of Magento

In case you didn’t know, Magento is the heavyweight of ecommerce management platforms. In addition to its long history, it has one of the best technically developed products thanks to the Adobe team behind it.

Likewise, it has the prestige of being used by globally known brands like Nike. Thus, as you can imagine, this means that it is a more expensive CMS, starting at around 2000 euros per month. Is it worth it? Of course it is, as the software almost never causes problems and includes a very powerful range of functions:

• Integration with ERP and dozens of other software systems
• Integration with social networks and marketplaces
• 24/7 customer support (though not including a live chat option)
• Relationships between products based on dynamic rules
• Automatic email-marketing features
• Opportunities for marketing, special offers, discount codes and gift cards relevant to online shopping
• Reward Points System
• Wishlists
• Storage of bank card data
• Collaboration with courier companies such as DHL
• Product return management system

Being open source, PrestaShop is somewhat easier to customize than Magento, which can be a bit daunting and needs a well-trained technical team. For its part, Magento offers more than 5,000 extensions for your online store, while PrestaShop has more than 10,000 (even so, let’s not forget that many of the functionalities that Magento already includes would have to be configured separately in PrestaShop).

Verdict: Magento vs. PrestaShop

So, we can deduce that Magento is a safe bet for creating online stores, but it is only recommended for large companies that can afford it. So, if you have to choose between Magento and PrestaShop, the key question is quite simple: does your company have a modest or generous budget?

Joomla vs. PrestaShop

• The pros (and cons) of Joomla

It may not be as popular or well-known as the previous ones, but the truth is that it has been in operation since 2005, and, according to them, it is the second most popular CMS in the world after WordPress.

Joomla is a free software solution that supports extensions and modules, is available in more than 70 languages, and is similar to PrestaShop in many ways.

Here, the biggest drawback is that it is more complicated to find online store templates for Joomla as there is no central directory as in PrestaShop. Additionally, its community and forums, where users share resources, are much more limited, and the software does not include some of the basic functions for ecommerce, such as product and inventory management.

Verdict: Joomla vs. PrestaShop

Both PrestaShop and Joomla are excellent choices for small to medium-sized businesses looking to set up their online store. Nonetheless, the biggest difference is that if you prefer an interface with out-of-the-box ecommerce features, such as payment gateways and checkout, PrestaShop is more recommended than Joomla.

Magento vs. PrestaShop vs. Shopify

At this point, you will already know the advantages and disadvantages of each popular ecommerce platform, whether open source or paid, from the most affordable to the most expensive. But then, how do you choose between the major ones?

You may have deduced that the final choice depends both on your pocket and the degree of complexity you are aiming for in your online stores. The more features you need to add, the more management processes you will need to integrate, and the more equipment and expertise you will need to have at your disposal, you will need a more powerful and better equipped platform. 

And come on, in that sense, PrestaShop, Shopify, and Magento are three brilliant solutions. from the most modest to the most complete and professional. Basically, choosing between these three levels depends on your business plans.

• Choose PrestaShop if you’re looking for a highly customizable open source CMS and have mid-level technical skills.
• Choose Shopify if you prefer a pre-configured platform, where in exchange for a fixed fee you don’t have to worry about maintenance or adding extra modules.
• Choose Magento if you are a large company with all the necessary resources and want a very professional solution, backed by one of the largest communities in the world.

Final thoughts

In short, we all want the best, but the “best” is relative, and unfortunately, choosing the best ecommerce platform to create your online store depends entirely on your business objectives, what kind of online store you want to offer, and the financial and technical resources available to your team.

And while we can’t give you a concrete answer, the key is to keep a cool head and evaluate, compare, and make a decision without being swayed by what you think the majority (or that brand you so much envy) has chosen. And whoever you decide to use, have that easy solution at hand to connect your product database to whatever CMS you want. Good luck!