Magento vs WooCommerce – 6 Essential Things You Must Know!

You’ve got things to sell. You’ve got the wide world of the Internet. So how do you get your products online and get people to see them? You need an e-commerce system. Two of them, Magento vs WooCommerce, could offer you the chance to get your products out there, but which do you choose?

Let’s take a look.

Magento vs WooCommerce: Overview

They’re both set up to help you sell your products and process payment all online, but they aren’t exactly the same. Let’s look at a few key differences.

WooCommerce vs Magento: Framework

Magento is an open source e-commerce framework for medium to large e-commerce stores. It’s tailored to web developers who might be helping clients set up a store. It has a wide variety of features that should allow you to help your client build a robust store (or build your own if that’s what’s happening).

WooCommerce uses WordPress CMS and integrates directly with your dashboard there. It’s not a standalone site, so you’ll have to build a WordPress site if you don’t have one. If you do, it extends your dashboard so that all your store analytics show up right there.

Winner: WooCommerce if you’ve got a WordPress site already. And Magento if you don’t.

Magento vs WooCommerce: Ease Of Use

Magento doesn’t come with anyone one-click installers. Instead, the steps are developer-centric, so if you aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of web design, it may be confusing for you to get things set up. You can find plenty of tutorials online, but beginners are probably going to be doing a lot of Google and YouTube searches. That could get old fast.

Magento has robust features built directly out of the box, but it takes some getting used to. Again if you aren’t a developer, it may be difficult for you to figure things out at first.

WooCommerce installs directly to your WordPress site. Many hosting providers already have an automatic install, making it more simple to get things up and running. Working with the features shouldn’t be too difficult either if you have any familiarity with WordPress already.

If you’ve never worked with WordPress before, you may have a learning curve there. Building the site and getting everything installed could take some time. However, doing things yourself as a non-developer is probably still easier on WooCommerce

Winner: WooCommerce

WooCommerce vs Magento: Extensions And Integrations

Here, both platforms shine. WooCommerce has so many plugins and extensions to support different payment options, analytics, and a host of other features. Magento also has a rich variety of extensions designed to build different features into the setup.

Both have very active communities of developers. You should have lots of choices, both free and paid, as well as new revolving content to help your store run more smoothly.

Getting issues resolved may be challenging at times because some of the content is just with independent developers, but your choices are vast.

Both companies are compatible with a variety of both web-based and mobile devices. They support Mac and Windows as well as mobile systems. You aren’t going to have any trouble with potential customers getting kicked off your site because of slow load times or incompatibility issues.

Winner: Tie

Magento vs WooCommerce: Cost

Magento has two different options. The base version is free, but you’re going to run the entire thing yourself. All your security patches, all your scaling, and all your maintenance. The premium version switches all that over to Magento, but it’s going to cost you a lot.

WooCommerce is free to install, and the price depends on the hosting cost. You’ll also have the option of paid themes and any processing fees for payments. Overall, it’s managed well within your existing dashboard, so there’s not nearly as much cost as Magento’s premium version.

Winner: WooCommerce

WooCommerce vs Magento: SEO

You’ve got to get your target customers to your website, right? Both options have robust SEO features that integrate directly into your dashboard. WooCommerce’s options are excellent and powered just like the WordPress system. Magento’s SEO is geared towards developers, but the possibilities are robust and should bring plenty of users to you.

Winner: Tie

Magento vs WooCommerce: Pros & Cons

If you’re still undecided, here are the basics.

Magento

We recommend Magento for mid-size to large scale businesses. Also, if you’ve reached the point where your e-commerce solutions are out of your expertise, they do have excellent managed solutions.

Pros:

• Highly scalable
• Support for multiple languages and currencies
• Ideal for enterprise
• Excellent speed and performance
• Streamlined checkout system

Cons:

• Steep learning curve
• Geared to developers rather than business owners
• Enterprise solution is costly

WooCommerce

We recommend WooCommerce for WordPress users who already have a site set up. You can integrate it directly to your existing WordPress site. It’s also better for users who don’t have an enterprise solution and who don’t need large scale options.

Pros:

• Easier learning curve than Magento
• Easier and faster set up
• Good variety of themes and documentation for extensions
• Analytics are available right from your WordPress dashboard
• Cheaper overall

Cons:

• You’ll have to set up a WordPress and learn two platforms if you don’t already have one
• Managing plugins can be time-consuming

Final Thoughts

Both of these two frameworks are robust, but Magento is going to rocket your business if you’re scaling up to enterprise solutions. It’s more challenging to figure out, but once you do, it’s easily the cleanest interface.

WooCommerce is an excellent tool for small to mid-range businesses that don’t plan to scale worldwide (or at least, not yet). Many websites are already set up through WordPress, so there’s a good chance you’ve already got all the tools in place to start working with WooCommerce. It extends your WordPress dashboard, and you’ll have everything you need in a lot less time.

The size of your scale is going to determine your tool with Magento vs WooCommerce. It really depends on how big your dreams are and what you can handle in the meantime until you get there.