Magento Commerce has not been around as long as WordPress; however, it has been evolved to be a leading platform for complex eCommerce shops. Magento offers tremendous scalability as opposed to other platforms.
Magento Open Source, previously Magento Community Edition, is an open-source e-commerce platform, and it has remained open source after the Adobe acquisition. In Magento open source, developers can implement the core files and extend its functionality by adding new plug-in modules provided by other developers.
Magento open source is non-hosted e-commerce platform one can download for free and host on his/her server. As one can imagine, features on Magento open source are somewhat limited as Magento builds more features into its flagship products Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud.
Magento Commerce is also built on the same code stack as Magento Open Source, but it offers a lot more functionality. Typically, large global enterprises would benefit greatly by implementing Magento Commerce providing they have heavy traffic, very large product catalogs, very complex e-Commerce platform and a lot of integration requirements.
Magento Commerce Cloud is essentially the same as Magento Cloud, but Magento Commerce Cloud as the name suggests is hosted by Magento as opposed to an on-premise.
There is often a lot of confusion about these three magneto product offerings, and furthermore, software that as complex as Magento, it is even harder for platform experts to remember all the little differences between them.
The decision between Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce and or Magento Commerce Cloud boils down to the specific business needs and client’s overall digital strategy. Understanding every client’s specific requirements is a key to deciding the right Magento CMS or “A CMS” for that matter.
With so many choices out there, selecting an e-Commerce platform that is right for one’s business is quite challenging specially for small – medium enterprises. Selection of an e-Commerce platform should always be based on business requirements as opposed to on emotions. We often see WooCommerce fit well for small – medium enterprise; however, all three that are mentioned above have some advantages over others.
Both Magento and WooCommerce almost have equal market share. Shopify is also catching up, but at present Shopify does not have as big of a market share as WooCommerce and Magento.
Magento, WooCommerce and Shopify are fairly optimized for SEO, and they are all up there in their SEO ranking.
Magento also offers an open source free to install software; however, WooCommerce is much lower in terms of resource investment as it’s not only free to install, but it’s easy to configure and maintain.
Magento can be a better choice providing we are dealing with a very large and complex e-store.
WooCommerce has a clear advantage here as WordPress themes are much cheaper, easier to install and maintain. Magento also has themes and plugins; however, they are at a much higher investment. On the other hand, Shopify has very selected free themes available.
Unlike Magento, both WooCommerce are Shopify are very use friendly and may be the best options for companies who opt for self-maintenance.
As we recognize, an online store can be fired off using WooCommerce, Magento or Shopify; however, finding a right e-Commerce platform (open source vs. proprietary) is critical for our client’s success. A specific e-commerce platform selection not only adds complexity and cost to the project upfront, but it also drives up maintenance cost over-time.
Connect with GlobeSign to determine what’s the best CMS for your specific needs. Not necessarily Proprietary Software is better than Open Source since many Open Source Content Management Systems have a very large development community behind them and they compare well against Proprietary Software.
