" All of the platforms power the majority of all top 100,000 eCommerce websites, and the majority of all eCommerce sites on the Internet. Many companies have either been on one of these platforms or are considering these platforms for their eCommerce website and business. We are here to simplify the process of assessing eCommerce Software products for you. In particular, on this page you can check the overall performance and user satisfaction rating. We are aware that not all people have enough time to try out a large number of different services, so we came up with a list of recommendations that you may find useful. Our top selections for the Shopping Cart Softwares. "
Cost & Development Comparison: Shopify vs. WooCommerce vs. Magento vs. BigCommerce
| Shopify | WooCommerce | Magento | BigCommerce | |
| Monthly Price | $29 and up | Free w/ paid add-ons for more functionality | Magento Open Source: Free w/paid add-ons | $29.95 and up |
| Hosting | Included | Not included | Options for Either | Included |
| Domain Name | Included (with .myshopify.com domain) | Not included | Options for Either | Included (with .mybigcommerce.com domain) |
| Add-ons | App Store | Extensions Store | Marketplace | App Store |
| Development Cost on an average | US$ 750 | US$ 1200 | US$ 2500 | US$ 1500 |
| Developer Expertise | Min 1 year | Min 2years | Min 3 years | Min 2 years |
| Perfect for | Startups | Small Companies | Large Enterprise | Mid Level Company |
| Good for | Simple B2B | Simple B2B and B2C | Complex B2B & B2C | Simple B2B and B2C |
| Produt Attributes | Few | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Mobile Commerce | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| In-built Marketing Tools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hosting | Included in Price | Not Included in Price | Not Included in Price | Included in Price |
| Security | Secured | Depends on Developer | Depends on Developer | Secured |
| User Experience | Good | Better | Best | Better |
| Development Time | 1-2 Weeks | 2-3 Weeks | 5-6 Weeks | 2-3 Weeks |
| Scalability | Small and medium business | Great opportunities | Large Business | Usually preferred by small businesses |
| Difficulty of learning | No special skills required | Simple to grasp | Complex | Simple to grasp but doccument needed |
| Flexibility | Low | High | High | Medium |
| Integrations Available |
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| SEO tools | Few | Not Many | Too Many | Medium |
| Pros | Cheap in cost | Cheap in cost | Expensive | Cheap in cost |
| Cons | Shopify is a SaaS platform that requires paid monthly apps and is also limiting in terms of core functionality. You may run out of things it can do and have to customize it which can get really costly because you will need to build a custom independent app in this case. | It's a Wordpress plugin and not an eCommerce first platform, making it very weak for scaling to a large number of sales and complexity. | Magento is a complicated platform that can require a hefty development budget to execute properly. This can lead to the platform being more costly than many companies expect. | BigCommerce is not as customizable as Magento and WooCommerce – you only have a limited number of themes available with certain customizations; the cost of using the engine directly depends on the number of sales, so you cannot accurately calculate the long-term budget for a store (so if you have to choose between Big Commerce vs Shopify, it’d be better to choose the latter); |
| Themes | Many free and paid options | One free theme (Storefront) and other paid options | Some paid options | Many free and paid options |
Conclusion
All of these eCommerce platforms have their own benefits, when some are great for small businesses and beginners, others work well for large scale businesses. Few of them are pocket friendly while some will need a huge budget on hand. Some will require developers, while on some platforms you can do the work yourself.
If you’re looking for an easy to use solution to build and grow your eCommerce store, look no further than Shopify. Shopify offer eCommerce store owners all the tools they need to manage their store without many barriers. Plus, their website builder is very robust and has the added benefit of paying a single entity for an end-to-end solution.
Shopify was built and designed by three Canadians who were just trying to build an eCommerce store. Instead, they built a platform that lets anybody build an awesome eCommerce empire.
Magento can be looked at more as an enterprise option where developers are available and money is not an issue.
