As eCommerce continues to grow, this is the best time to set up your online shop and create a successful business.
With a host of e-commerce CMS platforms out there, setting up your online business has never been easier. To help you with just that, we will talk about the most popular e-commerce CMS in the market: WooCommerce, OpenCart, Magento, and Shopify.
We will compare these platforms on the following parameters to help you make the right choice:
- Ease of Installation
- Cost
- User-Friendliness
- Designs and Templates
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin developed to be used with WordPress websites. You can use it to sell anything ranging from services to digital products, bookings, and physical products.
Ease of Installation
Installing WooCommerce is as simple as adding a plugin to WordPress. Simply go to Add New plugins, select WooCommerce and click on Install now. The installation is completed and you can activate it in a matter of minutes. You do not need a specialized web developer to help you with that.
Cost
The basic WooCommerce plugin is free to use. However, there are other charges like:
• Extensions: $49-$79
• 3rd party hosting: $5-$100 per month
• 3rd Part SSL Certs: $100/year
• Top-level domain: $9/year
User Friendliness
WooCommerce is among the most user-friendly CMS out there. It has a 5-step onboarding process and several helpful guides to take you through all important elements. Those willing to invest the time, may not need a web developer to take care of most of its features.
Templates and Design
The majority of the themes in WordPress are compatible with Woocommerce. You can also choose free themes available in its online store Storefront however if you need adjustments or changes in any template, you may be required to hire a WordPress developer to do those changes.
One of the best things about WordPress CMS is that its developers are available in abundance. Moreover, if you want to further reduce the cost of your website development, you may hire a WordPress developer in India who can build a robust e-commerce website for you at an affordable price.
OpenCart
This is a standalone platform for e-commerce. you can use this lightweight program to manage an unlimited number of products, categories, and payment gateways all from a single admin portal.
Ease of Installation
You can either install OpenCart manually or make use of its script installer. The former offers you more control over what features and customizations you want during installation. You may need the assistance of an OpenCart developer to help you through it.
Cost
OpenCart is free to use as it is an open-source platform however you may need the help of a web developer to use its advanced features if you do not have any technical experience. Thus, you can factor in the costs of hiring one. Again, if you have a lot of budget for your website development, you may consider hiring Indian website builders.
User Friendliness
While it may not be as easy to use as WooCommerce, it still allows you to do a lot of things like add new features, and edit and modify existing ones with little hassle.
Templates and Design
While OpenCart has a variety of paid and free themes that free highly responsive, you may require some knowledge of HTML, Javascript, and CSS to make the most of these. And if you are not technical enough, you may need to hire a web designer to modify your OpenCart website in such a case.
Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce CMS offered as a SaaS. What makes it popular is that you can set up your e-commerce store with just a few clicks without any technical knowledge. It is a very capable e-commerce platform used by many beginners and professionals, having over 800,000stores.
Ease of Installation
With Shopify, you can set up your own store easily as it is offered in the form of Saas or Software as a Service. While you do not require any development experience to start your store, hiring a Shopify developer will help you make the most of the features that the platform offers.
Cost
Shopify offers plans ranging from $9 to $2,000 per month along with a charge for every transaction.
• Lite: $9/month
• Basic: $24/month
• ‘Shopify’: $79/month
• Advanced Shopify: $299/month
• Shopify Plus: Starts from $2000/month
User Friendliness
Despite how powerful Shopify is, it is also very user-friendly. There is extensive content for guiding beginners and documentation for all the features. You do not need to bother about the technical details. Everything can be done in just a few clicks.
Templates and Design
There are several free Shopify themes that suit all types of webshops. However, if you need a paid/premium theme, you can choose any of the paid themes available in its store.
Magento
Magento is another open-source platform that offers you a lot of flexibility and control in terms of how you want to develop your store. This is highly scalable, and you do not have to be a website builder to use all its capabilities. You can learn as you go.
Ease of Installation
With Magento, the installation requires you to first find a version that works for your website stack. Once you have that, you can either use their setup wizard for installation or make use of the command line to get more control over the installation. It is preferred to have some e-commerce web development knowledge to help you get most of the features that it offers.
Cost
The Magento community edition is free to use. Even for professional Magento developers, it has a lot of tools. Enterprise Edition licenses can cost $22,000 to $125,000 per year based on your sales revenue. The Enterprise Cloud Edition that includes AWS hosting starts from $40,000 and goes up to
User Friendliness
This is less user-friendly as compared to platforms like WooCommerce. You may need to spend time to understand its features or take the help of someone with experience in e-commerce web development.
Templates and Design
It offers you a few free themes and a variety of other paid ones. You can also get both paid and free themes from template marketplaces like ThemeForest.
Conclusion:
Thus, now that you know what the best e-commerce CMS offers you, setting up your webshop should be an easier task. Pick one that suits you the best and get started with your e-commerce journey today!
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