The choice of an e-commerce platform depends mainly on two factors: expertise and budget. We notice that a good number of platforms, despite the more or less attractive prices offered to create a sales site, present a level of complexity much greater than that observed a few years ago on their previous versions. The quality and reliability of a platform can indeed depend on elements independent of the user such as the type of framework used (computer program on which the platform is based), but also sometimes on strategies specific to his vision. In addition, the rapid development of add-ons to the basic store, and available on marketplaces, are helping to drive up companies’ bills. Today we have chosen to focus on three platforms, often with very different characteristics from one another but whose uniqueness and originality symbolize the dynamism of the e-commerce sector: Prestashop, Shopify and Magento.
.1. PrestaShop
Just like Magento, Prestashop is a free platform which however requires the purchase of complementary modules, the addons, at relatively high prices. The latest version of the program, Prestashop 1.7 is based on a new framework named Symfony, which requires higher coding skills than for previous versions. Like Magento, one of the important criteria to consider in the overall budget is the cost of hosting, in addition to that of the modules. The operation of the CMS actually relies on very powerful servers in order to respond to the increase in data recorded for the user’s site.
We retain as main strengths of Prestashop:
The product catalog administration system: all the functionalities present in its back-office intended for the management of orders, invoicing and logistics.
Its interface is more intuitive and ergonomic than that of Magento, which will make navigation more pleasant for both experts and CMS enthusiasts.
A Arabic-speaking community, with approximately 800,000 members, very dynamic and promoting mechanisms of mutual assistance and advice between recently experienced users.
The main flaws of Prestashop are its natural referencing (SEO) system, which is much less effective than that of Magento or that of Shopify. To find out more and for a concrete case.
- Shopify
Shopify is recognized as being easier to use than its competitors. Its interface is deemed more aesthetically pleasing, while it allows merchants with great ease to manage their shops via the web interface as well as via dedicated mobile applications (Android and IOS). Because of its simplicity and operational nature, Shopify is ideal for:
Companies wishing to limit their expenses and wish to quickly embark on the development of an e-commerce site,
Large companies, because its technical and easy-to-use architecture promotes the integration of many external applications and solutions. It is therefore perfectly in line with the dogmas advocated by supporters of the development of websites by the agile method. Shopify offers fairly significant technical security, as evidenced by the presence of HTTPS, installed by default and which provides effective protection of payment methods., Shopify is now compatible with more than 70 national and international payment gateways, covering everything type of payment methods: bank cards, PayPal, Google Pay, cryptocurrency etc. In addition, one of its strengths is the provision of integrations with several online sales channels simultaneously, these account for example: Facebook, instagram, Amazon. Each channel will thus have its own conditions, products (selections) and prices. The other advantage of Shopify is the very high quantity of the number of templates (graphic themes offered), whose quality and aesthetics appeal to most Internet users. Today there are around 120 themes, some of which are free. However, the increase in users’ demands on how to design their website logically leads them to have to make use of new modules, which they will sometimes have to pay monthly. This is the case for example with Languify, an application for creating your website in a foreign language, is available on the Shopify store at a price of 17.5 € per month. It is also possible to create your own applications on Shopify, although it is generally advisable to call on specialized agencies for simple use or pure creation from scratch. Finally, the user wishing to learn how to use this platform will have 14 days of free trial, then will have to pay the sum of 29 € per month if he wishes to benefit from it in the longer term. .Thus, Shopify, by its “user-friendly” side, constitutes a serious alternative to companies doubting the effectiveness of Magento or Prestashop. Although less modelable than Magento, Shopify remains very flexible to adapt to the different needs of the user, thanks in part to its many applications.
- Magento
First of all, it is important to emphasize the distinction to be made between the two types of versions currently existing: The business version: professional and extremely advanced version costing between € 6,800 and € 13,000 per year.
The Small Business version (formerly Magento Go): intended for small businesses. The store is hosted by Magento, so the user will not have to worry about hosting or installation issues. The cost is € 10 per month.
The community version (or “Community Edition”): a free, robust community version suitable for certain companies with significant ambitions. Magento is now considered a pioneer platform in the e-commerce media sector. Its great strength lies in the fact that it offers a large number of functions while remaining very modelable and guaranteeing a very efficient referencing system. This is evidenced by its vast catalog of products and modules present in its online store. The CMS, for example, has modules allowing the relaunch of abandoned order baskets on the store, is one of the many examples. It has better SEO optimization than PrestaShop, but also more complex and precise product catalog management. Its main strength remains its ability to simultaneously manage several brands or online stores, but also several currencies magento agency also has dedicated technical assistance, accessible 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, but this remains chargeable. The functioning of Magento is based on the Zend framework. It is therefore essential for a Magento user to have a perfect mastery of php and Zend. In view of the level of expertise necessary to operate this software, it is recommended that start-ups and users seeking to create their sales site, to call directly on an expert developer of this program. Magento is a very heavy program in hardware resources and its modules are quite expensive. In addition, one of the major faults of this CMS remains its rather not very ergonomic interface.
Conclusion
To conclude, we can establish the following postulates:
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use, scalable, low-expense platform for quick results, Shopify is for you. Adaptable to any type of payment gateway Australia, its possibilities are almost endless thanks in particular to its advanced versions (Shopify Advanced, Shopify Plus, etc. …).
If you are looking for a very modelable platform, with advantageous user contracts, despite the high expenses and the very long time to devote that it requires, choose Magento instead.
Finally, if you are looking for something between Shopify and Magento, take PrestaShop instead whose intuitive interface remains a safe bet.
Despite all of this information available to you, it is not necessarily easy to determine which platform is best suited to meet your needs, however specific they may be. This small table below, summarizing the differences in existing funds between the 3 platforms, will undoubtedly help you to better understand their particularities.
