The three most well known eCommerce Platforms – Shopify vs. Magento vs. BigCommerce

Are you thinking to develop an eCommerce store and willing to step in the world of online business then you are reading the post because today here we are going to discuss about the top three widely used eCommerce platforms.

Basically, in eCommerce Industry; if you are looking for a best online business platform then you will hear three big names viz. Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce. These three have a huge market share in the eCommerce world.

Yes, there are many other options available however you need to identify which one suits your needs the best and according to that, you can select an online platform. So, let’s take a look at these three big platforms and compare them in order to make your life a little easier and help you to take proper decision regarding selection of eCommerce platforms.

We will compare these three platforms based on the below mentioned factors:

1. Pricing: Magento is available for free. One can download open source community edition along with access to its community forum, mobile optimized themes, app store as well as unlimited product selling without investing a single penny.

   Yes, you will need your own domain name as well as hosting service and if you wish to get it upgraded then you can ask for the quote.

   Shopify and BigCommerce have different price ranges that vary from $24.95 per month to $299.95 per month. Every tier scheme offers additional items which you can sell as well as the amount of storage as well as bandwidth that you have.

   With Shopify; one can get discounts on annual as well as biannual payments. It provides 30 day free trial along with Google Adwords and Amazon Ad credit. Here, BigCommerce doesn’t charge any transaction fees and also offers Adwords with 15 days trial.

   During initial set up; Magento is recommended as it offers opportunity to start business with no investment except your domain and hosting.

2. Design: Comparing these three platforms from design perspective we can say that Magento offers nearly 120 themes. Among these, some are free to use while some may cost around $50- 150.

   Shopify offers nearly 116 themes with paid packages. Hence, you are freed from the worries of coding and editing the current codes. FTP accounts are available here however the source code is available to everyone who needs it.

   Coming to BigCommerce, we can say it offers themes that have less quality when compared with Shopify. It offers a FTP account however it has options for adding and editing themes that are not as robust as Shopify.

3. Frontend Features: Magento excels here as it has more features as compared to other platforms. You can get custom dashboard, discount codes, sleek checkout and gift vouchers. The related products can be promoted via cross selling, wishlists and discounts for quantities and saved shopping carts.

   It also includes product reviews, reorders and image options. Shopify’s storefront is optimized for mobile devices and also includes social media integration. You will also get a website and blog along with basic features like as vouchers.

   Shopify’s frontend allows you to add apps to use features that you need whereas BigCommerce comes with most of its inbuilt stuff. Hence, it depends on you which platform to use.

4. Back end Features: Magento product pages are more complicated as compared to that of Shopify. However, it offers a bunch of features like as reports and analytics which are accessible from the dashboard.

   Shopify has many options for beginners as well as advanced users and it keeps variables and options to the minimum. It offers everything you need and it has the option to use advanced settings when you wish to use its additional features.

   The backend of BigCommerce is very similar to that of Shopify but it offers a comprehensive tour for those who are new to the system.

Wind Up:

So, here we have compared the three eCommerce giants with many basic points. There are many more such points available which can be considered for comparison but these are the main points that everyone will consider for.

Let us know how this blog post was useful to you. For more such tips and guidelines, stay connected with Softqube Technologies, a well known Magento eCommerce Development Company India.