Magento Vs Shopify – Ultimate Comparison
If you are already an offline retailer or wholesaler and want to build your store online and are wondering which platform to choose, then you just need to go to Google and do a simple search regarding this.
This is what most of the merchants usually do, but just after searching on Google, they get end no. of lists suggesting different different platforms.
Or even if you ask your friends and relatives, everyone gives you varied answers that just create confusion in your mind. Nonetheless, the name you heard the most would be either Shopify or Magento.
Now to sort out this confusion, we are writing this blog, but this one is specifically focused on Magento (Adobe Commerce) and Shopify because these two platforms are ranking highest when it comes to creating e-commerce stores, but still most merchants don’t understand which one is better for them, so below information will give all your answers.
Now let’s dive in!
Shopify Vs Magento: A Detailed Comparison
| Feature | Shopify | Magento |
| Subscription Fee | Shopify offers tiered pricing with monthly subscription plans starting at $29 for the Basic plan, $79 for Shopify, and $299 for Advanced. Additional charges may apply for transaction fees and add-ons. | Magento Open Source is a free, open-source platform with basic features. Magento Commerce starts at $1,988 per month, while Magento Commerce Cloud begins at $2,800 per month. |
| Customization of the Online Store | Shopify enables user-friendly customizations via its theme editor, which offers options to adjust colors, logos, fonts, and layout. Apps from the Shopify App Store further expand functionality, although more complex customizations may require coding skills. | Magento provides extensive customization options through its open-source nature. Users can modify almost every aspect of the store, including design, functionality, and third-party integrations. However, these customizations usually require developer involvement for optimal results. |
| Support | You can reach out to Shopify team customer support team via live chat, email, and phone. | In addition to support via call, email, and chat, Magento offers strong community support through forums and documentation, but businesses can also purchase premium support packages for expert assistance. |
| Integrations | Shopify supports a wide range of integrations through its App Store, making it easy to connect with tools for marketing, inventory, shipping, and payment processing. Moreover, you can integrate existing systems like an ERP or CRM with Shopify APIs and SDKs or Shopify Plus Partners, and automate every task from basic to complex. | Magento’s open architecture allows for versatile integrations with third-party services, from payment gateways to CRM systems. Custom integration options may require technical expertise. |
| Data Storage on Own Servers | Shopify hosts stores on its own servers, providing users with a streamlined, hosted solution. | Magento can be hosted on your own servers, giving businesses more control over data storage and management. However, payment and shipping processes rely on external services. |
| B2B Functionality & Multi-Vendor Marketplace | While Shopify provides basic B2B features like wholesale pricing and customer segmentation, more complex B2B needs may require third-party apps or custom development. | Magento excels in B2B capabilities, offering customizable pricing, bulk ordering, quote management, and more. It’s highly suited for multi-vendor marketplace setups. |
| Product, Category, & Data Limits | Shopify does not limit the number of products you can sell, but there are caps on product variants (100 variants per product) and metafield definitions (200 per resource). | Magento does not impose limits on the number of products or categories, but restrictions can arise depending on your hosting plan or server resources. Optimizing performance may require careful server configuration for large catalogs. |
Magento Vs Shopify – Pricing & Costs
Magento Pricing
We also mentioned above that Magento doesn’t require a monthly subscription because it is free to download, install, and set up your store.
However, we can’t avoid some other costs that are involved while opening an online store like finding a domain and a hosting provider required to publish your website.
Therefore, the price for Magento is flexible depending on your selection.
| Magento Open Source | Magento Commerce | Managed Services | |
| Magento license cost | 0 | $22,000–125,000/year | $40,000–190,000/year |
| Domain name | $10–400/year | $10–400/year | $10–400/year |
| Hosting | From $100/year | From $500/year | 0 |
| SSL Certificate | $50–300/year | $5–300/year | $50–300/year |
| Theme | $0–10,000 | $0–10,000 | $0–10,000 |
| Extensions | $60–600/extension | $60–600/extension | $60–600/extension |
| SEO & Marketing | $10,000–40,000/year | $10,000–40,000/year | $10,000–40,000/year |
| Payment Integration | 2.9%+ $0.30 Per transaction |
2.9%+ $0.30 Per transaction |
2.9%+ $0.30 Per transaction |
| Development | From $1,800 | From $10,000 | From $10,000 |
| Maintenance | $50–100/hour | $70–$140+/hour | $70–$140+/hour |
Shopify Pricing
In contrast to Magento, Shopify pricing is subscription-based.
Besides the 3-day free trial, (which can be extended for 3 more months with only $1 each), there are 3 main pricing tiers that you can opt for while creating your store, ranging from $39 to over $399 per month.
To your advantage, this plan includes both domain and hosting fees, so you don’t have to worry about purchasing these segments.
| Basic Shopify
$39/month |
Shopify Grow
$105/month |
Advanced Shopify
$399/month |
|
| Transaction Fees
*if not using Shopify Payments |
2.9% + 30¢ USD online
2.6% + 10¢ USD in person 2% 3rd-party payment providers |
2.7% + 30¢ USD online
2.5% + 10¢ USD in person 1% 3rd-party payment providers |
2.5% + 30¢ USD online
2.4% + 10¢ USD in person 0.6% 3rd-party payment providers |
| Additional staff accounts
*assign & manage staff’s activities |
— | 5 | 15 |
| Custom apps | Standard | API PII access included | API PII access included |
| Checkout capacity
*automatically manage & operate stores |
Standard | Standard | 10x |
| Shipping Discount
*shipping subsidies with leading carriers |
up to 77% | up to 88% | up to 88% |
| Duties and import taxes | — | — | fully supported |
| Localized selling with custom markets | 3 markets | 3 markets | 3 included + $59/mo per added active market |
For your kind information, Shopify offers a more affordable set of themes and website templates.
While the highest price for a Magento theme can range up to $499, Shopify only charges $450 for its best website template.
Recommended Reading: Top 5 Multi-Store E-commerce Platforms: A Comprehensive Comparison
Magento Vs Shopify – Extensions & Apps
Themes shape your website’s appearance, but extensions enhance functionality.
Both Magento and Shopify offer extensive app stores, enabling easy integration of additional features.
Magento Extensions
Magento’s marketplace offers over 4,400 extensions, many of which require technical expertise for installation, such as using Composer or running command-line operations.
Notable extensions include product promotions and discounts and Product Pre-Order for automatic customer notifications.
Shopify Apps
Shopify’s App Store features over 8,000 apps, both free and paid. Free apps, like Avada SEO, PageFly, and Dsers (for dropshipping), are sufficient for most budgets, though some may require paid upgrades for full functionality.
Magento Vs Shopify – Ease Of Use
Magento was specifically created for tech people as it is more complex than Shopify.
However, it gives users full control over their website, but again setting up an online business requires good technical knowledge, either you have to learn it or delegate this task to Shopify and Magento development companies.
This platform offers all the tools to completely customize your store but this same advantage or flexibility makes it more complex to work upon.
Whereas, Shopify is built for everyone, doesn’t matter whether you are tech savvy or not, you won’t face much trouble while creating your store on this platform.
But like end-to-end customization in Magento, this is not possible with Shopify, it comes with customization restrictions like the Shopify app lacks the depth of control Magento offers, thus Magento becomes the best platform for businesses with different requirements.
Magento Vs Shopify – Other Functionalities
| Magento | Shopify | |
| Dropshipping | Only 10+ dropshipping extensions on Magento Commerce Marketplace. | 100+ Shopify dropshipping apps on Shopify App Store. |
| Provisions for coupons | Magento allows discount code creation and calculation functionalities from the start. | This feature is available on every plan apart from the Starter one. |
| Shipping | Major shipping carriers like USPS, UPS, DHL & FedEx. | Built-in Shopify Shipping with major shipping carriers like DHL, USPS, UPS, FedEx, Canada Post, Sendle… |
| Multilingual capabilities | Multi-lingual capacities. | Third-party/paid apps are available for Shopify for this. It does not offer full multilingual capabilities by default. |
| Currencies | Magento supports currencies from over 200 countries around the world. | 135 currencies supported. |
| Scalability | Magento offers massive flexibility and scalability. Also, it can cope with high levels of traffic. | Shopify is proper for both newcomers and big sellers. You can upgrade your store plan to Shopify Plus for an enterprise level. |
| Security | Magento does give its users the flexibility to improve store security by themselves. Otherwise, you can install the Magento extension in the Payment & Security section to keep the business data safe. | Shopify is a hosted solution coming with Fraud analysis, PCI Compliant, GDPR Compliant and SSL Certificates available for every Shopify site. |
Wrapping Up
Finally, we want to say that both Shopify and Magento offer unique advantages; however, it depends what your purpose in creating the store is, and what your store needs in the present and future.
Moreover, Shopify is ideal for those seeking ease of use, thus the perfect option for merchants having limited technical know-how.
Whereas, Magento is a powerful platform for businesses that are operating at large scale, and require frequent and flexibility in overall customization, plus they have access to all the technical expertise to add advanced customization, scalability, and control.