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Blog - Web Design & Development

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Ecommerce Platform Comparison

You have your products, you have a company name and logo, you know what you want, but what platform is best for you? Hopefully this information can help you make that decision. Or tell us what you need and we can suggest what we think.

Here we look at the pros and cons of Magento, WooCommerce (WordPress), Shopify and DNN (DotNetNuke). Looking at cost, ease of use and set up time you can decide which is best for your business.

Magento Logo

Magento

Magento is great for larger businesses who have many products, although it's the best for customisation it's also a large complex system which means it takes more time to complete thing with it. Its built to be scalable from 10 products to over 10,000 products which makes it great for growing companies that are starting with a few products but plan to expand to as many as they want. It's also great for global companies as it can use multiple languages and currencies as well as showing multi shop fronts. Due to the size of the system is does mean it needs its own dedicated hosting server which can be more expansive. It is also expensive for the premium versions of the system and due to the complexity of the system therefore the added time it takes to do things means it costs more to develop. Due to the complexity it can be hard to find a developer who is experienced with all things Magento, luckily for you we have one of those rare gems ;).

Shopify Logo

Shopify

Shopify is a multi-channel commerce platform. It’s best for small-medium sized businesses. It’s designed to be used across multiple sales channels, including web, mobile, social media, marketplaces, brick-and-mortar locations, and pop-up shops. However it is limited on the product attribute you can use. It’s complicated to customise and doesn’t have the same customisable options as other platforms. You can only use one payment provider with a limited number of currencies without having to use 3rd party apps which are costly.

Woocommerce-logo

WooCommerce (WordPress)

WooCommerce is the ecommerce plugin for the WordPress platform, this means you need WordPress to use WooCommerce. However this gives you the reliability and ease of use of a WordPress site as well as all the plugins. It May require you purchase multiple plugins to customise your website how you want. The way this system is set up is basically a group of plugins all working together this allows you the customisation and flexibility to grow your business without needing a new site every time you add a product range. This can cause security issues and requires all the individuals who created the plugins to maintain them.

DNN Logo

DNN (DotNetNuke)

DNN is great for allowing many different users to manage and edit the site, having one main administrator to approve certain edits. It has a very easy to use editing system which is also helpful with SEO. DNN doesn’t have as many plugin or extensions as some of the other platforms and the ones they do have can be a bit more expensive too depending on what is it you want. However it does have a lot of features ‘out of the box’ making it very easy to develop with.

There are good and bad points for each platform, it all depends what type of online store you want, if you want to expand and what your audience requires you to be able to do. Below is a summery table to help you chose what is right for your business or get in touch to discuss with one of our professionals.

Summary


ProsConsBusiness Type
Magento
  • Multi language
  • Multi-currency
  • Multi store fronts
  • Flexibility to customise everything
  • Scalable-built for 10 product or 10,000


  • Expensive for premium accounts
  • Complex system – takes longer to customise
  • Needs dedicated server for hosting
Larger business or business that plan to rapidly grow
WooCommerce
  • Flexibility to create exactly what you want with all the plugins available
  • Reliability of a WordPress site
  • Can grow with business
  • Easy to use and manage


  • Need a plugin for everything – this can be free or paid
  • Can have security issue with some plugins
Small, medium or large
Shopify
  • Easy to use
  • Multi selling channel options – Point of sale
  • Has 3rd party apps you can use
  • ‘The Shopify Buy button’
  • Only 3 product options
  • Complicated to customise fields
  • Can only use one payment option without needing expensive add-ons
  • Complicated to add items to drop down menus
Small and small to medium business that don’t
plan to grow very big
DNN
  • Multi users can manage account
  • Easy editing
  • Easy to develop
  • Good for SEO editing
  • lots of features ‘Out of the box’


  • Doesn’t have a lot of plugin options
  • Plugins can be more expensive
Medium to large businesses that want a bespoke
website where multiple people have access