Magento vs OpenCart: Which is the Best E-commerce Platform?

Magento vs OpenCart: Which is the Best E-commerce Platform?

Every entrepreneur faces the same question when commencing a new e-commerce business and that is ”Which is the best e-commerce platform for his online venture”? We know that there are many options available for e-commerce development in the market but here we are trying to make a full-length comparison between two alternatives so that by the end you are left with no doubts and can go for what’s most suitable for you.

What to Look For in an E-commerce Platform Before Starting Your Business?

• Which e-commerce platforms have all the features that you are in need of?
• What are the capabilities or skills of someone who is going to developing your e-commerce platform?
• Are you going to run multiple stores?
• Is it very hard in doing the modifications of the flow of the platform with its basic template?
• What is the content strategy of your e-commerce business?

Answering these basic questions can help you in figuring out the options in a better way. Let’s move towards the comparison between the two e-commerce platforms.

Magento VS OpenCart: Which One is Better?

In order to drive a conclusion between magento development service and that of OpenCart, we’d have to look at every aspect of each of the two e-commerce platforms in detail. So let’s dive right in.

Similarities between Magento and OpenCart

Magento and OpenCart share plenty of similarities.

• Generally, they are both open sources that are at last intended to encourage e-commerce businesses.
• Both are developed using PHP
• Several add-ons and extensions
• Multilingual support
• Allows recurring payments

Pros & Cons of Magento and OpenCart

After similarities, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of using these two solutions.

Pros
Magento	OpenCart
Flexible solution	Not expensive
Open to constant updates	User-friendly admin panel
Safe and scalable	Variety of payment gateways
Extendable functionality	Dedicated technical support

Cons
Magento	OpenCart
Requires skilled knowledge	Not much flexible
Many features are dependent upon coding	Becomes complicated with more extensions
Difficult to find specialists	Difficult to upgrade
Slow loading during customization	Not much security options

Differences between Magento and OpenCart

It’s time to analyze both on certain features such as pricing, community support, usage, and features, security, and user interface.

Pricing

Magento has two editions: Magento open source- community edition and Magento commerce- enterprise. Magneto open source is a free platform whereas Magento commerce comes with two plans

• Magento commerce starter- $1,999/m
• Magento commerce pro – $3,399/m

It is also said that price of the enterprise edition of Magento ranges from $22,000 to $32,000 per year. It is quite costly for small businesses to afford. OpenCart is also free. It’s free to install and then upgrade it. It can be downloaded from the official website and to avail additional features, it requires an extra amount. With a recent upgrade, it offers two plans

• Premium support plan- $99/m
• One time fix pricing varies – price varies

User Interface

Magento comes with a steep learning curve and is not easier to handle for a beginner with all the packages and its features. To deal with its user interface, you might have to hire specialists. In Magento, it is easier to navigate the sidebar and it also has written documentation for the support and help for the users. OpenCart has quite a simple user interface with ease of installation and setting it up. It is easier to navigate the sidebar. Moreover, you can download different extensions and modify the designs using the tabs in the admin panel.  It also has a presentable statistical data.

Community Support

Both Magento and OpenCart have settled networks that offer help and guidance by request, yet clearly, the community support of Magento is unmistakably and progressively vigorous. Magento additionally ensures and prescribes the developers to concede them with believability, which makes it simple to channel the guidance you get and know who you ought to tune in to.

Security

Presently security is an enormous concern. When utilizing an e-commerce platform, it is extremely fundamental to ensure the protection of customer’s information who are doing online payments. For Magento, security is very crucial. It keeps on offering regular updates with better security patches and many extensions. As it is an open-source, it is required to add extensions and follow proper guidelines to make it more secure. OpenCart is not a complicated platform and is not much vulnerable to breach. It has a self-defense system with written documents to follow the security guidelines properly.

Features and Usage

Magento has been increasing overall acknowledgment for its capacity to do pretty much anything you like and create the store you had always wanted. It offers

• Exceptionally adjustable shopping experiences
• Boundless design choices
• Amazing search engine optimization assets, and
• Boundless integration, modules, and plugins

Every feature is already available on Magento and other additional features can be generated by the developers or experts on your demand.  In case you’re not a Magento expert or in the event that you do not have the knowledge of PHP, you’ll most likely discover Magento a piece excessively complicated, particularly with regards to using its features and flexibility. OpenCart is a way easier platform and is extraordinary for small companies that need to deliver rapidly without numerous integrations. It gives a strong shopping basket and some incredible tools which are instinctive and straight forward, to such an extent that some experts may think that it’s excessively oversimplified, with insufficient features to play with. According to ecommerce platforms, here is the list of the most used ecommerce platforms (Data Source: BuiltWith)

• Magento
• Shopify
• WooCoomerce
• BigCommerce
• Wix
• Weebly
• SquareSpace
• Volusion
• PrestaShop
• 3DCart

Market Share of Magento and OpenCart

Magento ecommerce can bolster sites of any size. Stores that expect high traffic and more exchanges do float towards Magento 2 since it can scale up or down to help all business conditions. Indeed, even as your business develops, it can deal with every one of your necessities. OpenCart will in general suit little to medium size sites that don’t anticipate a lot of traffic. Source: web4pro.net  

Star Ratings

Here we a list of star ratings for certain features of both Magento and OpenCart which can make it easier to compare both. Source: PixelCrayons

Businesses Running on Magento & OpenCart

These are the brands or companies that are using these two platforms to fulfill their e-commerce requirements.

Which is the Best E-commerce Platform?

Magento always wins when it’s about popularity. However, we do not prescribe to go by the fame of any platform. Assess your necessities, if you are an amateur and simply need to sell a few items or services, you should stay with OpenCart. Also, in the event that you are meaning to develop your business and build up a brand, we do suggest going for Magento. Although it accompanies an expectation of skilled knowledge, it offers the versatility as well as support which is required by the storekeepers. READ MORE: WordPress VS Joomla VS Drupal: Which is the Best CMS for Websites?