Opencart Vs Magento: Platform Comparison

Every entrepreneur has the same question when it comes to starting an online business.

Which E-commerce platform is best to start my online business?

In the market, there are so many eCommerce platforms available that suit your business and fulfill your needs. It is based on your business type, your requirements, and the functionalities offered by the platform.

In this article, we are going to compare the two huge eCommerce platforms.

Each of these platforms provides different solutions for different sets of requirements. In order to make the right choice for your business, some basic things will help you understand your needs and will assist you to select the best suitable platform for you.

Both platforms are open source and developed in Php. Also, offer many extensions and makes it easy to operate and use.

While both are great platforms, each is heightened to provide advanced features for specific businesses. Both have some similarities and differences.

In other words, both are open sources, offer many extensions/add-ons, support multiple languages, support recurring payments. But Magento is a huge platform equipped with many tools and functions compared to Opencart.

Opencart is suitable for you if you are a newcomer, as Magento is a little bit complex for new bees and beginners.


Opencart Vs Magento: Which is better?

->User-Friendliness

Opencart:

Opencart is much simpler and easy to set up and install. One has not to worry about complex coding and development with Opencart because those who are not used to coding, also can adopt it.

It has a simple and straightforward installation process. Simply download Opencart and then perform 4 easy installation steps.

Moreover, if you get stuck anywhere, you can count on its support documentation.

Magento:

Magento is a little bit complex compared to Opencart. It requires coding knowledge and experience because of its complicated structure and complex features.

Magento also comes with an installation guide, but it is quite difficult for beginners.

Many store owners also hire a Magento developer to avoid dealing with the complexity of installation and other maintenance.

->Support:

Opencart:

Opencart has a dedicated support system. But if you want unpaid support, you will have to rely on the community and forums.

You will have to pay $99 for one time fix and $99 per/month for a dedicated support team.

Magento:

One can easily get your answer and solution from the Magento community and forums.

Magento community provide all the information regarding installation issues, themes, modules, extension, everything.

MAGENTO’S COMMUNITY IS HUGE AND MORE ACTIVE THAN THAT OF OPENCART.

->Customization:

Opencart:

Opencart provides some free & some paid extensions, plugins, and themes. They are easier to set up and update when needed.

And speaking of expansion, it turns out that OpenCart can also support multiple stores on one user account.

But if we talk about the amount of personalization, there are some limitations.

Magento:

No other platform can beat Magento in customization. None of the competitors provide a broader angle for personalization.

Magento has free as well as paid themes. It also provides product personalization extensions for your store.

You can change the source core code as well. Though working on Magento is difficult it provides a huge customizable platform.

It facilitates multiple stores on one account, plus allows great improvements on its open-source code.

->Hosting:

Both platforms give you hosting freedom, which is why it’s important to consider this factor while comparing.

Opencart:

OpenCart is cheaper to host because it demands fewer resources being a light platform. You have complete control over your hosting.

You can find hosting services starting at around $12 per month. It works well for small businesses.

Magento:

Magento is a huge platform and requires many resources. You have to hire a strong hosting service provider to optimize its performance and improve its scalability.

It is suggested to stay away from shared hosting. Magento is a little bit costlier when it comes to hosting.

Here are a few Magento hosting providers for your help.

 

->Security:

Security is a huge concern nowadays. Because protecting customers' data is 1st priority of any store owner.

Opencart:

There are a few issues with Opencart platform security. Yet it provides a basic defense system that is more than enough being a small and light platform.

Opencart offers some security extensions too.

Magento:

Magento provides high-level security and regular security updates. It requires certain security guidelines and security extensions and for that, you will need to consult Magento developers.

->Search Engine Optimization:

Opencart:

Opencart provides the basic SEO features for an eCommerce platform. For example, meta tags, meta descriptions, keywords, etc.

It does not provide strong SEO features so you may not get a higher rank with it. The platform does not sufficiently optimize the sites by default.

Magento:

Well, Magento surely offers advanced, customizable & endless SEO features.

It automatically generates SEO-friendly URLs and meta descriptions, integrates Google site maps, image resizing, etc.

Also, there are a lot of (easy to install)extensions available in the Magento marketplace for more SEO features if you need them.

In Conclusion:

Wrapping up, the selection is ultimately based on your business requirements.

As we can see both platforms have benefits of their own. Bur if we compare most of the features, Magento is better in performance.

If you want to grow exponentially and have big plans from the start, then it’s best to start with Magento. Because there’s a big chance you might have to migrate later.

You can hire Magento 2 developers from an agency for migration, system upgrade, support, etc.

Also read: https://www.milople.com/blogs/magento-vs-shopify-which-one-is-the-best/