Choosing the right ecommerce platform for your website is a big decision. For years, Shopify and Magento have been two of the most popular platforms in ecommerce, with Shopify continuing to expand the functionality it offers and Magento remaining a complex platform that allows for extensive customisation.
Both options are vastly different, which begs the question, which one is the better choice? Well, the answer entirely depends on what your business needs from its ecommerce platform, and how well you can utilise it. In this guide, we’ll compare the two across cost, ease of use, scalability, integrations, and SEO, amongst a wider range of comparisons, to help you figure out which is the better choice for you.
Magento vs Shopify: What’s the difference?
The simple answer to this question is pretty much everything. Even at a basic level, Magento and Shopify take very different approaches to ecommerce.
Magento is a part of Adobe Commerce, and this gives businesses a high degree of control over how their store is built and operates. Magento Open Source can be downloaded and customised, while Adobe Commerce provides additional functionality.
Shopify takes a more managed approach. It is a hosted ecommerce platform, meaning Shopify manages the underlying infrastructure while businesses use the platform to build and operate their stores. This makes it easier to get started and reduces the amount of technical maintenance required.
Neither approach is better than the other, rather, you need to consider whether you have the technical capabilities to handle Magento, and whether your business needs the control and customisation, or does it need the simplicity and easy management of Shopify.
Cost differences
Of course, cost is one of the main things any business should consider when choosing an ecommerce platform, but this needs to be marked against the value you get out of whichever one you choose.
Magento has two different versions. Open Source is free to download, but you’ll still incur costs for hosting, development, security, maintenance, extensions and ongoing technical support. The second version, Adobe Commerce (Magento Enterprise), is a licensed product with annual fees starting at $22,000 (~£16,000) a year. This can make Magento a big investment, but it may be worthwhile, particularly for businesses that need extensive custom development or have a complex infrastructure.
Shopify works differently. You pay a recurring subscription for access to the platform, with plans designed for different stages of business growth. Current UK pricing ranges from £19 per month when paying annually for Shopify Basic through to £259 per month for Advanced. Shopify Plus starts from £1,800 per month. There are additional costs to consider with Shopify too, including apps, premium themes, development and payment fees.
That said, with Shopify, more of the underlying infrastructure is managed for you, which can make costs easier to forecast and reduce the amount of technical maintenance required. However, this doesn’t mean Shopify is entirely free from development requirements. More complex customisations, integrations, theme development and ongoing improvements are still possible, and will still require developer input, particularly for businesses with more advanced requirements.
For businesses considering a move from Magento to Shopify, the potential reduction in technical involvement can be worth thinking about, but the extent of that reduction will depend on how the Shopify store is built, the level of customisation required and the capabilities of the team managing it.
Which ecommerce platform is easier to use?
As mentioned, Magento generally requires more hands-on management of the underlying platform, whereas Shopify takes care of much of the infrastructure. This can make Shopify easier to manage day-to-day, particularly for non-technical teams, although both platforms can still require development resources depending on how heavily the store is customised.
Shopify is essentially designed for anyone to use, including non-technical teams. Products, orders, content, discounts and many other aspects of the store can be managed through the Shopify admin without requiring a developer for every change. However, this shouldn’t be taken to mean that Shopify doesn’t require development resources at all. Custom themes, advanced functionality, integrations and ongoing improvements can all require specialist development input.
A Magento store can be customised extensively to the needs of a particular business, but this requires a greater level of expertise. Shopify can also be highly customised through themes, apps, APIs, Shopify Functions and custom development, although the approach and level of flexibility differ from Magento.
Which offers more flexibility?
Magento is undoubtedly more flexible as developers can build very bespoke sites that aren’t constrained by platform boundaries, allowing business to tailor their site exactly how they want it provided they have the technical expertise. However, Shopify is also highly customisable, particularly through its app integrations, APIs, Shopify Functions and custom development options, but there are boundaries.
If you need to control almost every aspect of your ecommerce infrastructure, Magento may be the better fit. If you want a flexible, scalable storefront without taking responsibility for the underlying infrastructure, Shopify might be the better choice.
Integrations and subscriptions
Most ecommerce businesses need their website to integrate with other systems, such as:
- CRM platforms
- Payment providers
- Marketplaces
- Fulfilment and logistics systems
- Email marketing platforms
- Customer service tools
- Analytics and reporting platforms
Both Magento and Shopify can support extensive integrations. Magento’s flexibility makes it particularly well suited to businesses with highly technical requirements. Developers have considerable control over how the platform connects with other systems.
Shopify takes the approach of allowing businesses to connect to existing tools without requiring a completely bespoke integration. In addition, Shopify’s APIs and development tools can be used to create custom functionality.
In terms of subscriptions, subscription and recurring payment options are available for Magento via two routes: third-party extensions, or advanced customisation to the storefront – achieved with code. You may find that extensions don’t meet your needs, but for more bespoke options, you’ll require an experienced developer to implement this functionality and ensure a seamless shopping experience for customers.
Shopify makes it easy to manage subscription services, including subscription boxes, recurring deliveries and digital memberships. You won’t find this functionality natively, but through the Shopify Subscriptions app. There are also numerous third-party integrations available through the extensive Shopify App Store.
What about SEO? Which platform is best?
It’s important not to oversimplify SEO, neither platform will automatically make an ecommerce website successful in organic search. This all revolves around your strategy for things like site architecture, content, internal linking, technical health, crawlability and authority – which will all have a much greater impact on SEO than the platform itself.
However, there are differences between the two platforms to cover.
Magento provides extensive control over technical SEO elements, including metadata, URLs, URL rewrites, sitemaps and robots.txt configuration. This level of control can be valuable for businesses with complex SEO requirements.
Of course, you can also gain control over these elements on Shopify, but the thing to consider is that Shopify makes core technical SEO elements easier to manage, particularly for teams without extensive development resources, but apps, themes, JavaScript, URL structures and platform-specific limitations will need to be factored in to your strategy.
For a business with a highly complex technical SEO setup, Magento’s flexibility may be valuable. For a business that wants a strong SEO strategy without managing as much technical infrastructure, Shopify can be a very effective option.
What’s the most popular option for ecommerce sites?
Shopify has developed leaps and bounds since it started in 2006, with many more capabilities than ever before. Features that might previously have required extensive custom development or third-party solutions can now be handled within Shopify itself. As a result, its popularity has only increased. BuiltWith data shows that over the entire internet, Shopify hosts 6,834,683 websites, compared to just 145,844 for Magento. According to Statista, Shopify also hosts 14% of the global ecommerce market.
The stark gap in the number of websites choosing Shopify can only be testimony for its ease of use, one that we would expect to increase as more sites migrate to Shopify from Magento. At the same time, Magento hasn’t stopped being a powerful ecommerce platform. Its flexibility remains one of its biggest strengths, particularly for businesses with highly specific requirements.
With that in mind, if your Magento store is expensive to maintain, difficult to update or increasingly reliant on development resources for relatively simple changes, moving to Shopify is something worth considering.
Should you migrate from Magento to Shopify?
For many businesses, migrating from Magento to Shopify can provide a simpler and more scalable foundation for future growth. A successful migration needs to consider a lot of factors, rather than just moving products from one site to another. This includes:
- URL structures
- Redirects
- Product and customer data
- Integrations
- Analytics and tracking
- Internal linking
- Structured data
- Page templates
- SEO visibility
But, when thinking about these factors, the question shouldn’t simply be “Can we move to Shopify?” It needs to be “Will Shopify give us the platform we need for where the business is now, and where we want it to be?”.
In many cases, the answer is likely to be yes, unless you anticipate you’ll need full control and flexibility over your site – in which case, Magento is still a strong contender.
Yogamatters: a Shopify success story
We have first-hand experience in seeing the successes of businesses moving from Magento to Shopify, and the Yogamatters migration is a prime example of Shopify offering better scalability.
Until 2020, they’d been using Magento to build and host their website, at the time it was built, it was best in class. Over the years of working with the client, it was very apparent that the platform had become outdated and no longer met the needs of the business.
With our consultation and to get the website back up to speed, we agreed that Shopify Plus would be the best platform for the client, offering flexibility, freedom and scalability. It gave them the tools they needed to focus on growing the brand and taking the next step in the expansion of the business. With a user-friendly interface, access to 1000s of apps to increase website functionality instantly, and the ability to operate at enterprise level across the world with country-specific shopping experiences.
Since launch in 2020, revenue, website sessions, conversion rate and SEO performance have all increased substantially. You can find everything about the development process, and more, of the Yogamatters website with our dedicated case study.
Final thoughts on the Magento Vs Shopify debate
As a Shopify-focused agency, for us there is a clear winner. However, we recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and neither option is inherently better than the other – it all comes down to what your business needs.
In many cases, Shopify outperforms Magento, with increasing numbers of sites choosing to migrate. For many growing brands, Shopify offers a strong combination of ease of use, scalability, integrations and long-term flexibility, and the Shopify Plus plan makes the platform a viable option for larger and more complex businesses too.
Magento remains a strong platform for complex businesses that need full control and complete customisability. Therefore, the right choice depends on your current setup, technical requirements and capabilities, and future growth plans.
If you’re considering moving from Magento to Shopify, or simply reviewing whether your current ecommerce platform is still right for your business, Venture Stream can help you assess your options and plan the right approach for long-term growth. Get in touch to speak to one of our ecommerce experts if you need more tailored advice on which platform is right for your business.
