Magento vs PrestaShop – Which One is Best for You [2024]
Which is better Magento or PrestaShop? With varieties of eCommerce platforms available in the market, it is necessary to select the right platform for the website that will perfectly suit all your business requirements.
There are several other factors that need to be kept in mind before choosing any platform. If you are confused about choosing the best eCommerce platform between Magento vs PrestaShop, this article will guide you with the same.
Magento is a popular platform for creating attractive online shops with advanced functionalities. It offers powerful tools needed to build a robust online eCommerce business.
Prestashop is a highly customizable eCommerce platform and is ideal for international distribution and intuitive use. If you are looking to just start your online store, choose Prestashop but if you require more powerful features, Magento is preferred.
According to Builtwith data, Prestashop is followed by Magento in the list of the top open-source usage distribution in the top 1 million sites.
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Magento, on the other hand, is aimed at retailers who demand advanced E-commerce functionality and want to optimize the conversion rate. Magento and PrestaShop are both popular platforms with a significant market share compared to the others but are not the perfect choice for every company. For medium-sized to large companies, Magento is a great solution for their online shop.
For example, Magento is perfect if you want to run a complex E-commerce store, but Prestashop is the better choice when it comes to ease of use. Magento and PrestaShop are both free open-source software, which means you can redesign your eCommerce site or platform from scratch. While PrestaShop is a better option for non-programmers looking for an easier option for their eCommerce platform, Magento works better for business owners who want to design their own features.
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Read the below comparison guide of Magento vs Prestashop to have a clear understanding of both the E-commerce platforms and choose the right option.
Magento vs PrestaShop Comparison Guide of 2024:
The main difference between Magento and PrestaShop is the ability of Magento to scale with the business. PrestaShop is suited for the medium-sized businesses, while Magento is well suited for the business of enterprise level. PrestaShop is easy to set up, but the dark side of using it is the limited functionalities.
Provided below is the detailed comparison between PrestaShop and Magento from every aspects.
1. Ease of Use
The toughest part is installing Magento and setting up your store manually. It might be time-consuming if you are a non-technical user and thus, you might require to hire Magento developer or get help from Magento development agencies.
Customizing a PrestaShop is less complex in comparison to Magento, as the platform has simplified the management so it becomes easy to focus on important tasks. In addition, installing a PrestaShop would be much easier and simple. All other features such as order, product description, category, etc. are clearly displayed on the dashboard, this makes it easy to operate.
Hence, PrestaShop is easier to use as compared to Magento.
2. Pricing
Prestashop & Magento are used all over the world and offer a free version with the basic features to build a successful online store. PrestaShop and Magento 2 are both open-source eCommerce platforms with unique functionalities.
The free version of Magento is Magento Open Source. After installing it, you can customize the CMS easily as per the business requirements. You only have to pay for hosting service on the Magento hosting you opt for.
Similarly, setting up PrestaShop is free but, you need to pay for web hosting. You can add and customize the Prestashop addons similar to Magento.
The operating cost for Magento vs PrestaShop is not much different. However, there is much difference observed when it comes to large-scale business and hence, Magento offers much better pricing solutions.
3. SEO Capabilities and Marketing
Both these eCommerce platforms provide a wide range of features for optimizing SEO. Features such as URL modification, adding canonical tags, and 301 redirects are supported by these CMSs.
Magento provides out-of-box SEO capabilities. It is a powerful tool that is equipped with various default functionalities and even helps to boost search engine rankings. Additionally, Magento 2 SEO offers options for managing promotions, communication, and content.
PrestaShop also offers default SEO features to boost the rankings of your store and drive more traffic!
4. Payment Methods
The payment process offered by Magento is easy but lengthy. Magento offers default payment methods such as PayPal, Braintree, and other methods that can be integrated through Magento 2 payment gateway extensions to offer customers various payment options and may cost extra charges for that.
PrestaShop facilitates many payment methods such as cheque, cash on delivery, PayPal, and many other. It is also possible to install other payment gateways using modules like PrestaShop Checkout Solution.
Meetanshi offers Prestashop KNET Payments addon to integrate the KNET payment method with Prestashop and accept secure online payments from the customers.
Thus, Magento and PrestaShop are capable enough of handling various payment methods easily.
5. Built-in Features
Magento provides a complete solution for E-commerce as it is equipped with almost all the essential features. Generating analytics and sales reports is possible using Magento. Optimizing the mobile storefront is even possible using Magento. Even advanced features like Page Builder, GraphQL, and Live Search are now available in Magento 2.4.3 Open Source version!
Hence, it is recommended to upgrade to the latest Magento version as soon as possible to leverage the default advanced features for improved performance and security of the online store.
PrestaShop facilitates handling most functions such as creating and managing products, multi-currency, multi-languages, and reducing abandoned carts required for running an E-commerce store. It also allows customers to get much information about business performance, marketing, sales, products, and about the customers.
Hence, Magento and PrestaShop offer all the functionalities essential for eCommerce but, Magento Commerce Edition is equipped with much more advanced functionalities.
6. Themes
Themes play a crucial role while creating the design of your store. Similarly, extensions and plugins help in adding unique functionalities to your store. There are pre-made themes available in both eCommerce platforms which you can purchase while designing the store, instead of creating it from the scratch.
Magento offers an official theme directory, but it has very limited themes available. A theme in Magento 2 offers a consistent look and feel for your Magento 2 store using various layouts, designs, styles, and much more. If budget is not the concern, you can opt to select premium themes for your Magento 2 store from ThemeForest or TemplateMonster that can make your store beautiful and feature-rich.
PrestaShop provides around 3200 ready-made themes for its users. You can even purchase themes from third-party providers such as themeforest.net. Hence, as both these platforms are open-source, users can modify the themes according to the brand and can create a customized website design from scratch.
7. Security
Ecommerce platforms such as Magento fixes security patches every 10 to 15 days using Magento security patches. These security patches help in enhancing the store’s performance and improves the user experience. Magento’s security features are unmatched and it keeps upgrading with each new version. There are even third-party tools and Magento security extensions available to check their security level.
For PrestaShop, the set-up file is PCI compliant. The merchants even prefer hosting their sites through PrestaShop. These eCommerce platforms are designed to ensure the highest security level for your store and your customers. All the standard security measures are taken so that very little risk is associated with the buyers. Security plays a vital role and so one should spend considerable time when it comes to security.
Hence, Magento is more feature-rich and is provided with many security tools and powerful plugins as compared to PrestaShop.
8. Support
Both Magento and PrestaShop are open-source eCommerce platforms, so you can only expect to have support through documentation and from certain communities across the globe. As they are popular enough, a large number of people are ready to help you in case of any problem arises.
Magento has a larger community size and thus, the users can easily get support on the basis of various Magento editions. Due to the increased size of Magento users, there are more chances that you might be answered easily. You can even seek your queries from the members of the Magento Community. Even Magento devdocs also provides a detailed guide that can help you with the installation, themes, and configuration. On purchasing the paid plans, you can easily get official support for every single problem that you might face.
With PrestaShop, there is no such support team, so all you need to rely on is the users and documentation. There are several paid support plans where PrestaShop advisors can help you out with the queries.
Hence, concluding Magento has a larger customer base and thus, offers great support.
9. Extensions
Extensions are developed and integrated into stores to boost the operation of your eCommerce websites. PrestaShop and Magento, both allow you to add and customize other functionalities to your store.
Magento has a wide variety of paid and unpaid Magento extensions that are developed for complex stores. There are nearly 5000+ Magento extensions and can be integrated easily with the Magento backend. They are developed on various factors such as to boost sales, improve customer experience, and much more.
PrestaShop offers nearly 10,000 themes, graphics, and modules that might allow you to add just by few clicks. Such feature-rich modules help to boost your eCommerce business. It is best suited for beginners and these add-ons facilitate the store owners to easily integrate other eCommerce products into the store.
Conclusion
Which is better from the Magento vs PrestaShop comparison guide? Magento is more feature-rich as compared to PrestaShop, but requires a technical expert. And if you are running a large store with a high budget, Magento would be best for you. PrestaShop is mostly used for beginners, is cheap, simple, and is widely used for small businesses.
That was all for Magento 2 vs. PrestaShop comparison guide. Hopefully, the difference between Magento and PrestaShop will help you in selecting the most appropriate CMS platform for your store.
What are your thoughts about PrestaShop vs Magento 2? Likewise if you are not clear enough in choosing the best eCommerce platform between Magento vs WooCommerce then also have a look at the article. Do let me know in the Comments section below.
Also, share the post with store owners via social media.
Thank you.
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Shivbhadrasinh Gohil
Shivbhadrasinh is the Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer at Meetanshi. He leads the marketing team and is the person behind the marketing & branding success of the company. Being a seasoned digital marketer, he has been consulting online businesses for growth since 2010 and has helped 100+ clients with digital marketing success.
He loves sharing tips and insights about the latest digital marketing trends aimed at helping online business owners.
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