Ecommerce Platforms Galore: What to Choose?
At BMG, over the years we’ve built 100s if not 1000s of sites and we’ve seen the industry evolve. Full disclosure: we are a Shopify Partner, a WIX agency and have PTSD from Magento and WP Bugs. We’ve migrated multiple Magento Sites from M1 to M2, performed countless Progressive Profiling Integrations on Adobe and Marketo, and hosted sites from AWS to Google Cloud to Alibaba Cloud to .. even Pingan cloud (yea we’ve also removed those fonts so it loads).
It’s been a whirlwind of fun all these years so we decided to write about it so everyone in the world can learn kinda what the differences are.
Shopify:
Shopify offers a wide range of customizable themes, extensive app integrations, and reliable hosting services. Shopify is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses looking to establish and scale their online presence quickly. It’s also pretty inexpensive and easy to set up. You don't have to deal with sudo reboot.
Magento:
Magento is an open-source (free) e-commerce platform. This also means you have to pay for hosting. You can code a lot of custom logic on top of it. And handle complex product catalogs and transactions. Magento offers advanced SEO capabilities, making it suitable for businesses with specific needs and technical expertise. You do have to deal with sudo reboot.
Wix:
Wix is great for novice folks who don't know coding and wants a drag-and-drop interface, pre-designed templates, and integrated hosting services, Wix's e-commerce features are more basic compared to other platforms, it offers simplicity and affordability for beginners. You don't have to deal with sudo reboot. We love Wix, cause we have PTSD from the difficult stuff.
Squarespace:
Squarespace is great for quick informational websites and is a popular all-in-one website building platform that includes e-commerce capabilities. It offers beautifully designed templates, built-in SEO tools, and seamless integration with third-party services. You don't have to deal with sudo reboot.
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM):
Adobe Experience Manager is an enterprise-level content management system (CMS) with robust e-commerce capabilities. It provides personalized digital experiences, advanced marketing tools, and seamless integration with other Adobe products. AEM is designed for large enterprises seeking to deliver sophisticated, omnichannel customer experiences across multiple touchpoints. You don't have to deal with sudo reboot but you do need hefty VPN for security.
OS Commerce:
OS Commerce is an open-source e-commerce platform, where you can do headless commerce (meaning less load). OSCommerce is pretty awesome and offers a range of features including customizable templates, payment gateway integrations, and multilingual support (Yup, no Weglot!). While OS Commerce requires self-hosting and lacks some advanced features compared to other platforms, it's cost-effective. You do have to deal with sudo reboot.
WooCommerce:
WooCommerce is the ecom engine for Wordpress. We have a love-hate relationship with WP. To do WP great, you need to have an awesome understanding of PHP and Servers so you can totally jack up your SEO. You do have to deal with sudo reboot.
| Feature | Shopify | Magento | Wix | Squarespace | Adobe Experience Manager | OS Commerce | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | High | Moderate | High | High | Moderate to High | Moderate | Moderate |
| Customization Options | High | Very High | Moderate | Moderate | High | High | High |
| Hosting | Included | Self-hosted | Included | Included | Self-hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Themes | Extensive | Extensive | Limited | Limited | Extensive | Moderate | Extensive |
| App/Plugin Ecosystem | Extensive | Extensive | Limited | Limited | Extensive | Limited | Extensive |
| Payment Gateways | 100+ | 100+ | Limited | Limited | Customizable | Limited | 100+ |
| Scalability | High | Very High | Moderate | Moderate | High | High | High |
| SEO Tools | Built-in | Built-in | Basic | Built-in | Built-in | Basic | Basic |
| Mobile Responsiveness | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24/7 | Varies | Varies | Varies | Varies | Varies | Varies |
| Pricing | Monthly | Open-source | Monthly | Monthly | Subscription-based | Open-source | Open-source |
| Target Audience | SMBs | Medium to Large Businesses | SMBs | Individuals/Small Businesses | Enterprises | SMBs | SMBs |
| Multilingual Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Security | Highly Secure | Secure | Secure | Secure | Highly Secure | Secure | Secure |
| Integrations | Wide range | Wide range | Limited | Limited | Wide range | Limited | Limited |