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Magento 2E-CommerceSeptember 14, 2021

PrestaShop vs. Magento - Which One Should You Choose?

PrestaShop vs. Magento - Which One Should You Choose?

One of the critical initial decisions to make when you decide to start an eCommerce business is to choose an eCommerce platform. This requires a lot of thinking as you have a few options on the table each with a set of advantages and disadvantages. Choosing an optimal platform for your business will not only save you time and money but also help you run your business without any hindrance.

Prestashop and Magento are two big names in the eCommerce sphere. Both are widely used and offer cool features to create, run, and expand your store. In this article, we are going to make your decision easier by comparing the two platforms in the following key parameters.

  • Popularity
  • Ease of use
  • Performance
  • Pricing
  • Modules and extensions
  • Support

So let’s dig a bit deeper.

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Popularity

According to pipecandy, PrestaShop’s market share is 3.5% in comparison to Magento’s 2.3%. More than 239,000 companies are using PrestaShop, while 154,000 companies have chosen Magento as their preferred platform. Both platforms have been trusted by some popular brands. For example, Ford, Liverpool, Landrover, Sigma Beauty are running their websites on Magento, while Danone, Maniac-Auto, and Autobuty are using PrestaShop. Looking at popularity, PrestaShop has a negligible edge over Magento.

Ease of use

PrestaShop takes a clear lead here as it is beginner-friendly and requires little to no knowledge or programming skills. Magento, on the other hand, is difficult to work with. One has to be an expert programmer to create a store in Magento or develop an extension. Magento is not for beginners.

Performance

Magento 2 performs much better than PrestaShop, thanks to its advanced caching features and intuitive architecture. The platform can easily handle millions of page views per hour with no performance degradation. This is the reason why Magento 2 is preferred by large enterprises or companies with very large catalog and heavy traffic. PrestaShop, on the other hand, is better suited for small and medium scale businesses. It’s not that scalable and the performance gets affected if the website is overburdened.

Pricing

Magento 2 is expensive, particularly if you go for the enterprise (paid) version. The free version is only suitable for small businesses. The paid version starts from $22,000 a year and goes up as your yearly revenue exceeds $1 million. Then, there is hosting cost which could be $20 a month on average. Magento 2 dedicated hosting is several hundred dollars per month.

PrestaShop is available free of cost. You just have to pay for the hosting.

Modules and Extensions

Both platforms offer various addons (PrestaShop) and extensions (Magento) that you can integrate into your store to add new features. There are over 4,000 extensions in the Magento marketplace. Some of them are free while the paid one starts from $25. Similarly, PrestaShop has over 3,000 modules in its marketplace. Like Magento, a lot of modules are available for free, but the premium ones start from 49€.

Support

Both PrestaShop and Magento 2 have active forums and extensive documentation. You can get any question answered by posting it on one of the forums, studying official documentation, or by reaching out to their support agent. Magento offers free support via ticket, although the support quality is better if you are a paid merchant. Like you can get 24/7 technical support from a live representative.  PrestaShop offers customer support only on payment which depends on the level of support you seek.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, you might have already made up your mind. But if you are still confused as to which platform will serve you best, consider this:

If you are a large enterprise or aim to expand your business rigorously with no restrictions on budget, go for Magento 2. If you are a small business and don’t need much customization and prefer ease of use, PrestaShop is a better choice.

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