WooCommerce vs Magento—both are ecommerce giants with a variety of robust features. Both have plenty of supporters, swearing by their performance.
This is why choosing the best one for your business might be confusing.
Don’t worry—
This is where we step in.
In this article, we’re comparing the most important aspects of WooCommerce and Magento side by side:
- Pricing
- Integrations and plugins
- Setup time and ease of use
- Design and themes
- Security
- Transaction fees and payment options
- In-built features
- Customer support
Plus:
- Who should use what: a quick cheat-sheet table
Learn first-hand account of how Tidio helped Shockbyte grow
Not what you were looking for? Check out these articles instead:
- WooCommerce vs Shopify: Who’s Better?
- Magento vs. Shopify: Which Is The Best Platform?
- 9 Awesome WP eCommerce Examples [WordPress Store List]
Main differences
Magento and WooCommerce are both popular ecommerce platforms on the market.
BuiltWith reports that in 2020, there were approximately 170,000 websites built with Magento, which makes 1.4% of all websites on the internet. WooCommerce, on the other hand, is powered by WordPress, the most popular CMS in the world, hosting over 28M websites.
So… What are the main differences between Magento vs WooCommerce?
Magento is designed with scalability in mind. It’s tailored to professionals, which is why the biggest global brands (like Moschino, Coca-cola, or Swatch, just to name a few) use it.
WooCommerce is a powerful plugin that transforms your WordPress site into an ecommerce store. It is much more accessible and significantly more affordable, while still offering limitless customization and flexibility.
We’ve looked into the pros and cons of Magento and WooCommerce and analyzed different aspects to give you an in-depth comparison review.
But before we jump into the in-depth analysis of every functionality, have a look at our Magento to WooCommerce comparison table:
Feature comparison: WooCommerce vs Magento
| WooCommerce (5/8) 🏆 | Magento (3/8) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Open-source platform with relatively low costs 🏆 | An open-source platform, but with high costs of maintenance and extras |
| Extensions and plugins | Over 50k integrations and plugins, those that are paid are relatively low-cost 🏆 | Offering around 1,900 free extensions, but those that are not free are expensive |
| Setup time and ease of use | Requires basic technical skills to set up with WordPress. Relatively easy to use. 🏆 | A complex installation process for more tech-savvy users. |
| Design and themes | One basic theme to customize. On top of that: 20 templates to choose from, 13 responsive, 3 free. Paid themes range between $39 and $79 🏆 | 2 basic themes. 10 paid themes ranging from $17 to $399. |
| Security | All security features must be sourced, usually by a web-hosting provider | Automatically PCI-compliant. Magento 2 comes with two-factor authentication. Regularly released security patches 🏆 |
| Transaction fees and payment options | No transaction fees, 3 payment methods, 3 payments gateways | No transaction fees, 5 payment options, 2 payment gateways 🏆 |
| Inbuilt features | A wide variety of built-in SEO features | Built-in inventory, sales, SEO, and analytics features, efficient API 🏆 |
| Customer Support | Extensive knowledge base and the possibility to fill the ticket, no official 24/7 support 🏆 | Extensive knowledge base, active user community |
Good to know…
It’s important to note that our review focuses on the free version of Magento made for medium and large businesses, not on Adobe Commerce (previously, Magento Commerce), a paid version of Magento Open Source software. On top of that, we focus on Magento 2, not Magento 1. Magento 2 is the latest version of the platform, built with PHP 5.5 and 5.6, making it significantly faster than its predecessor.
As you can see from the table above, we favored WooCommerce over Magento. But you need to remember that every business is different! That’s why it’s worth deep-diving into each aspect.
Pricing
For many ecommerce store owners, pricing is one of the main considerations when choosing the right platform. Who’s the winner—Magento or WooCommerce?
🏆 The winner in this category is: WooCommerce
Why?
It costs between $14-$30 per month to cover its basic features, and between $200-$1,000+ a year if you want to go extra. This makes for around $1.5k a year on average. On the other hand, Magento costs can easily go up to $15k in a year.
| 🏆 WooCommerce Pricing | Magento Pricing |
|---|---|
| – Dedicated hosting plan powered by Bluehost: Starter: $13.99/month Plus: $17.99/month Pro: $31.99/month – Security: $0-$200/year – Domain: $10-$20/year – Extension fees: $0-$100/month | – Dedicated hosting solution powered by Siteground: Start-up: $14.65/month Grow big: $25.94/month Go Geek: $39.47/month – Developers’ costs: around $2k per job – Domain: $10-15/year – Extension fees: up to $499/year |
The main difference
Both platforms are open-source and in both cases you’ll have to pay extra for setting up the store and installing additional plugins. However, Magento is mainly for big stores with advanced functionalities that usually require programming work. This means that if you want to customize and modify your Magento store to your liking, you need to hire developers. And it’s not that cheap—experienced Magento developers ask for around $2,000 a job.
Where does WooCommerce beat Magento?
WooCommerce’s prices are way more accessible. Fixed costs such as domain hosting and security are relatively low and even if you install extra plugins (on average, $39 per extension), you can still spend less than using Magento.
Plugins and extensions
Sometimes, the basic functionalities of an online ecommerce solution are not enough. This is where plugins and extensions come in. They let you add functionalities that improve customer experience, reinforce your marketing strategy and even increase sales.
Good to know…
The main difference between the plugin and extension is that the plugin provides extra functionality that doesn’t modify the core functionality. Extensions are made for modifying core functionality.
🏆 The winner in this category is: WooCommerce
Why?
Using plugins for most of the functionalities lies at the core of WooCommerce. A lot of them are free and the majority of them are easy to install, modify and maintain. In comparison, the prices for Magento’s plugins and extensions are usually higher.
| 🏆 WooCommerce | Magento |
|---|---|
| – 50k plugins – Almost all plugins integrate seamlessly with the platform | – 3,500 extensions in total including – 1,900 free They require monitoring during the updates – Paid extensions are relatively expensive |
The main difference
Customization is both WooCommerce’s and Magento’s main selling point. It’s only logical that they both integrate with a vast amount of extensions and plugins seamlessly. But even though Magento has more extensions than WooCommerce, the latter’s users have the entire library of WordPress plugins at their disposal.
Where does WooCommerce beat Magento?
Magento’s extensions are easy to install, but they can cause quite a few problems during updates. When it comes to add-ons, they can be troublesome in maintenance, and Magento’s users are required to know how to modify them. On top of that, the same integration plugins are very often double or triple the price for Magento as compared to WooCommerce. For example, the Instagram integration plugin for WooCommerce costs $79 a year, while for Magento, it’s $300 a year. All this makes WooCommerce a better choice.
Suggested read
Discover top WooCommerce plugins and extensions.
Good to know…
Both Magento and WooCommerce easily integrate with Tidio, a customer service platform offering chatbots for abandoned cart recovery. See how to install Tidio on Magento and how to install Tidio on WordPress.
Learn how Tidio helped Shockbyte improve customer satisfaction
Setup time and ease of use
The best ecommerce platform enables you to quickly move from a traditional brick-and-mortar shop to an online business. The ease of use and maintenance can also be decisive criteria, especially for small businesses.
🏆 The winner in this category is: WooCommerce
Why?
WooCommerce is much more accessible than Magento, both in terms of installation and user-friendliness.
| 🏆 WooCommerce | Magento |
|---|---|
| – Manual setup with guidance – WordPress wizard – For tech-literate users | – Complex, manual setup – Less accessible, with a steeper learning curve – For tech-savvy users |
The main difference
Manual installation is necessary in both cases. However, WooCommerce users can fall back on the WordPress installation wizard, making the process much easier. In contrast, Magento requires more dedication, skills, and tech-savviness.
Using both platforms is intuitive, making online store management relatively easy.
The problems appear when you need to use more advanced features or customize the shop to your liking—this is when an experienced Magento developer comes in handy.
Where does WooCommerce beat Magento?
A WooCommerce store requires basic tech skills, but the installation and setup are definitely less tricky than in the case of Magento.
Customization and store optimization are also more user-friendly and, overall, easier for an average user. So even if the platform requires basic technical skills for comfortable management, it’s a definite winner in this category.
Design and themes
Did you know that 42% of consumers won’t purchase from a website they consider ugly, and 75% of your visitors will judge your credibility by your website? These are two excellent reasons to take the subject of themes and design seriously.
🏆 The winner in this category is: WooCommerce
Why?
| 🏆 WooCommerce | Magento |
|---|---|
| – 20 built-in themes(13 responsive, 3 free) – Paid themes by external designers available ($39-$79) – Highly customizable | – 2 built-in themes – Possibility to create your own theme from scratch – Paid themes cost $17-$399 – Requires coding |
The main difference
WooCommerce offers around 20 built-in themes, including a popular entry theme, Storefront. Magento offers only two themes: Luma (demo theme) and Blank—the basis for custom creations.
Where does WooCommerce beat Magento?
In the case of Magento, you can customize the Blank theme from scratch or use additional page-building tools. WooCommerce will make your ecommerce customization a little bit easier. To edit WooCommerce’s layouts, you can install custom WordPress plugins. You will need some tech skills and basic IT literacy, but it’s still easier than doing it on Magento. This might be especially important for small businesses that might not want to consult an IT specialist every time the theme needs tweaking.
Good to know…
Users who want to buy an attractive-looking theme that doesn’t look random can visit Themeforest—one of the biggest markets for ecommerce business themes. There, you can find paid and free themes, both for Woo and Magento.
Suggested read
Want to get inspired? Check out the best free WordPress themes.
Security
As many as 51% of consumers would leave the website if it doesn’t have the SSL certificate. They are right—security is a must when it comes to ecommerce. Remember that apart from processing payments, you also store your customers’ personal info. Let’s investigate which platform offers more advanced security measures.
🏆 The winner in this category is: Magento
Why?
In contrast to WooCommerce, Magento comes with a number of advanced security features.
| WooCommerce | 🏆 Magento |
|---|---|
| – Self-hosted – SSL certificate must be sourced by a web hosting party (for example, Bluehost) – You need to make it PCI-DSS compliant manually | – Automatically PCI-compliant – Regularly released security patches – Site security scanner – Extra safety measures coming with Siteground hosting: free SSL certificate, 24/7 server monitoring, intrusion blocker |
The main difference
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) safeguards personal information from being stolen, and PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) enables you to process credit card payments legally. Both Magento and WooCommerce are self-hosted platforms, which means you are responsible for providing these security measures yourself. However, Magento comes with a few extra built-in features that WooCommerce lacks.
Where does Magento beat WooCommerce?
The latest Magento version, Magento 2 comes with two-factor authentication and is automatically PCI-compliant. On top of that, Magento releases security patches, regular software updates that keep your website safe. You can also check your website for weak spots with a security scanner.
If you are hosting your Magento store with Siteground, a dedicated hosting provider, you also get:
- Free SSL certificate
- Server monitoring
- Intrusion prevention system, which blocks the IPs that tried password scraping
WooCommerce requires a manual installation of the PCI-DSS and an SSL certificate. This makes it significantly less robust when it comes to security.
Suggested read
See how Tidio handles security measures.
Transaction fees and payment options
🏆 The winner in this category is: Magento
Why?
It offers more payment methods, and it’s possible to add many more gateways through extensions.
| WooCommerce | 🏆 Magento |
|---|---|
| – Four payment methods: online card payment, check payments, cash on delivery, direct bank transfer – Three payment gateways: Paypal, WooCommerce Payments, Braintree – Possibility to add more gateways – Apple Pay supported – No transaction fees | – Six payment methods: online card payment, check/money order, cash on delivery, bank transfer, purchase order, zero subtotal checkout – Two payment gateways: Paypal and authorize.net – Possibility to add gateway extensions ($0-$100 per extension): Stripe, Square, Amazon Pay. – Apple Pay not supported – No transaction fees |
The main difference
Both platforms easily integrate with various add-ons and extensions to provide multiple payment gateways. Neither of them charges extra transaction fees, but Magento has more payment methods, making it a little more flexible than WooCommerce.
Where does Magento beat WooCommerce?
Magento has a wider choice of payment methods and offers a variety of extensions for payment gateways. Even though Magento’s paid extensions are usually more expensive than those for WooCommerce, Magento offers more flexibility and comes out on top.
Good to know…
WooCommerce provides a native payment solution, WooCommerce Payments. Its primary purpose is to manage all transactions from one dashboard.
Built-in features
Both Magento and WooCommerce are built with customization in mind. But which platform comes with more features?
🏆 The winner in this category is: Magento
Why?
Magento comes with many more features out of the box than WooCommerce.
| WooCommerce | 🏆 Magento |
|---|---|
| – Few standard sales features: embedding suggested products on different product pages, one-click refund, possibility to customize the checkout – Advanced SEO tools – A variety of paid add-ons available | – Advanced analytics – Advanced SEO tools – Inventory management: customer logins, product comparisons, anchor menus, wish lists, gift card payments, and staff logins – Sales of all product types |
The main difference
WooCommerce integrates with a wide variety of add-ons and plugins, which allows for more freedom when it comes to modifying the store. However, Magento comes packed with useful features out of the box, and on top of this, you can add extensions for even more customization. This tips the scales in Magento’s favor this time around.
Where does Magento beat WooCommerce?
Magento offers many more advanced features: from optimizing your store for search engines to sales features.
Customer support
Both platforms are relatively easy to use, but some ecommerce owners may need help when it comes to order management, currencies, or setting up payment options. Let’s see which platform provides the best customer support.
🏆 The winner in this category is: WooCommerce
Why?
Neither WooCommerce nor Magento has official customer support, but the possibility to submit a support ticket for WooCommerce makes it a winner.
| 🏆 WooCommerce | Magento |
|---|---|
| – Ticket support – Vast knowledge center and library of tutorials – Dedicated forums | – Magento community – FAQs – Best practices and tips |
The main difference
Neither WooCommerce nor Magento has its own customer support team that can be contacted in case of an issue. WooCommerce offers a vast library of guides and documents.
Magento’s open-source software has an active community of users you can ask for help. Magento’s users say that you can solve almost any issue with the community’s help.
Where does WooCommerce beat Magento?
The possibility to submit a ticket for review in the case of WooCommerce makes it more appealing, especially for small and medium businesses.
Good to know…
You can contact customer support regarding WooCommerce if you use the services of their dedicated hosting provider, Bluehost. Similarly, you can contact the support team of Sitefront to resolve the issue about Magento
Suggested read
Discover how to deliver good customer service.
Who should use what?
Comparing WooCommerce to Magento might leave you feeling slightly overwhelmed. This is why we prepared a little cheat sheet. Have a look and see how many positions you can tick on each side!
| Use WooCommerce if you… | Use Magento if you… |
|---|---|
| – Want to build your store on top of your WordPress website – Build your store by yourself – Have up to a few hundred products on your site – Can survive having no customer support 24/7 | – Already hire developers or don’t mind paying additional money for some work to be done – Own a global multi-store that is enterprise-sized – Plan to have thousands of products – Are tech-savvy and don’t mind taking care of the back-end |
WooCommerce vs Magento: Summary
By now, you should have a clear overview of both Magento and WooCommerce. Let’s recap the most important info:
- Both WooCommerce and Magento are self-hosted platforms, which means you will need to use third-party hosting services.
- You’ll need basic technical skills to set up both Magento and WooCommerce However, the WooCommerce setup process and overall ease of use are tailored to less tech-savvy users.
- WooCommerce is ultimately a less costly solution, as opposed to Magento.
- Magento is more robust when it comes to out-of-the-box features (such as sales and marketing), and it also offers more payment options.
- Magento will be an optimal solution for medium and large businesses.
- WooCommerce is more accessible for small companies.
If you need help with adding live chat and chatbots to your WooCommerce or Magento, don’t hesitate to write to us.
We integrate with both!
