Magento vs BigCommerce: Which to Choose in 2018

2018 is here with new hopes and possibilities. Maybe it’s time to start that new online store you have been thinking of since last year or maybe you are already running an online store but unhappy with the results, want to switch to a new and more profitable e-commerce platform. Whatever your plans for this year are, start working on them now because time is money.

If you fall anywhere between the two above categories, then look no further, this article is for you. We understand how choosing the right platform for your online store can mean the birth or death of your business (or maybe your dreams), that’s why we are here to discuss the best of two e-commerce giants, Magento and BigCommerce and help decide which is more suitable for your business.

Before moving through the list, let’s learn a bit about these two e-commerce giants.

Magento is an on-premise, open source platform which comes in two editions namely Community Edition which is free of cost and Enterprise Edition which is a paid feature. Being open sourced, its software must be licensed and installed on your computer to run.

BigCommerce, on the other hand, offers a SAAS (software-as-a-service) platform which is a paid service. It is cloud based which enables you to access your webstore on any web browser anywhere across the globe and on any device available via an internet connection.

Both Magento and BigCommerce come loaded with various features to help you grow your business, let’s compare and find out which one better serves your needs.

Magento vs BigCommerce’s Software

The primary difference lies in their software itself.

• Since Magento is an open source platform which is free, it provides a ‘build from scratch’ model which allows you to customize the website yourself (provided you have the required knowledge), if not, then either have an in-house IT team to operate or a Magento development company.
• BigCommerce, on the other hand, provides an out-of-the-box solution with its ready-made store application which one can customize himself with the minimum knowledge required but since it’s a SAAS, you must buy a plan and pay monthly rents accordingly.

SEO Friendly Tools

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process of generating traffic by ranking the site high on search engines.

• Magento is considered extremely SEO friendly with its access to Google content API and Google Sitcom along with its ability to make search engine friendly URLs and meta info for products and categories.
• In addition to all the above features, BigCommerce provides txt file with product-specific SEO keywords along with Google Shopping support and 301 redirects.

Social media compatibility

• Magento development provides various apps and integrations which facilitate sharing and selling on social media but unfortunately doesn’t come with any inbuilt
• BigCommerce facilitates selling on Facebook by providing a Social shop program but unfortunately, Twitter and Pinterest connections are not included.

Themes and designs

• Magento holds the upper hand here with a variety of free themes to choose from, (thanks to its open source platform) along with highly responsive designs.
• BigCommerce store design is also highly responsive but with one minor setback, its limited availability of 42 paid and 16 free themes to choose from.

Expenses

• Magento is free to download however setting it up and maintaining it will require IT experts which may cost a little along with extra hosting fee since it doesn’t provide hosting of its own.
• BigCommerce comes with a monthly subscription fee which ranges from $29.95 to $199.95 per month but since its out-of-the-box solution, no extra cost is added and it’s self-hosted as well.

Easy Integrations

• Magento integration is slightly more complex because of its open source platform and lots of customizable options.
• BigCommerce provides a relatively easy integration due to its API which integrates well with other systems and fewer customization options.

Security Features

Every e-commerce platform must provide its customers with a safe payment option or in other words, be a PCI compliant hosting provider.

• Magento provides a built-in SSL security support, meeting PCI compliance standards is the responsibility of store owners themselves.
• BigCommerce, being in charge of hosting and maintaining, provides PCI compliant by default to all its websites.

Payment Gateways

It is a merchant service that authorizes payments processing for e-businesses.

• Magento offers several getaway options with ‘zero’ hidden costs.
• BigCommerce provides its customers with more than 60 payment getaway options.

Extensions

• Magento offers a massive benefit to its clients by providing more than 15,000 extensions and add-ons.
• BigCommerce, on the other hand, lacks behind by providing 60 extensions and add-ons on its BigCommerce app store.

Customer Support

Providing customer support to its clients help build trust and strengthens future relations.

• Since Magento, being free, does not provide hosting to its websites, one depends on support forums run by the Magento community itself.
• With BigCommerce, one gets a dedicated 24/7 support with tons of other customer support services via calling, emailing, chatting etc.

Conclusion

That sure is a lot of information to process and after comparing both, we still aren’t close enough to decide which is better among the two. If we look at the popularity ratio:

• Research shows that Magento is popular among large enterprises and BigCommerce ranges from small to medium to large.
• Magento and BigCommerce both claim to host approximately 2,00,000 websites.
• Magento’s clients include some of the famous brands such as Vizio, Rosetta Stone, Nike etc. BigCommerce too bags some big names including Toyota, Camelbak, Travelpro etc.

I guess at the end it all comes down to your company’s requirements. Both have the potential to turn your dreams into reality. Choose the one that best suits your needs and sees your business prosper.

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Created on Jan 31st 2018 13:11. Viewed 443 times.

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