If you still have not made up your mind which e-commerce platform better meets your needs, our detailed Shopware vs Magento comparison will help you decide between these two alternatives. It is the Internet that, in a relatively short time, has radically changed the way people see the world and computers that have become units of an ever more encompassing global information network. As a result, a highly convenient and productive social and financial intercommunication is possible now and conducting electronic transactions over this network is as simple as going to your favorite store around the corner.
Users benefit from purchasing goods and services online saving both their time and money, while many entrepreneurs who launch an e-business are more likely to receive very good support on the Internet, avoid losses and overspending. Besides, information about items the company offers is on open access, and customers can browse freely searching for the best bargains. An e-business, indeed, has its advantages; it is relatively easy to start with not much at stake, although its maintenance requires much more effort. Thus, an e-business owner who wants to have his enterprise up and running can address an e-commerce platform and get assistance in operating his site.
The Internet has a variety of e-commerce platforms to offer, which makes it even more difficult to choose the best from the lot. Then a store owner has to decide on what criteria he will follow exactly to evaluate possible options and identify the best one. For a more accurate analysis, you should consider specific examples of the platforms. Therefore, a thorough comparison of Magento and Shopware will simplify the task.
Shopware vs. Magento
Shopware and Magento, both written in PHP, have already become a huge success in the world of e-commerce. According to Google Trends data, however, the interest of the users in Shopware has constantly been growing over the past five years, while, in case of Magento, it has remained at the same (high) level. Although each platform offers various additional features helping to create and maintain a healthy environment for e-commerce and seeks to establish direct and personal contacts with shop owners for a strong support, the fact is that the output differs. So, what are the pillars of Magento and Shopware framework?
Main features of Shopware and Magento
To provide an e-commerce business owner with the website he has always dreamed of, both Magento and Shopware developers have made every effort and designed a certain structure for their platforms. Thus, if you want to choose one of the two e-commerce solutions, you should first make a comparison considering the following attributes:
| Shopware | Magento | |
| Cost |
|
|
| Ease of Use | Users can get access to the backend of the demo shop first, collect – with due transparency and simplicity – data about sales and customers, and make basic changes to the shop. When managing their store, users are free to take advantage of many Shopware features which allow making changes from the backend directly facilitating, thus, the administration process. | Magento offers a connection to the Admin Panel, where the data is stored, and new content can be created. Magento 2, in this case, possesses much more advanced features than Shopware 5. However, due to the higher complexity of the platform, users need to spend more time on the careful reading of the guidelines. |
| Marketing Tools | Shopware is automatically configured. It has a vast library of extensions in the Community Store, which simplifies the process of sales promotion. | Marketing extensions for Magento make it easier for business owners and customers of their e-shops to deal with product management, payment, shipping, and checkout processes. However, an advanced system of tools is rather confusing and more difficult to handle. |
| Business Correspondence | According to similartech.com, Shopware can hardly be compared to Magento in terms of market share, as the former evidently loses to the latter. Yet, Shopping and Business & Industry are core industries Shopware covers. The most famous customers are L'Oréal, Philips, Lufthansa, and Mercedes-Benz. | Magento covers a significant amount of websites in such categories as Shopping, Business & Industry, Clothing, and Arts & Entertainment. Canon, Burger King, KicksUSA, and Seat are among Magento customers. |
| Support and Community | Shopware has about 40,000 Community members. It offers them both free and paid support. Thus, platform users can refer to the forum or the Developers’ Guide, which is free of charge; or they can sign up for one of the two paid advanced feature packages to have their e-business always up-to-date. | Magento developers’ global community numbers more than 100,000 members, which makes it one of the biggest developers’ communities in the world. Despite the fact that official support is available only for Magento Enterprise Edition customers, the CE clients can hardly have any problems with looking for the answers to their questions, for there must be an enthusiast who has experienced the same problem before and is ready to help. |
Why is Shopware better than Magento?
Shopware is apparently a platform targeting the German-speaking market. Nevertheless, if an e-commerce company does not seek to expand internationally, the competitive advantages of Shopware over Magento are immediately obvious:
-
- 100% open source. The source code is publicly available, which makes customization possibilities infinite and allows much room for “user-driven-innovation”.
-
- User-friendly backend. The shop owner can make necessary adjustments instantly – no programming experience is required. Besides, through the backend, the user can place new orders, create guest accounts, and gather statistics.
-
- Flexible license models. The business owner who is just entering the world of e-commerce can start with the Shopware Community Edition, which is free of charge, then upgrade to the Professional, Professional Plus or Enterprise Edition, and launch specific extensive plugins that will complement his business.
-
- Short time-to-market cycle. Modularity of Shopware shortens an implementation period and enables the customer to get his business running in a few weeks' time.
Conclusion
Regardless of the existing Shopware vs Magento opposition, both platforms enjoy the trust and confidence of internationally-renowned companies. Each of the two robust solutions gives access to a range of specific features allowing entrepreneurs to manage their e-businesses effectively. Nevertheless, Shopware is more likely to match the demands of small business owners, since it is easier and cheaper to run. Magento, however, may turn out to be a source of frustration for developers; and much time can be spent on searching for a key to understanding the platform and all its possibilities. Thus, using Shopware you can launch an e-commerce website with much less effort. Moreover, Shopware has tools to help merchants run medium businesses and large enterprises. This platform is definitely worth considering!
© 2017, Vilmate LLC
