The first question everyone asks when it comes to develop an e-commerce is: what kind of platform can I use to develop it? Of course, in most cases e-commerce projectsstartout as true “startups,” of which often not even a business plan is drawn up. So managing costs at the development stage becomes imperative but without neglecting quality.
Here, then, the whole game comes down to the choice of platform for development. The two main “competitors” at the moment are: Prestashop and Magento. Logically, they are both excellent products and the choice of their use depends on the different needs of a site, ranging from the specific characteristics of the hardware infrastructure where thee-commerce is hosted, the budget available, etc. etc.
I have tried to compare these e-commerce cms, trying to outline the main differences (which does not mean better or worse) of both. But let’s take a closer look at them:
Magento and Prestashop, CMS for E-commerce compared
Hosting
Magento: this platform has a structured architecture, so it needs powerful and not cheap hosting to run well. Prestashop: thanks to its partnership with as many as four hosting providers is definitely cheaper, it is true that the resources required from the server have increased, especially with the latest updates but it can be said given the difficulty of the functions to manage, the expense/requirement ratio is good.
Installation
Magento: during the phase of the first installation needs advanced settings and needs to activate different functions. Prestashop: easy and intuitive, needs basic knowledge of the server and MySQL database where it rests. It can be described as more user friendly.
Template
Magento: more complex than its direct “competitor” but definitely efficient and complete. It also offers a wide choice of countless templates in different styles almost all of which can be modified. Prestashop: allows you to customize the chosen template, with tools that allow you to move modules in live edit, has much less choice than its competitor.
Performance
Magento: guarantees the highest quality, excellent performance, exponentially if installed on dedicated and specifically optimized hardware. Prestashop: performance is decent,quite fast and responsive even without the need for special resources
Community
Magento: wide choice of extensions, all available in the integrated store. Prestashop: quite popular and steadily increasing, there is already a fair number of ready-made solutions.
Products
Magento: great if you have a very large e-commerce with thousands of products, the panel is optimized to perfection in order to manage large quantities of items, also allows an articulated tree of categories. Prestashop: recommended for small to medium sized e-commerce, without a large range of products. Staying on the hundreds of products the performance is good but if you grow it becomes hard
Customization
Magento: the level is very high, although it needs a solid background and considerable knowledge of the structure. Prestashop: the level is good plus you can customize content simply, even from the backend.
Search Engine
Magento: not its main quality. Normally, searches are done word by word (for example, if you type “laser printer” it will search for all items that have the words “printer” and “laser” in them). Prestashop: offers a fast internal search engine by default, along the lines of “Google Suggest” i.e., as you type you get suggestions. It does not have attribute searches although this functionality can be incorporated by buying forms.
Development costs
Magento: at the beginning are definitely higher afterwards however, as it grows to meet the development needs of the online shop, it is a guarantee of solidity and effectiveness. Prestashop: the starting costs are lower but in perspective they may increase for the needs of customization also has a major limitation, in fact it can not withstand large workloads. At this point you just have to ask for a specific consulting for e-commerce and evaluate together with one of our experts which solution is suitable for your online business project.