When it comes to comparing ecommerce platforms Magento and PrestaShop are two of the best open source ecommerce platforms in the industry. Because they are both open source they are free to download and add to your ecommerce website. This also means that they are somewhat more technical than a hosted shopping cart that includes the web hosting like Volusion or BigCommerce. Read our Magento vs PrestaShop post to see how these two compare.
First we will review Magento’s features and then we will compare them to PrestaShop to give you an idea of which is the best shopping cart option for your ecommerce platform needs.
Magento Community features:
- Marketing Promotion and Tools
- Analytics and Reporting
- Search Engine Optimization
- Site Management
- Catalog Management
- Catalog Browsing
- Product Browsing
- Mobile Commerce
- International Support
- One-page Checkout
- Multiple Shipping and Payment Options
- Customer Accounts
- Order Management
Each of the features above has a detailed list of additional features on the Magento site. The entire Magento commerce system is designed to give you complete control over every element of your ecommerce store. The features and flexibilty provided by the Magento ecommerce platform allows you to customize your site to best meet your specific needs and increase your revenue. Magento Community is non-supported and recommended for expert developers with a lot of technical knowledge. If you love spending time solving issues and customizing software, this may be perfect for you. There is also a forum dedicated to Magento Community where you can share and learn. Visit the site for additional Magento products and services. Now to compare Magento vs PrestaShop features we will look at more details of the PrestaShop features.
In comparison the PrestaShop ecommerce platform is a PHP MySQL customizable platform. Some PrestaShop features include:
- Unlimited categories and products in your catalog
- Customer groups, referral program, newsletter and more
- Customizable order status, order management, special offers, and other order details
- Many payment and currency options
- Unlimited shipping carriers and destinations
- Online statistics for vistors, orders, sales, products and more
- Search engine optimized
- Secure access, ssl certificate compatiblity, and PCI DSS compliant
- Admin tools for maintenance and management
Like Magento, each of the PrestaShop areas listed above contain many additional features that you will have to explore yourself to dertmine which best fit your needs. The PrestaShop software has been installed on more than 50,000 ecommerce websites worldwide. Created by two Internet technology enthusiasts PrestaShop is focused on exceptional performance, cutting edge technology, varitey- with more than a thousand add-ons available, and providing quality service. From our Magento vs PrestaShop review we can see both are packed with features. Magento does offer other paid options if you are looking for something even more robust.
Where both Magento and PrestaShop are open-source ecommorce solutions, you will have to have quite a bit of knowledge and experience to use either. If you are looking for something more automated that doesn’t require a lot of knowledge or experience, check out two of our favorite hosted shopping cart software providers, BigCommerce and Volusion.
