Review and comparison of Magento versus PrestaShop

There is a vast diversity of e-commerce platforms and the right selection of suitable one to launch an online store is not easy. We’ve compared already on Panda Group blog Magento to BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce. Now we would like to compare two open-source platforms Magento and PrestaShop.

Before beginning any store, the owner must consider several aspects. Magento and PrestaShop despite being highly recognizable platforms should be considered in the context of your business or business’s needs.

This blog article will provide you with the overall comparison to help you select a suitable eCommerce solution to start an online store with Magento 2 or PrestaShop, considering the growing importance of digital commerce.

Magento vs PrestaShop main differences

Both Magento and PrestaShop are open source eCommerce software called Platform as a Service (PaaS). They are both written in PHP and as open-source are free of charge. However, the store owner needs to predict the costs of hosting server and development support.

The above is actually about the Magento Community version as Magento has also a Commerce edition called Adobe Commerce. This version is a SaaS (Software as a Service) type solution and offers a slightly different approach than Magento Community.

Magento and PrestaShop cater to different ecommerce business models, providing flexibility for various types of online business frameworks. These models, such as dropshipping and direct-to-consumer brands, benefit from lower startup and operating costs.

Examples of SaaS eCommerce platforms are BigCommerce and Shopify, which are eCommerce out-of-the-box types delivering the rigid structure for the store with different pricing plans and sometimes transaction fees.

PrestaShop vs Magento - Performance & Scalability of ecommerce

Your eCommerce performance, generally speaking, depends on hardware (hosting) and software (store platform) as well as running optimization of the site structure and content. When you start your online business both Magento and PrestaShop will perform relatively the same.

Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce platforms like Magento and PrestaShop offer lower overhead costs and greater scalability.

While scaling the business, getting more products and more traffic Magento will handle the situation better and run faster.

Magento 2 - performance focused

Magento 2 has especially focused on efficiency and safety, delivering an outstanding customer experience through enhanced mobile commerce capabilities. When operating Magento 1 you should consider migration to Magento 2. To feel the difference choose the best possible way of migration with experienced Magento experts - Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration case study.

Magento manages large volume product catalogs

Magento is a powerful platform able to handle around 50,000 visits per day. Even if you have over 100,000 products in the portfolio your eCommerce will not experience any performance delay. There were numerous improvements in customer experience, server performance, and scalable upgrades in Magento to achieve the stability and scalability that all size enterprises expect. Additionally, Magento efficiently manages online transactions, ensuring secure processing through various payment gateways and supporting multiple payment methods like digital wallets and credit cards.

Several options for optimizing Magento websites reduce data passing requiring a browser to render pages. This is called optimization of the Magento website. Ultimately this reduces web weight and decreases response times.

Magento frontend optimization with Hyvä Themes

Magento new frontend called Hyvä Themes appeared in 2021 and is more and more popular because of its outstanding performance achievements, and ease of use of Magento. You can read more about it in our blog article - Hyvä Themes – a new Magento e-commerce frontend software

Magento is a robust platform with many options and flexibility which does not appear in any other e-commerce software. Its scalability and comprehensiveness are some of the major advantages of this platform considered as most advanced and sophisticated in the market.

Magento vs PrestaShop - customize

Magento provides a full suite of tools to make custom functionalities and rewrite the same functionality multiple times. So, for example, you can use two modules that affect the price conversion in the cart and they should work without problems, only sometimes actions like this require a little developer work.

In PrestaShop, there are also modules and widgets. Overriding files are available but limited - developers can override one functionality/behavior one time. Repeatedly expanding similar or the same functionalities can cause problems. That is why it is used by smaller stores where advanced operations aren’t required.

Magento vs PrestaShop - usability

Magento is an option for all-size stores small, medium, and large operating in different markets and segments with numerous product catalogs. They will not meet any limitations in features deployment and customization.

Magento excels in supporting both business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) models. It offers advanced tools and features that cater to B2B transactions, such as bulk ordering and customer-specific pricing, making it ideal for companies that sell exclusively to other businesses. On the other hand, it also provides robust solutions for B2C interactions, enabling businesses to sell directly to individual consumers with features like personalized shopping experiences and seamless checkout processes. PrestaShop vs Magento is less complex and not so advanced in the B2B areas, customer segmentation, and business scalability.

Magento B2B & B2C features

Magento provides merchants with a wide range of features and facilities important for online sales, especially in B2B and B2C contexts. There are B2B and B2C solutions on customer segmentation, promotions options, wholesale and omnichannel, marketing and SEO support like:

• Customer segmentation targeted promotions and merchandising
• Gift registries and options
• Events & Private sales
• Rule-based related products
• Rewards & Loyalty
• Visual merchandiser
• Quick order (B2B)
• Company credit (B2B)
• Quotes (B2B)
• Dynamic Rule-Based Product Relations
• Persistent Shopping
• Automated email reminder
• Store credits and multiple wish lists
• Return management authorization and many more

Magento vs PrestaShop is a complex and robust platform with no limits for scalability and customization worth considering when you have a certain online experience or want to migrate from a more rigid platform constraining your action plan.

PrestaShop functionalities

PrestaShop offers 500+ features already built-in, all the essential functionality to start an online business. Uniq PrestaShop devices like Intelligent Merchant KPI and Forecasting enhance its statistical facilities. eCommerce Analytics will help you analyze the traffic and make data-based decisions. PrestaShop also facilitates the sale of services online, making it easier for businesses to offer both products and services through digital platforms.

Both platforms offer integrations that will enable you to export product listings directly to marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Google Shopping.

PrestaShop vs Magento is definitely a more basic eCommerce platform and fulfills business needs to a certain scale and complexity.

Magento vs PrestaShop: Ease of Use

PrestaShop and Magento are both similar eCommerce solutions when it comes to installations. They are pretty easy to get started with. All you need to do is check if the hosting service allows for installation automatically. If not you can always do it manually. As open-source platforms, they require web hosting and server solutions dedicated to your business.

As we already know, the installation of PrestaShop and Magento is similar, however, the next steps differ. Site management or product editor is more user-friendly in PrestaShop as it is less complex and has not so many functions and customization options. The growing significance of online shopping has made ease of use a critical factor, and PrestaShop's simplicity caters well to this trend.

While Magento has a vast number of options for nearly all of its settings which make all processes more complicated but also more suitable for demanding merchants already familiar with individual options advantages.

Magento worked out user-friendly solutions in frontend and backend dashboards nevertheless still many actions will require programming skills in-house or outsourced in skillful Magento Agency.

Magento vs PrestaShop plugins and extensions

Both platforms deliver marketplaces with functionalities necessary to operate an online store. Magento offers more functionality out-of-the-box and 5,500 extensions free and paid, divided by categories like customer support, payment protection, marketing, accounting & finance, shipping and fulfillment, site optimization. Additionally, integrating with online marketplaces can extend the functionality of e-commerce platforms by providing access to a large, active audience, reducing marketing efforts due to built-in discovery features, though it may present challenges in brand building and customer data ownership.

PrestaShop Marketplace offers 10,000 modules, graphic themes, and services. You may easily find all the necessary modules to develop the store to the expected shape.

Magento vs PrestaShop templates

Magneto offers highly flexible templates so you can create an ecommerce store totally suitable for your needs and expectations. For Magento users, it’s very common to create their own design projects.

In PrestaShop, there are more templates in comparison to Magento, enabling you to brand your ecommerce store in a way you wish.

Magento vs PrestaShop Security

No matter how big an online store you run, be aware of safety requirements and ensure transaction protection. In the realm of electronic commerce, security is paramount to protect sensitive customer data and maintain trust. Both PrestaShop and Magento are designed to provide enhanced security to online stores. They follow standard security measures like Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and are PCI compliant.

Self-hosted open-source Magento and PrestaShop for online transactions

However, you should take into consideration that open-source platforms need to be protected by following and implementing all patches to prevent vulnerability and breaches. Magento publishes independent security patches on top of its core updates delivering excellent tools that can be used to enhance security and allows it to be on the cutting edge of eCommerce security.

This detail gives Magento a kind of edge and places it before other e-commerce platforms.

Magento vs PrestaShop SEO & marketing

Traffic attraction is one of the main roles of the e-commerce platform. To do so, they need to stay informed about ecommerce trends and have appropriate features available like:

• page title,
• meta description,
• personalized URL,
• site maps,
• canonical tags,
• Google tools.

Understanding ecommerce trends is pivotal in adapting to changing consumer behavior and preferences, which is essential for businesses to remain competitive and effectively meet customer needs in the evolving online marketplace. Magento has all of these features out of the box while PrestaShop requires special modules installation from the marketplace. What is more, Magento offers other premium marketing tools like customer segmentation and targeting, or analytics and report generators. As we mentioned before, PrestaShop also supports data analysis. Both are considered to be SEO-friendly.

Magento vs PrestaShop Technical Support

Magento support depends on its edition. A free version of Magento Community relies on Magento official documentation, forums, and tech blogs. Magento Open Source is supported by the biggest developers community with over 260,000 members and you can rely on it as most answers and questions are solved there. There is also an official Magento Forums or Magento Help Center you can easily search and find solutions and tips:

Magento Open source is also a place where many innovations take place and are spread worldwide to boost the technology advancement of Magento. Technical support can assist with issues related to online purchases, ensuring smooth transactions and resolving any problems that may arise during e-commerce activities.

Magento Enterprise edition officially Adobe Commerce as a paid version provides you with 24/7 email support.

PrestaShop support is a paid option and presents as a plan consisting of speedy support and expert consultancy that will charge you from 249€ to 1399€ depending on the support level.

PrestaShop operates in 40 languages, but only fully supports English and French. There is no official support team but developers and users in the PrestaShop forum.

Magento vs PrestaShop Pricing

Magento and PrestaShop as open-source platforms are free of charge in general but still require hosting payments. Both can be downloaded and customized easily with no cost except for development expenses depending on the complexity of the store. The rise in retail e-commerce sales has significantly impacted pricing strategies, making it crucial for businesses to consider competitive pricing to attract online shoppers.

Nevertheless, Magento Enterprise, known as Adobe Commerce Cloud as a paid version is cost-consuming and delivers in exchange some SaaS (Software as a Service) options like 24/7 customer support and cloud server solution.

Who should choose Magento

Magento targets medium to large online stores as well as omnichannel business models, being more and more popular in pandemic reality.

Magento is a better solution for technically advanced and knowledgeable web designers. When operating the online store with a team of experts you can go for Magento without a doubt.

If you appreciate total control over the shopping cart and extreme flexibility when scaling the business you can stick with Magento.

Who should choose PrestaShop

PrestaShop is dedicated to small and medium online stores.

If you plan to work yourself on store development and technology is not your strength, PrestaShop is the better choice. It is particularly suitable for various ecommerce business models, such as dropshipping and direct-to-consumer brands, due to its lower startup and operating costs. If you do not plan to grow quickly and appreciate basic user-friendly options, PrestaShop is ideal.

It is also less time and money-consuming because of lack of complexity.

Magento vs PrestaShop Conclusion

Magento and PrestaShop are both excellent solutions for any ecommerce business, catering to self-conscious merchants who understand their needs. Whether you are comparing the different models, challenges, or benefits of an ecommerce business, one of these platforms will certainly satisfy your requirements if you are aware of your resources and have a precise action plan and goals to achieve.

PrestaShop (dis) advantages ...

Presta-shop is considered to be a user-friendly and less complex solution than Magento which makes it also more reasonable when it comes to time and money spent.

You get all the necessary extensions to run a successful online store. Having significant control over the platform is an advantage allowing it to differ from competitors especially those using SaaS platforms with limited customization options.

Magento (dis) advantages ...

This platform has a great reputation and is supported by big brands all over the world. Magento delivers outstanding scalability and flexibility as well as endless functions and options.

Magento is focused on security, performance, and exceptional user experience. Its security patches gain a profound advantage for your store. Magento’s SEO enhancement does not exist in any other eCommerce platform. Magento is the highest quality product based on expert knowledge supported by Adobe technology.

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If you're looking to build a Magento website, work with an agency that specializes in Magento. We've been developing websites and apps on the platform for years and have developed best practices that can help your business succeed.