Best ecommerce platform
- Thread starter tonyjr
- Start date
Magento is my choice - If you want to customize it though bring your code.
- Also if you are going to get a Merchant Account for credit card processing, the Community Edition is PCI Compliant if you set it up right.
Just because it's not mentioned - VirtueCart or redShop for Joomla works fairly well.
- Also if you are going to get a Merchant Account for credit card processing, the Community Edition is PCI Compliant if you set it up right.
Just because it's not mentioned - VirtueCart or redShop for Joomla works fairly well.
pxoxrxn
Supreme Member
- Dec 21, 2011
- 1,398
- 2,084
Are you guys smoking crack? How on earth is Woocommerce the best solution? Sure, it's the easiest but nothing that has a name that starts with woo could possibly be the best. I would go for Drupal Commerce Kickstart for a large website or OpenCart for medium size.
This is one of those things where there is no one size fits all solution. I've used, and continue to use, several different platforms. My got-to platform is Magento. But that doesn't mean that it's the best one for every situation. I have managed shops with 30,000+ products in Magento, as well as Woocommerce shops with just a couple of products. The Magento and Woocommerce platforms are my personal favorites for ecommerce.
As a general rule, Magento does require a lot more $$, and time to get up and running. The same is true with maintenance. And, it can have a steep learning curve for a beginner. This is especially true if you want to customize your Magento store. A lot of my Magento work came to me from people who tried to build their own Magento stores. These people attempted over weeks, or even months, to build their shops. And, after lots of frustration asked me to do it based on a recommendation from another client. There have been a couple of times I've seen people with no experience get a decent Magento store up and running quickly. But, they are the exception. Magento has made a lot of progress over the years in speed and reliability. Still, in my opinion, it's still not for a beginner unless you're willing to hire it out. The businesses I help become successful want to focus on running their business and selling products. They don't want to be constantly dealing with upgrades and broken sites. If you don't know what you're doing, or don't have a good developer, you're very likely to run across a lot of issues and wish you'd never tackled Magento. I say all that, and yet I LOVE Magento. 80% of the ecommerce sites I build, I build on the Magento platform. I also love how much money I've made from fixing people's sites who didn't know what they were doing.
Woocommerce can be a great solution, especially for a small shop. And, there's nothing wrong with starting with Woocommerce and then down the road, upgrading it to Magento. I'm sure you're going to hear people talk about scaling and staying on one platform. But, with my own clients, I have often rebuilt a store from scratch at their request when success dictates it. I usually recommend the most lean system that will work for a client's needs now, and in the immediate future. This has worked well for both me and for the client. For whatever reason, my niche has usually been to help startups. So, this approach works well. Once they have the funds, they almost always come back to me happily asking for a site upgrade.
If I were wanting to starting a new site and had limited experience, and had a small budget (less than 2K) I'd start with Woocommerce. If I had a higher budget, and/or some experience with PHP, I'd start with Magento.
The bottom line is, use what works for your needs and situation. Try them both out if you can. Install Magento and Woocommerce and test them both out. Remember, each platform is simply a vehicle for presenting your products to end users and search engines. The end user is not going to care which platform you are using.
As a general rule, Magento does require a lot more $$, and time to get up and running. The same is true with maintenance. And, it can have a steep learning curve for a beginner. This is especially true if you want to customize your Magento store. A lot of my Magento work came to me from people who tried to build their own Magento stores. These people attempted over weeks, or even months, to build their shops. And, after lots of frustration asked me to do it based on a recommendation from another client. There have been a couple of times I've seen people with no experience get a decent Magento store up and running quickly. But, they are the exception. Magento has made a lot of progress over the years in speed and reliability. Still, in my opinion, it's still not for a beginner unless you're willing to hire it out. The businesses I help become successful want to focus on running their business and selling products. They don't want to be constantly dealing with upgrades and broken sites. If you don't know what you're doing, or don't have a good developer, you're very likely to run across a lot of issues and wish you'd never tackled Magento. I say all that, and yet I LOVE Magento. 80% of the ecommerce sites I build, I build on the Magento platform. I also love how much money I've made from fixing people's sites who didn't know what they were doing.
Woocommerce can be a great solution, especially for a small shop. And, there's nothing wrong with starting with Woocommerce and then down the road, upgrading it to Magento. I'm sure you're going to hear people talk about scaling and staying on one platform. But, with my own clients, I have often rebuilt a store from scratch at their request when success dictates it. I usually recommend the most lean system that will work for a client's needs now, and in the immediate future. This has worked well for both me and for the client. For whatever reason, my niche has usually been to help startups. So, this approach works well. Once they have the funds, they almost always come back to me happily asking for a site upgrade.
If I were wanting to starting a new site and had limited experience, and had a small budget (less than 2K) I'd start with Woocommerce. If I had a higher budget, and/or some experience with PHP, I'd start with Magento.
The bottom line is, use what works for your needs and situation. Try them both out if you can. Install Magento and Woocommerce and test them both out. Remember, each platform is simply a vehicle for presenting your products to end users and search engines. The end user is not going to care which platform you are using.
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