INTRO TO WORDPRESS

WordPress grew from a blogging platform to a fully customizable site framework powered by an array of plugins that give it extended functionality. That level of customization and the installation of more complex builds often require the help of skilled wordpress developers, who will also make sure your site’s up-to-date with the latest versions and plugins. That’s a key to WordPress: staying on top of updates keeps your site secure. With WordPress, themes, plugins and integrations are the easiest ways to take a basic site and turn it into exactly what you need—and the same goes for its ecommerce functionality. The WooCommerce framework by the creators of WordPress offers embedded ecommerce functionality and customizable themes like the popular Storefront theme. When you install a WooCommerce theme on your WordPress install, you can add plugins and extensions with Shopify, Paypal, Square, Stripe, Amazon payments, UPS, USPS, ShipStation, and more. WooCommerce and the like are great for small to medium stores, but it can definitely scale up to thousands of SKUs if you need it to. The power is in the plugins.
A note about plugins: You’ll always want to look for a plugin that was built by the company itself (i.e., Shopify) or a reputable development team so you can be confident the developers behind it will maintain the code and stand behind their project over time.

WordPress Pros

  • Super intuitive dashboard. Magento’s UX/UI is the main source of client complaints, and some have found it requires frequent help from a developer. WordPress on the other hand is pretty user-friendly.
  • Plugins for everything. Nearly any third-party add on you need can be found in a plugin. Some of the best SEO in market. WordPress is very well engineered, which makes SEO plugins like YoastSEO soar when used in conjunction.
  • Upgrades are easy. Upgrading the code and databases happen seamlessly in the background. Magento upgrades have been known to be costly, and problematic if developers are directly editing the core code, rather than properly extending the code.

INTRO TO MAGENTO

Magento is a powerful, open-source ecommerce platform that is known for its flexibility, scalability, and wide array of features and extensions. It’s also big, and pretty rigid. Ideal for medium to large online stores, Magento offers an Enterprise Edition and has some pretty high-profile brands in its roster. Keep in mind that what you get in the way of customization with Magento you also get in complexity, so you’ll probably want to hire an experienced developer  to help you maintain the long-term health of your site. The Magento platform is one of the more complicated platforms on the market.

Magento Pros

  • Any third-party service can be configured as an API with a bit of XML code.
  • Browsing made easy: Enhance your customers’ browsing experience with images, reviews, wishlists, and more. Enable product filtering and comparisons for a catalog-style browsing experience.
  • Marketing add-ons: Take advantage of coupons, promotions, and discounts. Magento also has powerful SEO support to improve your store’s visibility in search.
  • Customer account management: Customers can review their order histories, track orders and shipments, set up default billing and shipping when they create accounts, create wish lists, subscribe to a newsletter, and more. Communicate what you want with your customers when they’ve made a purchase with customizable emails.

WORDPRESS VS. MAGENTO

Now that you know a little about both platforms, let’s look at how the two stack up.
  • Both are built on PHP. WordPress is built on PHP. Magento is built on PHP as well, specifically the Zend framework.
  • Both have excellent developer APIs. Magento APIs allow integration with CRM platforms, create mobile apps, or integrate with CMSs. The WordPress APIs cover everything from metadata and HTTP to databases, theme customization and plugins.
  • Themes allow you to customize look and feel. Free and premium plans are something both platforms share. A Magento theme can look virtually any way you want—pick a theme and customize it, or design your own. WooCommerce’s themes (and WP frameworks like Genesis) offer amazing customization, too.
  • Both extend core functionality with add-ons. Magento pretty much offers anything under the sun in the way of e-commerce extensions and add-ons. Magento Connect is an extensions marketplace full of add-ons organized by category, from blog support and paid search marketing, to AJAX-powered features and integration tools. WooCommerce offers extensions that give sites shipping, payment, and inventory management extras, like the Product Add-On, which allows you to add product attributes.
  • Database integrations. Magento uses an EAV-based database model (entity, attribute, value), so all aspects of a transaction, from customer information and shipping data, are tracked in your database. Magento and WordPress both support integration with MySQL and MariaDB, but you can use an extension to work with PostgreSQL.
  • Both are free and open-source. With WordPress.org, you will need to arrange your own hosting and domain, but the software is free. Premium themes and plugins can cost more, too. Magento is open source, too—but does have a paid Enterprise version.
  • Both require installation, setup, and hosting. Unlike a hosted ecommerce solution like Shopify, both of these options are self-hosted, and require you to download the CMS, install it, and set up hosting and purchase a domain. If you need a developer to help here, note that Magento developers are a little harder to come by than WordPress developers, too.
  • Shipping options are flexible: Magento and WordPress both offer access to different carriers, and the option to ship to different addresses. Also, Magento comes with internationalization capabilities so you can sell overseas. WooCommerce offers integrations with carriers like USPS and UPS.
  • Both offer mobile responsive themes. Magento Mobile Shop lets you build a mobile app for your Magento-powered store quickly and easily, but you can also get mobile themes from Magento Connect.