With a new begins, many digital vendors want to change or update their well aged shop system. Not every vendor needs the same solution, it largely depends on the situation, needs and also the available budget to start - or improve - an online business. Today we want to talk about the major players on the eCommerce field - luckily for you, no matter what you're going to pick, you will find an gigantic talent pool globally for all of them - or you can always just contact us. :-) But lets start directly with the comparison by giving you some neat Pros and Cons for our personal picks. 

Magento 2


Magento2 is a powerful eCommerce platform that has a lot to offer to vendors looking to sell their products online. However, like any other platform, it has its own set of pros and cons that should be considered before making a decision.

Pros:

  • Customizable: Magento2 offers a wide range of customization options that allow vendors to tailor their online store to their specific needs. This includes the ability to design custom themes, add custom extensions, and integrate with other platforms/tools.
  • Scalability: Magento2 is built to scale with your business. Whether you're just starting out or you're an established vendor with thousands of products and customers, Magento2 can handle it all.
  • SEO friendly: it contains a range of SEO features out of the box, including the ability to customize URLs, add meta tags, and create sitemaps. This helps improve your store's visibility in search engines and drive more traffic to your site.
  • Strong community: Magento2 has a large and active community of developers, users, and experts who can help with any issues or questions you may have. This can be especially useful for those who are new to the platform or who need help with customization.

Cons:

  • Cost: it can be more expensive than some other eCommerce platforms, especially if you need to purchase additional extensions or hire a developer to customize your store.
  • Complexity: Magento2 can be more complex to use than some other systems, especially for those who are new to eCommerce or who don't have a lot of technical experience. Also, it may require a learning curve and the help of a developer to set up and maintain your store.
  • Performance: it can be resource-intensive, which can lead to slower performance on some servers. This can be mitigated by using a high-quality hosting provider and optimizing your store, but it's something to keep in mind.

Overall, Magento2 is a powerful and feature-rich eCommerce platform that can be a great fit for vendors looking to sell their products online. While it may be more expensive and complex than some other options, it offers a lot of customization and scalability that can help your business grow. It's important to weigh the pros and cons carefully and consider your specific needs and resources before making a decision that aims towards Magento2. Our personal experience is that Magento2 suits larger business with a minimum turnover of 1 Million EUR per year with a budget of development for around 50-80k EUR. Smaller businesses with less budget can of course also approach Magento2, but should expect that their shop functionality is limited to what Magento 2 provides out of the box. An very easy yet powerful way to cheaply improve Magento 2s feature set is to acquire and implement 3rd Party Modules - however, the quality of the code is often not very good and finding bugs in these is often just as hard (and thus expensive!) than just building the given feature correctly from scratch. We would suggest Magento 2 to anyone who wants a qualitative shop, does not have a tight deadline and has already a business up and running that should be scaled up. We would not recommend it for small companies that are in the Start Up phase, maybe don't make a lot of sales and are just starting. There are way better alternatives that you can find below. 


Sylius


Sylius is an open-source eCommerce platform built on top of the Symfony framework. It is designed to be highly customizable and scalable, allowing vendors to tailor their online store to their specific needs and requirements. Sylius offers a wide range of features, including support for multiple languages and currencies, customizable product catalogs, and flexible payment and shipping options. It also has a large and active community of developers, users, and experts who can provide support and assistance with any issues or questions. Sylius is a good fit for vendors looking for a customizable and flexible eCommerce platform that can grow with their business.

Pros:

  • Open-source: As an open-source platform, Sylius is free to use and customize, making it a cost-effective option for small businesses or those on a tight budget.
  • Built on top of Symfony: Sylius is built on top of the famous Symfony framework - which means it has access to a wide range of tools and features that can help improve the performance and functionality of your online store.
  • Highly customizable: it offers a wide range of customization options, including the ability to design custom themes and add custom extensions. This allows vendors to tailor their online store to their specific needs and requirements.
  • Strong community: Sylius has a large and active community of developers, users, and experts who can provide support and assistance with any issues or questions you may have.

Cons:

  • Complexity: Sylius can be more complex to use than some other eCommerce platforms, especially for those who are new to eCommerce or who don't have a lot of technical expertise. It may require a learning curve and the help of a developer to set up and maintain your store.
  • Limited payment options: Sylius only supports a limited number of payment gateways out of the box, so you may need to purchase additional extensions or integrate with third-party platforms to accept certain types of payment.
  • Fewer out-of-the-box features: Sylius doesn't offer as many out-of-the-box features as some other eCommerce platforms, which can be an issue for those who need specific functionality.

With other words, Sylius is a powerful and flexible eCommerce platform that offers a lot of customization and scalability. However, it may be more complex and require more technical expertise than some other options, and it doesn't offer as many out-of-the-box features. We are actively recommending Sylius to smaller businesses, as it can very easily scale up with their demands. Its relatively cheap to build a shop with Sylius but it has the potential to grow with your company, as the company - and the market demand - grows. Thanks to the Symfony foundation of Sylius, its not complex for developers to adapt. Sylius sits initially below the price range of a regular Magento 2 shop, but its Cons are outweighted if you're certain about what you need for your online shop. That said, once you accelerate your eCommerce business with your Sylius shop, you should actively maintain it and keep on improvising it. We've discussed the reasons for continuous development in another blog post. Lets skip the long text: we love Symfony and we love Sylius. We'd recommend it actively to actually every business that wants to create a new online shop, as it suits perfectly for smaller budgets (15-25k to open end) and does not require as much infrastructure and is much less complex than Magento 2, yet more versatile and cost-efficient as Shopify.

Shopify


Shopify is a very popular eCommerce company, that allows vendors to sell their products online through a customizable online store, which Shopify offers their clients. They offer a range of features and tools to help vendors manage their online business, including support for multiple languages and currencies, customizable product catalogs, and flexible payment and shipping options. As previously, we can evaluate the usability for us based on several Pros and Cons:

Pros:

  • User-friendly: Shopify is designed to be easy to use, even for those who are new to eCommerce or who don't have a lot of technical expertise. It has a simple, intuitive interface and offers a range of tools and resources to help you get started.
  • Customizable: Shopify allows vendors to customize their online store with a range of themes and extensions, so you can create a store that matches your brand and meets your specific needs.
  • Wide range of features: Shopify offers a wide range of features and tools to help you manage your online business, including support for multiple languages/currencies, customizable product catalogs, and flexible payment and shipping options.
  • Strong community: it has a large and active community of developers, users, and experts who can provide support and assistance with any issues or questions you may have, however, you will have to deal with a limited talent pool worldwide.

Cons:

  • Expensive: Shopify's pricing structure can be expensive, especially for those who sell a large number of products. While the basic plan is reasonably priced, the cost can add up quickly as you add more features and products.
  • Limited customization options: While Shopify does offer some customization options, it can be more limited than some other eCommerce platforms. This can be an issue for those who need more advanced customization or who have specific requirements for their store.
  • Dependent on Shopify: As a closed platform, Shopify has control over the features and tools available to vendors. This means that you are reliant on Shopify to make any changes or updates to your store.

Overall, Shopify is a user-friendly and feature-rich eCommerce platform that is a good fit for many vendors. However, its pricing structure can be expensive, and it may not offer as much customization as some other options. We're recommending Shopify usually to any eCommerce platform that has just started, has not many items to sell and has zero to a very small budget. But don't get fooled here: Shopify is absolutely great for small companies. Its very easy to setup, it offers great looking shop, but it has its limits, and its much more expensive than a self-hosted Shop with Sylius or even Magento 2, as you pay by sale and monthly. That said, once you have a grown item stock, you really want to consider moving away from Shopify - but for smaller companies, Shopify is the shop to pick, as you simply cannot do anything wrong with it. From a technical perspective the guys at Shopify built a great tool that allows vendors to sell their items with ease for a reasonable price in the lower tier section. Speaking of quantities, we'd recommend Shopify to customers with 1 - 50 different items and an average turnover per year of around 100k EUR. In the past - something like 10 years ago - we did projects for companies that were run only by one family in Magento 1, today we would effectively suggest to use Shopify. It is however very important to wage between cost-efficiency and easiness to use, as revenue could be higher by spending budget on a self-hosted shop once a certain level of turnover on the shop is reached. 


Custom OnePager


A customized, non-shop OnePager with payment functionality is a type of website that allows vendors to sell their products or services online through a single page or landing page. This can be a good option for those who want a simple and streamlined way to sell their products or services online, or who don't need a full-fledged eCommerce platform. Here are some pros and cons to consider:

Pros:

  • Simplicity: A customized, non-shop OnePager is a simple and straightforward way to sell your products or services online. It allows you to create a single page or landing page with all the information and functionality needed to make a sale, without the need for a full-fledged eCommerce platform.
  • Customizable: A customized OnePager can be tailored to your specific needs and requirements, allowing you to create a page that matches your brand and meets your specific goals.
  • Cost-effective: A customized OnePager can be a cost-effective option for those who don't need a full-fledged eCommerce platform or who have a limited budget. It allows you to create a professional-looking website without the need for a lot of resources or technical expertise.
  • Mobile-friendly: A customized OnePager can be designed to be mobile-friendly, ensuring that it looks great and functions well on all devices.

Cons:

  • Limited functionality: A customized OnePager may not offer all the features and functionality of a full-fledged eCommerce platform, such as support for multiple languages and currencies, customizable product catalogs, and advanced payment options. This can be an issue for those who need more advanced features or who want to scale their business.
  • Dependent on developer: A customized OnePager may require the help of a developer to set up and maintain, especially if you want to make changes or updates to the page. This can be an additional cost and may require ongoing support from a developer.
  • Limited scalability: A customized OnePager may not be as scalable as a full-fledged eCommerce platform, especially if you want to add more products or features over time. This can be an issue for those who want to grow their business or who have a lot of products to sell.

In other words, a customized, non-shop OnePager with payment functionality can be a good fit for those who want a simple and straightforward way to sell their products or services online. However, it may not offer all the features and functionality of a full-fledged eCommerce platform, and it may be limited in terms of scalability and customization. We've done these things quite often in the past. A simple Boostrap template with some Stripe payment functionality, very cost-efficient, easy to scale with AWS (since it effectively doesn't require none or only very brief backends) and cheap caching. Its basically the best solution if you want to monetize your book, your coaching program or your health advisory campaign. However, it lacks incredibly features.

There are more things to say about other different shop system, but these 4 options are covering nearly all situations perfectly. For large companies with huge turnover, small to large with the demand to grow flexibly, small companies with few products and little turnover and single-product pages - there are great possibilities. Now, if you're hooked and ready to start or improve your eCommerce business, we have another great news for you: we do all of the aboves (albeit for Shopify you really don't need any support). You can always contact us to identify whats the best solution for your action.