Is the e-commerce platform market at a point where it is difficult to say how many solutions are currently in place?

Those who want to create an online store can find dozens of different e-commerce platforms on the market.

Magento and OpenCart are among the platforms that could become very close to perfection. Both powerful and popular, they move shoulder to shoulder in terms of functionality and basic proficiencies. This is why the choice between Magento and OpenCart is not obvious, it mainly depends on personal preferences and requirements rather than on objective causes.

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Magento vs OpenCart – Similarities

In general, these two e-commerce platforms have a lot in common. Magento and OpenCart are both opensource, developed in PHP and can be downloaded for free. Supporting multiple languages and currencies, each of them has gathered enormous user and developer communities, allowing the creation of many customized extensions. Both platforms are powerful and functional enough to power stores of all sizes and relatively logical.

Magento vs OpenCart – Differences

  • User-friendliness and ability

One of the major differences between these two platforms lies in the simplicity of the management, or rather in its absence in Magento. In fact, the Magento learning curve is steep enough to confuse an average user and requires some knowledge of programming and technical skills. As a result, business owners are often forced to hire a Magento developer.

But as soon as Magento puts itself in a smart hand, this basket is able to do everything an online store can dream of. A completely customizable design, absolute flexibility, unlimited SEO resources, and countless extensions, that’s why Magento justifies its complexity.

On the other hand, OpenCart is considerably easier to use and manage. Simple and intuitive, it allows you to start your online store in a few hours after setting it up. However, the lightness and simplicity of OpenCart will cost you around 20% to 30% of the features that Magento users are so proud of.

Roughly, it reduces OpenCart demand among big store owners but offers a competitive advantage to the power supply of smaller ones. Magento, on the other hand, is often considered “too expensive” for stores that offer a moderate amount of product and an ideal complement for larger online retailers.

  • Community popularity and support

In terms of support, Magento and OpenCart have developed solid communities that are always ready to help a struggling merchant. However, the number of Magento specialized programs is incomparably greater, which is related to the high technical requirements imposed by this platform.

  • Hosting plans and extension costs

Although Magento and OpenCart can be downloaded and used for free, you will still have to pay for hosting, extensions and premium themes.

Magento, however, will cost you much more. As a resource-intensive solution, it requires a powerful and expensive hosting plan to support your store’s performance.

On another side, OpenCart is much lighter, which means that housing costs will be lower. The themes are also almost half-priced to those of Magento, not to mention the moderate prices of extensions.

Advantages and disadvantages of Magento and OpenCart

Roughly, we can reduce the comparison of the pros and cons of Magento and OpenCart to the following points:

Magento

Advantages:

  • Very scalable and customizable
  • An unparalleled level of functionality
  • Ideal for enterprise use
  • Great community

Disadvantages:

  • Expensive extensions
  • Too many features not needed for most stores
  • Steep learning curve
  • Performance is very much dependent on hosting

OpenCart

Advantages:

  • Very easy to use
  • Free and cheap extensions or themes
  • Responsive and agile admin user interface
  • Simple documentation

Disadvantages:

  • Limited caching and SEO functionality (extensions required)
  • Difficult to customize
  • Not so good for large stores
  • Moderate community size

Conclusion

If you are looking to create your shop with a minimum of financial infusions, OpenCart is a perfect solution. While Magento is the ideal choice for large-scaled stores with big budgets. However, both platforms are suited to what they are developed for, to sell and generate profits.

Do you already have an online website built with OpenCart but do you plan to move to Magento? Migrate from OpenCart to Magento quickly and easily with SetBlue’s eCommerce development solutions. Or are you ready to go the other way from Magento to OpenCart?

SetBlue’s OpenCart development and Magento development service is always exactly what you need!

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