Now we aren’t living in an era where you need to write each and every code to create a website as website builders and content management systems have revolutionised the digital landscape by allowing users to create websites and fully operational online stores without the need for coding, nowadays it’s more like drag and drop functionalities with multiple plugins, extensions, and software, thus they’ve transformed not only the way we produce and engage with content but also the way we shop and conduct business online.
This is why today, there are a vast number of robust e-commerce platforms available, each offering different features and functionalities at different prices. This can confuse online merchants as to which one to choose.
And you already know that choosing the right platform for your website can feel like standing at a crossroads when there are two powerful options like: Magento and WordPress. Both are titans in the world of content management, and product management systems, but they cater to different needs and ambitions. And we get many queries about which one is better, and this is what we’ll discuss today.
Magento VS WordPress Overview
What is Magento?
Magento is a highly extensible open-source e-commerce platform that is built in PHP that was released in 2008 by Varien and later on acquired by Adobe, designed to help users with at least a basic level of web development knowledge to build and grow an online store.
Some key aspects of Magento e-commerce include:
- Open-source platform
- Built on PHP and the Zend framework
- Extensive built-in e-commerce functionality
- Highly scalable to support business growth
- Efficient order management systems
- Integrated payment gateways
- Multi-language and multi-currency support
- Advanced business intelligence features
Magento also includes cutting-edge e-commerce technologies, such as headless commerce, omnichannel selling, an integrated Amazon sales channel, and a Progressive Web Application (PWA).
Plus, Magento has two editions: Magento Open Source (free) and Adobe Commerce (paid).
Suggested Reading: Magento 2’s Architecture: A Simple Yet Complete Guide
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a multi-purpose content management system that is perfect for users with varying levels of technical knowledge even if you don’t know anything about e-commerce.
However, it lacks some advanced out-of-the-box features required to create an e-commerce store but can be easily extended with plugins like WooCommerce.
Here are some key features of the WordPress CMS:
- Open-source platform
- Built on PHP with a MySQL database
- Primarily designed for content creation, not e-commerce
- Relies on plugins like WooCommerce for e-commerce functionality
- Easy-to-use backend (no heavy development required)
- Customizing e-commerce features can be more complex due to plugin limitations
WordPress VS Magento Security
You can’t overlook the security of your website, both of these platforms are secure, plus additional extensions can be added to enhance the security features.
Moreover, Magento Commerce comes with built-in security features, including a Web Application Firewall and DDoS services, but this feature isn’t available for Magento Open Source.
That means you might need to download extensions to help protect your site. The good news is there are over 750 security apps available in the Magento marketplace, however, some of them can go up to $8,000.
Whereas in WordPress in addition to regularly updating your existing plugins and platform, WordPress also offers various popular plugins like All-in-one security, Malcare, Bulletproof security, and so on, plus the best thing is most of such softwares are free, or comes at a reasonable cost.
Besides this, WordPress has an auto-update mechanism that allows users to schedule automatic updates when there is a new security patch, which is an underrated functionality.
Also Read: Maximizing Site Performance: A Guide to Content Delivery Setup for Magento 2
Magento VS WordPress Ease-of-Use and Customization
Its answer is simple, WordPress is simpler than Magento, the reason lies in their main capabilities that make it suitable for different purposes, Magento is specifically designed for creating online stores quickly, while WordPress doesn’t offer eCommerce features by default as you have to use plugins like WooCommerce.
Thus WordPress is accessible for both beginners and developers, while Magento demands a bit of technical expertise due to its default, and advanced built-in features such as multi-store management, sophisticated inventory tracking, and customer segmentation, which simplifies the setup of large-scale eCommerce stores.
However, both of these platforms offer different functionalities to handle blog posts, standard pages, products, shopping carts, customer accounts, and order histories.
But here is an advantage for WordPress users, it offers an attached CMS, in contrast to this in Magento, merchants need to plugin to do blogging.
WordPress VS Magento SEO
There are some best practices that you can opt for Magento store like using a Hyvä theme, or responsive theme, adding meta descriptions to all your product pages, creating an XML sitemap for your site, removing any duplicate content optimizing the alt text of products images, and setting your checkout, my account, cart, and admin pages.
Similar to Magento, WordPress too, easily allows users to make changes in terms of image alt-text, meta descriptions, schema.org, canonical tags, headings, and custom URLs.
Moreover, WordPress facilitates by offering a range of SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, All-in-one SEO, Rank Math, SEO Press, Squirrly SEO, and many more to do changes for different SEO activities with an ease that can be used by non-technical people, thus makes the redirection, crawling, indexing, and optimization process more steady forward.
Read More: How to Improve your SEO Score for Your Magento 2 Store
Magento VS WordPress Pricing
WordPress
It’s true that you don’t need to purchase WordPress, even if you use its ecommerce functionalities by leveraging WooCommerce.
However, depending on your specific needs and budget, you have to invest in additional features.
Below is an estimate of the key costs you can expect:
- Domain name: Around $15 per year
- WordPress hosting: $5.50 to $50 per month (depending on the level of hosting you choose)
- Theme: Ranges from $0 to $275
- Plugins: Between $0 and $1375
- Developer fees: $7 to $170 per hour
As you can see, the overall cost of a WordPress site will depend on how advanced you want it to be.
Magento
Magento, and Adobe Commerce both are free to use like WordPress, but you will need to pay for hosting, domain names, and additional features (like purchasing extensions from different sources) depending on the complexity of your Magento store.
Here’s an overview of the expected costs:
- Domain name: Approximately $15 per year
- Magento hosting: $9.50 to $140 per month (depending on the hosting provider, complexity, and integrations)
- Theme: Between $0 and $680
- Apps: $0 to $6900
- Developer fees: $90 to $200 per hour
As you can see, Magento is a more expensive option, particularly for themes, apps, and web development.
Suggested Read: Reasons Why Magento is Essential for Ecommerce Success
WordPress VS Magento Development Cost
Firstly we talk about WordPress, this platform you can use yourself due to less technical complication, however, when it comes to creating a more appealing upfront with some advanced features you will have to take the help of a developer.
Also, its e-commerce functionalities are a little more technical then you have to ask for the assistance of developers for the implementation of page setup, checkout endpoints, Rest API, webhooks, overall store management, merchandising, and so on.
So, rates for WordPress developers vary widely but tend to be lower than the rates of Magento developers. On Upwork, the rates range from $5 to $125 per hour.
As we discussed above, Magento is more complex. It’s not built to be extensible and developer-friendly but an enterprise-level eCommerce platform, making it more difficult for those without extensive development experience to get started.
So, the total cost of building and managing a Magento store ranges dramatically, which means a basic Magento store can start at $15,000.
Recommended Read: Adobe Commerce vs Magento Open Source
Wrapping Up
Now still if you ask – which is better Magento or WordPress, then we say it completely lies to your business goals.
If your primary goal is sales then definitely go for Magento but if your main focus is brand or content creation like blogs then WordPress would be a better option.
However, if you want to do both and your budget is restricted then WordPress with WooCommerce would be better, however, then you won’t be able to enjoy advanced technologies like PWA, headless commerce and so on. Confused – just connect with us!
