eCommerce websites are one of the most important websites and businesses these days. Picking the correct platform to use for your business or client’s business is very important. You need to pick what suits your products best, or if you have a lot of custom development that you will need to do, you need to pick the correct platform that won’t be a pain in the process.
Magento 2 and Prestashop are one of the most popular eCommerce frameworks. They both provide a solid set of features and each has its own pros and cons.
So which should you pick for your next project? You’ve probably seen many lists that made it complicated or confused you more. We’re going to compare them in a simple way that will help you easily decide which direction should you go next.
These points I am discussing below are based on my experience of working on each of these and on what clients want out of them. If you don’t want to read it all in detail, go to the conclusion right away.
Pricing
You can use both Magento 2 and Prestashop for free. However, Magento 2 has a community edition (free) and a commerce edition (not free), and some features in the commerce edition are not available in the community edition. For most businesses, the features needed can all be found in the community edition as it has many important features out-of-the-box.
Who wins? It’s a tie.
Out-of-The-Box Features
There’s no denying that Magento 2 comes with a set of features that overshadows Prestashop. For many businesses, the features in Magento 2 is enough to start selling as it is.
Prestashop has a good set of features as well, however, compared to Magento 2 it does lack here and there. However, if Prestashop ticks all of your checkboxes with the exception of some small features, you can easily get an extension from the Prestashop Marketplace, but this would count as additional costs.
Who wins? Magento
Admin Dashboard
Yes, Magento has a big set of features. However, we can’t completely count that as a pro, because all of these features are packed together in an Admin Dashboard that is confusing and complicated to any non-tech savvy person. Even for tech-savvy people, it needs a little to get used to it. If you consider using Magento, you probably will need to provide training for your client, and even that might not be enough for some.
Prestashop’s dashboard is very simple and straightforward. You’re looking for your orders? Just click on orders in the sidebar. Looking for products? Just click on catalog in the sidebar and you’ll find it right there. Prestashop’s to-the-point features make it easier for anyone using the dashboard to get to whatever they are looking for. For clients, that is a big pro.
Who wins? Prestashop
Website Speed
The end result of using both platforms will provide a fast website for you. However, Magento will require a lot of configuration to get that final result. From using Redis cache and Varnish cache to bundling assets among other configurations, you will need a whole task for it. On one of the projects I’ve worked on and after a few days of working on it to completely optimize everything, We reached 94 on Google’s Page Speed, which is very good.
With Prestashop, you can easily set up cache and make the website faster. However, is it as fast as Magento after the configurations? No. Magento’s configuration may be complicated, but it will provide a faster website.
Who wins? Magento
Ease of Development
Development in Magento can be a nightmare. The architecture of the system and how it handles modules and assists can be very confusing for beginners or anyone just learning it. It can take some time to understand the ins and outs of Magento and how everything works. You will rely a lot on Google to get help on different error messages and how to get a simple style change to reflect on the website. However, Magento also provides the ability to implement complicated features with a little less hassle, using the predefined classes, libraries, and utility functions.
Development in Prestashop is a little less organized. If you look at different modules, you’ll find that some elements in the development do not have a set convention. I worked on Prestashop after working on Magento, and I found Prestashop a little premature in this matter. However, development in Prestashop is much faster than Magento which is a very important factor as well. It is also easier for beginner developers.
Who wins: Prestashop for easiness and speed, Magento for better implementation and organization of modules and functionalities.
Conclusion
So after this detailed analysis, the conclusion is this:
- If the business you’re working on/for requires complicated features and business conditions, go with Magento.
- If the business needs something simple and straightforward, go with Prestashop.
- If you’re in between, look at the “Who wins” section in each of the discussed points above and decide what’s more important to you or your client.
Did this article help you decide what you will use? Or do you have any more questions about Magento or Prestashop? Let me know down below!