So you are going to create your own storefront? And confused which ecommerce platform is best between Shopify and PrestaShop? Well, if this is your problem, then today we will provide you a clear comparison between these 2 platforms, which will help you choose the one that goes exactly well with your business type, requirements and budget.
Let’s Start By the Introduction of the Platforms - Shopify VS PrestaShop
Shopify is a rapidly growing ecommerce platform introduced in 2006 and presently powers over 100,000 online retailers. It facilitates customers to create stunning online stores, both through using its premade as well as custom made themes. It offers a beautiful user interface for the admin panel. Shopify beats its competitor websites with remarkable add-on apps, that you can install and install on your ecommerce store.
PrestaShop is yet another open-source ecommerce solution. By incorporating PrestaShop templates, online businesses are capable to access more visibility of their products and catch the attention of more customers. The advantage of having a PrestaShop template is its flexibility and customization feature that can change the look and feel of the ecommerce website.
Pricing & Requirement
PrestaShop is an open-source and completely free ecommerce solution. You just need a few minutes to set up an online store with this platform. Specifically, firstly, you need to choose a hosting provider. After that, download and install it. To finish, design and modify your site. What’s more, over 310 powerful features are free for you to use.
Nothing like PrestaShop, Shopify costs you a lot for creating an online store. It offers 3 main packages, Basic, Professional & Unlimited, and supports 14-day free trial. All the packages contain unlimited products, 24/7 support, discount code engine and so on. As for the 3 ones’ basic feature, Basic includes 1GB storage and 2% transaction fee; Professional includes 5GB storage, 1% transaction fee and others; Unlimited includes unlimited storage, no transaction fee, etc.
Modules/Plugins
Shopify has a way bigger option of free modules that you might want so that’s a huge plus. But some modules you do have to pay a monthly fee for. For example, the Collection Filter module costs $3.99 a month. Some are more and some are less.
While PrestaShop does have some free modules most of their modules are a bit pricey. There is no running away from it. Most likely you are going to end up paying for some of their modules or services. You are going to end up paying for a SEO module. You are going to pay for a blog module that gives your store blog capabilities, which is very helpful. These two together could cost you 200 to 300 dollars.
One good thing about PrestaShop is that you will only pay a onetime fee for their premium modules and not a monthly fee. Shopify has a way bigger option of free modules that you might want so that’s a huge plus. But some modules you do have to pay a monthly fee for. For example, the Collection Filter module costs $3.99 a month. Some are more and some are less.
Themes
As for themes or templates, PrestaShop offers you more than 1,500 stunning themes with different prices except for two free ones. Each theme is completely customizable for you to personalize and beautify your website. Moreover, it is quite easy for you to choose an appropriate one because that all the themes are clearly classified into different categories based on different store types.
Unlike the former one, charged Shopify has 100+ built-in excellent and professional themes. All themes, designed by famous experts, carry with many settings for you to customize with ease. In the meantime, theme setting editor and Liquid templating language are so helpful to design your site theme.
Store Management
Both of the two platforms contain feature-rich website content management system. To be particular, these two ecommerce solutions enable you to design content pages by uploading images, editing items and more. Similarly, they do aim to aid you to have an effectual customer management for better knowing your customers by giving access to thorough customer profiles.
In addition, PrestaShop and Shopify facilitate you to offer numerous payment gateways like VISA, PayPal, credit card and more. However, PrestaShop wins the last one in incorporating more shipping modules and offering more thoughtful checkout services like gift wrapping, one-page checkout, shopping carts saving and more.
SEO & Marketing
Search engine marketing is one of the best forms for promoting products. Shopify and PrestaShop offer your prospective customers access to your online stores. Respectively, the former one enables you to put keywords and product description in the URL, the latter one support automatic sitemaps.xml files for products and site changes.
These two comprehensive ecommerce platforms have many marketing tools for facilitating sales. Both of then allows you to create coupon system and email marketing system to attract visitors. In addition, PrestaShop offers you more detailed marketing plans like built-in newsletter and loyalty program.
Support
It’s hard to compare support when they both have the same thing. They have the same things that you would expect like detailed documentation and tutorials. They have phone support, ticket support, and they have forum support. The edge that Shopify has over PrestaShop is their live chat support.
Conclusion
In my view, Shopify is better out of these two platforms. PrestaShop lacks some functionalities that you have to pay for. You are going to finish off purchasing modules that cost a grip that you shouldn’t have to buy. I also like the fact that Shopify is on dedicated servers, which makes your website run and load faster. They have a 14 day trial, huge supply of free plugins, and I love the sell on social media features. A Facebook store will positively boost profits. Start your business today! I think you should get the feel of it.
