Store owners often wonder which eCommerce platform is the best to start their online business. And achieving success rapidly is often a top goal. Magento and OpenCart are the two most popular eCommerce platforms worldwide. If you are planning to start an online business and confused about what platform to choose, this Magento vs. OpenCart comparison is for you.
The choice of digital-commerce platforms depends upon several factors, like the size of the store, design, SEO, and budget. Both Magento and OpenCart offer next-gen features. So, choosing the right platform is a crucial decision.
Magento eCommerce development is more evolved than other platforms. It is a platform designed for complex stores. OpenCart, on the other hand, is an open-source eCommerce platform suitable for high customization and low development costs. It is a platform with an intuitive dashboard, a solid set of features, friendly, and active user community.
Comparing both CMS platforms on a similar parameter, you can choose the best option for your business requirements. Now, let’s get started!
Magento vs. OpenCart Comparison
The major difference between Magento and OpenCart is the availability of their tools and functions. Both platforms are perfect for large-scale businesses. However, Magento beats OpenCart in every aspect. Especially, when it comes to flexibility, customizability, built-in functionality, and more. Let’s find out some of the other factors that may resolve your decision-making challenges.
Performance
Magento is the true winner when it comes to performance-driven features. OpenCart’s online page loading time is 831 milliseconds, which is higher in comparison to Magento’s 665 milliseconds. Customers are more demanding than ever in terms of user experience. A slow website may result in losing potential customers and hinder the user experience of your eCommerce store. Taking a strategic approach to eCommerce website development is a primary prerequisite for success.
Studies reveal that slow loading time hurts the shopping experience. Approximately 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load a page. Magento 2 store owners offer options for “free” extensions like Magento 2 Defer Parsing of JavaScript to help to speed up the store’s page loading time and enhance user experience.
Cost
Both Magento and OpenCart are open-source platforms with similar operating costs. They are free to download and install but may incur hosting costs. These additional costs include a hosting plan, domain name, good template, extensions, and an SSL certificate. It is advisable to choose the best Magento hosting providers to experience quality returns.
Magento is a resource-demanding platform compared to OpenCart. The latter has a lightweight architecture and thus, OpenCart will have low hosting fees in comparison to Magento. Most of the Magento extensions cost around $50-$500, whereas, OpenCart ranges from $10-$489. The pricing range may vary depending on the type of agency you choose and the features incorporated in your eCommerce store app development.
User experience
OpenCart is a user-friendly platform that is easy to install. It is also easier for beginners to use and manage the store easily. All you need to do is have a basic technical knowledge of hosting, FTPs, and security.
Magento is a robust eCommerce platform and installing it can become a daunting task for beginners. If you are not an experienced developer, you can hire Magento 2 developers or Magento development agency to do this job professionally.
On the other hand, Magento 2 is highly optimized for larger online stores while adapting to simple eCommerce units and OpenCart tends to perform better for small and medium-sized websites. Use OpenCart if you own a small or medium retailer looking for a self-hosted solution at the best prices.
SEO and marketing tools
Search engine optimization is one of the crucial aspects of any eCommerce store. To stay ahead of your competition, businesses require a powerful SEO tool. Magento and OpenCart both offer powerful SEO options.
Thus, optimizing your store with both these platforms helps the store to stand out from the competition with an advanced SEO score.
OpenCart allows editing meta tags, adding 301 referrals, and canonical. It has various limitations like URL is not supported. On the other side, it offers several extensions on its marketplace, which help boost the performance of the store.
Magento 2 SEO and Magento 2 Drop Shipping features allow store owners to customize their store design and upscale their SEO tactics. Magento eCommerce stores are highly responsive and have access to many powerful tools. They help you optimize the content, analyze the traffic, and more. Therefore, OpenCart has a few limitations that can only get resolved with Magento.
Extensions
OpenCart offers 13,000 extensions with varied unique features and themes. Whereas Magento is highly designed for large eCommerce stores and is easy to integrate with the Magento backend. There is more than 5000+ Magento 2 extensions that allow users to add extended functionalities as per their needs.
The Magento marketplace offers tools for plagiarism, security, and compatibility. OpenCart also offers a huge number of extensions in the marketplace.
Security
OpenCart is an open-source platform, which makes it highly vulnerable to cyberattacks. The internal code and framework of this platform are public. Which makes it easier for hackers to detect and exploit security vulnerabilities. It helps take care of the third-party extensions and uses software of dubious origin.
Although Magento is an open-source platform, it offers security-rich features. Store owners can update Magento with various security patches that help them improve the site’s performance. Also, third-party tools and Magento security extensions dramatically enhance your security. So if you are looking to develop secured magento powered eCommerce store then hire magento developers from OrangeMantra.
Hence, Magento is a robust, secure platform compared to OpenCart.
Summary
Magento is a more scalable and secure platform than OpenCart. But it requires some technical support. If you lack time but have a handsome budget for your eCommerce app development, Magento is your go-to solution. OpenCart, on the other hand, is a suitable choice for beginners and is user-friendly, which makes it an ideal choice for small businesses.
Overall, Magento is a platform designed for complex stores. If you are planning to digitize your business, Magento 2 development service is your launchpad. Magento has all the features best suited for your large online business. To get more insights on eCommerce app development services, connect with our experts today.
FAQs
1. Is Magento better than OpenCart?
Magento demands advanced technical experience, but it is highly powerful than OpenCart. If your budget allows you to create a faster, more secure, and more reliable eCommerce store, go for Magento! OpenCart is effective for small-scale businesses because it is more beginner-friendly and cost-effective.
2. What is the difference between OpenCart and Magento?
Magento is a large-scale platform with varied tools and functions. Both platforms are designed for large online stores. OpenCart is a highly effective platform, but it is not equipped with tools like Magento. If you are a beginner, determined to create a small-scale eCommerce store, OpenCart is a suitable option for you.
3. What are the top features of Magento 2?
Some of the top features of Magento include:
- Analytics and Reporting
- Product Browsing
- Catalogs management
- Customer accounts
- Order management
- Payment and shipping
- Search engine optimization
- Marketing and promotional tools
