Building an intuitive and successful eCommerce website is no child’s play. 
It involves its share of sweat, blood, tears, and moments of indecision. 

One of the biggest and most important decisions that you have to take in your eCommerce journey is to decide how will you get the eCommerce website developed. 

Now, gone are the days when custom eCommerce development was the only way to build a digital presence for your retail business. Today, there are hundreds of eCommerce development platforms available in the market. Each of these platforms claims to be the best one out there. 

And without a doubt, many of them do pack a powerful punch. However, you cannot randomly pick any eCommerce development platform and expect great results. 

To help you out, we have analyzed and compared the top 4 eCommerce platforms  – Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

In our detailed comparison, you will find important information about each of these platforms. Also, we have mentioned the exact situations when you should ditch these eCommerce development platforms for custom eCommerce software development.

Further, you will get to learn when and where you need the support of a custom eCommerce development company to make the most of these platforms. 

Read on. 

We will start with Shopify, which is among the most popular eCommerce platforms due to its simple setup, quick loading speed, and secure payment gateways, as well as customizable templates for all the landing web pages. 

Shopify also lets you customize Meta tags and get an auto-generated XML sitemap. Plus, it offers better customer support via chat, email, and phone as compared to contemporaries, which comes in handy for B2C and B2C store owners. 

Price – Different plans of $9, $29, $79, $179 every month.

Notable Features-

• Over 100 professional themes.
• Highly functional website builder.
• Mobile-friendly online stores.
• Facilitates easy editing of HTML and CSS.
• Allows you to connect to your own domain name.
• Complete blogging platform available.
• Digital marketing and SEO optimized (e-mail marketing, social media integration, discounts and product reviews).
• Unlimited bandwidth.
• Comprehensive website analytics.

Key Benefits-

• Shopify provides a free hosting facility to its users! All you need to do is get an account and develop your portal.
• Comes with several SEO options and social media links that might assist you with your product and website marketing.
• The admin area interface is extremely contemporary, spontaneous, and user-friendly.

Cons – Shopify provides only three default parameters for product features. Each product in the store can be defined through its material, size, and color. Users can add several options for all of these parameters, but you cannot create new parameters.

Preferred Audience – Shopify is an excellent option for eCommerce startups. It is easy for beginners to develop an aesthetically attractive store whereas the more experienced users can avail benefits of the huge number of options and settings which Shopify offers.

User-Friendliness- Shopify is a simplified way to develop an online store. All you need to do is create an account, choose a free theme, and customize the design. Just follow the instructions, add more products and their details and then choose your favorite options. Making your online store functional is actually very straightforward and simple. Shopify works in a much better way in this area if compared to Magento or any other top eCommerce platforms.

Magento is an open-source platform, owned by the eBay group. It is one of the fastest-growing platforms with cutting-edge solutions for entrepreneurs seeking success in the eCommerce space. Magento has a huge community of developers who contribute all-inclusive features for your online stores, which makes Magento shine brighter compared to other eCommerce platforms.

Price- Free and Paid version – $18,000 per year.

Primary Features-

• Responsive structure, pre-integrated on Android, iPhone, iPad, and mobile HTML5.
• Automated email marketing reminder.
• Completely customizable design and making use of templates.
• Customer fragmentation, targeted marketing, and merchandising facilities are available.
• Comes with a private sales feature that confines the catalog to certain customers.
• Multiple wish lists.
• Integrated CMS.
• Polls and customer groups.
• Infinite product attributes.

Key Benefits-

• It has a professional look, with systematic information and categories that cover every aspect which could assist you develop an ideal online store.
• Magento comes with extremely exhaustive content and data. Each category offers numerous options that will end up creating a professional and winning website.

Cons-

• It does not have an extremely user-friendly layout and it takes several steps to customize the settings.
• Its premium plan is extremely expensive.

Preferred Audience- Magento unquestionably offers some complex settings and options to commence and grow a huge business. If you require it for big companies and corporate houses then, it will surely assist you in creating a unique online store, having the entire list checked.

• User-Friendliness- It might take some time to get acquainted with Magento’s design as it has been created in an old-school way. Managing Magento’s admin area might be slightly tough at the beginning and a big problem for individuals who are not acquainted with this type of work. All-in-all, when compared to Shopify or other top eCommerce platforms, Magento comes with an intricate and not-so-friendly front end and takes some time to uncover all its features. But for advanced teach-savvy users, it offers numerous amazing facilities required while building a massive online store.

WooCommerce is basically a free WordPress plugin in which you get all the benefits connected with developing a WordPress-based website. Simple to install but includes a fee if you require complete WooCommerce integration as an operational shopping cart. It is a fully customizable platform having unique shopping cart and payment gateway features.

Price- On the basis of the plan- free WordPress plugin.

Primary Features-

• Packaged with top and safe payment gateways such as PayPal, Cash on Delivery (COD), and BACS.
• Configure the tax settings along with tax classes and local tax rates.
• Alternatives for users to provide free shipping or flat rate shipping facilities.
• Reporting on inventory levels, incoming sales, reviews, and general store performance.
• Marketing projects (product/user restrictions, discount options, usage limits, and more).
• Developed as a WordPress plugin & available with your website’s wp-admin.

Key Benefits-

• WooCommerce comes with user reviews & ratings. Clients can effortlessly vote each product by adding ratings to their comments.
• The reporting feature of WooCommerce is a blessing. It cautiously filters certain categories by product, coupons by date, sales by date, by product, and much more.
• It is a free plugin and all you require doing is to download it and commence adding the products straight from your WordPress dashboard.

Cons-

• Although WordPress is free, it does not come along with a free hosting facility therefore, you are required to pay for it individually.
• You need to download and install this plugin on your WordPress website.

Preferred Audience- Individuals who work a lot with the WordPress platform can incredibly benefit from this plugin. If you already have a WordPress website then, you can immediately start by installing WooCommerce.

User-Friendliness- This plugin is a simple option once you get it installed on your WordPress website. Users can customize everything through their dashboard, assess it, and modify all the options until they are content with the outcomes. The plugin works efficiently, offers accommodating features, and is absolutely user-friendly. When compared to Shopify or the other top e-commerce platforms on this list, WooCommerce appears to be a great option.

BigCommerce is quite identical to Shopify but with the addition of extra built-in features, unlimited bandwidth, and storage. It also comes up with exceptional e-commerce features such as ratings, gift cards, reviews, and fundamental marketing tools to provide your online store with an exceptional look and feel.

Price- Plans ranging from- $29.95, $79.95, $199.95.

Primary Features-

• Mobile-friendly & SEO-friendly online stores.
• Integrated marketing attributes.
• Multiple design choices- customizable CSS/HTML, themes, and point-and-click tools.
• Incorporation of numerous pioneering marketing, accounting, and stock management systems.
• Users can connect their own domain name.
• Integrated reports and payment gateways.

Key Benefits

• Its admin page is extremely user-friendly and can direct you perfectly with each step. It has an integrated drag-and-drop builder that makes using it extremely handier.
• BigCommerce comes along with free hosting and a massive assortment of themes, both premium and free. It offers its users the option to code their own theme directly on their website in a special HTML/CSS editor. Therefore, if the users are excellent at coding, you can customize your design.
• The customer’s database offers numerous data about each client. Therefore, users can get to know their audience perfectly.

Preferred Audience- Regardless of BigCommerce’s exceptional features and welcoming layout does not provide a free or cheap entry plan.

User-Friendliness- This can be an ideal choice for big companies as the platform works competently on big installs. It has Magento’s intricacy if we speak of settings and features, but they are displayed in an extremely friendly manner. It has a contemporary design and an extremely friendly admin page and must be reasonably simple to develop a shop with Bigcommerce which makes it a high-quality overall alternative compared to Shopify and many other e-commerce platforms on the list.

There are numerous ecommerce platforms out there that can assist users fulfill each vertical you desire your online B2B marketplace to cover. 

However, It is a known fact that there is no “one-size-fits-all” eCommerce platform available on the market. Each platform had been built to accommodate only a few pre-assumed business requirements and objectives. 

A simple solution to that is to pick a platform that closely relates to your requirements and then get it customized by a custom eCommerce development company. 

With custom eCommerce software development, you can receive the following benefits: 

• Custom eCommerce development allows you to build features and functionalities that precisely match your business needs. With that, you don’t just ensure seamless operations and user experience but also get rid of unused functionalities that would only bog down your website if left unattended. 
• With a custom eCommerce solution, you can scale your platform as your business grows. You can break free from the shackles of pre-built templates or features.
• Custom eCommerce development services enable you to implement robust security measures. These measures can be tailored to your specific requirements, safeguarding sensitive customer data and transactions.
• With custom eCommerce solutions, you have complete control over the design and branding of your eCommerce platform. This helps reflect your brand identity and stand out from competitors.
• With custom eCommerce website development you get the flexibility to integrate with third-party systems and tools seamlessly. This allows leveraging additional functionalities and services to enhance your eCommerce operations.

So don’t wait, talk to our custom eCommerce development experts and get a free consultation and quote today!