Magneto versus WordPress

[roxanne40]

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Wondering if you guys can give feedback on the above platforms.

Using a wordpress site but was looking at developing a new website, my developer suggested magento. Currently have a big E commerce site using word press and woo commerce.

Recommendations would be great.

[eWAY]

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Hi Roxanne,

Yes Magento is better – in fact it’s a lot better.

But whether it’s suited to your business or not we can’t say as we’d need to know more about your business.

Hopefully your developer knows a lot about your business and it’s requirements. Without inferring anything against your developer, it’s pretty common practice for offshore developers to recommend Magento where it’s not required simply because they can charge more for it.

Maclean

[roxanne40]

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It is a local developer who quoted a new website on WordPress /woo commerce a few months ago.
He phone me yesterday with the option of doing it cheaper on Magento.

Have just spent 18 months getting used to WordPress/woo commerce and really do not want to change. I thought WordPress had better platform for SEO?

We are product based business ranging from small $10 items to $3000 items with around 200 products so far.

[JohnTranter]

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roxanne40, post: 230034, member: 77047 wrote:

He phone me yesterday with the option of doing it cheaper on Magento.
Just a warning that Magento websites are normally far more expensive than WordPress, purely because of the amount of time it takes to set them up correctly. Read into this what you will, it may be cheaper because he’s using you as his first foray into Magento, or he may be using outsource labour. (or maybe he’s very nice)

roxanne40, post: 230034, member: 77047 wrote:

I thought WordPress had better platform for SEO?
Not really, it’s actually far more dependant on the theme than the platform. WordPress can be good or bad, likewise Magento can be good or bad. (The default Magento theme is truly bad, but I doubt you’ll be using the default theme)

roxanne40, post: 230034, member: 77047 wrote:

Have just spent 18 months getting used to WordPress/woo commerce and really do not want to change.
Then ask him what the real benefits would be to you if you did change? Why go through that pain? Just saying that it’s better is not really good enough, you want real reasons why WordPress can’t do what you want.

[roxanne40]

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Thanks for that John, my developer is a really nice guy. He was just given me the option ( magento -which is the cheaper one ). We have had several meetings and he is very open and honest. I think I will stick to WordPress just as I know it and feel comfortable with it.

Just looking for some expert opinions from people who develop or use both.

Thanks

[MichaelDigital]

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I would stick with WordPress, it is a fabulous platform and it is only going to get better – there is absolutely nothing the others offer that WordsPress cannot also offer, often in a better way. Yes WooCommerce has its limitations, don’t they all, if it is working for you don’t go into ‘dry dock’ if you don’t have to!

[roxanne40]

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I am going to stick with WordPress-” better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”

Thanks everyone for the head up!

[MaraRoberts]

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Wordpress all the way. WordPress is great when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) setup. Not a Magento fan myself.

[danielsidhom]

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You won’t regret it Roxanne, I’d recommend WordPress for 2 main reasons:

1. Many developers understand it so custom development is cheaper and its easier to find information online if you need to make changes yourself
2. It’s easy to use, and better for SEO due to the greater availability of optimistion plugins

[roxanne40]

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Thanks for all of your advice. It has been really helpful and yes I will stick with wordpress.

[tom@egroup]

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Hi Roxanne,

I just want to add that it is difficult for anyone to recommend a platform based on the information you’ve given. The decision on which platform to go for would depend on your current business situation and, very importantly, your projections and goals for the short to mid term. It does seem like your developer has considered these and has weighed up the pros and cons of both.

Wordpress and WooCommerce is a relatively simple and elegant solution but is limited out-of-the-box and can become ‘clunky’ for large-scale operations and stores processing hundreds of transactions a day.

Magento is extremely powerful but far more complex. While both are ‘limitless’ in their potential, in my experience, Magento scales better to larger operations and can handle growth better. That’s something you would definitely want to discuss with your dev and I’m glad you have a close working relationship with them.

I think you’ve gone down the right path though and you seem confident in the decision, which is a good thing.

Good luck for the future

[Pin Payments]

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Generally speaking* from our experience with many thousands of merchants, Magento is generally suited to larger companies looking for the ability to scale upwards infinitely and meet large expected growth.

Again, generally speaking, WordPress/WooCommerce is usually a choice for those who are just starting all the way up to many quite large businesses. The largest businesses on WooCommerce can feasibly feel the constraints of the system, but by that point generally have the resources to consider porting their site to a custom Magento solution at that time. Then again, many large businesses do not see any limitations inherant within WooCommerce and are still happily using it – it’s really up to your unique needs and requirements, ultimately.

*I speak generally because, of course, everyones needs are different. Some people are deft hands at Magento and don’t mind starting off with it straight away. This kind of choice is entirely up to you

[JohnTranter]

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chaase, post: 230297, member: 47813 wrote:

I don’t understand the comment above re taking allot longer to set up. I am sorry but this is rubbish. I have a Woo Commerce site for 8 products and a Magento site for over 100 items.

If you’re just using default Magento with a paid theme then yes, you’re right. However, any kind of custom design/development takes longer for Magento simply because of the structure Magento uses.
As a simple example, a home page in WordPress might use 4 templates, a Magento home page uses 30+ with another 2-5 files specifying the layout of those templates.

As someone who does both, I consider doing WordPress development a relaxing break from the headache that is Magento development.

I still much prefer Magento however, it’s just a more powerful platform.

[JohnTranter]

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chaase, post: 230305, member: 47813 wrote:

I was not referring to the site development, it was more to do with the end user adding products and managing the site.

ok, my original post that you questioned used “set up” to mean something different then, I’m coming from a dev point of view.
I guess we’re on slightly different wave lengths.

[JohnW]

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Hi Roxanne,
Be careful to question the SEO advice you are given.

IMHO, John Trantor gave the most valuable (above) in that he addressed the importance of site design and structure on SEO. (Ref: “it’s actually far more dependant on the theme than the platform“.)

Most platforms will offer SEO plug-ins for managing URLs, titles, meta tags, etc. Of themselves, these SEO plug-in functions do NOT boost a page’s search ranking.

It seems to me, that what e-commerce carts are designed to do is handle the boring back end bits of shopping and their SEO plug-ins’ primary functions are to fix the problems created by their systems.

If I had to make a “guestimate”, I’d assign strategy, content, structure, design and internal links issues as 70+% of SEO importance. That leaves less than 30% to what can be managed by any cart’s SEO plug-in.

I believe shopping cart software is misnamed. It should be called a warehousing, delivery and invoicing system.

As a marketer, I find they all tend to denigrate online shopping to the lowest possible denominator of price.

If I was exploring shopping site software, I’d be looking for functions that supported online merchandising. Eg. Display, videos, personalisation for repeat sales, communications with site visitors and more.

I’d be very interested in John T’s comments on these observations.
Regs,
JohnW

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