In the smoke and mirrors of the challenging confusion for opting one of the best eCommerce platforms , eCommerce venders are always in the search of the latest eCommerce platform which can deliver the professional open-source , feature rich eCommerce solution which can offer complete flexibility of the merchant and full fleshed control over the content , functionality and look of their online store.
Magento
It is a professional open source eCommerce solution which has many features that offers the merchants the complete control over the functionality , control and look of their online store. The powerful marketing tools of Magento such as catalog-management tools and search engine optimization (SEO) give the merchant power to create the adjustable their unique business. It was founded in the year 2001 and has a recent partnership with the eBay which enhanced the growing community of developers . These communities of developers are responsible for constantly improving and growing the new extensions , modules and features. It is being identified for having the best technical support team for any eCommerce platform .Those companies that need a professional online store presence , Magento is best suited for it.Prestashop
It is also an open source eCommerce platform . The basic offerings of Prestashop are free just like the basic edition of Magento , while the templates, themes and modules can be easily purchased in the PrestaShop store. It was launched on August 2007 for the medium sized business. It utilizes the template engine for PHP. It is available in the 40 different languages of varying degrees. The versions of English , French have the full support for all the release versions. Before a merchant is becoming able to use Prestashop , a few technical requirements must be met by the merchant. These requirements include IIS 6 or later , Apache web server 1.3 or later , MySQL 5 or later , PHP 5 or later and a Windows, Unix or Linux operating systems.
The following comparison can be fruitful for all the store owners who select the one for meeting the requirements :-
1.) Installation :- Focusing on the experience of the user and the experts of these eCommerce solutions it is concluded that Prestashop can be easily configured. Due to the simple attributes and the system requirements Prestashop is very easy to install. However, it restricts PrestaShop to have equivalent out-of-the-blue features that Magento offers to its users.
2.) Compatibility :- It has very less compatibility issued as compared to the Magento . It is because Prestashop requires simple system requirements .
3.) Customization :- Easier customization facilities to the user is provided by Prestashop . Also Prestashop has limited options in the customization as compared with that of the Magento .
4.) Customer Support :- Users give more preference to the Magento because it is large versatile.And round the clock this support is available which is extremely useful to the users of Magento. There is a community of users of Magento which can easily contribute to their own experiences for enriching the activities through the community. PrestaShop lacks in both of the above matters and because of it Magento becomes a better choice for the users.
5.) Search Box :- PrestaShop has the most powerful search box then the search box of Magento. Also it must be noticed that PrestaShop has stressed more on the use of search box from the year 2007 when it was launched. This is the main reason that PrestaShop has more powerful search capabilities than that of the Magento.
6.) Feature of Search Engine Optimization :- This is one of the biggest feature which determines the actual difference between the Magento and all the other eCommerce websites. The features of SEO in Magento are the most powerful among all the eCommerce platforms. Hence because of this fact Magento gets more attention among the users of eCommerce platforms.
7.) Themes :- A large number of themes is offered by the Magento to its users but on the other hand PrestaShop does not. Users get attracted by most of the Magento themes from all over.
8.) Suitability :- For the business of all the sizes Magento offers the eCommerce solutions hence it is considered best for all the types of business. But still Magento is considered suitable for the larger eCommerce stores because more services and products are listed in the sale. But on the other hand PrestaShop is found to be more suitable for the small scale businesses because of its limited facilities and services to the eCommerce stores. It can be easily concluded that both of these are very robust and very easy to use. It depends on the site owners and their requirements to opt for either Magento or for PrestaShop.