When it comes to the situation when your existing shopping cart does not satisfy your e-business demands anymore, it is time to move on and consider the latest trends and tendencies. You should look for the platform which features and options will help you get the highest profit leaving competitors far behind.
There are countless solutions to choose from, each having their own strengths and weaknesses. This is extremely important to figure out here as it is the most responsible step in your business development.
To help you in this confusing task, I have selected two of the best shopping carts available today: OpenCart vs Magento. They are the two platforms that come up on top SEO ranking and are the most popular among online entrepreneurs.
So let’s put them face to face to reveal the key features and differences so that you could make a more grounded decision.
At first glance, OpenCart and Magento may look similar. I can honestly tell you that both of them are reliable platforms. They allow to easily build successful online store, with minimum money investment and maximum effect.
Both, OpenCart and Magento:
- Are open source and free to download. You have full control over the code,and use the cart for free so no one can suddenly raise the monthly fee for using the shopping cart on you.
- Have large forum communities, so any problem can be solved easily in the shortest time via communication with real people.
- Offer an unlimited number of grouped and related products and categories.
- Have multi -languages, -currencies and -stores support, and allow to use all that options from one admin interface.
Which One to Choose?
Answering to such common and important question “which one is actually better” my answer will be “it depends on which features you prefer over others…” So lets go in depth to make a “checklist” of options you would need the most.
The work with your shopping cart starts from the installation. What is important here? I guess the time needed for installation and simplicity. Here, you do not have to vary about anything as there is a number of tutorial videos, documentation and precise instruction guidelines available for both carts to save you time on the learning curve.
OpenCart is full of “out of the box” features that are easy to install. So your task here is to select template, add categories, products and related information, and you are ready to start accepting orders from your buyers. Magento installation will be more time, knowledge and effort consuming in terms of hosting environment.
In the admin area, OpenCart again wins thanks to its simplicity. Magento complexity is explained by such fact that this platform is mostly oriented on a large-scale stores. It was created particularly for store owners who are professionals in IT and are aimed at making their business perfect with their own hands.
Content management system for OpenCart has built and strong but very basic CMS. Magento’s CMS is more flexible and allow easy formatting of content per users unique requirement.
When we talk about SEO (search engine optimization), Magento is considered to be the leader here. It has top of the line built-in SEO features and SEO-friendly URLs. OpenCart also offers SEO tools which allow pages to be highly ranked by all major search engines.
- Apart from everything mentioned above, Magento’s options include online marketing option that enables entrepreneurs to develop customized sites for their unique requirement. Magento best suits for merchants with specific need and experience in online business. Platform provides users with advanced level of flexibility and control over the content, design, and functionality.
- OpenCart eCommerce shopping cart is developed not only as a starting point for e-business, but for those merchants, who are looking for effective and effortless maintenance and a good background for online store. OpenCart comes with a great B2B features, making it perfect for large-scale businesses.
The Conclusion
OpenCart offers more straightforward store establishment that can bring immediate results. Functionality with Magento platform is highly developed and does not require third-party extensions, but does require “more” technical knowledge.
Our goal was to show that both OpenCart and Magento are great open source projects, just created for different eCommerce demands, purposes and requirements. It depends on your personal preferences and business specific needs which one will suit you better.
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