Key Difference – Opencart vs Magento
Opencart and Magento are two software to implement e-commerce websites. E-commerce is a great method for businesses to reach its customers and communicate with them their products and services and do business. It is a type of business model that involves the commercial transactions of products and services through internet. E-commerce can be categorized into several sections depending on the type of transaction. It can be a dealing between business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C). There are also several e-commerce platforms and shopping cart software available in the market to develop the business websites. Opencart and Magento are two such software. The key difference between Opencart and Magento is that Opencart is an open source software which is easy to use to develop e-commerce websites and Magento is an open source software which has large community support and is more established and popular to build e-commerce websites. Both can be used to build flexible and fully functioning online stores.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Opencart
3. What is Magento
4. Similarities Between Opencart and Magento
5. Side by Side Comparison – Opencart vs Magento in Tabular Form
6. Summary
What is Opencart?
Opencart is an open source e-commerce software for building e-commerce websites. This online store management system was developed using PHP, MySQL and HTML. There are few advantages in choosing Opencart. The main advantage is that it is easy and straightforward to start and develop using Opencart without complex integrations. There is an already prepared template to start the project immediately. Further, templates can be found in online template stores. Opencart is based on model-view-controller pattern and easy to customize if the user has some knowledge in PHP.
Some drawbacks of Opencart are that it requires more Search Engine Optimization (SEO) support and extensions. Opencart community is not large as other e-commerce software such as Magento. Overall, it helps the entrepreneurs to build and run online stores cost effectively. It is user-friendly and easy to manage. A non-technical person can also handle the Opencart online store. The control panel is convenient is simple to use.
What is Magento?
Magento is an open source e-commerce software. It provides many features to build user-friendly and search engine friendly websites. Transactions can be done using cheque, credit cards, PayPal and money order. Magento admin panel can handle orders easily. It also provides a history of the product and product status. Another main advantage of Magento is that it can support various currencies and different languages. It is easy to search, sort the products and display them into a grid. Magento is compatible with various mobile devices. Therefore, it is easy for users to access the website using smartphones, tablets and other devices. There are also lot of extensions available in Magento.
A drawback of Magento is that it requires a large disk space and memory. It is also necessary to have a proper hosting environment. It has some complexity. A person who does not have the technical knowledge and not familiar with PHP programming might find hard to work with Magento. Overall, Magento provides the ability for users to build customizable shopping experience with SEO tools.
What are the Similarities Between Opencart and Magento?
- Both are free and open-source platforms.
- Both are used for building e-commerce websites.
- Both are developed using PHP.
- New functionalities can be added to both.
- Both support multi languages and multiple currencies.
- Both provide Search Engine Optimization.
What is the Difference Between Opencart and Magento?
Opencart vs Magento |
|
| Opencart is an open source software based on PHP for building e-commerce websites. | Magento is an open source feature-rich software based on PHP for building e-commerce websites. |
| Features | |
| Opencart’s main features are product reviews, ratings, search engine optimization, backup /restore stores, sales reports, error logs. | Magento has features such as product suggestion tool, target promotions, customer segmentation. |
| Complexity | |
| Using Opencart is easy. | Magento is harder than Opencart. |
| Popularity and Community Support | |
| Opencart has community support but not popular and established as Magento. | Magento has large community support, and it is widely used. |
| SEO | |
| Opencart is an SEO friendly platform but does not have SEO resources like in Magento. | Magento contains more SEO resources. |
| Extensions | |
| Opencart does not have an extension like in Magento. | Magento has many extensions. |
| Applications | |
| Opencart is used for small to medium scale stores. | Magento is used for medium to large-scale stores. |
| Security | |
| Opencart is not secure as Magento. | Magento is more secure. |
Summary – Opencart vs Magento
Opencart and Magento are two e-commerce software. Both are open source software. The difference between Opencart and Magento is that Opencart is easy to use to develop e-commerce websites while Magento has a large community support and is more established and popular to build e-commerce websites. Opencart is more suitable for small or medium scale applications while Magento is useful to build medium or large-scale applications.
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Reference:
1.Keren, Ditsa. “Magento vs. Opencart – which should you choose?” CreativeMinds, 28 May 2017. Available here
2.tutorialspoint.com. “Magento Overview.”, The Point. Available here
3.“Magento vs. OpenCart: 2017 Comparison.” Magenticians, 15 June 2017. Available here
Image Courtesy:
1.’magento’ by Linux Screenshots (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr