Magento vs Prestashop - What Should You Choose for Your E-commerce Business

Is Magento the right choice for your e-commerce website? Or should you go with Prestashop to use more advanced features? That’s quite a debate, but you need a clear winner, right? 

What if you have picked a platform that is not even suitable for your e-business? In that case, it would be costs coupled with frustrations to welcome you every day. Don’t worry, we will not let that happen to you. 

All you need is to read this exciting blog post till the end, and we bet you’ll be able to decide which of the Magento vs Prestashop will work for you.  

Magento vs Prestashop - Quick Comparison

Prestashop has over 300,000 active users, while Magento claims to have more than 700,000 users. However, having more users doesn’t make Magento a perfect choice for all businesses. So, let’s look into different things, including: 

1. Which One Is Easy to Use?

Prestashop is easy to install and use, even for non-technical users. Magento is slightly tough to set up but has the most flexible shopping cart. That’s why more technical store owners are attracted to it. 

In Prestashop, you have all the options of store and inventory management at your dashboard. You can easily add or tweak product pages and even customize them with different modules like the product customization and more. 

Once the Magento website is set up, it is very smooth to work on as compared to Prestashop. Again, you will need some expertise or an expert to make a few important changes to the Magento-based website. 

This means that Prestashop is much easier to use and perfect for beginners or intermediate users, while Magento is easy for people with some technical knowledge. 

2. Which of Magento vs Prestashop is More Budget Friendly? 

Both Prestashop and Magento are free open-source platforms. Although Magento does charge per month for the hosting you have opted for. 

The free version of Prestashop gives you all the basic features you need to give your online store an existence. Yes, you will have to bring your domain and hosting before you can install this platform. 

Furthermore, you can install paid or free modules on your Prestashop store from the Prestashop addons to enhance the functionality and usability of your website.  

So, Prestashop is cost-effective for new and intermediate businesses, while Magento could be the perfect solution for large and established businesses. 

3. Magento vs Prestashop - Which One is Easy to Rank?

Now, that’s an important question because the search engine optimization of your e-commerce business is very crucial. If potential customers can’t see you with their searches, what’s the use of your online store? That’s where it gets essential to understand which of the two can rank quicker and better. 

Magento doesn’t offer special SEO features, and you have to rely on traditional best practices to make your website appear in the search results. 

On the other hand, you get so many useful modules or extensions to boost your Prestashop SEO, ranging from URL modifiers to blog post writing and more. You can even have full SEO modules that analyze and correct the SEO shortcomings in your online store to rank better. 

Try the Prestashop SEO Module Now

This means that Prestashop is the best platform offering several options to rank faster and better than Magento. 

4. Which One Offers The Best Customer Support? 

That’s one area where Magento takes the upper hand. Yes, Magento offers exceptional customer services 24/7 using the support ticket free of cost. Plus, the Magento forums also have thousands of queries answered about common issues and guidance for new and experienced users. 

Prestashop is slightly different or unique when it comes to customer support, as you have to pay for acquiring support services. You will have to pick a relevant plan that addresses your query well and then have to pay for it. But, such a paid service is certain to solve your problems or at least suggest the best way of dealing with it. But again, free is free.

So, Magento has the advantage when it comes to customer care. 

5. Extensions and Addons - Magento vs Prestashop 

Magento is short on offering extensions for improving the usability and functionality of the online store as its Marketplace has 5000 extensions so far. Prestashop has more than 10,000 extensions, which gives store owners more control over several functionalities of the business. 

The extensions of Prestashop are termed as modules, and you can have them on the official ‘Prestashop Addons’ website or acquire them from trusted developers like FME Modules at slightly affordable prices. 

Yes, having more extensions doesn’t make Prestashop a winner over Magento. But Prestashop Modules are also tested to be more effective, which gives it an upper hand over Magento. 

6. Templates and Designs 

This is the aspect where you cannot easily decide between the two platforms. Both of them offer stunning free and paid themes that you can easily customize to match the aura of your brand and products. 

Prestashop offers over 3500 themes, where paid themes are more eye-catching, of course. Magento offers limited free themes, and for a more premium appearance, you have to opt for the paid versions. 

So, Prestashop wins again when it comes to offering exceptional themes for free and at low costs. 

Take Away on Magento vs Prestashop - Who is the Winner?

In simple words, you cannot prefer one over the other even if we make 10 more comparisons. Because both of them are meeting different e-commerce needs. For instance, Prestashop is perfect for businesses that are just getting started. Magento is great for store owners who have stepped into a large industry and would like a powerful website. 

Similarly, Magento offers free customer support, while Prestashop would need you to pay for it. Hence, the best way of deciding between the two is to look for which one will provide a better solution to your business at that particular time. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Which of the Prestashop and Magento is Better?

Magento is slightly complex than Prestashop and is suitable for large businesses. Prestashop, on the other hand, is easy to use for beginners and offers most of the basic e-commerce functionalities for free. 

2. What is the Best Version of Prestashop?

The Prestashop 8 offers exciting new features that are suitable for both beginners and already established business owners. 

3. Is Prestashop Still Used?

Yes, most of the new and established e-commerce businesses still rely on Prestashop. Plus, it is also receiving consistent updates to make it suitable for the recent e-commerce needs.