According to research in 2018, 50% of consumers shop online than in-stores. How are online stores more beneficial than retail stores? Because online, you can elevate your customers’ shopping experience by providing them convenience, variety, and 24/7 store time. Thus, this is the time to take your business online and increase growth.
The first step to opening an online store is by choosing an eCommerce platform to build your website. eCommerce platforms help you in setting up, creating a theme, adding plugins for eCommerce features like waitlists, social proof, social media integration, product management, etc.
There are many options available in this regard, the two best eCommerce platforms among them are WooCommerce and PrestaShop. Both are open-source and accessible platforms and thus it becomes difficult to choose between the two. But don’t worry, we have got you covered.
WooCommerce vs PrestaShop: Overview
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that is built to convert WordPress sites into online stores. It was launched in 2011 and has since gained immense popularity among business owners and developers alike. It consists of a user-friendly interface that lets you control all operations in one place, along with statistical reports and analysis. WooCommerce is a flexible platform and is equipped with unlimited themes, plugins, and extensions to operate your online store easily. As it is powered by WordPress, it consists of many CMS features and is a great SEO and marketing tool. WooCommerce is a customizable and easy platform suitable for all sizes of businesses.
PrestaShop is another open-source eCommerce platform. It is widely popular for its intuitive user interface and out-of-the-box features. PrestaShop provides you with many amazing eCommerce features such as product management, inventory, shipping, etc. It also enables you to create and manage multiple stores from a single control dashboard. It is easy to use although its performance is lesser when compared to WooCommerce. With PrestaShop, you can easily scale up your website without much hassle.
Official websites for both are:
1. WooCommerce
2. PrestaShop
Pros And Cons
WooCommerce
Pros
- Free plugin for WordPress.
- Open-source and self-hosted.
- Statistical analysis and reports updates automatically on the admin dashboard.
- Consists of unlimited plugins and extensions.
- Supports thousands of themes and designs.
- It supports 100+ payment gateways.
- Supports Facebook integration for free.
- Powered by WordPress and enjoys its added performance and functionality.
- Compatible with plugins and themes of WordPress as well.
- Fully customizable platform.
- Excellent customer support.
Cons
- Steep learning curve.
- Requires WordPress website and experience with coding.
PrestaShop
Pros
- User-friendly dashboard.
- Free and easy to install.
- Flexible platform and enables easy customization.
- Supports One-Page checkout.
- Supports major payment gateways like PayPal and Google Checkout.
- Support multiple currencies and languages.
- Manages multiple stores with a user-friendly dashboard.
- Out-of-the-box marketing tools available.
Cons
- Basic features are available in the free plan.
- Not easy to scale up.
- Degree of customization less than WooCommerce.
- Not suitable for large-sized businesses.
You can also check out:
WooCommerce vs Shopify
WooCommerce vs Magento
WooCommerce vs PrestaShop: Detailed Comparison
Both platforms provide excellent features to start an online business. Thus, we have compared both WooCommerce and PrestaShop on different aspects to make it easier for you to make a choice.
1. Ease of Use
When it comes to ease of usability, WooCommerce has a clear advantage for people who are already familiar with WordPress. It is a free plugin for WordPress and is easy to install and setup. Moreover, WooCommerce is a fully customizable platform and allows you to tweak existing themes, plugins, and extensions easily. Although, you need a domain, hosting, and security plugin to get started.
PrestaShop is an open-source eCommerce platform and is available for free. Although the initial setup is difficult for non-developers, that’s where the labor stops. PrestaShop has an interactive user-interface that gives you an overview of your store’s performance. You can also easily add products, titles, descriptions, and manage SEO as well.
Overall both are easy platforms to work with but WooCommerce offers more convenient setup and customization.
2. Customer Service
WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress thus it is easy to find help in the official WordPress forums. Although WooCommerce does not support live chat service, it does provide detailed documentation and guides on the installation of various plugins and extensions. You can also put forward a request to experts on the WooCommerce website. Moreover, WooCommerce is a secure platform and is updated routinely.
PrestaShop’s customer service lacks experts and proper documentation. It does not have an official team to help customers and this can be a major disadvantage. Although, you can find help on online community forums. It also has premium support available, but it is costly and not worth it.
WooCommerce vs PrestaShop in customer support? WooCommerce is the clear winner here as it provides excellent support in multiple forms.
3. Pricing
WooCommerce is an open-source platform and it is free to download. The only basic costs you need to cover are hosting ($5/mo) and domain ($10/year). WooCommerce comes with basic features to get you started, such as payment gateways, product management, shipping modules, etc. WooCommerce also consists of many additional free and paid plugins, ranging from $50-80.
PrestaShop is also available for free download. You also need to buy hosting and domain to get started. PrestaShop comes with a limited number of features in the free version and with rigid customization possibilities. Although many advanced plugins are available on their official website, they are costly and hard to set up. Thus, for PrestaShop you also need an expert to upgrade.
Overall, WooCommerce is the cheaper option. It also allows you to customize the free plugins and extensions.
4. Product Management
WooCommerce vs PrestaShop show similar results in product management. Both eCommerce platforms have a user-interactive interface where you can easily manage product data, inventory, and statistics. It also allows you to easily add new products, images, text, and descriptions.
Thus, in this regard, both WooCommerce and PrestaShop are winners and provide ease of managing products and inventory.
5. Store Management
WooCommerce is a very easy and accessible plugin for WordPress websites. Once installed, a Setup Wizard helps you create your website by adding all the basic and free features available. It consists of built-in payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe. It also has basic themes, plugins for product management, Facebook integration, etc available. You can easily change your settings from the admin dashboard.
PrestaShop also provides an ease to its customers. Besides the initial setup, you can easily configure your shop however you like by checking the “Shop Parameters” option in the dashboard. It allows you to add payment methods such as bank transfer, check, etc. You can also add payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, but they are not available in the free version. It also offers SSL certificates out-of-the-box.
Both are reliable eCommerce platforms and their basic integrations are perfect for managing a small-sized business.
6. Add-Ons Integration
WooCommerce is filled with amazing plugins and extensions to scale your website. WooCommerce is compatible with 50,000+ plugins available in the WordPress and WooCommerce directory. These plugins perform product management, social proof, order forms, shipping and payment methods, subscriptions, return and refunds, and much more. WooCommerce is also compatible with third-party plugins.
PrestaShop has an official marketplace filled with add-ons and extensions. This includes email marketing tools, product management, social integrations, and much more. The only disadvantage is that these extensions are costly and require professional help to set up. PrestaShop also does not have the flexibility of WooCommerce and thus many plugins together can affect the performance of your website. The compatibility with third-party plugins is also not exceptional and thus you need to check before using them.
7. Security
Both WooCommerce and PrestaShop are safe and secure platforms. Although they do not have any security measures built-in, you can browse from their unlimited security plugin options to add an SSL certificate, 2-FA, URL customization, PCI compliance, and much more.
Moreover, the security of any website is largely dependent on its hosting providers. Are they regularly updating your website? Are they monitoring your website for threats? Thus, make sure to take every possible security measure to protect your customers’ data and confidential information.
Also, check out our detailed article on Complete WooCommerce Security Analysis.
8. Stock Management
In terms of stock management, WooCommerce vs PrestaShop show similar results. Both eCommerce platforms have various plugins available that help you manage products and inventory. Although, PrestaShop provides basic out-of-the-box features and lets you know when the stock is running low in multiple stores.
9. Customization
WooCommerce is an open-source, thus a completely customizable platform. It is compatible with thousands (50,000+) of plugins and extensions made for WordPress and WooCommerce.
It allows developers and beginners to make changes as they go. WooCommerce is a scalable platform and doesn’t affect performance. You can also tweak the themes and extensions however you like.
PrestaShop is another open-source eCommerce platform that allows you to customize its thousands of themes, plugins, and extensions. Although it lacks in variety as compared to WooCommerce.
In terms of compatibility and customization, WooCommerce is the clear winner. It has unlimited options and exceptional performance.
10. Design
WooCommerce offers the official Storefront theme and its 14 child themes for free. It is built for selling every type of product or service such as cosmetics, medicines, gym subscriptions, hotel reservations, and much more. You can also find themes at Themeforest and WooThemes. WooCommerce easily integrates with third-party themes and you can also customize them according to your style.
PrestaShop is not far behind in design. It consists of thousands of free and paid themes available on its website. The premium themes can cost as high as $150. It is also compatible with third-party themes. Although technical assistance is required to set up and customize the templates.
11. SEO
Both WooCommerce and PrestaShop offer a variety of marketing tools to increase traffic and sales on your website. In WooCommerce, you can add title, meta description, edit content, add text on images, add links, and much more with their easy content editor dashboard. You can also use popular SEO tools such as Yoast SEO for keyword optimization and higher ranking in search engines.
Interested in increasing sales, right? Do give it a read
18 Effective Tips To Increase WooCommerce Sales.
Conclusion: WooCommerce vs PrestaShop
Both WooCommerce and PrestaShop are reliable eCommerce platforms for your business. Choosing the best eCommerce platform depends on your experience, usage, and business size.
Overall, WooCommerce is superior to PrestaShop in every aspect. WooCommerce offers unlimited options in themes, plugin, and extensions. It also allows customization in all factors to better suit your needs. It is cheaper, accessible, and user-friendly than PrestaShop.
WooCommerce is a well-known plugin for WordPress and thus offers excellent customer service and features to its audience. It is a powerful SEO platform and is suitable for all types of users and businesses.
