When it comes to the checkout methods, WooCommerce and PrestaShop are pretty confusing. Both of them are free eCommerce software that most people recommended. There are many questions among the users such as which one is more scalable and which has more features. This WooCommerce vs PrestaShop comparison, we will not only answer those questions but we will also see various other things that will help you choose one of these platforms for your eCommerce store. We will see which one is easier to use and also, we will compare it with various factors. Let’s begin with the basic overview of WooCommerce vs PrestaShop.

Overview of WooCommerce vs PrestaShop

WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce solution that runs on WordPress. Don’t worry, even WordPress is free. It is a WordPress plugin and with this plugin, you can convert WordPress into an active eCommerce store in no time. The tool is easier to use and the setup takes less than 5 minutes.

On the other hand, PrestaShop is an independent eCommerce software that can run on its own. In simpler words, you don’t need to install any other script to use it. PrestaShop is simple, easier, and gives amazing shopping experience to the users.

As mention, both of them are free and open-source. Now, you might be wondering about the active websites and the market share, so we will have a look at it.

Share this infographic on your website:

<a href="https://www.wpservices.com/2020/05/12/woocommerce-vs-prestashop-which-ecommerce-platform-is-more-scalable/" target="_self"><img src="https://www.wpservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/WooCommerce-VS-PrestaShop.png" alt="WooCommerce PrestaShop eCommerce Infographics" height="9750" width="1240"></a>

Active websites

We will now have a look at the number of active websites. To make this battle even more interesting, we will have a look at the stats from 2016. This will give you a better idea of both the competition.

In 2016, the total number of active websites of PrestaShop was roughly 100k whereas there were more than 1 Million websites of WooCommerce. The year 2017 brought some changes for WooCommerce and the rank was about to touch 2 Million. However, for the PrestaShop, there were not many changes seen. In 2018, the active WooCommerce websites more than 2.5 Million and even PrestaShop crossed the 150k mark. 2019 was the year when there were more than 3.5 Million active WooCommerce websites for WordPress and the PrestaShop count was more than 200k.

As of now, WooCommerce dominates the market with a 3.72% market share with over 3.9 Million websites. On the other hand, PrestaShop only has a 0.25% market share with over 230k websites. So, WooCommerce is more popular than Prestashop.

Hosting and domain

Both of the platforms are self-hosted. In other words, the software will not provide any hosting and domain from its official website. You will have to look for both of them by yourself and then you need to install the software on your hosting account. So, the first point is clear as none of the tools give their hosting or domain.

Moving to the next, the hosting and domain are easy to choose. As there are thousands of hosting providers and domain providers that can provide you perfect hosting at an affordable rate. Talking about the installation, almost all the hosting provides a one-click install feature for WordPress and PrestaShop. Once you install WordPress, you can search for the WooCommerce plugin and install it on top of it. The entire process is easy and fast. It will not take much of your time to install and set up a website on any of these platforms. However, if you want, you can surely take help from the internet.

Once you get your website up and running, your next job is to install the theme and design your website to attract more visitors. So, we will now see the themes.

Themes

Ready-made themes will make your work extremely easier. As you are planning to go with the CMS, you surely don’t want to design the entire website by yourself, right? So, you will need to look for some amazing themes from which you can design and customize your website. WordPress and PrestaShop both provide amazing ready-made themes. Let’s learn more about it.

There are many free themes available in WordPress and also you will get enough free themes in PrestaShop too. The main point here is that what if you don’t like the free theme and want a better-quality design? That’s where the premium themes come into the talk.

In WordPress, you can get premium themes starting at just $20. The average price of any reliable theme with the great design will cost you roughly $50 to $60. Some of the best themes will cost you $90. That’s the average pricing of most of the WordPress themes. You will get all features here with great design and enough customization options. In PrestaShop, the premium themes are starting at $80 which are pretty expensive. Also, the number of themes is less in PrestaShop.

Plugins and extensions

So, not that you know about the themes, the next thing you want to know about is the plugins and the extensions. Plugins and extensions are a great way to increase the functionalities and the features of your website. The plugins are useful to get some of the amazing features that are missing In the basic version. For instance, you can get a plugin that sends a followup email when somebody leaves their cart empty, you can add social sharing, you can collect emails, etc. In this way, the plugins and the extensions will help you out in making your website better and usable for all the people out there.

WordPress has thousands of free plugins in the plugin directory. If you want more features in the plugins, you can also go with their premium version. Some of the plugins are free where you will get access to all the features without paying a single dime whereas some of them come with a  small charge. PrestaShop has more than 3000 extensions. Even in these 3000, most of them aren’t free. Hence, you will have to pay for the features and also along with this, you won’t get more choice. For instance, if you want the social sharing plugin, WordPress will offer you more than 20 different plugins to choose from. In this way, you will have more choices.

Website speed

Speed is one of the important factors that most people ignore or don’t pay attention to. However, speed will decide various things when you are starting a website. A low-speed website is not only a nightmare for the visitors but also the search engines won’t prioritize your website. Hence, you need to make sure that the website loads in the least amount of time. There are various factors that you need to keep in mind here. Among all, the first one is the core files. If the software’s core files aren’t loading fast, the whole website will load slow. Both PrestaShop and WooCommerce have a highly optimized code. You can rely on that.

The next thing that you need to see in terms of website speed is hosting. You need to get the best hosting if you want to take advantage of the speed. Hence, make sure you select the right hosting. The last thing is the themes. Some of the themes might load extremely slow. So, you need to keep in mind that too. Overall, both of them provide great speed. The core files will load at the highest speed when you get the best hosting. Just make sure you choose the right hosting.

Reports and Analytics

When you are running an eCommerce store, you will also need to see the reports and analytics. WooCommerce provides most of the reports directly. You can see the revenue, top most selling products, etc. Further, if you want to know more, you can surely install one of the plugins that will help you see the detailed analytics on the WordPress website.

On the other hand, PrestaShop doesn’t have any built-in analytics tool that will give you the details. However, you can surely install one of the plugins from the directory. The plugin will give you the exact data and reports you will need.

The only difference here is that WordPress gives you most of the store analytics directly with the plugin whereas you will need to install a plugin to see analytics in PrestaShop. According to us, it’s not a big deal and we will consider WooCommerce vs PrestaShop a draw when it comes to reports.

Customer support

Customer support can be really helpful if you are new to the platforms. However, there comes a limit when you go with the self-hosted platform. Both WooCommerce (WordPress) and PrestaShop are self-hosted. Hence, there is always a limit in the support.

However, they do have some of the basic support available. The first amazing thing is that everything comes with proper documentation, you can follow it and create almost anything you want. The next things there is the support given through the help desk, forum, and the community. You can surely ask the doubt or the problem there and the experts will answer. Mostly, you just need to search for it and you will get the answers you are looking for.

Even though the official support is very less, many online resources will help you out. There are thousands of blogs that provide similar services and will help you with the complete procedure. In this way, you can surely get what you are looking for. Most people don’t face a single issue in any of the platforms. If you aren’t able to find support from the officials, you will need to have a look outside. There are thousands of resources for both of the platforms from which you can take reference from.

Payment fee

Payment integration and payment fees are also the core part of any eCommerce store. You need to make sure that your customers can pay you through any possible payment methods and also need to keep in mind that there are not more payment fees. If the payment fee is more, you will end up compromising with your profits and revenue.

The good part about both platforms is that you get enough options to integrate any payment gateway. You can have some of the best payment gateways and accept the payment from various methods. The next good thing is that the payment fee depends on the payment gateway or the processor you choose to go with. Depending on the country, area, type of the website, and other things the payment processor will charge the fee. You can check out the list of payment processors and choose the method accordingly.

Final words

To conclude, you surely might be looking at which platform is better and which platform won in WooCommerce vs PrestaShop battle. If you want the clear winner, it’s WooCommerce. This s due to a large number of plugins, themes, and functionalities available.

WordPress is best suited even for beginners and experts. You can get the best quality themes at a very affordable price here. Also, there are many plugins from which you can choose the best one. It will be very affordable and there is enough support available online too. Further, if you are worried about maintaining the website, you can get the WordPress experts to manage the complete website for you at an attractive price.

On the other hand, PrestaShop is also a good choice if you like a user-friendly dashboard. It will only take a few minutes to launch your store here. However, it might get expensive as you move on. Also, there are many missing features and due to lack of plugins and themes, you won’t be able to create the website as you want. This could be an issue for many people.

Hence, it is to you which one you like. You can go with any of the platforms as per your wish. We have already compared WooCommerce vs PrestaShop with the most common factors that you should check. Depending on your requirements, you can choose to go with the platform that works best for you.

Why Website Maintenance is Important?

Importance of website maintenance is always the question for any business, regardless of its size. Owning a website is just like owning a brand new car.

Edvins Gailums

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