eCommerce Tech

Shopware vs Magento: Which eCommerce Solution Reigns Supreme?

Feb 24, 2023 8 min read 38 views
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Choosing an eCommerce platform for your business is a challenging task. There are many options to compare and understand how they match your business requirements.

Both Magento and Shopware are popular and feature-rich eCommerce platforms. Magento is known for its scalability and flexibility, while Shopware is famous thanks to user-friendliness.

Which platform should you choose?

That’s the question that only you can answer. 

However, we’ve created this article to help you choose the best solution for your eCommerce business. You’ll learn about the Magento vs.Shopware differences vital for eCommerce businesses and critical factors to consider when choosing an eCommerce solution.

Let’s dive right in.

Shopware vs. Magento: Popularity & Market Share

The history of Magento started in 2008. Over the years, it has become the largest eCommerce platform in the world

Magento powers over 250,000 online stores worldwide and holds 12% of the global eCommerce market share. Coca-Cola, Nike, Ford, and many other big brands rely on it in their day-to-day eCommerce operations. However, not only huge brands but also medium to big companies rely on Magento and Adobe Commerce, such as our clients Restaurant Supply, MakeMyBlinds, Shirtee, Airthings, and many others.

Shopware, on the other hand, has a longer but not-so-bright history. It was founded in 2000 in Germany, and now it powers 80,000 onlines stores. It had been only available in German for a long time, and only after the release of Shopware 6 has it started to grow its international audience and become a Magento competitor. Still, Shopware focuses on DACH Countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria).

Therefore, Shopware has a market share of 6.35% in Germany and is the fourth largest eCommerce platform there. The list of clients includes Aston Martin, L’Oreal, Phillips, and others.

The size of the community is another important factor, especially if we’re talking about open-source platforms. The Shopware community has approximately 40,000 members. The community of Magento boasts over 100,000 members.

In the Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce by Gartner, Adobe Commerce is listed among leaders, while Shopware is named a niche solution.

Overall, Magento is more popular among different website categories. Below you can see an image showing Magento vs. Shopware performance in such categories as lifestyle, home & garden, eCommerce & shopping, computer electronics & technology, and spots.

Still, the Shopware vs. Magento battle is only beginning. So, buckle up and read on 🙂 

Shopware vs. Magento Prices

Price is one of the key factors that businesses take into consideration when choosing between eCommerce platforms. There are quite a few differences between Magento and Shopware that you need to know about.

Magento is available in three versions – Magento Open Source, Adobe Commerce, and Adobe Commerce Cloud.

  • Magento Open Source is free to install and use. Still, you’ll need to pay for hosting, domain, and security. You’ll also need to pay for Magento development, which can consume a pretty big chunk of the budget.
  • Adobe Commerce is better suited for enterprise-level eCommerce companies. Adobe calculates the Adobe Commerce price based on your yearly gross sales revenue. However, the company doesn’t disclose the calculation process, so you’ll need to get in touch with it for a quote. Still, sometimes it makes discounts for new clients and offers to pay in monthly installments instead of a yearly payment (at least for the first month). Compared to Magento, Adobe Commerce comes packed with some additional features, better security, PCI compliance, and B2B features.
  • Adobe Commerce Cloud, in addition to all the features of the paid version, also offers hosting by Adobe. This version might be the best choice if you want a one-in-all package. For this reason, the price for Adobe Commerce Cloud is higher.

Shopware is also distributed in three versions – Rise, Evolve Edition, and Beyond.

  • Rise is free to get started. It’s a great solution if you want to launch an eCommerce website quickly. However, when you start making your first sales, you’ll need to make payments to Shopware. It’s worth mentioning that the provided capabilities are quite limited and are suitable for businesses with a small number of products only.
  • Evolve is a paid version of the platform with advanced features, such as B2B, marketing, and customer experience tools. The price is calculated based on the gross merchandise value (GMV) and other individual factors.
  • Beyond is also a paid version of Shopware of the platform with the most advanced features for returns management, customer-specific pricing, marketing, and store management. The price is also calculated based on GMV.

As you can see, both Magento and Shopware are available in different versions. However, the devil hides in details, and we’ll discuss them in this article’s following section.

Magento vs. Shopware User Friendliness

Magento is famous for its numerous features and custom modules. Therefore, it’s a complex platform with a steep learning curve. You’ll need developers to Magento to your needs. For this reason, it’s better to hire a third-party vendor, such as GoMage, who’ll configure Magento to meet all your business needs, be user-friendly and fast.

The daily operations of the platforms are pretty straightforward. Also, with the release of Magento 2, you get a user-friendly Admin Panel where you can manage your store and website content. Adobe Commerce also provides a Page Builder to create new pages by dragging and dropping new elements.

Shopware, on the other hand, has a very user-friendly interface. Even non-technical users can work without a problem, thanks to drag-and-drop and double-click functionality. However, initial website configuration still takes some time, and integration with third-party extensions and solutions might require the help of Shopware experts.

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Magento vs. Shopware: eCommerce Functionality

Functionality and customization is where the two platforms shine. They allow users to create modules, add new functionality or customize the existing ones. You can find thousands of extensions on Magento and Shopware marketplaces, both paid and free ones.

Since Shopware was created for the German market, many extensions are in German and need an English translation, which might become a problem for non-German merchants.

As for built-in functionality Magento and Adobe Commerce are loaded with many features. They allow merchants to sell across B2B, B2C, B2B2C, and D2C business models. Native features include a Page Builder (on Adobe Commerce), workflows, segmentation, and personalization. Merchants can also create loyalty and reward programs, increase sales thanks to the built-in product recommendation engine and use a multisite setup. Adobe Commerce provides all the necessary features for B2B companies.

Here’s a highlight of the most prominent Magento eCommerce features:

  • Advanced product and category management
  • Multi-language and multi-currency support
  • Built-in support for SEO and marketing
  • Advanced shipping and tax options
  • Strong integration with third-party systems and payment gateways
  • Support for various product types, such as digital products, configurable products, and bundle products
  • Advanced reports and analytics
  • Customizable checkout and shopping cart

In addition to providing features, Merchants can create unique functionality from scratch or by customizing the existing one.

Shopware also offers a wide range of features, including personalization, customer segmentation, promotions, and loyalty points calculations. The paid version provides some functionality necessary for B2B eCommerce, such as guided selling capabilities.

Still, Shopware is a more B2C-oriented platform that puts customer experience first. It’s better suitable for small to medium-scale companies, as its B2B functionality is quite limited compared to Adobe Commerce.

 

Here’re some of the eCommerce features provided by Shopware:

  • Intuitive product and category management
  • Multi-language and multi-currency support
  • Basic SEO capabilities
  • Advanced shipping and tax options
  • Strong integration with third-party systems and payment gateways
  • Customizable checkout and shopping cart
  • Easy integration with various ERP and CRM systems
  • Advanced reports and analytics

Bulk products updating is an important feature that Shopware lacks. Magento offers this functionality out of the box. With Shopware, you need to export products into a spreadsheet, update information, and re-load information to the system again.

Shopware vs. Magento Performance

In eCommerce, website speed matters. 

Customers won’t wait for a website to load if it takes more than 2 seconds.

When comparing Magento vs. Shopware, they show almost the same results in speed tests. Still, Shopware is a bit faster than Magento. In real life, customers won’t probably notice these differences.

Magento’s robust architecture allows easy customization and integration with third-party systems. Magento can handle a large number of products and customers, and has no problems handling high traffic spikes.

If your Magento website becomes slow, you can always use Magento speed optimization techniques to bring it to the green zone in Google PageSpeed Insights and other speed-testing tools.

If you are concerned about speed, you can build a PWA based on Magento PWA Studio. GoPWA Storefront, developed by our company, makes 5-6 times les GraphQL requests to the backend than traditional Magento or Adobe Commerce, which leads to higher speed.

 

Shopware has a simpler architecture and a smaller codebase, which makes it less resource-intensive. It’s better suitable for small and mid-sized eCommerce businesses.

Another factor that can impact website speed is how the system makes requests to the server. The Magento API layer uses GraphQL, while Shopware uses REST API. In simple words, GraphQL allows for requesting all user information in a single request, while Shopware’s REST API requires multiple requests to be sent for each type of information. This could result in slower performance or increased network traffic.

Summing up, in terms of performance, Shopware is considered to be faster, while Magento is considered to be more powerful and scalable.

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Magento vs. Shopware SEO Capabilities 

Both Magento and Shopware provide built-in SEO features to help your website rank better in search engines.

Magento provides a wide range of SEO-related features. Built-in support for URL rewrites allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs. The platform also has tools for optimizing product listings, such as meta tags, alt tags, and descriptions.

There is a wide range of SEO-related extensions that you can add to your website.

Shopware, on the other hand, is a bit limited in terms of SEO features. It offers some basic capabilities, such as the customization of meta tags and URLs. Still, it fails short when it comes to optimizing product listings. If SEO is important to you, this Magento competitor might not be your best choice.

Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing an eCommerce Platform

Choosing an eCommerce platform to power a business  is a challenging and important task. You need to ensure the solution fits your needs and won’t become an obstacle to your growth objectives. 

Here are some factors to consider when making the decision:

  • Scalability – your business will grow over time, so it’s important to rely on a platform that can scale along with your needs. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in a situation where the current eCommerce platform won’t be able to meet your needs and you need to migrate to another solution, which is always costly.
  • Customization – eCommerce platforms offer different levels of customization. So, consider whether you need a simple website or a highly customized one, and make a choice accordingly.
  • Payment gateway integration – make sure the platform and the payment gateway you need will work together. Consider all payment gateways you might need before choosing an eCommerce solution.
  • Security – fraud detection, encryption, and PCI compliance are just a few features to take into account when deciding on the platform. It’s also important to have the ability to improve the security of your website additionally.
  • eCommerce features – the more built-in features a platform provides, the more money you’ll save. If some of the features are lacking, make sure you won’t have any problems adding them – either with the help of ready-to-use extensions or by creating them from scratch.

By considering these factors, you can choose the eCommerce platform that will meet the needs of your business, help it grow, and ensure its success.

Magento vs. Shopware: Key Takeaways

Magento and Shopware are powerful eCommerce platforms that offer a lot to eCommerce businesses. However, some essential differences are hidden under the hood.

Magento is a great choice if you need a platform with truly unlimited customization capabilities and a wide range of third-party extensions. Magento is more suitable for ambitious eCommerce projects that plan expansion and rapid growth in the future.

Shopware is a good choice if you need to set up a store fast, don’t require many customizations, and don’t plan to grow fast in the future, and need a user-friendly solution. 

While Magento is popular across the world, Shopware is more popular in DACH countries  (Germany, Switzerland, Austria). Many of its extensions are available in German only, so you need to be ready for it.

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    FAQ Main Picture
    Frequently Asked Questions
    What are the main differences between Magento and Shopware?

    ➡️ Magento is considered more powerful, feature-rich, and better suited for larger eCommerce platforms with more complex requirements. Shopware, on the other hand, is considered more user-friendly and is a smart choice for small businesses that are just starting their journey in eCommerce.

    How much does it cost to use Magento and Shopware?

    ➡️ Magento is an open-source platform, available for free. There are also Adobe Commerce and Adobe Commerce Cloud, paid versions of the platform with more advanced features. Shopware is available in three paid versions, with a starting cost of $600 per month. Hosting, customization, and additional features will cost you extra money.

    How can I make sure that Magento will meet all my business needs?

    ➡️ Before making any decisions, you need to analyze your business requirements and the capabilities of the eCommerce platform you’re considering. While the first part of the task will fall on you, we can help you with the second one. Get in touch with us to get a free consultation. We’ll tell you whether Magento should be your choice or not.

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