The choices available in eCommerce platforms has grown largely owing to competition. Businesses planning to build their eCommerce store might often be overwhelmed by these numerous choices. Hence, choosing the one that fits the business size and specifics becomes difficult.
Though eCommerce platforms are aplenty, it boils down to just two during the evaluation process. We’ve picked up two such eCommerce platforms considered by most business owners – Magento 2 vs OpenCart.
While comparing OpenCart vs Magento, there are a lot of questions that come to your mind. We have made a list of such concerning questions and prepared our Magento vs Opencart blog.
In this blog, we’ll be covering key areas like:
- Magento vs OpenCart – Common features
- OpenCart vs Magento – Performance differences
- Magento vs OpenCart – Cost
- OpenCart vs Magento – security features.. and more
- OpenCart vs Magento – Extensions and so on.
We hope it’ll help you make an informed decision.
In this blog, we’ll be covering key areas like:
- Overview of Magento 2 and OpenCart
- What’s common between Magento 2 and OpenCart
- Magento 2 and OpenCart Differences
We hope it’ll help you make an informed decision.
Magento vs. OpenCart – Overview
Before we get into the details of Magento vs OpenCart comparison, let’s get a basic idea of these two platforms.
OpenCart
OpenCart is a free, PHP-based open-source eCommerce platform. Based on MySQL database and HTML components, the platform supports multiple languages and currencies. OpenCart is known for its easy-to-use admin interface.
The platform’s fully-loaded dashboard allows you to manage products, promotions, orders, and reports without requiring any technical expertise. As per Builtwith’s October 2021 report, 471,669 are operating on OpenCart. A majority of OpenCart customers are small and medium businesses.
Magento
Magento is one of the most sought-after, open-source platforms owned by Adobe. The platform is known for its 100% customizability that allows store owners to weave personalized experiences.
Magento is available as two major offerings viz, Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce (now Adobe Commerce). The enterprise version, Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce Cloud), is available with built-in AWS-hosting.
Over 213,057 stores are using Magento, among which 106,299 operate on Magento 2.x, the latest offering from the platform – Builtwith. Magento is popular among both SMBs and Enterprises. The platform has its own B2B-centric variant catering to the wholesale, distribution and D2C market segment.
Magento 2 vs OpenCart – What’s common?
Let’s discuss the common factors between the platforms before discussing Magento 2 vs OpenCart differences in detail.
Opencart and Magento are PHP-based platforms that provide a free, open-source version for users. Both platforms offer a wide range of out-of-the-box features. The customizability of these platforms contributes to building loads of extensions and add-ons that can simplify operations and provide a rich storefront experience.
The open-source platforms are completely free of cost to install. However, the hosting fee, development cost, theme or custom design, and extensions will add to your investment capital.
Magento vs OpenCart – Performance comparison
Magento Performance
Magento has an average loading time of 665 milliseconds, slightly behind the ideal loading time goal set by Google – Quanta. However, with Magento 2.x, the platform has achieved remarkable performance improvements compared to its predecessor 1.x.
- 38% faster checkout for customers
- 51% faster checkout for guests
- 117% more orders can be processed per hour
- 66% faster add-to-cart response time
- 2.1 million more page views per hour
Adding to this, Magento has Elastic Search for rendering faster search results, PWA Studio for achieving <2 seconds loading time in mobile.
OpenCart Performance
According to a study by Quanta, OpenCart has an average load time of 831 milliseconds. Product pages take around 910 milliseconds which is much higher than Google’s page speed goal for better rankings. Considering the extensions and customization that an eCommerce store would demand, the page loading time might increase.
The Winner: The Winner of OpenCart vs Magento performance – Magento
Looking for an expert’s help to migrate to Magento?
We can make your migration from OpenCart to Magento or from any third-party platform a breeze. Our experts can help you migrate to Magento with zero data loss and minimal downtime.
Magento 2 vs OpenCart – Cost comparison
Magento cost
Let’s consider the two major factors that involve regular investment – Premium extensions and Hosting. Magento’s paid extensions available in its marketplace costs around $50 to $500. However, the price range with the development agency you choose. The same applies to custom development of modules, themes, integration and so on.
Magento’s framework is on the heavier side as it is a fully-loaded platform with tons of coding done to provide every possible solution that an eCommerce brand would need. So, your hosting needs to be top notch to maintain high availability.
OpenCart cost
The hosting cost for OpenCart is less owing to the lightweight build of the platform. In terms of premium add-ons available in OpenCart’s marketplace, the cost ranges from $10 to $489 a month.
The Winner: The Winner of Magento vs OpenCart Cost – OpenCart
OpenCart vs. Magento – SEO and Marketing capabilities
Magento SEO and Marketing capabilities
Magento’s SEO strength outsmarts OpenCart. You can customize every page (products, categories, blogs) a user comes across in the buyer’s journey with relevant keywords, titles, and descriptive marketing content.
Magento is compatible with 3rd-party CMS making it convenient for content publishing, keyword targeting and so on.
Features like Page Builder, rich snippets XML sitemap simplify the process of creating engaging frontend experience and achieving higher visibility and ranking in SERPs.
Using Magento, you can quickly integrate Google’s essential tracking and marketing tools like Google Analytics, Privacy Setting, Content Experiments, and Tag Manager.
Magento’s mobile responsiveness adds to a store’s mobile web SEO advantage. Magento’s PWA support and SDK for building it (PWA Studio) helps in building a mobile-friendly UI, app-like interface, achieve faster mobile checkout and high page loading speed.
OpenCart SEO and Marketing capabilities
OpenCart is limited in terms of SEO and marketing features. Though the platform allows you to perform SEO activities, it requires coding knowledge in PHP. The platform lacks enough DIY documentation as well. However, you can opt for appropriate extensions from its marketplace to boost your SEO capabilities.
The Winner: he Winner of OpenCart vs Magento SEO and Marketing – Magento
OpenCart vs Magento – Advanced built-in tools and extensions
Magento built-in tools and extensions
Magento has over 5000+ extensions in its marketplace. You’ll need technical knowledge to set up and configure Magento extensions. However, Magento has enough technical documentation to guide you through the installation and setup process.
Magento provides several built-in advanced tools for its Open Source users like:
- OMS – Order Management system to track inventory, organize and fulfill orders.
- MBI (Magento Business Intelligence) – An advanced analytics tool that extracts deeper insights from millions of digital interactions for you to personalize and strategize marketing plans.
- ElasticSearch – Customizable built-in search engine to improve search results speed, relevancy, accuracy, and presentation.
- Multi-source Inventory – Manage inventory levels across multiple warehouses
- Adobe Payment Services – Available with the latest version of Magento (2.4.3), users will get access to integrated and secured payment services.
OpenCart built-in tools and extensions
OpenCart offers over 13,000+ extensions in its marketplace. These extensions are easy to set up and fulfill the customer experience and management requirements of store owners. There are also premium themes and extensions available.
The Winner: The Winner of Magento vs OpenCart tools and extensions – TIE
OpenCart vs Magento – Security Comparison
Magento Security
Magento can fortify your store with top-notch security features. The platform updates its security patches for old and new versions to reinforce security to the maximum level. Upgrading these security patches as and when they are released ensures that your store’s customer and business data are safe all the time.
There are scan tools available in the market to check the level of security your Magento store currently possesses. Magento rolled out a built-in Security Scan tool that administrators can easily integrate with the backend. Using the tool, store owners can monitor the site for security risks and malware. Magento’s Security Scan tool provides benefits like:
- Checking real-time security status
- Receiving suggestions to resolve issues quickly
- Ability to track historical security reports and monitor progress
- Performing over 21,000 security tests
- Access scan report to identify failed tests with recommended actions
OpenCart Security
OpenCart stores are vulnerable to cyber-attacks if you don’t fortify your store with additional security. Though the basic defense system offers some resistance, most of its users are dissatisfied with the security since it’s not being considered seriously by the platform provider.
Since the code is available to the public, it becomes easy for hackers to find loopholes. Additionally, the third-party modules that are available in its marketplace have more chances of having security vulnerabilities.
The Winner: The Winner of Magento vs OpenCart Security – Magento
Final words:
Magento is a more evolved, secured, and highly scalable platform that suits medium and large business enterprises. Though the platform needs technical expertise to make the best out of it, you can get things done by partnering with a Magento development agency.
If you are a budding enterprise looking to take the digital plunge on a small scale, OpenCart is an appropriate platform. But remember, if you have aggressive growth plans, migrating from OpenCart to a platform like Magento would be challenging on the go.
We hope that while considering these two platforms, the points discussed in our OpenCart vs Magento comparison will help.
Feel free to check out our other guides like Magento Vs Shopify comparison, Magento Vs BigCommerce comparison and Magento Commerce Vs Shopify Plus comparison.
Having an eCommerce project in mind?
Frequently asked questions
Both Magento and OpenCart have advantages for eCommerce business owners. Magento offers scalability and advanced eCommerce features with enough room for innovations of any sort. OpenCart could be a good choice for small businesses looking for limited eCommerce features. Both platforms offer open source versions, but technical knowledge is a must-have to make the most out of it. If you have aggressive growth plans, Magento is worth the investment.
Magento is one of the class-leading platforms trusted by 213,057 plus eCommerce stores. Magento has been named the leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce platforms for 3 years in a row.
Though the platform’s technical knowledge and development expertise requirements are high, its advanced commerce capabilities, specifics that cater to B2B and B2C, frequent innovations, and out-of-the-box features make the platform a worthy contender.
Magento has three different versions – Magento Open Source, Magento Commerce, and Magento Commerce Cloud, which suits businesses of any size and eCommerce maturity.
OpenCart, when compared to Magento, offers fewer SEO features. Store owners can perform on-page customizations like titles, meta contents, and so on, but it requires PHP coding skills. The platform falls in terms of providing enough do-it-yourself documentation for developers as Magento does. You can get extensions from the OpenCart marketplace, but once again, you’ll be needing developers’ help for customizing it. On the other hand, Magento facilitates easy customization of keywords, URLs, titles, and marketing content.
If you are a newbie looking to go to market with a store with basic eCommerce capabilities, OpenCart could be a good option.
