When you start a business, finding a B2C, B2B or D2C eCommerce platform that provides you with the required infrastructure and facilities at an optimized cost can be tricky. It’s important to explore options beyond the obvious, to find the best-suited tool for your business while staying within your budget.
As a leading service provider, Magento is a popular option among most eCommerce enterprises. Due to its customizable nature, hassle-free scalability, and code-level access, it is the preferred choice for most medium to large-scale businesses. However, many Magento alternatives can be perfect for every headless eCommerce business.
How to choose the right headless eCommerce platform for your business?
Take a look at these important criteria that your headless platform should meet if you are considering moving on from Magento –
1. Website Builder
A website-building platform that is more user-friendly will give you better control over your website. With Magento, you can customise your site as you want, but you also have to rely on a team of developers to execute it. The trade-off, in this case, is that you may have relatively lesser scope for customisation.
2. Themes and Templates
If you don’t like the look of your website and want to switch to a template that looks better, there are several eCommerce platforms that carry customizable templates for you to work with.
3. 24/7 Support
Find a platform that provides 24/7 customer service and support to resolve any issues you may face without unnecessary delay.
4. Quick & Easy Plugin Integration
Many eCommerce platforms provide options for fast & free plugins which can be installed on your site in minutes. You can save development cost and time if your platform integrates with your mission-critical systems like your order management and inventory systems.
5. Payment Gateways
Many sites offer pre-installed payment processing through Stripe, Paypal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and more, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues with your payment gateway.
5 Top Magento Alternatives!
1. Shopify
Shopify is another well-known SaaS option for powering small and medium eCommerce stores. Their Shopify Plus is making attempts to move a little further into the mid-market space. They have a large merchant count and can get a site up and running quickly and easily.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Beautiful and mobile-friendly designs
- Robust app store for additional eCommerce features
- A decent uptime record and PCI compliance
Cons
- To reach the native functionality of other SaaS platforms like BigCommerce, you will need to pay for additional add-ons. This can become expensive and make running your store more complicated, as different parts of your data live in several places.
- Transaction fees for using a payment gateway over and above Shopify payments
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the primary plugin used to power online stores on WordPress and is a trusted (often the go-to) option in the WordPress community.
Pros
- The plugin is technically free, although you will have to pay for domain hosting, theme, plugins, etc.
- Stores can leverage the WordPress blog natively.
- A large number of plugins are available to extend native features.
- Part of an extensive WordPress community.
Cons
- Like Magento, you will depend heavily on a developer/designer.
- It takes more work to scale with slowing down the live store.
- Limited support beyond community-based forums.
3. Saleor
Saleor is a powerful eCommerce open-source platform that uses GraphQL to deliver fast, dynamic, and custom shopping experiences. The new upgrade is built on Python and Django and uses a lightweight front end driven by a GraphQL API. This allows you to combine it with your preferred CRM, CMS, delivery, and fulfillment service.
Pros of Using Saleor
- Fast operating
- Allows complete personalization
- Easy to integrate with the system
- Possibility of using a premade shop
- Multilingual
- Accepts various currencies
Cons of Using Saleor
- Lack of deployment resource
- Saleor is still polishing itself to use ready-to-use SDK
4. BigCommerce
Offering beautiful site templates and reliable uptime, BigCommerce is a SaaS platform that provides business owners with an eCommerce solution against a monthly fee.
Pros
- Launch your new site quickly and efficiently
- Easy to use, with robust out-of-the-box features
- Strong SEO benefits
- 24/7 customer support
- SaaS benefits of reliable uptime and PCI compliance
- Flexible APIs and webhooks provide headless eCommerce out-of-the-box. You can get an open-source software-like experience and even continue to work in PHP (or HTML, CSS, or Javascript).
Cons
- Unlike Magento, BigCommerce does not have native multi-store functionality yet. If that’s an important part of your business model, you must leverage a headless configuration as a workaround.
5. Opencart
OpenCart is another shopping cart platform for powering your eCommerce website and has a lot in common with Magento. Both are open-source platforms, and both are developed in PHP and use templates to upload products.
Pros
- Easy transition from Magento because of the similarities above
- Options for multi-language and multi-currency
- Template options available
Cons
- OpenCart starts at $0 but can go up to almost $100,000, depending on your chosen features
- Additional high development and support costs
Why Do You Need Magento Alternatives?
There are many open-source platforms for eCommerce, but Magento is one of the most popular. Its unparalleled popularity is because it offers users both website building, SaaS (Software as a Service), and open-source platform options. However, Magento involves huge development costs, poor website performance, and complex customizations.
Other competent online store-building platforms are embedded with easy-to-use features and customizations. Business owners have been looking at the below-mentioned parameters when choosing their Magento alternatives.
1. Special features
Many website builders offer plugins and extensions to help you explore your website’s capabilities and widen its functionality. It is possible to find a Magento alternative that can add better value to your business.
2. Speed and maintenance
Many extensions and plugins are available on the Magento system for you to customize your website. These assets are useful but the large volume of extensions and plugins slow down your website system. This is why it’s better to choose a Magento alternative that can be faster and easy to maintain.
3. Open-source or closed-source platform
Although open-source platforms like Magento offer excellent customizability at surprisingly low costs, you’ll end up spending more on website designs and improvements. However, closed-source (proprietary) platforms might seem expensive at first. It is pocket-friendly in the long run.
4. Ease of use
Magento’s customizations and features require coding know-how. You’re good to go if you know how to code or hire website developers to help set up your site. Other options offer easy-to-use customizations, and you might not need to hire professional website builders to set up your site.
5. SaaS or self-hosting
The first step in building your website is deciding where to host it. If you’re a big brand with a sophisticated infrastructure you can consider self-hosting your website. Conversely, most businesses don’t have heavy infrastructures making it unwise to self-host their websites. They can leverage SaaS platforms like Magento for their website hosting.
Conclusion
Headless eCommerce platforms carry a wide range of features that you must consider to pick the one that’s best suited for your business. If you’re currently using Magento and it’s not completely meeting your business needs and goals, you should cast a wider net and see what Magento alternatives are and how they can serve your business better. Remember, Magento isn’t your only option. Saleor might be the right choice for you, but the important thing is to consider your business needs and find the right solution to meet those needs.
