When you decide to take your business beyond the walls of brick & mortar, the next big thing that puzzles every retailer is to find the right ecommerce platform for their business. You will encounter a plethora of options that deem to be fit for your business. However, choosing the right platform is tricky.
Every platform comes with its own limitations and challenges along with power-packed solutions for your business. We have been helping our clients with an honest and lucid evaluation of various shopping platforms so that they can make the right choice. In this article, we have picked up two such powerful ecommerce platforms - Magento and OsCommerce and do a head-on-head comparison of both.
Magento and OsCommerce are ecommerce open-source platforms that are endowed with rich and powerful features needed to create a thriving e-store with minimum efforts. Both Magento and OsCommerce platforms are user-friendly, feature-rich, and support robust functionality.
Ease of Installation
OsCommerce is free open source digital store management software and runs on the powerful PHP web scripting language and MySQL database. Magento is also an open-source platform with an extensive suite of powerful tools for creating an ecommerce store. It runs on Apache, MySQL, and PHP platforms.
Both the platforms are easy to install and Magento installation requires adequate tech skills as it is slightly complex when compared to OsCommerce. There is also a one-click installation option available depending on the host.
Ease of Use
Magento is extremely robust ad powerful but not easy to use. If you are equipped with at least minimal technical skills on web design, development, etc. then it will be easier to handle. Otherwise, be prepared to be overwhelmed as it offers a steep learning curve.
OsCommerce is relatively simpler and easier to use. But it is clunky and a tad outdated.
Hosting
OsCommerce does not need any dedicated servers as the websites can run on any hosting that supports PHP scripts and MySQL database. Magento, on the other hand, needs a dedicated server or virtual private server for the smooth functioning of the ecommerce store.
Pricing
Both Magento and Oscommerce are open-source and free. However, Magento is more resource-intensive and available in both free community edition and premium enterprise editions. You may have to pay for the hosting for both platforms and the hosting price depends on how big the traffic could get. You may also have to pay for the OsCommerce extensions to match the Magento functionality. Usually larger enterprises find it extremely profitable to go for Magento enterprise version as it can also generate sales. The open-source version is more beneficial for smaller enterprises. You may have to include the developer costs in case if you are finding someone to assist you.
Design
Magento can transform the total face of your web store with customized themes so that your website can reflect the design aesthetics you expected. Magento doesn’t have any themes but you can create your own theme by custom designing. You can also find some free themes from the Magento marketplace. This, of course, requires some professional assistance to change the standard appearance of your website theme. OsCommerce also provides the possibility of modifying the themes but they are quite complicated.
Customization
Magento is highly customizable when compared to OsCommerce. It is a cutting-edge platform with a strong community of developers, graphic designers, marketers who are working towards creating customized features. However, you need to have the technical skills to handle the custom aspects of Magento. OsCommerce has certain limitations when it comes to the customization feature.
Magento supports promotional features like coupon codes which can ramp up the sales, plus outstanding product search features. OsCommerce has rather a weaker set of tools.
Extensibility
Magento is a well-structured ecommerce platform with numerous extensions and designs. It is highly extensible when compared to OsCommerce because of its modular nature and flexibility. Depending on your business needs, you may need the ecommerce platform to integrate with third-party platforms such as accounting plugins, email marketing tools, customer management software, Google merchant, etc. So ensure that your ecommerce platform has the technology to enable these integrations as needed.
Updates and Community Support
OsCommerce didn’t get any updates in years and many find it obsolete and out-dated. Magento on the other side gets regular updates that make it dynamic and modern. Magento has an active community that offers professional support which is missing in OsCommerce.
Integration Ecosystem
Both Magento and OsCommerce are cross-functional across multiple devices, browsers, services, and platforms. You can also leverage the potential of social media services without facing any issues. However, Magento is being updated frequently than OsCommerce, so one needs to wait for a little longer for OsCommerce integration.
Backend Functionality
Magento has a good site structure with well-organized backend facilities. It has an advanced user management tool and WYSIWYG editor designer for simplified content creation. OsCommerce doesn’t have an effective code and it has fewer features when compared with Magento.
SEO
Magento is by default search engine friendly and you should be able to integrate SEO techniques into your storefront without the need for any external tools. You may also enjoy other marketing benefits like upselling, customer loyalty programs, email follow-ups, and others.
OsCommerce is also SEO-friendlier but only with extensions and add-ons. So you need to invest some time to pick and install the extensions that will improve your OsCommerce store presence.
Target Markets
The Magento community edition and OsCommerce are great for smaller businesses that do not require any degree of customization. However, Magento enterprise edition is more suitable to larger enterprises with high volume stores.
Conclusion
Every platform is different and built for specific business requirements. Before you choose your best fit, do diligent and thorough research, understand your future scope of expansion, and what features you would require, the pricing, and other details that enable you to make an informed decision on which your business would flourish. It can be challenging but you can always contact us to book a free consultation on finding out what platform works the best for you.
Both Magento and OsCommerce platforms are powerful and rich in functionality. OsCommerce being the oldest has more extensions and a wider network of developers and other core team members. While Magento is catching up faster and has got an active community of its own. To select one of these two platforms.
We are here to help you for choosing the best ecommerce solution based on your business goals. We provide ecommerce development services for both Magento and OsCommerce. We are also providing OsCommerce Migration services. We provide Ecommerce development service to fuel your business with enterprise level capabilities and keep your customer coming back!
