If you are preparing to set up an online eCommerce store, then here is an article for you.
You may have researched a bit about existing eCommerce platforms and compared their strengths and weaknesses.
This is where you might have fun with a common roadblock: the debate on PrestaShop Or WooCommerce.
So, which one should you like for your online store?
Both platforms are great and positive, but there is no clear winner. This choice depends on the nature of your online business and your technical prowess.
In this article, I will compare PrestaShop and WooCommerce to help you reach an informed decision.
What Is PrestaShop?
Latest PrestaShop themes have been throughout for a long time and have built a reputation as a reliable content management system for eCommerce stores.
First published in 2007, it continues to be the selection of developers who build solutions for product management, shipping, and billing.
Although PrestaShop can be modified to any requirement, the main use case is an eCommerce store.
This is where WooCommerce has a definite edge because of the underlying flexibility provided by WordPress.
What Is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin that lets you set up an eCommerce store on a WordPress-powered website.
Starting in 2011, WooCommerce has evolved into a final eCommerce solution for both large and small online stores.
At the time of writing this article, WooCommerce is used by 28% of online stores, including amazing of the world’s top brands.
After WooCommerce is a free and open-source plugin, developers all over the world continuously provide improvements to the platform.
As a result, you see a long list of WooCommerce themes features that cover almost everything you would expect from a top-notch eCommerce platform.
PrestaShop Or WooCommerce: The Current Trends
PrestaShop is an older platform that has continued to be one of the best options today. On the other hand, WooCommerce is relatively new but offers stiff competition to PrestaShop for the top position.
To give you an idea of the competition, the following Google Trends graph displays the evolution of searches for both platforms.
As you can see, WooCommerce is the faster-growing platform out there.
However, this graph should not be the only determining factor for your eCommerce store. You should play around with both platforms to assess the options and functions.
Besides, both platforms support a host of extensions that extend the native capabilities.
Similarly, you should also consider the possibility of the need for custom development.
Related: Top 7 PrestaShop Modules You Must Use For Better Customer Experience
PrestaShop Or WooCommerce: Features Comparison
All platform offers a set of basic features that eCommerce store owners need for store operations.
On top of this, the dev term tries to distinguish its product from the competition with extensions and features that add value to the store operations and user experience.
I have structured this analysis on different levels so that you can recognize the right eCommerce platform for your business idea.
Content Management
In this context, WooCommerce has a clear lead up the competition because of the underlying WordPress layer that provides great content management.
PrestaShop has a CMS section to create your information pages, but with very short options.
WordPress has Classic and Gutenberg Editor that allows you to build custom fields and edit all major features of pages.
Since you need to manage a lot of content on store pages.
Benefits of Using Content Management System
Product Management
Both platforms offer a fairly easy-to-use management interface to control product data. If the data is huge, you can quickly upload it using an Excel file.
Furthermore, both platforms offer simple processes for creating changes to the product descriptions and related identifying data.
PrestaShop is made for the single purpose of creating online stores only and therefore, the approach is simply defined to help product data management.
On the other hand, WooCommerce uses the WordPress post format and changes it to manage product data as a post.
Stock Management
Both platforms allow you to keep strong control over the store control.
In many cases, you have a clear idea of the available stock of the products available at the storefront.
This functionally is unrestricted and can be disabled to assume an infinite stock if you have no stock problems.
PrestaShop allows advanced stock control choices through which you can define different stores.
Receive information if the stock is getting low and what products are popular among your store audience.
WooCommerce has free and premium extensions that go beyond simple stock management options.
Customization Options
In the WordPress plugin repository, you have more than 50,000 plugins and a large number of free extensions.
Not all these plugins give functionalities for WooCommerce, but it helps you prepare an idea of the choices you have in your control.
The same goes for themes. While there are presently over 1200 themes in the official container.
There are a lot of developers who offer or sell their themes on the marketplace such as ThemeForest, Webibazaar, and TemplateMonster.
PrestaShop Marketplace has lots of add-ons and modules to increase store functionalities.
Furthermore, the marketplace offers more than 4000 themes to customize the storefront.
When thinking of PrestaShop Templates, except to pay from € 80 to 100 for a complete template with good support. In the section, you start from € 30 for a module to comply with the cookie law.
SEO Optimization
For WooCommerce, you can find hundreds of plugins that allow you to optimize almost all aspects of On-Page SEO.
In addition to boosting the organic positioning, these plugins also help you gain stress and reach for your brand.
The main difference is that for PrestaShop, there are few SEO-focused modules and most are premium.
Certainly, the products and categories are usually optimized for SEO, but the static PrestaShop pages are a little limited and will not help too much in the SEO optimization service efforts.
Product Selling
We have a tie again on this point. Both platforms allow the creation of bulk products, as well as the creation of organizations.
They also offer the possibility of trading virtual products through downloads and redeemable codes.
This function is perfect for creating platforms for renting hotel rooms, buying tickets for events, etc…
Store Statistics
WooCommerce offers detailed store analytics that existing sales, store revenue top-selling products, monthly sales, and relevant statistics.
PrestaShop also allows store performance statistics regarding the orders placed and the shopping baskets that were half-full.
When opting for PrestaShop, it is always a good idea to introduce a plugin that provides advanced store analytics.
That is why I recommend Google Analytics for an in-depth analysis of user behavior. You can also obtain information about conversion funnels and obtain related user-behavior information, so you have a clear idea of how to convert your visitors into customers.
Learn: How To Migrate Your Online Store From Shopify To WooCommerce
Speed And Security
On high-performing hosting resolutions, both platforms are safe and offer good performance.
Although here you have to break a spear in favor of PrestaShop since it is primarily an eCommerce platform.
Whereas, WooCommerce users the underlying structure of WordPress.
A plugin like WooCommerce Over exploits multi-store WordPress themes structure to store every kind of data in the decision tables and input meta information.
Because of this, the links between the different tables and the basic data field are very efficient.
This case does not have a real negative result on a database with a few hundred or thousands of items.
But, when I talk about tens or hundreds of thousands of elements, the server overload improves noticeably.
Multilingual Support
Both platforms are fit to sell products in multilingual. For WooCommerce, you have the advantage to use WPML because of its unique compatibility.
Similarly, with PrestaShop, you get a combined module for multilingual Support.
Pricing Plans
This is the most crucial question that happens to many users. If at the purely eCommerce level both platforms PrestaShop and WooCommerce are related, is there a variation in price? How much will it cost me? Let’s go by parts!
The latest version of PrestaShop and WooCommerce is free to download. So if you are performing to hire a developer, this choice should not modify the budget.
Furthermore, I think that you should opt for a hosting provider with more reliable performance, security, and support.
However, there is a big contrast between the more functionalities that you will need for your store.
If your online store is finished with PrestaShop modules you require will likely be premium, and there are several options to choose from.
So, if you have a fixed budget, you will want to continue developing the store, the support is surely WooCommerce as it does not restrict you in any way.
What Do I Recommend?
PrestaShop Or WooCommerce: You have given the end of my analysis and it is time for you to draw your outcomes as both platforms are a good solution for your online eCommerce store.
To help you take from one of them, these are my suggestions.
WooCommerce, because it has managed to combine all the good things about WordPress with all the applications to continue developing this plugin for the growth of online stores.
And PrestaShop, because it has been about for a lengthy period.
My advice is that WooCommerce will allow you to improve your online business with a much more 360 strategy than PrestaShop.
Now, if you already have a PrestaShop that you have been developing for some time and is kept up to date with the charges of the market and users.
It may be helpful to maintain trusting this platform before facing different major changes in WooCommerce.
More blogs:
How To Import Product To Your PrestaShop 1.7.X Themes
Set Up An Excellent WooCommerce Clothing Store Using These Immaculate Themes