Author: Rodney Laws

Shopify vs. Woocommerce vs. Magento: Which Has the Best Community?

When you choose an ecommerce platform, you’re not just committing to the CMS and the payment terms— you’re also becoming a part of a broad community encompassing everyone who uses it, talks about it, and gives advice about it.

And since there’s a lot of overlap in functionality between the best platforms, one platform can get the edge over another purely by virtue of having a bigger and more vibrant community and doing what it can to support those users.

So among the three top contenders of Shopify, Woocommerce and Magento, which one has the very best community? Since they’re all competing in the same market, it’s very interesting to see how successful they’ve been in keeping their user bases happy staying where they are. Let’s go into some more detail.

Introducing the contenders

First up, we have Shopify, an ecommerce site builder that was first released back in 2006. Through it took a while to really make progress, it has seen phenomenal industry-leading growth in recent years, and in many ways has become the ‘default’ option. Still run by its founder Tobias Lütke, the company continues to pursue its original mission of making commerce better for everyone.

Brands that use Shopify include Budweiser, Red Bull, and Colourpop, but the entrepreneurial focus of the software lends itself better to use by startups or SMEs, so you’ll find a very broad range of retailers relying on Shopify.

Next up, we have Woocommerce, a free ecommerce-focused plugin for the massively popular WordPress CMS. Despite being a relative latecomer (having only been launched in 2011), it has swiftly become the most widely-used ecommerce package in the world off the back of the comparable dominance of WordPress.

Because it’s a user-friendly self-hosted solution, Woocommerce is chiefly used by businesses that want to keep complexity and costs down, though it can be scaled up to enterprise level if needed — see brands like Airstream or GhostBed for examples.

Lastly, we have Magento, a powerful and open-source ecommerce platform that was launched in 2008 by Varien, Inc (the company rebranded under the Magento name in 2010). Though there is a self-hosted version, Magento is largely used at an enterprise level, and is phenomenally powerful when used correctly — but it’s far from being the most accessible.

Owing to its complexity and flexibility, Magento is a popular choice for businesses with the patience and resources to completely customize it and thus take advantage of its huge feature set. Numerous top brands rely on Magento for their stores, such as Nike, Ford, and Agent Provocateur.

Their user communities

From a community standpoint, Shopify’s industry-leading 24/7 customer service might seem like a double-edged sword. On one hand, a user’s subscription provides them with access to expedient expert support and a huge array of resources — on the other hand, the ubiquity of the support service isn’t conducive to conversations, as people who can get their questions answered through a live chat system don’t need to discuss them on forums!

That said, this arrangement actually serves to bolster the community through freeing it up to focus on ecommerce strategy in general and specific things that can be achieved through Shopify. Through official Shopify forums and countless Shopify-focused Facebook groups, users have plenty of options for getting some feedback on their tactics.

Woocommerce has a lively built-in community derived from its WordPress base. While there is a basic support system in the form of a facility to submit a support ticket, it isn’t all that great, and users primarily congregate in forums and social media channels to solve configuration problems and exchange tips.

Something that really helps the Woocommerce user community is the open-source nature of the software, because anyone with a good suggestion or a fix for a lingering bug can submit their proposal to the community and possibly see it implemented through democratic approval.

Lastly, Magento (with its two configurations) has a fairly diverse user community, ranging from tech-savvy self-starters to conglomerates with expansive budgets. Subscribers to the paid Magento plans do receive good tech support directly from the company, though it isn’t quite on the level of something like Shopify.

You’ll find that almost everyone using Magento has to rely on support from the community or a dedicated developer from time to time because official documentation isn’t great — with so many old versions still around and supported, it can be hard to tell when you have the right information.

Their developer communities

Every one of these three systems can be manually extended, and each has a robust development community, though Shopify brings up the rear in this area because it’s not open-source and can’t be completely stripped down (it uses a custom-made templating system called liquid to allow users to add to their stores).

While Shopify and Woocommerce have partner programs to encourage web developers to focus on (and advocate for) their platforms, Magento has more in-depth developer certifications — as such, though it takes longer to become a Magento developer, the typical developer is going to have a very strong understanding of the system.

Woocommerce developers are the easiest to find owing to the overlap with WordPress. Magento is open-source, and thus developer-friendly, but the complexity and number of versions still in use (plus the ability of big corporations to use in-house developers) can make it tricky to find a good Magento developer.

Their community events

Each one of these CMS companies has invested substantially in both large and small-scale community events — hosting busy national conferences on occasion, and arranging myriad local meetups and forums.

Shopify hosts a huge developer and partner conference called Unite on an annual basis, recapping progress, announcing plans for the coming year, and generally giving Shopify merchants and associates a chance to get together. Because Shopify has a strong marketing department and positive word-of-mouth, its events tend to be very well-attended.

Woocommerce sometimes runs a conference called WooConf — it has taken place three times so far, with the inaugural edition in 2014 and two subsequent instalments in 2016 and 2017. Despite its immense popularity, it’s a little unclear what future plans are for the event, as there will be no WooConf in 2018.

Magento presents an annual conference called Imagine (the first was held in 2011), and since the company is now owned by Adobe, it’s reasonable to assume that it will get bigger in future. In addition, there is a nonprofit organisation called Meet Magento that works to arrange local Magento Live events to introduce people to the platform.

​Which of these platforms has the best community?

There really isn’t a satisfying answer to this question, because it entirely depends on what your intentions, interests, skills and inclinations happen to be:

• Are you looking for general entrepreneurial support and advice on how to grow your business? The Shopify community is your best bet for that.
• Do you want to build your store piece by piece and figure it out as you go? The Woocommerce community is full of people who’ve done just that.
• Confident in your basic level of technical understanding (or simply in possession of deep pockets)? You’ll find a lot of value in the Magento community.

Every one of these three leading ecommerce systems offers a strong community with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, so there’s no disastrous choice. Just think carefully about what you want, and pick the system (and the community) that will suit you best.

6 Features Of Shopify Plus To Get Excited About

Pioneering augmented reality

This includes the development and implementation of augmented reality mobile apps. You might have seen these before: notably IKEA’s Place app for testing out home decor from the comfort of your own home, and Sephora’s Makeup, Hair and Beauty app for makeup trials without ever leaving your chair.

Shopify are actively encouraging their merchants to get involved with the initiative to explore the AR field, so if you think your store could benefit from this pioneering technology, let them know.

Empowering businesses with offline retail

Shopify isn’t just about ecommerce. They know the value of brick-and-mortar sales, and Shopify Plus customers can bridge the gap between online and offline retail with their dedicated POS system.

Pop-up shops and ecommerce go hand-in-hand, and Shopify makes it easy to incorporate omnichannel into your brand strategy. The Shopify POS device is intuitive and user-friendly, and any sales made through it automatically sync up with your central Shopify dashboard.

That means your inventory, product range, and customer data remain up to date to help monitor your business’s growth. For a growing enterprise brand, a solid omnichannel strategy is a must-have and it’s great to have a platform that makes it so easy.

There’s a huge range of slick, high quality designs are available to customers, and not just for those who are willing to shell out for them.

Shopify’s free options can be just as attractive and polished as paid versions, without their UX suffering for it either. Each one is user-friendly and responsive across all devices, delighting your customers at each step of their shopping experience.

There’s a huge range of slick, high quality designs are available to customers, and not just for those who are willing to shell out for them.

Shopify’s free options can be just as attractive and polished as paid versions, without their UX suffering for it either. Each one is user-friendly and responsive across all devices, delighting your customers at each step of their shopping experience.

Ecommerce automation with Shopify Flow

Another feature worth getting excited about is Shopify Flow, an ecommerce automation tool that is only available to Shopify Plus merchants. You may well be thinking: I’ve already got my marketing automation down, why do I need Shopify Flow? But this handy feature doesn’t just automate your marketing — it automates everything.

Shopify Flow lets you create workflows for all the menial, repetitive tasks that eat into your time and stop you from focusing on growing your store. These include automatic reordering of low stock to prevent any missed sales, as well as ending promotions when your stock has been depleted. You can even arrange for high risk orders to be flagged instantly for fraud prevention, helping you avoid chargebacks and sticky conversations with banks and customers.

Campaign planning with Launchpad

Another exclusive for Shopify Plus users is their Launchpad tool. This useful feature lets merchants create campaigns, flash sales, and product launches at the touch of a button.

International ecommerce capabilities

Ecommerce already has the potential to reach customers from all over the globe, with most online store builders, so the promise of international ecommerce might not impress you. But Shopify Plus is designed to help your business grow. As you expand your reach across borders into new countries, Shopify Plus offers all the tools and features you need to expand with ease.

Shopify Plus provides tailored language, location, and currency selectors within their themes, so you can do business with virtually any major foreign market in the world. Included in this plan is over 100 options of payment methods, so your business can cater to the growing number of gateways that your customers are using.

Setting up an online store can often be daunting when it comes to the financial minutiae of dealing with overseas regulations. But Shopify Plus also includes Avalara’s Compliance Cloud, providing tax calculations for 70,000 legal restrictions. It makes it easy to automatically calculate tax for each invoice according to regional specifications, regardless of your background or expertise.