Shopify vs. PrestaShop: Which Is Good For An Online Store?

PrestaShop and Shopify both have powerful ecommerce capabilities, but the platform that is best for your business will be determined by your specific demands and budget.  Choosing the correct Ecommerce platform for your company will be a critical decision when it comes to launching an online store. Your Ecommerce platform determines how you build your website, list your products, process payments, and manage your entire business. 

Fortunately, there are a variety of platforms available, each with its own set of characteristics that may or may not match your requirements and budget. Let’s discuss Which one is a better option for your online store.

PrestaShop vs. Shopify: A Short Overview

PrestaShop and Shopify appear to be fairly comparable at first glance. PrestaShop and Shopify both allow you to create and modify your online store, as well as add and promote products, receive payments, handle and finish orders and provide online shopping cart capabilities to your consumers. PrestaShop and Shopify, on the whole, are all-in-one platforms with a lot of built-in functionality.

When you dig a little deeper, you’ll notice one key (and significant) difference. Shopify is a self-hosted platform with a monthly subscription fee. In other words, for the membership cost you pay to access the software, Shopify hosts your online store and oversees security, upgrades, and maintenance.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: Their Pros and Cons

PrestaShop’s Pros

  • PrestaShop is free to download and install, and once you’re up and running, you might just have to pay a small monthly fee.
  • The open-source nature of PrestaShop allows you to extend and personalize your business as needed.
  • When you acquire PrestaShop’s basic edition, you’ll have access to a wealth of functionality. Inventory management, product management, and online shopping cart, analytics, reporting, and so on are just a few examples.
  • Customers can create accounts, and you gain access to a variety of store administration choices, including tools for handling orders (if you want).
  • PrestaShop’s add-on market has thousands of modules to choose from.

PrestaShop’s Cons 

  • Because anyone can make and sell PrestaShop modules, your web design may clash with theirs. As a result, technical problems are more likely to occur.
  • You are responsible for resolving any issues with the help of the community on your own.
  • Additional themes or modules are available for a fee. Getting the functionality you seek could cost several hundred dollars!
  • There is a substantial learning curve if you want more than a basic business. If you don’t have the necessary technical knowledge, you may need to hire a developer.

Shopify’s Pros 

  • Shopify comes pre-installed with great website security.
  • A large number of add-ons and themes are available, making it simple to customize and enhance the functionality of your store.
  • The store builder on Shopify is extremely user-friendly.
  • Shopify has great store and inventory management features, even in its lower tiers. When it comes to Ecommerce tools, it’s one of the best on the market.
  • Shopify offers a diverse selection of payment gateways.
  • Shopify works smoothly with all of the main social media sites and marketplaces.

Shopify’s Cons 

  • If you don’t require all of Shopify’s capabilities, it could be an expensive monthly subscription.
  • You have a restricted number of staff accounts and store locations with which you can link. You’re limited to only 15 staff accounts, even if you’re on the advanced program.
  • Shopify’s customization possibilities aren’t as broad as PrestaShop’s, with only a few free themes to choose from.
  • The built-in blogging platform on Shopify is fairly simple.

Shopify vs PrestaShop feature by feature

User-Friendliness

Setting up one’s first internet store might be intimidating for many people. That’s why we choose platforms that promote ease of use and don’t have you spend weeks figuring out how to use every function.

The good news is that PrestaShop and Shopify are both quite easy to operate. Shopify, in particular, makes use of this as a major selling feature. It’s the simplest platform to get started with, thanks to its drag-and-drop shop builder and user-friendly interface.

SEO

PrestaShop SEO allows you to work more effectively with your site’s SEO placement. PrestaShop stores normally rank higher in Google search results if they are well-configured.

In recent years, Shopify has worked hard to improve the SEO of their businesses and has been successful. There are numerous tools that can assist you with your page’s SEO. As a disadvantage to some, Shopify’s servers are in the United States, so if you’re in Europe, your website will be a little slower, which will affect your SEO ranking.

Dropshipping

This is an area where Shopify stands par above PrestaShop. Why? Because Shopify integrates with apps like Oberlo that allow you to find high-quality dropshipping suppliers all over the world. You can also use Shopify to do print-on-demand dropshipping, which works great for selling things like custom t-shirts. PrestaShop has modules for dropshipping, but they don’t work as swiftly as Shopify.

Customer experience is important for dropshipping stores to succeed. Shopify sites load fast, whereas PrestaShop users have no control over website speed. The speed in the latter case is dependent on the hosting company’s bandwidth and server performance. Shopify also offers a content delivery network for good experiences.

Selling on the International market

PrestaShop may be a better option if you plan to sell your products worldwide. PrestaShop includes essential features like a multi-language store and currency settings, as well as international taxes and shipping checkout choices that are simple to set up.

With Shopify, this is not the case. You will be charged an extra fee if you do not use Shopify payments. Shopify Payments is currently available in only 13 countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong (China), Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Apps and modules

When it comes to the success of your Ecommerce store, Shopify apps and PrestaShop modules are critical. This software is extra features produced by the platform or third-party developers that allow your shop to be more customized. Clever Ecommerce Shopify software and PrestaShop module, for example, make it simple to manage your SEM with Google Ads.

In addition, if you sell +18 products, some programs allow you to set up an age verification system for your Ecommerce. As you can see, the Shopify and PrestaShop marketplaces include every functionality you could need. Both Shopify and PrestaShop have created a fantastic marketplace with a wide range of apps and plugins that will undoubtedly provide value to merchants.

Sales channels

Shopify merchants can access sales channels including Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Pinterest, Instagram, and Messenger without paying anything extra. Meanwhile, PrestaShop requires merchants to use a paid add-on to access any such platforms. 

Another benefit of Shopify is that you can list and customize products directly through your store admin. This means you don’t have to hop between channels which can eat up a major portion of your time. With one platform, you can unify the revenue coming in from varying channels to gain important insights. Shopify also enables merchants to sync in-store and online sales for seamless commerce operations.

Customer Service

PrestaShop offers live chat, email, and phone support to its customers. PrestaShop’s forum also has a large user community with whom you can communicate. You can find answers to your queries here, as well as discuss any issues you may have with other PrestaShop users and developers.

Shopify provides email, live chat, and phone assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They take pleasure in offering some of the greatest customer services in the industry. There is also a lot of community assistance available online.

Analytics and Reports

Shopify includes a simple dashboard that displays critical sales, order, and traffic statistics. As a result, you can keep track of your company’s performance at a glance. You can also run traffic and referral analytics to discover where your visitors are coming from and how they found your store. This is in addition to product reports, which include information about your store’s development, best-selling products, and ones that aren’t as popular, among other things. 

These reports can then be exported and sent to your bookkeeper. On top of that, Shopify has a Google Analytics integration. Similarly, PrestaShop gives you access to sales, customer, product, and marketing metrics and data.

Conclusion

Your online store’s tone will be established by the Ecommerce platform you choose. The appropriate tool can provide you access to capabilities you wouldn’t otherwise have, or make it easier to scale your store. Shopify, in our opinion, is a good choice for small businesses that don’t require a lot of advanced features. PrestaShop, on the other hand, is a superior alternative for most users, especially if you want as many options as possible.