Dedicated eCommerce Content Management Systems (CMS) are extremely useful for running your online business but tend to get a little pricey. The good news is that there are two robust open-source options available – and they are both free! This means that even small businesses can benefit from using a CMS to manage their customers, store, and orders.
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Magento Vs. WordPress
If you are a business owner, then you have probably heard of Magento or WordPress. On the surface, they are both pretty similar sharing a few characteristics such as:
- They are both customizable
- SEO friendly
- Strong online support community
- Both are essentially content management systems
- Both can be broadly themed
However, their differences lie within their core principles, with Magento being devoted exclusively to eCommerce and WordPress being more content oriented.
WordPress
WordPress is an open-source platform primarily for blogging and content management system. It is the most popular CMS used all around the world today. It is extremely user-friendly and is also famous for providing template customization and easy-to-embed plug-in architecture.
Magento
Just like WordPress, Magento is based on open-source technology. It is an eCommerce platform with a ton of dedicated eCommerce features that have are loved by tens of thousands of store owners worldwide.
Although WordPress is currently the most popular CMS in the world today, Magento is giving the platform a run for its money! Magento offers the option of customization and functionality that renders merchants with the flexibility to set up online stores according to their business goals, while also providing great features such as:
- Multi-store management
- Generating reports
- Mobile commerce
- Marketing
- Search engine optimization
The Magento interface also facilitates the creation of menus, complex content pages, and version control similar to that of WordPress. In addition, Magento is also more secure than WordPress third-party extensions.
If after learning about the two platforms you have decided that using Magento is right for you, the first thing that you will need to do is go to Magento.com and choose your Magento edition:
- The Open Source Edition (formerly known as Community) is available for free download and is more geared towards developers who know their way around website or for small businesses that want to hire a developer. This edition of Magento is an open source solution and gives you access to support from the community, as well as all Magento basic functions such as adding product categories, coupons, user groups, etc.
- The Commerce Edition (formerly Enterprise) is a paid solution that is tailored to meet your unique business needs. It provides higher performance and scale-ability for large businesses that are growing fast. It also gives you access to expert support as well as hundreds of features and extensions that you can use to power your online store and give you more control over your website.
Like we have mentioned a little earlier in this article, Magento has a ton of really great options and can even somewhat be a complicated platform to configure for SEO purposes. If you are not too savvy on the computer, you might want to consider hiring a Magento advertising agency that specializes in SEO optimization to get your business off the ground!
If you do a quick Google search, you will find that there are literally hundreds of different CMS platforms that can help you and your business grow. However, due to the limitless options and versatile content management, we highly recommend giving Magento a try. Magento is a platform like no other that can help to make your business dreams come true!
By Krisna Garcia (an aspiring writer from California, looking to grow her portfolio and build her specialization and expertise on beauty, lifestyle and health)
Follow her on twitter @Krisna Garcia