Magento and Shopify - How much does a modern e-commerce cost

If you want to create or renew your online store, one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself is: how much does it cost?

The answer depends on many factors, including the platform you choose, the features you want, the design you prefer, and the level of customization you require.

In this article, we introduce you to two of the most popular and powerful ecommerce platforms on the market: Magento and Shopify.

Magento and Shopify: the main differences

Magento and Shopify are two very different platforms, both from a technical point of view and from a commercial point of view:

• Magento is an open source platform, which you can download for free and install on your server while Shopify is a commercial platform, which offers you a paid service.
• Magento requires you to have some technical skills to set up, customize and manage your platform while Shopify is simpler and more intuitive to use, even with little experience in web development.
• Magento offers you greater flexibility and customization freedom, thanks to its modular architecture and its large ecosystem of extensions; Shopify gives you a more standardized and limited solution, with less ability to change the source code or add features.
• Magento allows you to manage complex and scalable websites, with thousands or millions of products, variants, categories and languages; Shopify allows you to manage simpler and more streamlined websites, with fewer products and configurations.

Costs to consider

Now that you know the main differences between Magento and Shopify, let's see what are the costs to consider to create your modern e-commerce with one of these two platforms.

License fees

As we said, Magento is an open source platform, which you can download for free in its Open Source version (ex Community Edition). However, there is also a paid version, called Commerce (formerly Enterprise Edition), which offers additional features for large companies: the cost of the Commerce license depends on the annual turnover of your online store and can vary from 22,000 to 125,000 euros per year.

Shopify, on the other hand, is a commercial platform, which offers you different paid plans according to your needs (prices updated to August 2023):

• Basic at €28 per month
• Shopify at €78 per month
• Advanced at €384 per month

There is also a higher plan, called Shopify Plus, which offers additional features for large companies: the cost depends on the volume of transactions in your online store and can range from 2,000 to 40,000 euros per month.

Hosting costs

As we said, Magento is a platform that requires you to provide your own hosting for your online store: this means that you must choose a reliable, secure and performing hosting provider that is able to support the traffic and complexity of your website and its cost depends on the provider you choose and the plan you subscribe to. In general, you can expect to spend anywhere from €10 to €100 per month for shared or VPS hosting, or from 100 to 500 euros per month for adedicated or cloud hosting.

Shopify, on the other hand, offers you the hosting service together with your subscription plan: this means that you don't have to worry about finding a hosting provider, or paying additional costs for your hosting, while still maintaining good speed, security and reliability for your website.

Design costs

Magento offers greater flexibility and customization freedom, but also requires high technical skills to modify the source code or create your theme from scratch: if you don't have these skills, you can choose from the many themes available on the market, both free and paid.

Shopify, on the other hand, offers you a more standardized and limited solution, but also simpler and more intuitive to use: you can choose from the different themes offered by Shopify which usually have a price between 0 and 180 euros.

Function costs

Magento is a platform full of native features, which you can expand and enrich with the many extensions available on the market, both free and paid: in general, you can expect to spend from 0 to 500 euros for a Magento extension.

Shopify, on the other hand, offers you a platform with more essential and basic functions, which you can expand and enrich with the different apps available on the market, both free and paid, usually with costs ranging from 0 to 60 euros per month depending on the app.

Transaction costs

Magento is a platform that allows you to integrate any payment method you prefer, without applying any commission on your sales, however you must take into account the commissions applied by your payment gateway or your bank for each transaction made on your website: these commissions may vary based on the supplier you choose and the volume of your sales.

In general, you can expect to pay a fixed percentage (1% to 3%) plus a flat fee (€0.10 to €0.30) for each transaction.

Shopify offers its own integrated payment method, called Shopify Payments, and you need to account for the fees charged for each transaction made on your website: these may vary according to the plan you subscribe to and the country in which you operate.

You can expect to pay a fixed percentage (2.4% to 2.9%) plus a fixed fee (0.30 to 0.30 euros) for each transaction.

If you want to use another payment method other than Shopify Payments, you also need to pay an additional fee to Shopify for each transaction.

Magento and Shopify: Conclusions

Magento and Shopify are two very different platforms, our advice is to rely onTidycode for the development of your e-commerce: as certified and professional experts we will be able to advise you on the best solution for you.