Magento and PrestaShop: What is the best free software for e-commerce store?
B2C e-commerce Magento and PrestaShop stand out as the best opensource applications, free. To be more accurate to say there would have to build online stores OtherPrograms very good and widely used (such as osCommerce, for example) than for its ruggedness and reliability should be considered in this review, but leave that for another article.
To a first approximation one could say that Magento and PrestaShop belong to two different targets. Magento seems more oriented companies (or supply stores with over 500 products), is a Zen Framework-based application (an evolution of osCommerce), which gives a more flexible but complex, more difficult to learn and more dependent server resources.
Instead Prestashop is designed for electronic commerce by smaller online stores and is based on a more lightweight. It is very easy to install and maintain. Both your back office (administration area of the store) as the product catalog and payment system is very intuitive and usable. Integrating CSS simple and some modules that are installed as plugins shop is elegant and professional.Prestashop has interesting features and checkout in one step or module to extend the store in Facebook.
Magento shows on your site that your application has already been performed more than 25 billion of transactions, there are 90,000 online stores installed, some 3,500 modules and extensions, and has been downloaded more than 3 million times. Prestashop presents some facts a little less spectacular but has reached the 50,000 online stores installed with a community of 200,000 members and there are about 250 modules and extensions specific to this application.
PrestaShop Vs Magento Vs OsCommerce
There are some items that clearly illustrate the issue, particularly those of Enso, Juan Macias, Ruben Paul Divall and 4Webs. We summarize below the most interesting parts of them:
Enso, Juan Macias and Ruben Divall mark in their respective articles for major differences in relation to capabilities, installation and requirements, service management, software architecture, technical support from a community of users and acceptance or rejection by users :
1. Features: Magento offers more features in the standard version of PrestaShop, configuration is more flexible (product options, shipping costs), comparison of products, advanced search, management multistorey and can display different templates depending on the product. In the front-end user can easily compare various products or defined tags, such trend towards virtual store of the future (participatory and microformats). In Prestashop suppliers can enter the cost price.Good system for the identification of taxes per item (options for flavors, colors and sizes). Define attributes with their individual stock, and most importantly you can insert your code EAN 13 (bar code).
2. Installation and Requirements: Magento requires a special configuration, cache PHP, PHP performance optimizers, advanced encryption libraries, etc … Hosting expensive. PrestaShop is very basic requirements and consumes fewer resources, the only drawback is the version of PHP, you need PHP 5.x, but has problems with some specific versions of PHP 5.x. Installation fails a lot.
3. Learning Curve: The back office of Magento is less intuitive, and its structure, very technical, more specialized skills required for any adjustments. PrestaShop administration is simple, but lacks documentation and is difficult to find some options.
4. Back Office: In the back office highlights the options to create configurable products, packs, you can even define multiple rules to apply discounts (very interesting to sell and earn more, which is what it is).
5. Architecture: The EAV data model Magento allows great flexibility, so Magento is so powerful and code, Magento is “untouchable.” PHP Programming Prestashop is quite acceptable, using object-oriented programming and is very well structured. The main problem is its constant evolution, which prevents the consolidation of a stable version.
6. Support and Community: One of the strengths of Magento, thousands of modules and support forums. Prestashop the moment has a very small community.
7. Support for Enterprise Applications: Magento facilitates communication with third party applications (ERP, CRM, etc..) Through an API (Application Programming Interface) and integrated web services natively.
8. Server Resources: Prestashop not produce much load on the server and shared hosting is more than enough, Magento requires a dedicated server and technical optimization carefully to ensure proper response time
9. Security: security level, we must be careful because Magento is vulnerable because it has elements shared hostings writable in the file system may be altered by other users of the server if you make changes in those areas.
10. Localhost Operation: The performance is better in Prestashop localhost Magento.
11. The “halo effect” or user perceptions: for Juan Macias users do not really like shopping with Magento developed because the navigation and process flows are quite artificial, different from what users expect or are accustomed to. Instead Prestashop users feel comfortable and buy them, store managers see it very easy to manage.
And 4Webs offers a comparative view between Magento and PrestaShop simplified, which means not only the strengths but also the negative aspects of the two applications:
1. Magento
Highlights:
Powerful software.
Allows Multi.
Ajax search system.
Allows full customization of the site.
The administration panel is the most complete
Against:
Small community, little support, mostly in English.
Complicated installation and customization.
Few modules and themes.
Complicated administration panel
Resource intensive.
The installation file is very large.
Server Features demanding enough.
High-traffic shopping for FrontOffice need hosting and one for the backend.
The learning curve is very high.
2. Prestashop
Highlights:
It allows integrating multiple languages.
Final project cost economics.
Management of multiple payment modules.
Integrated customer groups.
Easy installation with most options.
The tool features, customizable and easy to use.
Defines physical or virtual products (downloads).
Very easy to use.
Low CPU consumption.
Enter Barcode
Very intiutivo administration panel and easy.
It is very fast.
PrestaStore: Store modules already developed.
The Spanish community is growing very fast.
Against:
Support mainly in French or English
Few modules and themes
Useful links on Magento and PrestaShop and credit of persons mentioned:
Magento vs. Prestashop : algunos puntos de comparación (Enso)
Magento vs PrestaShop vs osCommerce otra vez!!! (Juan Macías)
Testeando en 5 min Magento y Prestashop (Ruben Divall)
Análisis Tiendas online 2011: Prestashop, Oscommerce, Magento. (4webs)
Software para Tiendas Virtuales – 31 programas para elegir
Magento, tienda online opensource que desplazará a osCommerce
Software para tienda online opensource Magento optimizado para el iPhone
Fuente: http://www.e-global.es
Miguel, sí es cierto que es mucho más complejo y a la vez sensible pero esto le da una mayor versatilidad y potencia. Nosotros hemos realizado varios proyectos en Magento, tiene un mayor mantenimiento pero funciona de manera excelente: http://www.24joyas.com
Aconsejo Prestashop.
Magento solamente da errores para todo. No manda email, para añadir idiomas o cualquier personalizacion hay que llamr a algun ingeniero de la NASA!!!! Magento= Problemas, problemas y mas problemas…..
Y su comunidad? una pandilla de inutiles que no te saben ayudar ni para arrancar el ordenador!!!
Hola Alberto;
Al final del artículo ponemos la fuente; cual es el problema? En realidad hacemos promoción de la fuente, proporcionándole un enlace directo a su web e informando a nuestros usuarios de su trabajo.
Agradecemos tu opinión pero por favor, exprésala con educación y ahora que sabes un poco más también con objetividad.
Gracias;
Xosé
Da asco el Copy and Paste que habéis hecho de este post de e-global.es !
It’s great effort. But difficult to say which one is better because they both have their own functionality and unique features. I prefer Magento over Prestashop.