Prestashop vs Shopify: Which E-commerce Platform Suits Your Online Store?

If you want to start an online business and are looking for a platform that suits your criteria, you can consider PrestaShop vs Shopify. These are two famous platforms that attract the highest number of users in the world.

So, which is the better choice for your business? This article will compare and consider the right choice for your business.

What Are PrestaShop And Shopify? – (Definition and Key Features)

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is a useful free platform for small and middle shops to start selling everything. It’s like a pro version of WordPress or other open-source platforms with many big-store features. It may be challenging when you want to set it up because you need to sort out things with your hosting company and connect stuff like your shopping cart, payment system, and shipping before diving in.

Key Features:

• It’s free to install and not too tough to get going.
• You can make it your own, tweaking and changing things a lot.
• You have total control over every bit of your store.
• There are tons of apps and add-ons for PrestaShop.
• It’s got loads of cool stuff for online shops, like different payment choices, quick checkout, and smooth order and shipping processes.
• If you need to be more tech-savvy, following the guide to set up PrestaShop carefully is essential.

Shopify

Shopify is a tool for making excellent websites and online stores. It’s perfect for you, even if you could improve at web stuff. Unlike similar tools, Shopify does everything—making your website look good, dealing with payments, and organizing your stock. It’s like an all-in-one package for running your online store smoothly.

Key Features:

It is simple for everyone, whether you’re new or an expert.

• Neat and straightforward design.
• There are loads of cool themes and apps to pick from.
• It has awesome exclusive stuff like Shop Pay for faster checkouts, its own payment system, POS system, tax calculator, and a Shopify CRM.

Prestashop vs Shopify: The Ideal Customers

Prestashop

PrestaShop is the top choice if you want to engage deeply in your project. It’s great for:

• Tech-savvy users: Because it’s open-source, PrestaShop is popular among those with technical skills or developers who want more control over their online store.
• Budget-conscious businesses: Since PrestaShop is free to download and install, it can be a cost-effective option for businesses with tight budgets. Yet, they should remember additional expenses like hosting and security.
• Businesses seeking customization: PrestaShop offers many modules and themes, letting users personalize their online store.
• Businesses wanting control over security: With PrestaShop, businesses have full control over the security measures on their online store, allowing them to enhance and safeguard their website.
• Businesses ready to invest in extra modules and themes: Although PrestaShop itself is free, businesses might need to buy premium modules or themes for specific functions or to achieve a specific design for their store.

Shopify

Shopify is perfect for those starting a business without needing technical know-how. It suits:

• Small to medium-sized businesses: Shopify has lots of useful features for these businesses, helping them build and improve their online presence for success in the digital market.
• Businesses with some technical skills: Its ease of use store builder is good for businesses that want more technical knowledge or web development experience.
• Businesses needing great customer support: Shopify offers reliable and available customer support for business owners whenever they need help.
• Businesses that want to grow: Shopify has features for businesses of all sizes, from startups to big companies. It’s flexible and customizable, meeting different business needs for online growth.
• Businesses that want various payment options: Shopify works with many payment gateways, letting businesses accept different online payment methods securely.

Prestashop vs Shopify: Pros and Cons

Prestashop: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• PrestaShop is free; you can create as many online shops as possible.
• It’s easy to use and set up, whether you install it automatically or manually. Learning to use its tools is easy.
• You’ll find many extra things, like themes and modules, that change how your store looks and works. This makes PrestaShop suitable for almost any online store idea.
• You can check how well your site is doing with PrestaShop’s built-in tools. It helps see website visits and how many people buy things from your store.
• Even if your computer could be more powerful, PrestaShop can still work well.
• It can speak many languages and handle different types of money so that you can sell to more people.
• Adding a payment system to your PrestaShop store is easy because you can choose from so many different options.

Cons:

• PrestaShop works great when starting, but it can need help handling many visitors as your website grows.
• There are many themes to change how your store looks, and they offer ways to customize. But it could be challenging if you want a really special design and need to learn more about making websites.
• If you need official help with PrestaShop, you must pay about $300. This might be too expensive for many people who own stores.

Shopify: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Shopify makes starting a store really quick and easy. You don’t have to worry about setting up hosting or installing anything. Just sign up, and Shopify takes care of everything.
• You get to pick from various store designs and use an easy editor to finish how your store looks.
• Shopify helps you get back customers who leave their shopping carts without buying, which can boost your sales by up to 15%. This feature is available even with cheaper plans.
• Store owners in some places can use Shopify to sell things both online and in their physical shops.
• There’s a huge app store with over 4,000 apps that can add lots of cool stuff to your Shopify store.
• Shopify is set up to be friendly to search engines, so people can find your store easily without needing extra tools.
• They have a team that’s there to help you all the time, 24/7, through live chat, email, and phone when you ask for a callback.

Cons:

• If you don’t use Shopify’s payment system, you’ll have to pay fees for each sale in your online store, but this payment option isn’t available in every country.
• Shopify has fewer features than similar services, so you might need extra apps to get all the tools you want.
• While using Shopify means you don’t have to find hosting or set up everything yourself, it also means you don’t have as much control over your project compared to hosting it yourself.

PrestaShop or Shopify: An In-Depth Comparison

PrestaShop and Shopify are well-known online store platforms and have some similar eCommerce features. However, their pricing sets them apart significantly: PrestaShop is an open-source platform, while Shopify is a hosted one. Keep reading to learn more about the differences between PrestaShop and Shopify.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: Pricing

Shopify

Shopify offers three plans: Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. The monthly cost ranges from $25 to $399, depending on your chosen plan. However, there’s no free plan available. You can try Shopify for free for three days to explore its features.

When you use other payment gateways on Shopify, they tack on transaction fees, which can range from 0.5% to 2% based on your chosen plan. However, you can avoid these transaction charges if you go with Shopify Payments.

Remember, even with Shopify Payments, credit card rates will be between 2.4% to 2.6% along with an extra 30 cents per transaction.

On top of the usual subscription and transaction fees, it’s important to factor in any extra costs linked to add-ons and apps found in the Shopify App Store. These fees vary depending on the specific add-ons or apps you pick to upgrade your store’s features.

Moreover, if you opt for a different payment gateway besides Shopify Payments, consider the potential gateway fees that might be added.

PrestaShop

Subscription expenses with PrestaShop are absent as the platform is free to start your online store. However, you’ll need to manage costs associated with your domain name, hosting, and SSL certificate for your e-commerce site.

For instance, Hostinger provides various PrestaShop Web Hosting plans featuring a free domain:

• The Premium Shared Hosting plan ($2.99/month) gives you 100 GB SSD storage.
• The Business Shared Hosting plan ($6.99/month) offers 200 GB SSD storage.
• These hosting plans from Hostinger also include a free SSL certificate, removing the need for a separate purchase.

When it comes to transaction fees, PrestaShop’s Checkout module applies charges based on the payment method chosen:

• PayPal transactions incur a fee of 2.9% + €0.35 per transaction.
• Credit and debit card transactions come with a fee of 1.2% plus €0.35. Though American Express payments are expected soon, they might carry a 3.5% fee plus €0.35.
• Cross-border transactions within the Eurozone charge an extra 0.5%, while those involving other countries incur a 2% fee.

Besides transaction fees, considering potential extra charges when using PrestaShop is crucial. These additional fees may vary based on the services or modules selected to improve your online store’s capabilities.

It’s recommended to thoroughly understand the pricing of these add-ons or modules before integrating them into your PrestaShop platform. This helps in accurately evaluating and budgeting for any additional costs that might emerge.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: Easy of use

The simplicity of using various platforms depends on your technical skills. Though both make creating an eCommerce site easier, they vary in how easy they are to learn.

Several things decide which platform is more straightforward:

• Setting up the website.
• Using the tools they come with.
• Moving around in their dashboards.

Shopify

Shopify gives beginners a dependable and easy-to-use interface for making an eCommerce site without costing too much. It involves picking a plan, creating an account, and right away choosing and customizing a store name.

Shopify has clear directions and quick links to help set up the store. For example, links to add products and domains, customize themes, and set up sales channels are provided.

They also suggest ways to improve your store, like adding a shipping policy and exploring global selling. The left side of the screen has quick access to standard eCommerce tools such as Orders, Analytics, and Marketing.

For all available tools, click on the Settings button in the lower left corner. You’ll find tools like Billing, Taxes, and Metafields there.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop lets you start a basic online store even if you need to be tech-savvy. But if you want an advanced store, you might need coding skills.

Under Dashboard, PrestaShop has built-in features like Orders, Catalog, and Customer Service. It helps track store growth with sections like Activity Overview and Products and Sales. There’s a Quick Access button for common tools and an option to Manage quick accesses, organizing which tools appear there.

Overall, creating an online store with PrestaShop is more complicated than using Shopify.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: Themes & Customizability

Shopify

Shopify offers 139 templates, including free options, with themes priced from $0 to $380 in Shopify Theme Store. Each theme permits custom adjustments, catering to specific user preferences to enhance the user experience. Users can access CSS for personalized website tweaks.

CSS is a code language managing web page visuals, empowering users to customize design elements, colors, fonts, and more. This control level allows users to craft a distinct and tailored website.

Moreover, Shopify Liquid enables modification of the website’s core code, facilitating flexible edits for compatibility across various screen sizes and mobile versions.

Check out the list of free Shopify themes with stunning designs. And the collection of best Shopify themes.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop’s open-source nature grants merchants extensive customization options for their online stores. They can sift through various templates tailored to specific styles and business sectors like pets, food, fashion, home, and more.

This adaptability enables merchants to craft and shape their stores according to their preferences without limitations. Through thousands of templates, PrestaShop enables complete control over store appearance by adjusting underlying code via JavaScript or HTML.

Consequently, PrestaShop offers pre-made themes that boost conversions and present a unique design in harmony with the merchant’s products.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: Security

Operating an internet shop demands strict security protocols to safeguard crucial business and customer information from potential risks and breaches.

Shopify

Right from the start, Shopify is made to be a safe place to run your online store. They give everyone a free SSL, ensuring connections to your store are secure and the info is coded. Shopify also updates things automatically to protect against problems. Here’s why SSL certificates are outstanding:

• Pick HTTPS for more security on your store.
• Make customers feel safer by showing the SSL icon with your store’s web address.

Good news! Every Shopify store has a Level 1 PCI DSS certificate. It’s a big deal for businesses handling card payments because it keeps all your data and customer info really safe. Shopify cares about keeping your private stuff safe and goes the extra mile to make sure everything stays secure while you run your online shop.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is big on keeping data safe and gives a PCI-certified download file. They also offer different security modules to make your store safer overall.

For example, the Official GDPR Compliance module helps your store follow the rules in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In PrestaShop, you can use add-ons and code to amp up security. Users can hide important files using .htaccess to keep them from being seen by everyone. There are security modules like Security Pro and Google Authenticator that help secure a store without having to mess with the code.

Using these security tools, PrestaShop helps store owners build a strong security system and follow important rules about protecting data and privacy.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: Apps

Shopify

The Shopify App Store is where you can get extra tools for your store. Right now, over 5000 apps and add-ons, including third-party ones, have all sorts of features for your website. These apps help do more things like shipping, marketing, and managing money for your store.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is good at handling lots of different stores. PrestaShop Addons has over 4000 modules to help make your website work well. These modules let customers personalize their online store, boost sales, build trust, and keep customers coming back.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: SEO & Marketing

Having good SEO is crucial when picking a platform for your business. It helps your website or product show up at the top of search results, making your brand more memorable to customers. PrestaShop vs Shopify Plus or Shopify both offer important tools for optimizing SEO. You can tweak URLs, add canonical tags, and set up 301 redirects to improve your SEO on both platforms.

Shopify

Shopify provides various SEO and marketing tools for your store. In their marketing dashboard, you’ll find easy suggestions and ways to create marketing campaigns. Shopify also offers numerous SEO features that cover important aspects like meta titles, descriptions, content, headings, and image descriptions. These tools can really boost your products in search results.

PrestaShop

In PrestaShop, users need to install modules for SEO purposes instead of having the SEO marketing tools built-in. However, PrestaShop offers useful features like creating coupons, discounts, special offers, cross-selling, and promoting products.

It also includes SEO tools, abandoned cart email functions, connections to social platforms, and detailed reporting. PrestaShop lets you build customer databases and create customer groups to personalize the customer experience, manage customer service requests, and send responses.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: Shipping

Shopify

You can access shipping discounts from trusted carriers like DHL Express, UPS, or USPS using Shopify. Plus, all Shopify pricing plans offer automatic shipping labels for your orders.

In the Shipping and Delivery settings, you have control over different parts, such as:

• Checkout delivery options: Set the shipping costs during checkout. You can make a shipping profile to customize rates or limit destinations based on your choice.
• Packaging details: Enter package info like names, types, sizes, and weights. This helps you figure out accurate shipping costs for your products.
• Carrier accounts: If you already have an account with a shipping carrier, you can use special shipping rates to save money and make shipping smoother.

PrestaShop

For configuring shipping settings in PrestaShop, you can enter package sizes, estimate delivery times, and set shipping charges.

These options let you decide how products will be packed, offer customers an idea of when their orders might arrive, and outline the costs for shipping to various places.

Customizing these details guarantees precise shipping calculations and makes shipping easier for customers.

PrestaShop vs Shopify: Payment gateways

Shopify

Shopify offers an advanced feature called Shopify Payments that helps customers in certain areas by removing transaction fees. Without this, there’ll be an extra fee based on your plan:

• Basic Shopify Plan: 2% transaction fee.
• Shopify Plan: 1% transaction fee.
• Advanced Shopify Plan: 0.5% transaction fee.

For more details: Shopify Fees Guide: All Costs for Operating a Shopify Store

Shopify works with around 60 payment gateways, giving you options to accept customer payments. To accept payments in different currencies, you can use PayPal Express Checkout.

PrestaShop

Regarding payment gateways, PrestaShop starts with two built-in choices: Payment by check and Bank transfer. These options let customers pay in more traditional ways.

Apart from these defaults, PrestaShop has payment modules that you can install to add more options to your store. These modules include well-known ones like PayPal for secure online transactions and Cash on Delivery, where customers pay upon delivery.

Using these payment modules, PrestaShop helps businesses provide different payment methods to suit their customers’ preferences.

Things Shopify Can Do vs Prestashop

When comparing Shopify or PrestaShop, here are five areas where Shopify excels over PrestaShop:

• Free Subdomain and Domain Generator: Shopify provides a free subdomain for your online store and offers an option to buy and link a custom domain within the platform. In contrast, PrestaShop requires users to find and purchase their domain separately.
• Built-in Payment Processor: Shopify has its payment processor, Shopify Payments, streamlining payments without extra setup or fees. PrestaShop needs users to set up processors or rely on third-party gateways.
• Simple Email App: Shopify Email offers ready-made templates and easy customization for marketing emails right from the platform. PrestaShop lacks a built-in email app and needs third-party tools for email marketing.
• Dedicated Customer Support: Shopify has 24/7 support via live chat, email, and phone, while PrestaShop mainly relies on community forums for help, needing more 24/7 support.
• Customizable Sales Reports: Shopify offers robust reporting and analytics for detailed, customizable sales reports. While PrestaShop provides reporting, achieving similar flexibility might need extra modules or adjustments.

These areas showcase Shopify’s advantages over PrestaShop in terms of user convenience, and integrated features,… However, consider your business needs and preferences before picking the best e-commerce platform.

FAQs

Which platform is superior, Shopify vs PrestaShop?

Deciding between Shopify and PrestaShop depends on what you need and prefer. Shopify is praised for its easy-to-use interface, wide-ranging features, and reliable customer support. Meanwhile, PrestaShop, being open-source, allows for greater customization but might need more technical know-how for advanced changes.

Between Shopify and PrestaShop, which one is more cost-effective?

PrestaShop is free to download and use, but users must separately invest in hosting and security, leading to additional expenses. In contrast, Shopify’s pricing plans cover hosting and security features, potentially making it a more cost-effective choice. With Shopify bundling these aspects into its plans, users may find it more budget-friendly.

Conclusion

Businesses, regardless of size, can gain advantages by choosing the right e-commerce platform. Through this blog, BSS Commerce Shopify gives you a comparison of Shopify vs PrestaShop to help determine what suits your business best.

Shopify proves to be a more comprehensive solution for businesses of all sizes compared to PrestaShop. Its dominance in the e-commerce market stems from its vast app selection in the Shopify app store, enhancing your store’s capabilities. Shopify also has a built-in CMS and blog system that you can optimize for search engines.

Furthermore, an active community of online store owners on Shopify forums ensures you can easily access the support you need.

In summary, when weighing Shopify vs PrestaShop, the former emerges as the superior choice for an e-commerce solution. If you need help with your Shopify store setup, migration, or customization, BSS Commerce Shopify will cover you all.

Discover other comparison posts of Shopify with other eCommerce platforms:

• Shopify vs building your own website
• Wix vs Shopify
• Shopify vs Shopify Plus
• Shopify vs Squarespace
• Shopify vs BigCommerce
• Shopify vs Weebly