The 3 most widely-used CMSs for e-commerce

There is a wide variety of CMSs for e-commerce, but as we discussed in an earlier post on the most popular CMSs, today we'll look at the most common CMSs for e-commerce and their most outstanding features. Let's have a look!

Which are the most common CMS for ecommerce?

If you are planning to create an online store, one of your first decisions, and perhaps one of the most important, is to choose a content management system (CMS). Choose a CMS that fits your needs, your objectives and of course, your budget. As this is not an easy task, we have analysed the most popular platforms and made a list of the best features of each.

When analysing the top searches with Google Trends, we see that Magento, PrestaShop and Shopify are the three most popular.

A critical factor for companies when choosing a CMS is their ease-of-use and their ability to support extensions. These three have marketplace extensions that allow access to advanced features that are not available in the standard version.

Let's take a closer look at some important aspects that will help you to choose a content management system for your online store.

3 most widely-used CMSs for e-commerce

There are many CMSs for e-commerce, although 3 of them currently stand out. But many companies are using Shopify in particular. Let's look at the features of the 3 most widely-used content managers:

Magento – Large and medium-sized business

This is one of the most commonly used and safest CMS and it is ideal for large online stores. It offers two versions: the Magento Community edition is open-source, and you pay only the costs associated to the hosting, domain and/or maintenance; and the Enterprise edition, the paid version, which is more suitable for companies with a large volume of products, categories or orders.

Installation and features: this CMS helps you to set up the complete purchasing process and covers all users needs. Although it has its own marketplace extensions to extend its e-commerce features, if you want to create content other than that related to sales, such as a blog, for example, it requires additional development. In addition, when internationalising your company, you have solutions for translating your website in Magento CMS into different languages.

Administration panel: although it comes with extensive supporting documentation, its complicated set up process makes the dashboard more difficult to manage, compared to other CMS.

Community of experts: it has a large English-speaking community, but the number of Spanish-speaking experts is considerably smaller.

Trial period: you have a free 30-day trial period to use the platform.

Prestashop – SMEs

This management system is easy to install and it is designed for small and medium-sized companies with an average volume of products. It is open source, and set up is free, and it also offers a paid version, Ready, which provides a SaaS solution.

Installation and features: compared to the previous CMS, PrestaShop needs less technical know-how for installation, but it offers fewer set up options for your e-commerce. It also has its own marketplace extensions, although you pay more for specific additional features. With this CMS for e-commerce, if you want to have a multilingual online store, there are different options. One is the installation of a module to include more than one language in your e-commerce site, and another is a translation carried out by a professional with our AT-WST technology solution (native connectors), in order to translate an e-commerce site with PrestaShop

Administration panel: it has an easy-to-use intuitive dashboard from where you can manage all the information on your e-commerce.

Community of experts: it has a good Spanish-speaking community of experts as it has been the most popular e-commerce platform in Spain for years. Furthermore, PrestaShop has a blog for FAQs and also creates events of interest in its community.

Trial period: you have a free 30-day trial period to use the platform.

Shopify – Small companies

This is a SaaS service ideal for launching an e-commerce without previous knowledge on HTML or design. This CMS for e-commerce has three different payment plans, from the most economic, with limited features, to the most expensive, designed for companies looking for an extendable e-commerce platform.

Installation and features: as it is a paid solution, there are no installation or maintenance costs. Take into account that, as it is a SaaS, like the PrestaShop payment solution, all purchase and customer details are in the hands of an outsourced company, and saved in their servers. Shopify has limited scalability compared to the other two solutions. Although its store offers apps and templates, only a few features can be added.

Administration panel: it has an intuitive administration area from where you can manage your e-commerce products. Thanks to its ease-of-use, it has more popular in recent years. The drawback is that, unlike PrestaShop or Magento, it does not have SEO optimisation.

Community of experts: Shopify does not have a community and it only has its own support team for resolving queries or complaints.

Trial period: the platform offers a free 14-day trial.

Finally, if your idea is to create an online shop in several languages and offer payment facilities in different currencies, Magento and PrestaShop are the ideal choice of CMS, as Shopify in this case only allows the management of one online store, in one language and transactions in one currency.

If you are considering opening your own online store, ATLS recommends that you take some time to analyse the pros and cons of the various platforms available to make sure you pick the right one for your project. Which is the right one for your project?