Magento and Shopware are powerful and highly scalable software solutions that enable entrepreneurs to set up their e-business and manage it effectively. Magento is currently one of the most widespread open source systems in the world, whereas Shopware is mainly known in the German-speaking countries. However, recently Shopware has also started it conquest of the English-speaking area, and there are already offices in Great Britain. Both systems can map almost all functions, and Shopware can be seen as a very good alternative to Magento. In this article we take a look at the following comparison criteria:

• General information about Magento and Shopware
• Editions and price comparison
• Main features and ease of use
• performance
• Community and support

General information

Magento

Magento is an online shop software that was released in 2008 as an open source e-commerce platform and is one of the most widely used online shop systems in the world with over 750,000 customers. According to Statista, this is 2.32% of all websites (as of April 2021). In the UK, 14,438 websites are using the Magento system.

Magento enables online retailers to manage several online shops on different domains with the respective customer master data and catalog contents. It takes fifth place among other open source software in UK (after Wordpress, WooCommerce Checkout, Joomla and Drupal).

The usage geography of Magento:

The most popular areas in which Magento is used, according to BuildWith, are the following:

The online shop system is based on PHP 7x and uses MySQL to store and manage the data.

Shopware

Shopware is the leading e-commerce platform in Germany that is making a big leap on the world market. It is a modular online shop system with over 91,000 customers worldwide, and was first published as open source software in 2004. With this e-commerce solution, online retailers can design their own online shop flexibly and freely.

There are currently 191 websites in the UK using Shopware Solution, but this number is growing steadily.

The usage geography of Shopware: 

The most popular areas in which Shopware is used, according to BuildWith, are the following:

Editions and price comparison

Magento

Magento is currently available in 2 versions:

• The Community Edition is open source and free of charge. This version completely covers the needs of small and medium-sized companies. This is the most widely used version.
• Enterprise Edition (Magento Commerce), on the other hand, offers a wider range of advanced features, with costs starting at USD 24,000 per year. This edition is more suitable for large B2B and B2C companies with complex business requirements. Magento Enterprise is also one of the most popular enterprise solutions in the world.
  

Shopware  

Shopware is available in three editions: Starter Edition, Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition. Starter Edition is free. You get a complete solution for the website from the cloud and do not burden your own server. More extensive services are possible with the professional edition. In addition to the services from the standard package, you get extended sales channels and the option of creating customizable products. Enterprise Edition is well suited for large companies and offers a complementary B2B suite for complex business models as well as Enterprise Search.

Prices depending on the edition: 

Main features and ease of use

Magento

Magento is a very feature-rich platform. Some of the most essential built-in features in Magento are:

• Site management
• Catalogue management
• Product browsing
• Advanced Magento SEO Enhancements
• Mobile commerce
• Order management
• Check out
• Payment & Shipping, and much more.

Magento Commerce also offers the following options: 

Since Magento is packed with features, this software is quite complicated to use. If you are not technically savvy, Magento may not be for you. The Magento interface is complex as it contains thousands of different settings. Magento setup and customization can be real challenge and requires outside help from professionals.

Shopware

A marked function in Shopware is shopping worlds. With the Shopping World function, Shopware users can create flexible content pages. There is a drag and drop function for products, blog posts, video guides and banners. This storytelling feature attracts existing and new customers. Shopware has an integrated blog with user management, digital publishing, media management and a simple topic system.

Further Shopware advantages:

• An automatic SEO configuration for an effective Google ranking
• Affiliate programs
• Loyalty programs
• Integration with various external solutions (Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Stripe, WordPress, PayPal, Skrill, Braintree)
• B2B correspondence

Shopware has an easy-to-use and intuitively understandable admin area. Because of this, it is much easier for new users to use this software. There is a great function in Shopware that lets you open many menu items at the same time without having to reload the page. The system also supports double-click and drag-and-drop functionality. This option helps to spend the time more productively than in Magento. 

Functions depending on the edition:

Performance

Both shop systems have an integrated varnish cache, which is essential for every website, especially for e-commerce. Shopware and Magento software offer sufficient performance for online shops with over thousands of orders per day.

The two solutions also offer:

• Compression CSS and JavaScript
• Image compression

Shopware's response times are faster for almost every website tested: 

Image source: https://yegorshytikov.medium.com/shopware-6-vs-magento-2-3-3-performance-dcf71dba0797 

Image source:  https://yegorshytikov.medium.com/shopware-6-vs-magento-2-3-3-performance-dcf71dba0797   

Community and support

Magento has a large community worldwide with over 150,000 developers. Magento Enterprise users can contact the official help desk and send inquiries. Community Edition users can also search the developer portals for solutions to their Magento problems or publish their inquiries there.

The Shopware community is currently under construction and has 40,000+ developers. There is a Shopware forum where users can ask their questions. From the Professional Edition onwards, support from Shopware can be booked separately. Shopware's internal wiki is constantly being developed and is available in English. Shopware also provides its own portal where users can write down bugs (you can also see the status of the fix). The in-house academy also offers video tutorials, live training courses, webinars and certifications.

Why is Shopware such a great alternative for Magento in the UK market?

Choosing an ecommerce software is really a complicated task, especially when the choice is between two ecommerce giants like Magento and Shopware. Magento is an excellent solution for medium and large companies with extensive customization options. This is a complex solution and the development, operation and support requires a lot of resources and time.

The future-oriented open source solution from Germany is already gaining international market and is also successfully establishing itself on the UK market. Almost 200 online shops have already assessed the advantages of Shopware. Endless customization options, plenty of room for “user-driven innovation”, a user-friendly backend, flexible license models, wonderful marketing options and a short time-to-market cycle make this solution perfect for SMEs. Large companies are also discovering many advantages of the Enterprise Edition. Shopware has every chance of gaining popularity outside DACH region.

Since Adobe bought Magento, the company has oriented itself more towards very large enterprise projects, and Shopware, on the other hand, can support large, but also small, and medium-sized projects very successfully.

The most important thing, however, is to research thoroughly, weigh up the advantages and disadvantages and ultimately choose the right platform for your company.