In 2020, retail eCommerce sales hit $4.28 trillion. That number is projected to reach an all-time high of $5.4 trillion by the end of 2022. If those figures are anything to go by, there’s no better time than the present to be running your online business. The real question is — which platform should you be using? This 2021 comparison explores two eCommerce giants — Magento vs Joomla — to determine which one is better suited to meet your business needs.
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Magento vs Joomla: Pros and Cons Comparison
The latest statistics indicate that Magento has 2.32% of the global market share as far as leading eCommerce platforms are concerned. This places it squarely among the top 10 digital commerce technologies worldwide. If that’s not a stamp of approval, we don’t know what is.
Nonetheless, we went a step further and dug a little deeper to get into the nooks and crannies. Here are the pros and cons of using this eCommerce platform for your business.
Benefits of Magento
- Comes with advanced reporting and analytics tools
- Integrates with a wide range of marketing tools including gift cards and coupons
- Provides intuitive catalog management
- Quick and easy setup process using a one-click installer
- Supports 10+ native themes and 3,800+ extensions
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Drawbacks of Magento
- Although it is an open-source solution, themes, templates, and extensions come at a premium cost
- Customization of themes and other technical aspects of the platform is not as straightforward in comparison to some of the other systems we've come across
- It may require some coding skills to get it up and running
- Its performance depends on the specifications of hardware it runs on
While Joomla may not be as popular as Magento, it is a top contender in terms of eCommerce functionality. Keep in mind that Joomla is a Content Management System at its core. It just so happens to be eCommerce-friendly as well.
This means you can set up a website that supports a wide range of shopping cart platforms such as JooCart and JoomShopping. Below are some of the pros and cons of using Joomla for your digital shop.
Benefits of Joomla
- Comes with built-in SEO functionality
- It is open-source which means setup is free
- Offers convenient product and content management capability on a single platform
- Quick one-click installation
- Supports 5,000+ extensions with both free and premium options available
- Supports a wide range of payment gateways including popular platforms like PayPal and Google Checkout
Drawbacks of Joomla
- Customization requires users to have some knowledge of web development and design
- Installation and configuration of user-friendly URLs are a little more complex in comparison to other platforms
- Some users report experiencing plugin compatibility glitches
- You might have a hard time adding categories
Which One Has Better SEO? Optimization Comparison
Magento
For an out-of-the-box eCommerce solution, it is pretty search-engine friendly. Nonetheless, if you’re looking to differentiate your business from that of your competition, drive up revenue, boost average order values, ramp up conversions, and increase site traffic, you’ll need to step up your SEO game.
With that in mind, Magento does not automatically create headers and title tags for you. You would have to do this manually. The same goes for optimizing product page URLs. You would need to leave out the category in the path.
For the most part, the software requires that you make these SEO tweaks yourself, but that shouldn’t scare you. It integrates SEO into the package in addition to supporting plugins such as Yoast, which you can use to automatically optimize your virtual store.
Joomla
While the CMS also supports a myriad of plugins designed to optimize your site for search engines, it is nowhere near what Magento brings to the table. Most of the tweaks you’ll have to make will be manual.
Nonetheless, this is made easier through the integration of plugins. They can help manage metatags, optimize pages by checking for things like keyword saturation, direct you on where to add no-follow tags, and even provide insight into your website’s performance on search engines.
Magento vs Shopify: 5 Сrucial Differences You Cannot Afford to Ignore
Which One Is Easier to Use, Magento or Joomla? Performance Comparison
Magento
If you’re a beginner with no web coding experience whatsoever, let’s just say you’re going to have a hard time working with this platform. Sure, there’s the one-click installer you can use to set it up, but that’s only part of the story.
If you do have some coding experience, you’ll like the fact that the self-hosting setup is quick and straightforward. Besides, everything on the interface is merged on the navigation menu. We’re talking about reports, sales, promotions, products, customers, and anything else you can think of. Keep in mind as well that this system relies on a local installation and as such, requires FTP. But this isn’t necessarily a problem for developers.
Joomla
Unless you intend to hire someone with development experience (if you don’t have any), you’re better off using this particular CMS. It is somewhat more “beginner-friendly” — so to speak — and we’re using this term very loosely. You do need to have some coding experience to get the backend up and running.
However, the learning curve isn’t as steep. Plus there are plenty of online tutorials you can use to get the hang of it.
On the flip side, non-developers will find the frontend quite simple to use. It even allows you to manage your products without having to switch between tabs. It is the clear winner in that regard.
| Joomla | Magento | |
| Platforms | PHP, MySql, OOPS programming | PHP, Zend framework |
| SEO | Completely SEO-friendly | Completely SEO-friendly |
| Customisation | Simple, less complex | More complex |
| Multi-language support | Supports multiple languages | Supports multiple languages |
| Extensions | A few top selling extensions are JEvents, VirtueMart, Simple Photo Gallery, etc. Easy to install them | A few top selling extensions are Remerce CMS Meta Robots, Social Login, Advanced Sitemap. Difficult to install compared to Joomla |
| Themes | More preferred themes are Social Pinboard, Nova, Uneedo | Most preferred are Independent, Trendy, Pinstore |
| Blogging | Absolutely simple to set up and manage | Requires a lot of efforts to set up and manage |
Joomla and Magento Features Comparison
Magento Core Features
- Analytics and reporting: It integrates Google Analytics as well as provides a wide range of reports including tax reports, sales reports, abandoned shopping cart reports, low stock reports, and more.
- Catalog browsing: It provides layered navigation to allow users to filter products in search results and categories.
- Checkout, payment, and shipping: It supports capabilities like multi-address shipping in a single order, guest checkout, one-page checkout, and a saved shopping cart.
- Marketing and conversion tools: It facilitates cross-sells, up-sells, related products, multi-tier pricing, and customized landing pages for different categories.
- Product browsing: It offers stock availability information, multi-image displays, and also allows for upselling based on multi-tier pricing.
- Search engine optimization: It allows for sitemap auto-generation and even allows users to include meta-information for content pages, categories, and products.
- Site management: The admin panel provides total control of multiple stores and allows for batch export/import of customer and catalog information.
Joomla Core Features
- CMS management: It supports convenient extension updates, core updates, web extension installation, and user registration.
- Content editing and publishing: It uses a WYSIWYG editor for frontend customization in themes and templates.
- Design: It uses Bootstrap to create responsive designs and JLayouts to render HTML from data arrays/objects.
- Global technical support: It comes with built-in system help, extended documentation, and a community support forum.
- Multilingual: It is available in 70+ languages.
- Search engine optimization: It comes with an out-of-the-box SEO package for site content optimization.
- User Management Access Control List (ACL): It allows users to manage the site visitors and group them into different categories.
Magento vs Joomla - FAQs
How is Magento better than Joomla?
Magento has a better bang for the buck, offers its customers more extensions, scalability, and SEO marketing features which is why it’s the better choice out of the two.
What is Magento best for?
Magento is the best multi-channel eCommerce platform as it is fast, optimized and user-friendly. The competition is increasing and online sales are reaching the skies. To make the most of your Magento store and gain a competitive advantage, you can go for CRM for eCommerce and streamline all your business processes.
The Verdict — Which Is the Better eCommerce Platform?
Based on this comprehensive comparison of the two technologies, the truth is — they are both solid choices for your digital store. It all boils down to the level of backend involvement you’re willing to take up.
Magento has a lot more to offer in terms of performance and functionality compared to Joomla. It is, however, a lot more complex and will require you to have a great deal of development experience. It’s not beginner-friendly at all.
Joomla is somewhat newbie-friendly — for the frontend, at least. The backend will require users to have some coding experience.
If your business budget has some wiggle room and you can afford to hire a developer, go with Magento. If not, Joomla would be the ideal option in such instances.
Are you thinking of upgrading your current eCommerce solution to something more advanced? Migrate your data from Magento or a supported Joomla cart such as JoomShopping using Cart2Cart — our automated eCommerce data migration tool. Sign up for a free demo today to try our service in action!
April 22, 2024 
