PrestaShop vs WordPress: Choosing the Right Platform ✅ Cart2Cart™

Did you know that WooCommerce is the second-fastest-growing CMS in the world, serving 23% of the eCommerce market? But despite its popularity, this frontrunner has some decent competitors. Today, we're going to compare it with another self-hosted solution - PrestaShop. Read on to find out which shopping cart has the better SEO, features, speed, security, and more. Let's dive into the PrestaShop vs WordPress 2021 comparison!

PrestaShop and WordPress: top pros and cons

As you probably already know, WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin created by WordPress directly for selling purposes. So if you're familiar with WP, using WooCommerce shouldn't be a problem. Creating a store (or any type of website) with this solution is simple and only requires a few clicks.

WooCommerce Advantages

Free to download and use
High level of customization functionality due to its open-source nature
Offers over 400 custom multipurpose extensions and works with thousands of other WP plugins
Large community of active users and developers to solve any kind of issues
Integrates easily with most third-party apps (e.g. Facebook, MailChimp, Square, Stripe, etc.)

WooCommerce drawbacks

Not very beginner-friendly, requires at least minimal coding skills
Steep learning curve
Support is limited to self-help resources
Overall costs for extensions, themes, hosting, etc. can be a bit high

Even though PrestaShop has fewer active users with a total of 308,496 live websites, it can boast of its intuitive dashboard, multiple built-in functionality, and customization capabilities. Also, it is a standalone commerce software while WooCommerce is just a WordPress plugin.

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PrestaShop Advantages

Free platform with no monthly fees
High level of customization
User-friendly store management options available
PrestaShop community with many active users

PrestaShop Disadvantages

Paid customer assistance directly from the company
Technical knowledge required for backend management
Problems with a correlation of modules
Additional costs for hosting, security, etc.

PrestaShop vs WordPress: which shopping cart has better SEO capabilities?

Since WooCommerce is built on WP, it has all the basic SEO and marketing functionality integrated. Therefore, the titles and metadata are automatically generated. Moreover, you can download the necessary SEO plugins from the app market (e.g. Yoast).

PrestaShop offers users the possibility to create URL rewrites, meta titles, and descriptions to improve the SEO rankings of the online store. It is also possible to display the physical stores on Google Maps by setting up the internal search engine.

PrestaShop or WordPress: Which platform is easier to use?

Both the PrestaShop vs WordPress, require you to have at least a minimal amount of technical knowledge. The installation process is relatively easy to handle, but configuration can take some time. Also, keep in mind that both solutions are self-hosted, so you'll need to take care of the domain, hosting, security, and other functionality issues that arise.

Since WooCommerce is very similar to WP, adding products is a lot like creating a post in WP. So, there should be no problem with it. However, if you don't have any experience with this platform, it is advisable to check the user guides and watch video tutorials.

Due to PrestaShop's technical backend, setting up the store can be time-consuming. The company also offers extensive documentation with detailed instructions.

Features of WordPress and PrestaShop that you can benefit from

WooCommerce review

The solution has all the basic characteristics to get you started with your commerce store right away:

It is a beautifully designed plugin with a clean and user-friendly store management dashboard.
All available themes support customization and you can design the unique commerce store according to your needs.
Access to the extensive collection of plugins along with the specially designed native commerce apps.
The ability to manage products, customers, orders, etc. via the REST API.
Free and paid native themes as well as third-party themes.
No limit for your products, images, galleries, etc.
Selling digital, physical, and affiliate products.
Ability to checkout as a registered user or as a guest.
Built-in shipping calculator option.
Pre-built inventory management tools - you can track, hide, hold stock products.
Blogging features from WordPress.
Reports from integrated Google Analytics.
Responsive design that works well on any mobile device.
100+ available payment gateways, including Stripe and PayPal.

PrestaShop review

Check out the list of shopping cart properties:
Straightforward product creation, inventory, and order management.
Well-organized and clean dashboard with access to all essential elements.
Unlimited number of products (including digital, physical and downloadable) that can be organized into categories and subcategories.
Same admin panel for multiple commerce stores.
Ability to translate storefront into over 75 different languages and accept payments in multiple currencies.
250 payment providers (e.g. PayPal, Amazon Pay, etc.).
Compliance with the laws of a particular country.
Access to 3000 PrestaShop web templates and themes (both free and paid).
Dedicated support plans in case of issues (available at an additional cost).
PCI compliant ready platform.

Final points

No matter which open source carts you choose - WordPress or PrestaShop, platforms are perfect for creating an excellent online store from scratch. As you've probably seen, these solutions have their own pros and cons and suit different types of online business. So, it is advisable to outline your commerce preferences before setting up the web store.

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