The count down has begun, what seemed far off is now just 3 short months away! 

As Magento ends support for Magneto 1.x by June 2020, it will be more of a necessity than a suggestion to migrate to a more durable and flexible eCommerce platform for many of the Magento merchants. This brings a cloud full of confusion and challenges of a store migration. 

First things first, stop the panic spread; there are better alternatives than just Magento 2 to be migrated on! We are going to clear some air with our list of top Magento alternatives for your eCommerce replatforming requirements.

Why Finding Magento Alternatives is Important at this stage?

If you haven’t yet switched from Magento 1.x, some big reasons will follow you once the support ends. Let’s start with this, after June 2020, your M1 themes won’t transfer and the extensions won’t work due to different site architectures, and you will have to migrate the data manually to whatever platform you choose. This is just one aspect, now lets shift towards the bigger problems.

1. The Site Extensions

With Magento 1.x no longer in the picture, many of the third-party extensions on your eStore will no longer update and will get non-functional. 

2. The Payment Gateway Issues

The very critical and most important system for any eCommerce store is its Payment operations. When Magento will no longer be in service, your site’s PCI Compliance will be gone. Payment providers will naturally withdraw their support due to data security concerns when this happens. 

That is not it, non-PCI compliant sites doesn’t just cause you to your payment provider, but it also costs you the business reputation and opens you to various fines.

3. A Bigger Risk To Your Online Store

While you will still be able to do business through your eStore after the Magento 1.x ends, the site will no longer get the security updates. Your security patches by Magento will no longer be producing.

That leaves you with vulnerable site security and will put your customers’ data at stake. This could lead to hefty fines, loss of online credit, and a potential setback for your sales.

4. Development Support Hindrance

M1 no longer is business means it will be a task to find developer support for the routine updates. The ones that will be ready to work for you can cost you more and more with the days passing. The reason for all the extra development dollars will be for creating the security patch for an outdated platform.

Top Magento Alternatives To Consider

Let’s explore some options here. The below-mentioned alternatives, both open source, are curated for your ease. Taking the eCommerce migration into consideration, these platforms will help you in a smooth transit keeping all the valuable eStore features intact, ane more. 

1. BigCommerce

Majorly designed for large sales volume contenders, BigCommerce is a considerable Magento eCommerce alternative when we compare its offerings. BigCommerce is trusted for its in-built functionalities from its all the plans. 

• It offers four plan variants to choose from. An added advantage here is its feature offerings to all the levels of plans.

1. Standard ($29.95 per month)
2. Plus ($79.95 per month)
3. Pro ($249.95 per month)
4. Enterprise (differs from business to business)

• BigCommerce offers features like product reviews, multichannel marketing, recommendations, and cart abandonment emails even to its entry-level eCommerce merchants. You don’t have to rely on Apps or extensions (paid & free) when you’re with BigCommerce. It still has an array of extensions to help running the online store.

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2. Shopify

Shopify is a trusted SaaS hosting solution provider by many eCommerce store owners. As announced in Shopify Unite 2019, nearly 820,000 merchants are using Shopify for their online businesses. The numbers speak for themselves and need no justification as to why Shopify can be one of the great alternatives to Magento in 2019. The number of fulfillment centers and merchant related services that this platform provides is commendable! Let’s delve a little deeper and analyze the specialized features offered by Shopify.

• Shopify comes with all the advanced features that an eCommerce store requires. One important offering that Shopify has as compared to others is its extensive eCommerce app library. The ‘App Store’ by Shopify has more than 5 applications for your one service (paid and free). 
• It comes with four plan variants for the merchants with varied feature offerings (same as BigCommerce).

1. Basic Shopify ($29 per month)
2. Shopify ($79 per month)
3. Advanced Shopify ($299 per month)
4. Shopify Plus (differs from business to business)

• From a marketing perspective to content, SEO, customer management, order management, eCommerce theming, visual cues, payment gateways, and many other aspects are taken care of when you’re with Shopify.
• Shopify is a one-stop solution for both online and offline stores with its Shopify POS. Using both Shopify’s website platform and POS system can be a quick and affordable way to build out a multichannel business.

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These two are the most talked-about and feature-rich Magento alternatives we could recommend. These two are the industry giants; if you need a detailed comparison of the two then you can refer to BigCommerce vs Shopify article. Unlike Magento, there two are hosted, solution providers. The list of other open-source platforms as Magento is listed below.

Other (Open Source) Alternatives

If your preference is an open-source solution as Magento is, the below-mentioned two are the options worth looking at.

3. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an online store add-on to WordPress which is developed by WooThemes. WordPress is a resourceful yet free content management system (CMS). It is the most commonly used platform for hosting a website. WooCommerce is an extension to it with specified eCommerce features onto the same platform.

WooCommerce has a limited merchant base but still ranks in the top 5 when we search for eCommerce service providers. In other words, WooCommerce is used by small-sized online merchants who have knowledge or resource to code the website.

WooCommerce offers all the basic functions one needs to run an online store. But, it lacks the full-fledged eCommerce features that Magento, Bigcommerce, or Shopify has.

WooCommerce is a good option if:

• You are aware of WordPress and its roundabouts.
• You’re on a very tight budget for establishing an eCommerce store.
• You have the knowledge of a developer who can work around scripts and codes of a website. Basically, someone who can build out functionality using customization and a lot of plugins.

WooCommerce is a very basic eCommerce solution provider with less useful functionalities to boost eCommerce conversions. 

4. PrestaShop

PrestaShop is an option that comes with two deviants for its clients; free hosted solution and an open-source version that one can download and host themselves. This gives eCommerce merchants some level of flexibility that they might utilize.

The Free Hosted Solution by PrestaShop

More like a variation to BigCommerce and Shopify, PrestaShop offers hosting solutions similar to these two. Just get on board by simply signing up and start selling from your online store! You can get your eCommerce store up and running without having to worry about the website infrastructure and hosting solution.

PrestaShop’s free version majorly depends on the paid plugins they supply.  As you start to grow online and your eCommerce business needs advanced features, there are higher chances of outgrowing the solutions that this hosting provider can offer to you.

The Open-source Version

This open-source version from PrestaShop is downloadable and customizable. In this case, the hosting cost applies but it will be minimal for the initial level. Same as WooCommerce, this version of PrestaShop will set your eCommerce store with all the basic functionalities, but the catch will be, you won’t be able to optimize and market it without installing the external plugins. This is the reason why Shopify & BigCommerce is so much more appreciated and adopted.

Final Word

Finalizing a Magento alternative and act upon an eCommerce migration before June 2020 can prove to be a smart move. No one can claim one best eCommerce platform for the entire industry. Features that might attract one business might stand totally useless for the other. So, to sum this up, we can establish an understanding that whatever is best suited for your business, you should go for it. We made you aware of the eCommerce alternatives available for Magento and highlighted the MVPs (most valuable players), in terms of functionalities. Evaluate the aspects well, and choose wisely to operate nicely!