Have you noticed that Magento (Adobe Commerce) has become too technically cumbersome and too costly to maintain? Are you looking for another eCommerce platform that makes the process of running your store smoother, more cost-effective, and less technically complicated? If the answer to both of these questions is “yes”, then it’s high time to start looking for an alternative. According to BuiltWith statistics, 30% of the top million eCommerce sites use WooCommerce, while only 9% use Magento. So, migrating from Magento to WooCommerce is definitely a worthwhile path.
Further read Magento vs WooCommerce. Who Runs eCommerce?
Magento and WooCommerce Overview
Magento (Adobe Commerce) is perfect for ambitious web projects with huge product catalogs and complex B2B and integration requirements that have an in-house development team. For content-heavy websites that need eCommerce functionality, WooCommerce might be a better choice.
Pros & Cons of Switching Magento to WooCommerce
So, if you see that your current Magento store is overwhelming for you and you find it difficult and costly to manage it, consider WooCommerce as a worthy alternative. It’s relatively easy to manage the store and handle the day-to-day operations. Plus, there are plenty of video tutorials to help you out, so you don’t have to hire a developer to make changes to your store.
Watch the video below to learn the benefits and limitations of Magento and WooCommerce for your online project.
Magento vs. WooCommerce: Price
Even though Magento is free to start with, the cost usually increases significantly in the future. It expects a lot of expenses for hosting, themes, extensions, etc., and can fit more into the budget of large and medium-sized stores. The average cost of a basic website based on Magento is in the range of $22,000–50,000. However, it can be both cheaper and much more expensive depending on various factors like the level of customization, platform version, theme, etc.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, is a WordPress-based plugin that can be downloaded for free. Not only that, but the WordPress CMS software is also free. However, be prepared to spend around $12 for a domain name and from $5 to $25 for hosting. You’ll also need to factor in additional costs for themes and extensions, which can range from $25 to $150. Obviously, WooCommerce prices are more affordable.
Magento vs. WooCommerce: Hosting
Both Magento and WooCommerce are open-source platforms, so they require you to set up a hosting provider first.
WooCommerce is based on WordPress, the software that runs 26% of the web. It is the most popular and fastest-growing plugin in WordPress that doesn’t require much storage space. Shared hosting for even $5/month can be sufficient to run your store.
The complexity of Magento (Adobe Commerce) requires much more powerful hosting than WooCommerce. Consequently, Magento web development becomes quite a beast when it comes to a large store with tens of thousands of items. You need to use a separate server to ensure smooth operation. Otherwise, your online store can become slow and sluggish.
Magento vs. WooCommerce: Ease of Use
WooCommerce is very easy to use. The interface has an intuitive design and straightforward navigation. The ease of website customization depends heavily on the WooCommerce theme you use. However, WordPress’s visual customizer is also available to quickly upload logos, manage fonts, and customize other things like colors.
Magento, on the other hand, is definitely more complicated to get used to. Unlike WooCommerce, you won’t find an onboarding wizard here. Instead, you need to explore the platform to familiarize yourself with how it works. This is often tedious and time-consuming as there are many options to play with.
Magento vs. WooCommerce: Design
Modern customers are pickier than they were a few decades ago, and uniqueness is one of the most important features for success. WooCommerce offers its users the ability to create a modern and professional-looking store with the help of countless themes, both free and paid. The prices vary from $39 to $79.
With Magento (Adobe Commerce), you will most likely not be satisfied with the simple default theme if you want your store to be top-notch. One possible solution is to purchase a paid Magento template. The cost of such themes ranges from $29 to $499 for Magento, which is significantly more expensive than WooCommerce.
How to migrate Magento to WooCommerce In 4 Easy Steps?
As there is a growing trend to automate complex business tasks, eCommerce replatforming using online tools/services/converters is so popular nowadays. You don’t need any programming skills or additional software to perform Magento data migration with Cart2Cart. Its main advantage is free demo migration which makes it possible to visualize how your products will look on the new platform. You don’t have to worry about the imported data, as it will remain unchanged during and after the migration. Moreover, your Magento (Adobe Commerce) store will be active and available for your customers throughout the migration process.
Watch our video tutorial to see how easy it is to automatically migrate from Magento to WooCommerce with the help of the Cart2Cart migration tool:
How to Prepare for WooCommerce Migration?
Performing a store backup before any website manipulations are highly recommended (e.g. you can make use of a backup option provided by your hosting service).
Prepare your WooCommerce store. Before you start the migration, you need to have an existing WooCommerce store. If you don’t have it, here’s a quick guide on how to create it.
Once you’ve installed WordPress, download the WooCommerce plugin. If you don’t have a WooCommerce store yet or haven’t decided on another eCommerce platform, opt for the Cart2Cart test store.
Find the source and target information. Make sure you have all the following source and destination information available:
- Login form URL,
- FTP access: username, password, hostname, or IP address.
Now when you have everything ready, you can initiate the Magento store data transfer to WooCommerce.
Step 1. Set up your Source & Target stores
Specify Magento as Source Cart and enter the URL address of your Magento store. Now you need to install the Connection Bridge. This is the so-called access gateway to your shop data. Just download the Connection Bridge zip file and unzip it via FTP manager to the root directory of your current shopping cart.
After that, set up WooCommerce as Target Cart and provide the requested credentials in the appropriate fields.
OR If you don’t have your target cart, it is possible to try migrating using the Cart2Cart test store. For more info about test stores, click here.
Step 2. Choose entities and extra options
Specify the entities (like products, customers, orders, reviews, etc.) you want to move during the convert from Magento to WooCommerce. You can also choose some other options to expand your migration options (e.g. categories and products SEO URLs and 301 redirects, which allow you to keep all the current links to your products, saving your old customers and your store’s SEO ranking). In addition, the Cart2Cart migration tool provides the ability to map your Magento customer groups, order statuses, and languages to the corresponding ones in WooCommerce.
Step 3. Start free Demo migration
You can transfer a limited number of entities (e.g. export customers and orders) to see how the data migration works. Although this step is optional, it is not recommended to skip it.
Step 4. Initiate Full migration
After evaluating the new WooCommerce data, review again the entities you want to transfer and the additional options. If the demo migration meets your expectations and you are ready to import the store database to WooCommerce, enable the Start Full Migration button. Keep in mind that the Cart2Cart migration solution doesn’t change your Magento data — it just copies it from the source cart and pastes it into the destination cart.
Once the full data transfer is complete, you will receive an email notification to check the result.
Check out our infographic to get a better understanding of the migration process via Cart2Cart:
Alternatively, you can give a try to the Cart2Cart Magento to WooCommerce plugin to ease the replatforming even more.
How to Move Magento to WooCommerce. Recap
Now you can see how easy it is to migrate products from Magento (Adobe Commerce) to WooCommerce by following a few simple steps. Don’t hesitate — try the free demo migration and give your store a new life!
Magento to WooCommerce Migration. FAQs
FAQ 1: How to automatically export Magento products to WooCommerce?
Due to the specifics of the WooCommerce platform, the Cart2Cart seo migration service exports product options from Magento and imports them into WooCommerce as product variants.
If you install the paid plugin Product Add-Ons in your WooCommerce store before migrating, the service will export your product options directly into the plugin without converting them into variants.
FAQ 2: How do I migrate manufacturers from the Magento store to the WooCommerce store?
To automatically transfer Magento (Adobe Commerce) manufacturers to your new WooCommerce store, all you need to do is install the WooCommerce Brands plugin (it’s paid).
FAQ 3: Is customer password migration available for automated Magento to WooCommerce import?
Sure! The Cart2cart migration tool can do it, provided your store has the default settings and no custom code modifications have been made.
FAQ 4: Is it possible to export metadata during the export from Magento to WooCommerce?
Yes, the Cart2Cart store migration app supports metadata migration across these shopping carts. More specifically, you can transfer meta titles, keywords, and descriptions to your new WooCommerce store. However, keep in mind that the WordPress SEO Plugin (it’s free) is installed before the migration.
