Magento vs BigCommerce vs Lemonstand

BigCommerce and Magento Community Edition are two different implementations of one solution. Both variants are good, but each of them has some special features. Thus, Magento and BigCommerce have slightly different target audience. With both Magento and BigCommerce you can create a stunning look for your brand and e-commerce shop, but BigCommerce has some restrictions on different interface elements placement.

By using BigCommerce you can set up your e-commerce store from scratch faster than with Magento Community Edition. The aforementioned solution contains most common features, but with the help of web developer you can extend existing posibilities.

The other good thing about BigCommerce is that you can start a test store. With this feature you can see how you future e-commere web-site looks like, determine what is wrong and what is missed.

Magento has much more features and possibilities than BigCommerce, but the downside is that you have to spend more time and money to get a complete web-store.

To install updates in BigCommerce you just have to press one or two buttons and everything will be done automatically. With Magento you have to hire a specialist in most cases.

With BigCommerce you can get an official support from BigCommerce team, they can also propose you developers for some paid work. Magento community edition team doesn’t offer such services.

By using Magento you get more flexible, customizable and controllable editing and admin abilities. In its turn BigCommerce provides you with more standard features.

BigCommerce is a hosted according to “software as a service” movement. The solution takes care of all your files and the environments, so all the BigCommerce web-stores are hosted in America (this can be a downside if your customers are based in another country). With Magento you have to choose a hosting company to send all the necessary files to. On this stage Magento is cheaper, but don’t forget about costs spent to web developers and designers.

If you are looking for the best solution for mobile devices, than you have to choose Magento, which supports adaptive layouts. With Magento your web-store has universal interface that adapts to different screen sizes in real time. With BigCommerce you get 2 different interfaces – one for desktop computers and one for mobile devices, which can be standard and look the same as in the case with other BigCommerce web-stores. You can also customize mobile interface BigCommerce.

As you can see, Magento is more serious and complicated solution, designed for middle and big e-commerce shops. BigCommerce is good for smaller businesses.

Magento vs Lemonstand

Of course, Magento is reliable and highly customizable solution, but Lemonstand has a few noticeable advantages. Among them are:

Unlimited products. With LemonStand you get Unlimited products, while Magento Go offers just 10k SKUs. This could be a lot, but the problem is in SKUs handling. For example, you have 1 model of jeans in your store. There are 5 different sizes and 5 colors, so 1 model of jeans uses 25 SKUs.

Performance. Magento has a very complex structure, but the downside is that this solution is not so fast as Lemonstand. The upside is that you get more possibilities with Magento.

Simplicity. With Lemonstand you need less time to build the store from scratch than with Magento. The solution is simple and easy to customize.

EAV data structure. Magento uses an EAV data structure. It is not a problem, but it doesn’t create the best terms for e-commerce stores with high amount of requests.

Lemonstand exclusive features:

• Accurate reporting/statistics

• AJAX add to cart

• Fine-tuned reporting of product level

• Full-featured import and export

• Option/Price Matrix for configurable products

As you can see, LemonStand is better decision for web-stores with many SKUs or high traffic.

Why and how migrate from BigCommerce to Magento