AllProWebTools vs. Magento Open Source

It works very well for my cooking business.

It's well suited for large eCommerce stores as it requires much effort to set up and the development cost for setting it up is high. It's less appropriate to use Magento where you are looking for quick development and launch of the store. Also, it is required to have a developer or sometimes the entire tech team to manage an e-commerce store, so you may need to hire a few PHP developers.

Incentivized

• The CRM holds all of my contacts and it is already integrated with all of my other tools.
• The Email Management system is already integrated with all of my other tools. This means that I do not have to download CSVs and upload them to a separate email program everytime I want to send out an email blast.
• I can take payments in the same system that has my email marketing and CRM. This means that I can create tags and send different email campaigns depending on if I have received payment or not.
• The website hosting means that I can use the same software to update my blog and gallery of food pictures.
• I can sell tickets to my cooking classes from the same software that manages everything else that I do in my business.
• I use the task manager that is built in to remind me of things I need to do. I really like that it is tied into my CRM so I can tag tasks to specific clients.
• The built in timecard system allows me to "clock in" to whatever client that I am working on so that my time and hourly rate are automatically calculated for me. My invoices are sent automatically on the first of each month.

• Magento is perfect if our web design client likes a specific pre-made template and wants a fast solution.
• Magento allows us to customize its open-source code to create additional features and functionality.
• Magento saves small businesses time and money if they only need a simple solution.

Incentivized

• QuickBooks Integration
• More email templates
• They do not have an app

• Not the simplest of solutions to use or maintain from an end-user perspective
• Other platforms are better with regards to SEO in our experience
• Fairly sluggish and slow compared to other platforms without the correct server specification and performance optimization work.

It's the dominant force in the SMB open source market. With the continued support of eBay/PayPal, Magento will continue to evolve and should be a market leader for some time.

I used to use Microsoft Excel to organize my business - but it got pretty crazy pretty fast.

In looking at a different platform to migrate to from Magento 1, we looked primarily at Big Commerce, Shopify and Shopify Plus. Our host was very negative about Magento 2, but we determined after a couple years it was due to the fact it had even more complexity (and very different) than Magento 1. Shopify Plus was attractive, but the cost factor for two sites led us back to Magento 2.

Incentivized

• It just makes it easier for me to track what is going on in my business.
• I like having everything in one place, instead of a bunch of different programs.

• Delays in development leads to missed timelines and opportunity loss.
• High cost of development and maintenance may currently outweigh the growth.
• Better handling of customer and order information makes for better customer service.
• Excellent API has been a boon for integration with our ERP

Incentivized