Question posted in 
I have seen several Questions comparing different ECommerce CMS’s:
- Prestashop compared to Zen-Cart and osCommerce
- Magento or Prestashop, which is better?
- Best php/ruby/python e-commerce
solution
I was hoping to get some people to weigh in with which they prefer for a relatively small E-shop. I am now primarily looking at PrestaShop and Shopify. I really like that Shopify does the hosting, has quality service, and is simple to understand and theme. However PrestaShop is free and seems to be able to do just as much if not more than Shopify.
I have decided that Magento is too clunky for the project, and have read that many other solutions (osCommerce, ZenCart, OpenCart) are outdated, buggy, or just inferior.
2
Answers
“Free” in the e-commerce industry usually works out to a few thousand dollars a month of real cost. E-commerce stores are powering the livelihood of businesses, so there is no way to go with a value hosting company. Additionally security is a huge concern so updates are incredibly important. So this leaves you with a server configuration of at least 2 servers setup in HA environment and a part time operations person performing the maintenance. So once you ensure that you can keep your site up you then have to invest into things that most people don’t think off:
Anyways, you get all of the above for 30 bucks a month from a hosted service.
Full disclosure: I’m founder of Shopify. I used to host my own e-commerce store before I started Shopify. 95% of our customers recover the monthly Shopify bill in the first few hours of the first day of each month.
The prices is not the main difference between Shopify and PrestaShop. Talking about the scope- I think both will suit you.
The choice of hosted Shopify or open-source PrestaShop may depends on the level of technical skills. Without doubt it is easier to maintain your store with hosted shopping cart which supplies you with regular updates and takes care of bug fixes.
PrestaShop administration is quite intuitive as well. It has the interface with numerous themes, modern designs and easily guided catalogues is attractive for the customers. It goes without saying, that such details help you raise your traffic rates.
Non-hosted installed platforms provide you with control over the speed. As the store is located on your server, you can maintain the necessary speed of connection. Unfortunately, this is not the case with hosted solutions. So, using Shopify you can face issues with low connection speed.