Magento vs. Solidus

In this video, we will:

  • Discuss 3 differences between Magento & Solidus
  •  Answer a email question from Jason: What’s better, Magento or Solidus?

Magento vs. Solidus

Since our previous post on Solidus and the recent release of Magento 2, we’ve received quite a few questions around which platform is best.

Recently, Jason asked us via email: “What’s better, Magento or Solidus?”

The short answer: Solidus.

Though the recent release of Magento 2 is a very important step in the platform’s progression, it feels like it’s coming a bit too late. While Magento was working on its major upgrade, other technologies (like Solidus) had already launched their solutions, acquired customers, and have started swaying ecommerce developers away from platforms like Magento. Here’s why:

Benefits of Developing Your Ecommerce Website with Solidus

1. User-Friendly Admin Panel

Magento admin panel Solidus admin panel

Magento offers many options in its admin panel, which makes the backend cluttered and overwhelming. An unnecessarily cluttered admin panel can often complicate what should be easy-to-accomplish functions. Users navigating through the admin panel will have many tabs and sub-navigations (or secondary menus). Depending on the user, this can get confusing, become frustrating and end up taking much more time than it should. However, with the release of Magento 2, there’s been a major upgrade to the admin interface design, so this could be less of an issue for stores on version 2.

The admin panel of Solidus is built around simplicity. Solidus is much less cluttered compared to Magento, making it more organized. It also minimizes the options offered in its flat navigation (what Magento 2 panel looks like now). Solidus’ minimal backend UI is purposeful and keeps the admin interface streamlined and focused. Having this cleaner admin panel makes it much easier for users to navigate and accomplish tasks.

Which one sounds like a better user experience for your team?

2. Lines of Code

The main difference in efficiency between Magento and Solidus lies within the difference in code. Magento has over 8.2 million lines of code, whereas Solidus uses approximately 45k.

Why such a huge difference?

Magento vs. Solidus lines of code

Remember, Magento provides more functions as core functions. Solidus, by default, comes as a lightweight storefront. The extensions for Solidus have to be installed and can increase functionality.

The difference in size of the core of both Magento and Solidus makes a difference in many things, but most the obvious is page load time. You can read more about how Magento developers battle slow loading in our recent article: “Is Magento Dead? The Pros & Cons of Magento 2”.

3. Speed of Development

ruby vs php open source ecommerce platform development

Lastly, Solidus is quicker to build with. It’s true that Ruby on Rails (the language Solidus is written in) is not as common as PHP (the language of Magento). But, Ruby has become renowned as one of the most productive frameworks because it requires less coding to achieve the same functionality – meaning Ruby needs less code to accomplish the same function as PHP (Magento). This affects the overall amount of code (see above), and keeps your store running smoothly and efficiently.

Solidus is Better for an Ecommerce Platform Solution

solidus open source ecommerce platform

Of course, for our clients that have an existing Magento build, we would need to do a thorough assessment of their current code and business goals, then assess what platform we would recommend for their development project and if it makes sense to migrate away from Magento.

However, if they need to begin an ecommerce website project from scratch, we’d recommend Solidus over Magento because it’s friendlier to develop with, has much less code, has better admin panel usability for the store’s manager/owner and the development time will be exponentially less.

To learn more about Magento, check out these articles:

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