Posts by "Roxana"

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Why You Should Use Flutter for Developing a Startup App

December 24, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

If you are looking for a cross-platform framework for developing a startup app, you should definitely consider Flutter. Based on Dart programming language, Flutter is an evolving framework backed by Google which provides a strong UI rich with features and allows developers to build single-code-based iOS and Android applications.

Flutter is not only a framework but a total SDK meaning that it includes everything needed for the development of a cross-platform app. This essentially leads to lower development costs, easier real-time monitoring and updates, less testing time, and faster time to market.

Read on to find out the best reasons why you should use Flutter for developing a startup app.

Flutter is cost-effective

Developing a native application can be a costly process because different operating systems need different code to be written. On the contrary, a cross-platform app uses a single code base which minimizes the cost of maintenance.

Apps built with Flutter are quick to develop

Because there is no need to write code for multiple operating systems, the developer can save time and finish the project quicker, thus lowering the time to market.

Lesser coding efforts with Flutter

When creating a cross-platform app, the developer would not need to monitor its efficiency on different platforms. Since there is only one version of the app, lesser time is spent on testing. Also, since the code is reusable, developers spend much less time writing code in comparison with native apps.

Flutter uses Dart as a programming language

Dart is popular due to its strong and compelling syntax which provides powerful design and architecture. Also, it comes with easy maintenance, standardization, integration, and consistency.

Enhances the development process

It’s much easier to create high-performance cross-platform apps with Flutter because it operates on native binaries, rendering libraries, and graphics. Also, because it uses its own rendering engine, there is no need to change the UI when switching to the other platform.

Access to advanced SDK and native features

Flutter provides third-party integration, simple local codes, and application APIs which can streamline the life-cycle of growth. And with the ready-made widgets, it is easy to customize the app with best practices and outstanding design.

Provides a powerful design experience

Flutter comes with custom widgets for iOS and Android and the catalog is very large so you can select exactly what you need for your project requirements. Overall, Apps built with Flutter provide a positive user experience that can be expected from native apps.

In summary, these are all good reasons why you should consider using Flutter for developing a startup app. It provides efficiency and reliability, and with the features, it offers and ready to use widgets, it is the best choice for startup app development.

If you are looking for a cost-effective solution that will allow you to have a cross-platform app that takes less time for development, is easy to maintain and update, and reduces time to market, risk, and errors while offering exceptional design and great user experience – Flutter is definitely the right choice.

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What You Should Know About React Before Using It for Your Business

December 22, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

If you are looking to build a new dynamic and modern website for your business, using React is definitely something to consider.

React was created in 2011 as a result of some Facebook developers having issues with code maintenance. They found it difficult to handle the flood of updates and realized that they need to create a solution to make the process easier and more efficient. This was when React was born – a prototype language created by Jordan Walke.

React is a JavaScript library that is created specifically for building interactive elements for websites. It is a collection of code that has been pre-written and can be used to complete common tasks. When you use a library such as React, you can avoid having to reinvent the wheel and allow to code faster with better efficiency and success. These libraries have been vetted already, so you know for sure they will work.

Before the creation of React, developers had to build by hand user interfaces with JavaScript or to use a language that was not focused on the user interface elements – an inefficient and unreliable method.

Read on to find out everything else you should know about React before using it for your business.

The main thing you need to know about React is that it uses Virtual DOM. A DOM treats an HTML or XML document as a tree structure. In this tree structure, each node is an object which represents a part of the document.

If you are not using React, your website will use HTML to update its DOM. This can work just fine for simple websites with smaller and static pages. But when you have a larger, dynamic, and more complex website, it is becoming problematic to use HTML to update a DOM. Because in this case, the DOM has to be reloaded each time when a user clicks on an element that requires the website to be reloaded – which is the worst scenario because it leads to slow page loads.

Using a virtual DOM means that there is a copy of the original DOM of the website. React uses this copy and compares it to the original DOM so that it can see what needs to be changed when a user clicks on an element. Doing so, React is capable of updating only the part of the DOM that is changed.

This method is extremely efficient compared to when you work with a website’s DOM in a traditional way. A virtual DOM uses a lot less computing power, which means better speed and load times – very useful, especially when you have many users on the website.

If you have decided to use React for your website, you need to make sure that your developers have a certain skill set. To successfully integrate React into your existing development pipeline, they need to be proficient in CSC and HTML, JavaScript and ES6, Babel and JSX, NPM and Node, and Git and command-line interface.

Having expertise in these means that your developers will be able to handle React and everything that is needed for the successful integration. As a result, you can have a powerful, efficient website and a user interface that adheres to modern demands.

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Hiring Through Staff Augmentation vs TopTal

December 17, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

To ensure that you acquire the most qualified developers for your business, you should compare products available on the market.

Here you can compare Staff Augmentation and Toptal and see their functions compared contrastively to help you pick which one is the better product.

TopTal

TopTal is one of the leading freelancers’ websites that pairs businesses with freelance developers, designers, and finance experts.

The name TopTal is an outcome of “Top Talent”. Founded in 2010, in Silicon Valley, California, U.S, TopTal has built a network of over 200,000 freelancers. They have quite a rigorous screening process that comprises difficult compulsory tests, to ensure companies that they are working with freelancers who are compatible with their working environments and can easily integrate into their teams. According to TopTal, only 3% of the applying developers get accepted in order to make a success of any work.

Even though it started as a freelancing platform for software Engineers, it currently works as an Industry of Freelance Marketplace, Online Outsourcing, and Employment Website.

All of the main development niches are covered, such as JavaScript developers, WordPress developers, PHP programmers, web designers.

One of TopTal’s main downsides is the fact that their rate ranges start much higher than most freelance sites.

Even though prices vary depending on the level of work, most developers and designers’ rates fall within the following ranges:

Hourly: $65-$95+/hour
Part-time (20 hours/week): $1000-$1600+/week
Full-time (40 hours/week): $2000-$3200+/week

Staff Augmentation

Staff Augmentation is a global Swiss staffing company that has been founded in 2011. Their experienced team of recruiters works hard to understand the unique needs of each company they connect with. Their mission is to help their clients in their quest to recruit highly qualified developers. Their hiring process is strict. They do extensive testing to only keep the best.

Staff Augmentation supplies staffing across a wide range of job categories such as:

Mobile development,
JavaScript development,
CMS and e-commerce development
Backend development.

Their skills include iOS, Magento, Android, PHP, Java, Joomla, Ionic, iOS Swift, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, etc.

Advantages of working with Staff Augmentation:

They enable you to access a broad and deep pool of talent while enjoying the ease and low overhead of interfacing with one singular point of contact.
Streamlining processes for you and reducing the costs of managing your talent and labor.
Provides expert consulting, permanent placement, executive search, managed services, corporate relocation, staff augmentation, and strategic staffing for companies across the globe, in all kinds of different industries.
You will have access to tens of thousands of developers while reducing your recruitment costs.

By carefully comparing the advantages of hiring through TopTal to those of hiring using Staff Augmentation, you are more likely to select the right developer for your company.

Employer

Why You Should Consider Angular for Development

December 15, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

Mobile users account for more than half of the online traffic so as a business, you should be focusing on mobile to grow your company. Building a mobile application does not need to take a lot of time and effort if you use a tool like Angular.

Angular is one of the most widely used JavaScript frameworks. It was created by Google, and it is open-source so can be used by developers to build modern web applications. Focusing on speed and performance, Angular is used by companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Paypal, YouTube, Google, AWS, Nike, McDonald’s, UPS.

There are several benefits to using Angular. It allows native app building and development of progressive web apps and desktop apps across all platforms. You can easily convert templates into highly optimized code. Angular works with PHP, Node.js, .NET, and other platforms.

Applications built with Angular load very quickly and it allows for fast UI view creation thanks to templates. There are plenty of available IDEs and testing tools, command-line interface, and high-performance animation.

Originally released in 2012, Angular is still in active development. It uses MVC (Model-View-Controller), consisting of

Model – receiving the input from the controller and managing information
View – representing the received information
Controller – responding to the various inputs and sending the information from the input to the model.

Besides being an exceptional framework for single-page application development, Angular has even more benefits. It binds HTML and JavaScript together and thus ensures that any changes to the application are reflected automatically in the view and changes in the view are reflected in the application state.

Angular uses directives which are markers on a DOM element. They instruct the HTML compiler to transform the DOM element and its children or to attach a behavior to the particular element.

Thanks to existing templates, developers can build applications fast and with very clean and well-structured code. And being compatible, applications built with Angular can run on both mobile and desktop platforms.

The ability to create clean, efficient, and cross-platform applications means that you can save a lot of effort, money, and time for the development of your mobile application.

And there are even more benefits to using Angular. It is built with Typescript – an open-source programming language, which was created by Microsoft and is very similar to JavaScript but with added optional static typing. This means that variables do not need to be defined before they are used – which allows for reliable and quick detection of errors in the programming and less time spent on debugging. This is very important since developers often spent up to 75% of their time debugging – another way to save time and money.

And being a framework, Angular makes it possible for developers to reuse the code really easily. This means lower time to market and improved productivity of your development team.

Overall, Angular allows for the development of applications that are easy to maintain, with clean, reusable, and bug-free code. So if you are looking to have a cross-platform application, and save time and money for the development, you should definitely consider using Angular.

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5 Things To Look For in Ruby Developers

December 10, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

Ruby was created by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto in Japan in 1995 as a general-purpose programming language. Its frameworks like Rails and Sinatra are used by companies such as Airbnb, Disney, and Shopify for a wide range of functionalities. Developers prefer using Ruby because it helps web development and its similarities to other languages.

But just knowing the programming language does not make one good developer. There are other characteristics that are useful, and you should know what to look for in a Ruby developer when hiring one.

Knowledge about the technical part

According to its creator Matsumoto, Ruby was developed to help programmers be more productive and to be able to enjoy programming. Its syntax is easy to understand, but still, there is a learning curve before a developer becomes proficient in Ruby.

A Ruby developer should first become familiar with the syntax, loops, and control flow and then move to elements such as object-oriented programming and hashes. Only after becoming a master in these concepts, a programmer is ready for their first project.

In addition, being a part of a community is important for the developer as it allows sharing challenges and triumphs with other Ruby developers. The three most popular online spaces which Ruby developers use are GitHub, StackOverflow, and freeCodeCamp.

Quality orientation

Quality is a subjective term, but in general, it means that something works well and as supposed to. When writing code, quality means that the code is reliable, clean, and secure. It should be well-tested, consistent, and easy to understand by other developers who might need to work on it in the future.

A developer that is quality-oriented uses methods in the coding process and checklists at the end to make sure that the code meets all criteria.

Constant testing throughout the process, using a coding standard, and using a methodology like Agile can contribute to quality code and guarantee a seamless process.

Problem-solving abilities

When using Ruby to code, a developer will encounter problems and should be able to respond with logic, patience, and desire to learn in order to overcome the problems.

A good Ruby developer thinks of problems as a part of the process and should possess good problem-solving skills. These include the ability to list and understand the problem, see what others have done to solve a similar issue, break the problem into smaller issues, explore different solutions, and seek help from other developers.

Curiosity and creativity

A good developer rarely believes that they know everything there is. With constantly changing and evolving technology, one must always learn new skills and open to new approaches.

Community members, online sources, coworkers can all be helpful and provide a new perspective and way of seeing things. In an ever-changing industry, it is important for the Ruby developer to constantly learn and adapt to new languages, methods, and technologies that appear.

Work well alone and in a team

A Ruby developer spends a lot of time working alone but eventually will need to collaborate with other people. So when hiring, you need to look for a developer that will work well both alone and as a part of a team. Communication and collaboration are important for the successful outcome of every development project.

Employer

Staff Augmentation vs. BairesDev: Which Is the Best Alternative for Finding Developers

December 8, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

Since the recent global health crisis, companies have started to appreciate the benefits of remote work. So many roles, particularly in IT, can be performed from home, leading to lower costs. Hiring staff is no easy task at the moment, with many restrictions still in place. However, the need to expand teams is still present.

While hiring locally proves to be a challenge, we will look at two solutions that enable flexibility, lower costs, and increased talent, Staff Augmentation, and BairesDev.

What Is Staff Augmentation?

Staff Augmentation is a Swiss recruiting company that operates worldwide. Founded in 2008, the company’s goal is to match IT tech experts with companies that require specialized skills. They do this by recruiting developers and performing prescreening tests to guarantee the best candidates for their clients. Not only do the candidates have to prove their skill level, but the vast majority will also hold a bachelor’s degree or master’s in computer science.

Staff Augmentation can resolve recruitment needs for a wide range of businesses, including mobile development, JavaScript, eCommerce, and backend development, whether that’s in iOS, Android, PHP, or many others. In more detail, these 4 areas involve:

Mobile Developers- Our candidates must be able to prove competence in their field, which could be Android, Ionic, iOS, Java, React Native, Unity, and Xamarin.
JavaScript Developers- Staff Augmentation has excelled in creating international relationships with certified JavaScript developers. Our specialties include Angular JS, Aurelia, Backbone JS, Typescript, Vue JS, Ionic, Electron, Ember JS, Meteor, Node JS, React, and React Native.
CMS & eCommerce Developers- If your business requires any of the following services, Staff Augmentation can provide BigCommerce, Concrete5, Drupal, Expression Engine, Joomla, Magento, Open Cart, Presta Shop, Shopify, Typo3, WooCommerce, and WordPress.
Backend Developers- The screened candidates are fluent in ASP.Net, C#, Erlang, Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby on Rails.

Aside from assisting with recruiting needs, Staff Augmentation also offers corporate relocation services, permanent placement, consulting, strategic staffing, and managed services. The team offers continuous support to help build strong relationships between companies and new hires.

What Is BairesDev?

This Latin-America based recruiting company have experience working with all sized companies from startups to Fortune 500 companies. BairesDev currently has 1,500 software engineers, and the number keeps growing. The team makes sure that they are certified in the latest innovations and look at all the IT trends to know exactly what is in demand.

To source the right candidates, BairesDev created their own software to filter the thousands of received applications. Candidates are then tested on their skills, including a huge array of languages such as Java, Python, and PHP. Candidates have an average of more than 10 years of experience in their role, ranging from QA engineers to project managers. Only the top 1% make it through the process, and BairesDev is determined to make sure the 1% is as diverse as possible.

BairesDev can provide companies with the following recruitment solutions:

Dedicated Teams- For companies that require more than 1 IT expert, BairesDev can create an entire team that works remotely but is managed by BairesDev. Teams can be composed of SW engineers, QA engineers, a PM, and any other expert your project needs.
Software Outsourcing- Experts from third-party teams can offer specialized skills like UX design or blockchain consulting for end-to-end software development.
Staff Augmentation- Software engineers are available to work alongside existing team members remotely or in-house for as long as required.

Other specializations include cloud computing, maintenance, data science, IoT, and MVP development. Regarding the IT candidate your project needs, all will come under the top 1% of candidates available.

In Conclusion

Essentially, Staff Augmentation and BairesDev are specialists in IT recruitment. They provide flexible solutions and fast. The amount of effort, time, and money it takes to recruit a new candidate is no longer compatible with today’s business models. Both companies screen candidates, so the quality of IT candidates is guaranteed, which is a less risky solution than prescreening yourself and potentially making the wrong hire.

If one of the two companies were to stand out, we would have to say that Staff Augmentation does offer a more complete service. Choosing this company for your recruitment needs comes with further benefits such as consulting and managed services. Considering the uncertain times we live in, these additional services will prove to be very useful.

Developer Employer

Staff Augmentation vs Upwork: The Platform To Go For in 2021

December 3, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

The need to increase your team is a great sign. Your business is going in the right direction, and you are growing. The only slight negative is that you know the recruitment process is unlikely to be an easy one. Fortunately, with the help of today’s technology, you are able to step away from traditional recruiting methods to find a solution that matches your unique business needs.

We are going to consider the advantages and disadvantages of two popular recruiting solutions, Staff Augmentation and Upwork.

What Is Staff Augmentation?

Staff Augmentation is a global Swiss staffing company that works at providing highly skilled programming professionals to companies in need of the latest tech expertise. Since 2008, Staff Augmentation has been retaining developers who specialize in mobile development, JavaScript, CMS, eCommerce, and backend development. This can include iOS, Android, Magneto, PHP, Joomla, and more.

The company provides an outsourcing strategy so that companies can take advantage of scalable options to meet business objectives. The team considers the current staff working within the team or on a particular project and then helps to create a plan that will add skill and value to the project. They do so by concentrating on sourcing talent in 4 core areas:

Mobile Developers- Our candidates must be able to prove competence in their field, which could be Android, Ionic, iOS, Java, React Native, Unity, and Xamarin.
JavaScript Developers- Staff Augmentation has excelled in creating international relationships with certified JavaScript developers. Our specialties include Angular JS, Aurelia, Backbone JS, Typescript, Vue JS, Ionic, Electron, Ember JS, Meteor, Node JS, React, and React Native.
CMS & eCommerce Developers- If your business requires any of the following services, Staff Augmentation can provide BigCommerce, Concrete5, Drupal, Expression Engine, Joomla, Magento, Open Cart, Presta Shop, Shopify, Typo3, WooCommerce, and WordPress.
Backend Developers- The screened candidates are fluent in ASP.Net, C#, Erlang. Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby on Rails.

All of the developers at Staff Augmentation are required to complete on-going studies, so the company prescreens candidates extensive testing to confirm the level of skills. The majority of candidates have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science.

Staff Augmentation offers a complete range of services, including corporate relocations, consulting, managed services, strategic staffing, and permanent placement. And it’s not just a case of finding your developer, and that’s it. Staff Augmentation provides ongoing support to help establish relationships and improve retention while saving time and money.

What Is Upwork?

Upwork is another freelance website that originated in America. It came about after the merge of Elance (1999) and oDesk (2003) in 2018. It is the largest freelance marketplace in the world, with 18 million registered freelancers and 5 million registered clients. Each year, an average of three million jobs are posted on Upwork worth more than $1 billion.

There is a wide range of categories for job listings on Upwork, from creative writing to teaching. The categories include website development, software development, mobile development, IT & Networking, and Data Science & Analytics for IT specialists.

Clients and candidates sign up for an account. A client can post a job advert on the platform and send invitations to candidates that meet the requirements. Or, from the candidate’s point of view, they can search for relevant jobs and apply by using their connects. Both clients and candidates need to work to build up their profile and ranking by providing and quality services and receiving reviews.

Upwork is a speedy way to hire someone, and there is an impressive number of talented freelancers on the site. It is also true that the rates are often quite low, so companies can save a lot of money. The fees, however, are quite frustrating. Clients pay around 3% for each contract, and candidate pay 20% per job for the first $500 with one client, after that it drops to 10%, but that is still quite a lot.

In 2019, Upwork made some significant changes to improve the standards of freelancers. They did this by stopping the free connects a candidate received each month. Doing so meant that you would only be able to apply for jobs if you paid a small fee for your connects, and with the competition for jobs being high, it meant that only those with top-rated profiles were getting hired.

In Conclusion

Despite the fees, Upwork is still a cost-effective option for companies to find the talent they need. But there is little involvement from the Upwork team. The chances are you will receive hundreds of applications, and screening candidates is going to be up to you—which may take time. Even then, there is no guarantee that your hire has the right skill sets. Staff Augmentation takes a lot of the hard work off your hands and provides candidates with the perfect skill sets. This can prevent making a wrong hire and saving you time and money.

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One page App Development with Backbone.js

December 1, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

There are lots of options out there to help you with all your coding and web app issues. Backbone is a great choice to help you solve and avoid issues and unorganized coding in your apps.

Backbone.Js

Backbone.Js is a JavaScript framework that focuses on the web application’s structural code. It develops the MVC model and connects it via the Restful JSON interface to the existing API.

In other words, it can help you with the following:

Collections of enumerable functions with a rich API
Views with declarative handling of events
Backbone Model
Models with binding key-value and custom events

The main idea of logical framework views is the interface of apps. These can also be supported by models that can be updated individually if anything needs to be updated or changed. You can do so without the need to rework the page as a whole. In other words, this will save time for the developer as they do not have to search for JSON objects in the app code when it is necessary to find DOM elements.

Backbone collection:

When you have groups of models, collections are involved in helping the team manage them conveniently. Collections give you more control over the loading and saving of new models to the server. This means that the developer can give the rest of the team notifications such as an event of change where one model might have been changed, which needs to be noted by the rest of the team.

Backbone Events:

Although this element is limited, it is efficient. The execution of the JavaScript object observer design pattern is easy to use, and they link together and make the web app interactive. With the newer versions, all URLs can be easily used in their standard forms. One single API routes all links:

URL links
Bookmarks
Shareable Links
Backbone History

The nice thing about Backbone history is that it provides the developer with history tracking features that will match with the appropriate route as mentioned above. Once you have created that history, there is no need for you to create any special events because the history will already have them, such as:

Hashchange events
PushState
Callbacks
Backbone Sync

Backbone sync is fairly easy and self-explanatory. It is a basic function that allows the model to be checked and saved to a web app’s server site. Ajax function is normally used; however, if you want to use a more suitable app for your project strategies, a developer can override it and use a server site that they see fit.

Why should you use Backbone?

As you know, an app developer is a strongly needed structure code that will help you save time and construct your page. It is easy to use and will help you eliminate the issues you might encounter if you did not have an app developer. If you are a developer with some JavaScript experience, you are going to be looking for an MVC framework sooner or later, and one of the first things you will come across is Backbone, and for a good reason.

Developer Employer

8 Reasons Why PHP and .Net Are the Most Popular Programming Languages

November 26, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

A well-functioning website is key for any business to succeed in the market today. A website can only have one simple page or a number of more complex pages, and depending on the needs of the business, it can include different functionalities. Several technologies can be used to create a website, and the most popular programming languages include PHP, ASP.Net, C#, Ruby, Java, Python, C/C++, ColdFusion, or Perl.

However, two of these programming languages are the most popular and preferred for website development – PHP and .Net. Some of the reasons are because they offer website security, performance, cost-effectiveness, and language independence.

Here are the best reasons why PHP and .Net are the most popular programming languages.

Fast speed and performance

Fast loading website is one of the most important factors to retain your audience – the slower the speed, the fewer users will wait for the website to load and will return to visit again. PHP and .NET web development ensures fast loading time and better performance. PHP provides quick data processing features and easy integration with management systems. And .Net comes with native optimization and caching services, as well as a smart client app model that eliminates the need for communication with the server and the network, which results in a dynamic user experience.

Less Time to Market

Less time and money spent on web development is a crucial factor for business, and both PHP and .Net make reducing the development time possible. Because they are object-oriented languages, they ensure faster time to market. There are various frameworks for PHP to provide fast and secure development in certain areas. And with reusable components, developers do not need to write lengthy code when using .Net.

Great Support & Huge Community

Both languages have active forums, tutorials, and wikis to help developers find all the help they need. The community support includes experienced developers who can offer help for any issues that may appear during the development process.

Ease of Maintenance

In a constantly changing environment, businesses need to adapt and often change, which means that the programming language they use has to be easily updated at any point. Because of the easy maintenance PHP and .Net provide, the code can be easily changed and modified, and there is no problem in updating web development services when there is a need to.

Error Checking & Debugging

Available debugging tools is another important factor to consider when choosing a programming language. PHP has numerous debugging techniques to save you time when coding – such as print statements, error reporting, and plugins. And with Visual Studio IDE, developers who use .Net can access several tools that will help to detect bugs.

Available Libraries

The number of libraries is important to simplify and accelerate the data processing capability of the programming language. There are pre-installed libraries for PHP to support HTTP fetching, regular expressions, URL parsing, and database drivers. And similarly, there is a wide-ranging class library for .Net with a set of reusable interfaces, classes, and value types.

High Security

Security is a top concern for enterprises, especially when dealing with important and private data. Both PHP and .Net offer the highest level of security to prevent attackers from accessing the website.

Cross-platform Support

A website or web application should function on various browsers and devices to provide the best user experience. When using PHP and .Net, developers can build versatile products that work on OS, Windows, and Linux.

Developer Employer

Shopify Or WooCommerce – Which One Is Better?

November 24, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

If you are starting an online store, you are probably wondering which platform to choose. Shopify and WooCommerce are the two most popular eCommerce platforms currently, and each of them has its own pros and cons.

Shopify is an eCommerce platform with which everyone can set up an online store, manage inventory, and accept payments without having to worry about tech aspects such as security, hosting, caching, and so on.

WooCommerce is an open-source plugin for WordPress with which you can use the biggest content management system to run and customize an online store and build custom extensions.

You need to choose the right eCommerce platform according to your skills, business needs, and requirements. Read on to find out the advantages and disadvantages of Shopify and WooCommerce to help you decide which one is better.

Cost

You need to evaluate the cost for the development and maintenance of your online store and take into consideration additional add-on services and software.

The basic plan for Shopify starts at $29 per month. It offers enough features to start – unlimited products, unlimited file storage, 2 user accounts, and of course, SSL certificate, hosting, and domain name. This price does not include additional third-party tools, and you also need to consider payment processing fees – Shopify Payments solution costs 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction.

WooCommerce is open-source, which means it is free, but you will need hosting, domain name, and SSL certificate to start your online store – which can be costly, especially if you are starting out. Several companies, such as Bluehost, offer bundles that can significantly reduce the cost – starting at $6.95 per month. WooCommerce does not charge a transaction fee, but you will need to integrate a payment solution and pay for additional extensions.

Ease of Use

As a business owner, you probably are not familiar with web development, so user-friendliness is important when choosing a platform.

With Shopify, you do not need to install, maintain, or update any software. You also do not need to think about security, backups, performance, and compatibility. With an intuitive interface and drag and drop system, it is easy to add and manage products, sales, and inventory.

With WooCommerce, you will need to install the plugin, manage updates, ensure that the website is secure, and keep backups. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of customization, but it comes with additional costs, a learning curve, and requires more management.

Payment Methods

You need to provide multiple payment options to your customers, and the two platforms provide different payment integrations.

There are plenty of payment options in Shopify – its own solution Shopify Payments, as well as third-party payment options. You need to consider the transaction fees – an extra 2% on third party payment gateways. And credit card fees start at 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction for the basic plan and lower for the other plans.

There are PayPal and Stripe payments offered by default in WooCommerce as well as other popular payment gateways. WooCommerce does not charge transaction fees, which is useful for bigger stores as it can save you a lot of money.

Integrations and Add-ons

Third-party services and tools are important for your online store’s growth – things like analytics tools, email marketing software, outreach services, lead generation tool, and so on.

There are numerous third-party add-ons in the App Store for Shopify, which cover every feature you will need for your store. There are both free and paid apps you can integrate for product reviews, SEO, countdowns, discounts, and so on.

With WooCommerce, you will have access to more than 50,000 free plugins for WordPress and many more paid options. You can also use a web developer to build an integration or plugin for your website. There are many options to easily customize WooCommerce, and the process of submitting a plugin for WordPress is significantly easier.

Support Options

Even though both platforms are relatively easy to use, you might need additional help.

Shopify offers 24/7 support via phone, email, live chat, and Twitter. There is also extensive documentation, knowledge base, how-to guides, and video tutorials you can use to fix your own issues. Keep in mind, though, that there is no support offered for third-party apps or themes.

The official website of WooCommerce provides extensive documentation, guides, and tutorials with which you can help yourself. There are also support forums where you can ask questions and get help from other WooCommerce users and experts.

WooCommerce vs. Shopify: Which is the Best eCommerce Platform?

In conclusion, which platform to choose depends on your personal skills and preferences. Shopify is generally a lot easier to use and start your online store, but your costs can become higher with transaction fees, integrations, and add-ons. WooCommerce gives more control over your website and costs less to start, but you will need to maintain the software.