Hosted Vs Self-Hosted Ecommerce Solutions

Last updated on October 13th, 2018 at 04:49 pm

If you’re planning to step into e-commerce then you have to consider a few things, in general, to make your business successful, one of the important factors is the issue of hosting. Specifically, which hosting solution do you choose the hosted or a self-hosted e-commerce solution? What is the difference between these hosting solutions and how do you know which one is better.

There are various e-commerce platforms available nowadays, each has its unique features. The initial step to choose the best e-commerce platform which serves as a backbone of your e-commerce website which begins with a simple yet important decision the hosted or self-hosted.

These hosted and self-hosted each come with their own set of pros and cons. Let find out what they are and why you should care about these.

Hosted E-commerce Solutions

A hosted e-commerce platform provides you all in one e-commerce solutions which includes hosting, technical support and a shopping cart functions. In this scenario, you have to pay monthly fees that totally depend upon your needs and your e-commerce requirements. Generally, this type of e-commerce solutions offers reasonable prices and also discounts.

However, these hosted e-commerce solutions are easy to manage as compared to self-hosted e-commerce solutions. In other words, hosted platforms can minimizes the technical issues and offer premium support and also customization capabilities which are quite a reliable deal but apart from all these advantages they do have some disadvantages or you can say cons.

Disadvantages of hosted platforms

• These platforms cost you more as compare to self-hosted e-commerce solutions.
• Switching platforms are time-consuming and a way costly.
• Customization is limited and you have to use themes and plugins which is provided by the store itself. In other words, you are bound to use limited features.

There are many Hosted e-commerce solution available online like Bigcommerce, Shopify, Volusion, Wix and many more out of these Bigcommerce and Shopify are the two popular e-commerce solution which is used by some of the big e-commerce giants.

Let’s check out these two platforms

Big Commerce:

This platform is used by some of the well-known brands like Toyota, Paypal, Skullcandy.  Despite being a hosted e-commerce solution Big commerce offers a large set of features and in-depth customization.

Shopify:

It is one of the most popular and best self-hosted e-commerce platforms. More than 300,000 stores are using Shopify these days. It also provides basic shopping cart facility for the websites which is built with other platforms like WordPress.

Self-Hosted E-commerce Solutions

When we are talking about Self-hosted e-commerce solutions it refers to a variety of open source platforms like WordPress, Opencart, Magento etc. These platforms require hosting to function. What you can do is just go for the best open source e-commerce development platforms and purchase a hosting and install it on your desired platforms. These platforms give you a degree of control over your online store.

In self-hosted platforms, you are free to choose your preferred website hosting services. These platforms are pretty good in giving you the desired features for your online store. However, if you need any additional features you can either find a plugin or extension to add on the features or you have an option like creating these by yourself or hiring a professional to create one.

Like advantages, these platforms do have some cons or you can say a disadvantage which is explained below.

• In these platforms, there is no centralized support system and you have to do everything on your own.
• Depending on the hosting charges, purchasing the themes and plugins, a cost can pile up once your store begins to grow.

Some of the big self-hosted e-commerce solutions or platforms are Magento, WordPress, Opencart which are used by many top brands. Let’s talk a little about these platforms.

WordPress:

WordPress is an open source e-commerce platform which is used by many big brands like Sony, BBC, Tech crunch, MTV and many more. This is the best e-commerce platform which will give unlimited power to your online store. There are thousands of plugins and themes available to make your desired store. Customization is very easy and you can also create your own plugin or theme, hire a professional WordPress development company to create these according to your needs. Also provides documentation for easy setup.

Magento:

Magento is another platform which is very much flexible in setting up an online store. This is also used by many companies and you will get your desired feature on the go for your online store.

Conclusion:

Either you are using self-hosted or hosted solution both are flexible are powerful and gives you enough feature to run your online store. It’s your choice how you want to run your business.