In order to help you in your project of migrating from Shopify to PrestaShop. Which can be a very delicate operation, we offer you here a guide detailing. The specificities of these two very different solutions, both in their philosophy and in their use.
SaaS (Software as a service, or software as a service) is a means of distributing a service, very simple and which allows easy access to the service without the need for installation or a long configuration process. We use this type of service every day: Gmail, Spotify, Netflix, etc. Shopify is also an example of SaaS. There are different financial models, ranging from free access to subscription, through pay-as-you-go.
Free software” refers to a development and distribution approach whose main characteristic is to provide free access to source code. The latter contains all the logic of an application. So it’s a very transparent way to develop. Open source allows.
great ease of modification and adaptation
But open source does not mean free. For example, customization (via add-ons) can pay off if it requires the particular skills of freelancers or an agency. It is also necessary to anticipate web hosting costs which can represent a significant part of your budget.
SaaS is a method of distributing a service and Brazil Email List open source is a development approach: it is therefore quite possible to have what is called “open SaaS.” SaaS projects, on the other hand, are very often veritable black boxes and it is difficult to know the source code. Open source is very often hosted by the user (self-hosted), who therefore fully controls the data and the environment of the solution.
A SaaS solution allows you to get started quickly and without the need for technical skills, however the possibilities for customization are limited.
Open source allows for a higher level of customization
But requires more advanced technical skills and takes longer to set up.
The objective is to gain flexibility and customization while securing and rationalizing costs.
Shopify allows the use of third-party applications in order to personalize your store and connect to payment solutions, ERPs, carriers, etc. But some of these applications have a variable price depending on your use, and therefore depending on your turnover.
PrestaShop allows the purchase of modules, with prices between 30 and 300€. Some modules may also be available by subscription but the amounts are fixed.
It is this stability and these reduced costs that merchants come to PrestaShop for.
As said before, SaaS solutions have limited flexibility. While self-hosted open source projects are very flexible. Shopify and PrestaShop are no exception to this rule: Shopify via these applications allows some customization but with limitations that PrestaShop does not have. Thanks to overrides , you can quite easily modify the heart (the source code) of PrestaShop. It’s something very complicated for Shopify, especially because we don’t have access to the source code. It is therefore very difficult (if not impossible) to modify it. This is an important point and merchants choose PrestaShop for this extra flexibility.
