Magento vs. LemonStand

Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform with an enormous range of customization possibilities for robust and intuitive online stores. LemonStand is also highly customizable and exists in the cloud. LemonStand is a good choice for budding entrepreneurs, while Magento is a great place to let a brand grow and develop. Make your choice with help from this Magento vs. LemonStand platform comparison. You can also reach out to the Magento managed support experts at Forix to learn more.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Magento vs. LemonStand?

Some of the pros working in Magento’s favor include:

1. Unparalleled shop customization.
2. Community Edition is 100% free to use.
3. Tremendous amount of flexibility and site control.

Three of the top cons working against Magento are:

1. The number of add-ons and options can be overwhelming for beginners.
2. Might be too robust for small or simple shops.
3. Packages other than Community Edition can be expensive.

The pros of using LemonStand for your shop include:

1. Completely customizable user experience.
2. An SaaS platform with professional support.
3. Optimized checkout features.

Three of the cons with LemonStand are:

1. No free service option.
2. Not ideal if you need total design control and flexibility.
3. Not suitable for small shops.

Timeline for Building

How long does it take to build a Magento site?

It can take a few weeks up to a few months depending on the capabilities and complexity of the site.

How long does it take to build a LemonStand site?

As a cloud-based platform, LemonStand requires less work to get a site up and running. This results in custom sites able to launch in only a matter of weeks.

Customization

If you want full customization capabilities, go with Magento. LemonStand, however, does offer more site personalization than many of its SaaS competitors.

Magento vs. LemonStand Price

Magento offers a free version, Community Edition, where users can set up and manage their sites at no cost. There are also two other feature-rich plans that range from $2,000 to almost $4,000 per month.

LemonStand offers a 14-day free trial, after which users must sign up for recurring payments on a price-quote basis. It’s $19 for the Starter Plan, $69 for the Growth Plan, $199 for Professional, and $399 for Premium (all per month).

Ease of Use

Magento can be a bit too robust and overwhelming for beginners or non-developers; however, with the new and improved Magento 2, back-end usability is substantially simpler. If users still need assistance, there is an army of 150,000 developers waiting in the wings. Magento’s front-end is one of the most popular in the industry, with a seamless checkout process and tons of features to optimize the shopper experience.

LemonStand keeps the back-end experience simple and intuitive. Since LemonStand offers substantially fewer opportunities for design flexibility and customization, it makes the back-end processes easier on shop owners. Sites that use LemonStand have user-friendly front-ends, with responsive and engaging shopping carts.

Top Features of Magento

• Outstanding customizability and design flexibility
• Product and order management
• Tracking, analytics, and reporting
• Built-in SEO
• Multi-site capability
• Powerful shopping cart
• Thousands of available extensions

Top Features of LemonStand

• Design control
• Recurring subscriptions for customers
• Mixed wholesale/retail sales models
• Digital product capabilities
• Advanced merchandising features
• Unlimited product categories and variants
• Scalable hosting
• Unlimited tech support

Support

Magento offers 24/7 merchant support over the phone, via live chat, and through email. There is also an ongoing community forum where clients can get help. Customers speak positively about LemonStand’s support services, touting personalized support (the company is much smaller than Magento).

Community Size

There are over 150,000 developers familiar with Magento, while far fewer use LemonStand as a newer platform. Magento has an enormous number of third-party platform extensions available (somewhere around 6,500), with many that are free. LemonStand, again as a newer platform, doesn’t have many. Magento integrates with 31 different payment methods, while LemonStand integrates with over 100 tools, including PayPal, FedEx, and Google Analytics.

Design Flexibility

Magento is an open-source software solution, meaning it gives users full access and ownership of the site and data. This comes with 100% design flexibility. LemonStand, on the other hand, is a SaaS, which limits design flexibility slightly. LemonStand is less limited than many other SaaS platforms, however, giving design control over the checkout process and enabling customization of the buyer experience.

Stores Powered/Popularity

Magento powers over 250,000 online stores, while LemonStand powers over 2,000. Magento’s biggest clients include Coca-Cola, Ford, Samsung, and Burger King. LemonStand’s includes Seventh Ink, KULA, Quantum Squares, and GoTags.

Mobile Capabilities

With Magento, shop owners can build responsive mobile sites that connect with websites, as well as native mobile apps for iPhone and Android. There is no extra cost or work in building a mobile-friendly site. LemonStand offers mobile-ready storefront themes, some for free while others are paid.

If you’d like to learn more about either platform, reach out to the Magento managed services experts to learn more.