Popular E-Commerce development platforms used in UAE and their development cost

E-commerce websites are an essential entity to any business, be it a startup or a well-established business, everyone needs an online store to sell their products. We designed the infographic below based on a research done by statista.com, they have done a survey on over 991 e-commerce websites across UAE, research is mainly on the E-commerce platform they are using and the figures are astounding.

When we build an e-commerce platform, it is very essential that we understand every aspect of the platform we are going to use. Wordpress is the household name when it comes to E-commerce, Wordpress is one of the first Content Management System ever built that is open source and also powers 27% of all websites in the world. WordPress is Older Than Twitter and Facebook but WordPress is just a CMS and not an e-commerce platform until woo-commerce came into action. Woo-commerce is a WordPress plugin which enables the user to turn their blogging site to an e-commerce selling portal. But many developers feel woo-commerce being just a plugin, doesn't let them go beyond the box (but they are great, if the developers can customize the plugin from the root, they are very flexible :D). Now here comes Magento, a standalone platform built solely for one purpose, E-commerce. Magento was formerly owned by eBay and now owned by Adobe. Magento is the most prominent and leading,  open-source eCommerce platform in today’s world Written in PHP. Magento offers a user-friendly, faster, flexible and scalable eCommerce platform which is responsive to any device and has all the features built-in that we seek for in an e-commerce platform. Both WordPress and Magento are leaders in what they do, with a great community and Quality. There are several other e-commerce out there now like Shopify, Opencart, Monster Commerce, Wix, Squarespace, Prestashop, VirtueMart, etc. While Wordpress and Magento needs real development, which enables us to pour in our ideas and customize it to an extent, the others like Shopify, Wix, Opencart are the easy to go platforms, wherein, technical knowledge needed is very limited but gives you only the very basic features and not many customizations, in other words, Scalability is very limited. 

So we listed down the features, pros, cons of all the major E-commerce platforms for your reference.

                             

Why is this information important to you

If you want to run your business and make it an online store, you need to know the market trends and need to know why people opt certain platform. Like to make your Website trending, it should rank higher in Google search, so some platforms are so SEO-friendly that it allows you to rank on top and increase your website traffic. Below we have written about the features and development cost of each E-commerce platform. This will help you decide on the platform to go for.

If you ask me I would recommend not to go by popularity and to select the platform which is best for your idea, for that you can feel free to contact us and we can probably meet and give you a better idea based on your requirements. 

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most used eCommerce and CMS solution in the world and also in the UAE. If you are a WordPress user or have any idea of WordPress, you must have heard about Woo-commerce while the basic plugins are free, you might need to buy premium extensions if you need added features. And if you need even further customization, you can get paid extensions to do that for you. It is very user-friendly and has a strong community ready to help or respond to your queries.

Price:

WordPress and WooCommerce are Free (but some extensions and customization are chargeable).

Highlights:

1) Modern and clean UI.

2) Simple and clean experience for store owners.

3) WordPress Content Management System- integrated with the worlds best CMS.

4) Built-in Payment gateways.

5) Total control and easy to tweak the checkout process.

6) Geographic location Support.

7) Automatic Taxes are available along with user-defined tax laws.

8) Extensive Localizaton support.

Pros: 

1) Completely free and opensource.

2) One of the best Lively community out there.

3) Built for WordPress CMS.

4) Thousands of themes which can be customized.

5) Flexibility- fits in any kind of online shop, regardless of the product type.

6) Security- up to date with optimal security.

7) Thousands of plugins available.

Cons:

1) certain extensions of WooCommerce Extensions require a punctual payment or even monthly fees.

2) Plugins also come at a cost, if we don't know much about what plugin we are using, it may hamper the performance.

3) Themes need to be purchased

Development Cost in UAE: 

We at Royex Technologies have experienced developers specifically for WordPress. Thus no one can give better support and end product than us when developing a website using Woo-commerce, websites like http://arabwatchguide.com and https://drbeautyuae.com/ are developed using Wordpress with Woo-commerce plugin. We would charge between AED 15k to 20k, based on your requirements and exact idea we can give you a fixed price.

​Magento

Magento is purely built for e-commerce unlike WordPress, thus it had all the options that you seek for in an e-commerce platform is already built-in. It has a huge collection of themes dedicatedly built for e-commerce. It is ranked as the best e-commerce platform in 2019. Magento’s backend is developed using advanced programming, it is basically PHP but high level, Hence it requires certified Magento developers to work on else it could take a long time and resource. 

Price:

Magento has 2 versions. The Community version is free, and you can download it from their website and install it on your server. The Enterprise version has a subscription plan that ranges from $22,000 to $75,000 yearly, based on your store’s total revenue.

Highlights:

1) Unlimited front-end customization.

2) The back-end provides all the code editing tools you need.

3) There are builtin options like Gift vouchers, abandoned cart, wishlist, etc.

4) Lots of apps from third-party developers.

5) Tailor-made for eCommerce.

6) Optimized for SEO.

7) Built-in Report generation.

8) Dependable security and scalability.

9) Quick checkout option.

10) Multilingual, and multi-currency support.

11) Magento Application development - Magento can be integrated into an e-commerce application as well, One admin panel can be used for both website and mobile app

Pros: 

1) SEO friendly

2) Scalable- Provides optimal scalability and customizations

3) Multiple customizations are available from the root up!

4) Huge community- Magento boasts to have over 360,000 active users

Cons:

1) Complex and programming, hence harder customization

2) Expensive Plans

3) Need for Hosting

4) Expensive Plugins

Development Cost in UAE: 

Like I mentioned above, working with Magento requires highly skilled developers and these developers should have experience in using Magento as it uses a difficult level of coding. We have the expertise and certified Magento developers, website like https://www.frontiersports-me.com/ is an e-commerce platform developed in Magento. Contact us to give you an exact estimate for your project idea. We would charge between AED 18k to 25k. 

OpenCart

OpenCart is an easy to use and easy to develop e-commerce platform that’s based on PHP and MySQL. They offer multi-language and multi-currency support. One of its best features is the multi-store support, wherein you can manage multiple stores through a single admin panel. Its demo installation doesn’t involve any add-ons and content. You have to purchase the paid version of OpenCart to get add-ons and its latest features. 

The latest version of OpenCart allows you to access the Admin panel from mobile itself. It is being surveyed that in terms of User-friendliness, OPENCART wins over MAGENTO but lags behind Woo-Commerce.

Price:

Free to use (but plugins are chargeable)

Highlights:

1) Supports multi-stores

2) Easy installation process

3) Extensive choice of paid plugins

4) Multi-lingual support

Pros: 

1) Large database of plugins available

2) Extensive active community support

3) Ajax realtime functionalities

4) Easily customizable

5) Very efficient

6) Admin panel is very user-friendly and perfect for beginners

7) Admin panel mobile support

Cons:

1) Functionality scale is less than other options

2) Cant update easily

3) Paid plugins also erroneous

4) CSS and JS support is less

Development Cost in UAE: 

We at Royex Technologies have the expertise in developing e-commerce websites. We can easily develop your website in Opencart or any other platforms, based on your requirements and specifications we can give you an exact price. We usually charge around AED 15k for a website built with OpenCart.

Shopify

Shopify is a readymade e-commerce platform which is purely built for this one reason. Unlike other e-commerce platforms, Shopify does not let its users access the code rather it gives them a prestigious service and support of the same. It is very easy to learn and understand, a person with zero programming knowledge can also set up a shop in Shopify

Price:

Shopify offers flexible monthly subscription plans at $9, $29, $79 and $299.

Highlights:

1) Very easy to set-up and organize - simple drag and drop UI

2) Great speed and load time

3) Various eCommerce design templates available

4) No prior development knowledge needed

5) Offers free to use trial period 

Pros: 

1) Inbuilt hosting service

2) SEO optimized

3) Various themes available

4) Large Community

5) Various Payment gateways available

Cons:

1) Expensive than other eCommerce platforms

2) Hosting service is inbuilt but paid

3) Transaction fee is higher

4) Most plugins are very expensive

Development Cost in UAE: 

We at Royex Technologies have the expertise in developing e-commerce websites. We can easily develop your website and suggest in changes or add extra ideas to your existing plan and make it a success and build it in Shopify, based on your requirements and specifications we can give you an exact price. We usually charge around AED 15k for a website built with Shopify.

 

Royex Technologies for E-commerce Site Development:

Royex Technologies, a leading Website, Mobile App and E-commerce Development Company in Dubai, We have experience in developing over 300 projects for our clients in the GCC which includes several E-commerce websites, service application, etc, so we have the expertise perfect for your e-commerce requirements, Check our portfolio to know more. We have mentioned the features, pros, cons and the estimated price of the different e-commerce platform. If interested feel free to call us at +971566027916 or mail us at info@royex.net and we can send you a proposal based on your idea.