Compare Sharetribe vs. Magento
What is the best way to build a marketplace: Magento’s multi-vendor eCommerce solution or Sharetribe’s marketplace software? Let’s compare the pros and cons of both solutions and find the best approach for you.
Magento is an eCommerce solution that wasn’t originally designed to power online marketplaces. This means Magento isn’t exactly a Sharetribe alternative, but it’s possible to extend Magento’s core features with third-party plugins.
Magento is a powerful tool for building and scaling traditional eCommerce stores. For a two-sided marketplace, Sharetribe is likely to be a better choice.
Building a marketplace on top of a Magento store will very likely require extensive development skills and lots of time. Especially if you want to add unique marketplace features, workflows, or designs. As a result, Magento isn’t the fastest solution to launch a marketplace, and it won’t be the easiest to maintain and scale.
Sharetribe was built solely for the purpose of creating two-sided marketplaces. It lets you set up a fully functional marketplace in minutes. You don't need to install anything or configure plugins and themes; it just works. If you want to scale your marketplace and add completely unique features, workflows, and designs, Sharetribe is also possible to extend with code. It's optimized for great developer experience, making it easy to extend your marketplace infinitely and scale it to any size.
The table below helps you compare Magento's multi-vendor solution with Sharetribe.
Magento
Sharetribe
- Download and install Magento open-source (or schedule a call with Adobe Commerce for the hosted version)
- Buy a domain
- Buy hosting
- Research and install a marketplace extension like WebKul’s Multi-Vendor Marketplace OR buy custom development from Adobe’s a Solution Partner Rapid Deployment Packages
- Customize your marketplace + extension to suit your needs
- Sign up to Sharetribe
- Set up your marketplace
- Buy a custom domain
- Launch your marketplace
More than a month*
*Depending on how much customization you need. For the hosted version with Partner Rapid Deployment Packages, estimated timelines start from “up to 6 weeks”
1 day
- Open-source version $0
- Multi Vendor Marketplace by Webkul $349
- Hosting costs starting from $25/month
OR
- No stated pricing for Adobe Commerce (estimated costs starts at $22,000/year)
- Partner Rapid Deployment Packages starts at “up to $35,000”
- Build plan $29/month
- Live plans start at $99/month
- The open-source version is free to download
- Adobe Commerce offers the possibility to schedule a demo
- 14 days for Build plan
Low or high
- Using the open-source version likely requires advanced technical skills
- Adobe Commerce and outsourcing development doesn’t require coding skills
Low to medium
- No coding skills needed
- Easy to customize and set up in Console
- Hosting, performance, maintenance, backups, and updates included at any scale
- Customization and integrations possible with code and self-hosting
Not included with OS
Included with Adobe Commerce
Yes
Self-hosting your frontend is possible
Not included with OS
Included with Adobe Commerce
Not included with OS
Included with Adobe Commerce
Unlimited
Unlimited
PHP
- React, Redux, CSS
- For self-hosted, use the tech stack of your choice
- Community forum and documentation for open-source
- Ticket-based support for paid plans
- Webkul’s support for the marketplace extensions available for 3 months after purchase (only for bugs; not including help with customizations)
- Sharetribe support
- Developer support
+ Powerful eCommerce features
+ Large developer network
+ Affordable if you choose the open-source version (and don’t count in development time)
+ Reliable performance even at scale for the hosted version
+ Easy to add third-party plugins
+ Very fast to launch
+ Very easy to use
+ Seamless user experience that keeps improving
+ Effortless to maintain
+ Advanced features for rental marketplaces like Airbnb, service marketplaces like Fiverr, and product marketplaces like Etsy
+ Dedicated support for non-technical founders and developer
+ Unlimited scalability
+ Enjoyable developer experience
+ Easy to build a mobile app
- Needs either a big budget ($20K+) or advanced coding skills
- Requires heavy customization to power a rental or service marketplace like Airbnb or Fiverr
- Slow to launch
- Big upfront investment
- A UX that relies on several plugins and extensions can be riskier and more difficult to scale
- If you choose the open-source version, hosting and performance incur monthly costs and lots of work when you scale
- Developing on top of a mature, feature-rich piece of software can be complicated and sometimes frustrating
- Supports fewer payment gateways and business models out of the box
- Less functionality for online mall-type product platforms out of the box
- Building custom functionality and integrations requires coding skills (or hiring a verified Sharetribe Expert)
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- Launch quickly, without coding
- Extend infinitely
- Scale to any size
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