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Hosted vs Self-hosted Ecommerce platform: Which platform should you choose for your online business?

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Praveen Raja
Hosted vs Self-hosted Ecommerce platform: Which platform should you choose for your online business?

Building and managing an online store may appear like a composite job, particularly if you’re unable to get the right platform. The good news is that there are a lot of choices existing for your business. Conversely, the big difficulty for the majority of business owners is finding the ideal Ecommerce solution for their product. Every platform has its own set of pros & cons and everyone has been intended for special types of users. However, before you run off comparing platform, the biggest, as well as easiest verdict you should build, is choosing between a Hosted and Self-Hosted platform.

Self-Hosted Ecommerce Solution

When we speak self-hosted Ecommerce platforms, we’re referring to a range of open source function that requires web hosting to function. The most popular platforms are well-documented and you can create any alteration you need. This provides you an extent of control over your online store that hosted platforms just unable to match. If you require extra features, you can moreover get plug-in and extensions to permit them, generate them yourself, or hire someone to construct them for you.

Given that self-hosted platforms can be set up wherever, you’re liberated to decide your preferred hosting service. Not being attached to a centralized service means you can shift your store if you outgrow your supplier or get a superior deal somewhere else. It might sound difficult, but currently, most hosts, including us, will assist you set things up.

Self-hosted platforms sound appealing, right? Yet, you shouldn’t make up your mind just yet. Let’s move on to talk about their limitations before jumping to any conclusions.

The Cons of Self-Hosted E-Commerce Platforms

  • They are more often than not harder to set up than their hosted counterparts. At the very least, you will need to get a hosting provider, decide your Ecommerce platform, and experience an installation and setup process.
  • Generally, there is no centralized support system you can make contact with if you need aid or run into a mistake. So you will require turning into adept at looking through the documentation and searching community resources to troubleshoot problems for yourself or hire a qualified developer to help you.
  • Depending on your hosting provider, costs can pile up once your store begins to grow.

Now that we’ve detailed both sides of the coin let’s take a look at two examples of self-hosted e-commerce platforms.

Hosted Ecommerce Solution

Hosted Ecommerce platforms are an additional alternative worth considering. These platforms offer an all-in-one Ecommerce solution that comprises hosting, a shopping cart function, and technical support. In the majority cases, you pay a monthly fee that differs depending on the size of your store, and most hosted Ecommerce platforms present sensible prices and discounts if you pay for several months in advance.

Furthermore, hosted services have an obvious benefit over their self-hosted counterparts: they are far easier to manage. In exchange for a flat rate, you get hosting and access to a support team that takes care of any concerns for you. You will, certainly, have to attach items and modify your store yourself, but the whole thing else is taken care of.

To put it cleanly, hosted platforms reduce the technical barriers to entry, and present premium support and customization capabilities.

So you must be asking yourself, what’s the negative aspect?

The Cons of Hosted E-Commerce Platforms

  • Hosted e-commerce platforms usually cost in excess of their self-hosted counterparts.
  • Your monthly or annual cost/billing will grow as your store draw further traffic and needs more influential features.
  • Customization possibilities, while available, will be limited. You will only be able to use pre-approved themes and plugins. This protects you from a security standpoint but can be stifling in terms of creativity and limit the store features you can implement.
  • Toggling platforms is expensive and time-consuming, if not impractical, dependent on the scope of your store.

Should I choose a Hosted or Self-Hosted Solution?

This is the primary verdict you should create when you initiate thinking of going online with your product. The fundamental variation between Hosted and Self-Hosted is that they trade ease of use for customizability. In effect, Hosted platforms will permit you to get started rapidly and effortlessly, manage inventory, and track orders all for a sensible monthly fee. Though, you won’t have greater flexibility with customizing the look & feel of your site – particularly it’s functionality. Self-Hosted solutions provide you that flexibility, except it, may take longer to get your site up and running. They also incur diverse monthly fees depending on what you want to achieve.

Here are a few questions that you require to answer before you choose a platform for your online store.

  • Do you require to get online swiftly?
  • Do you need code-level admission to make changes to your site?
  • What features are completely essential for your site to function?
  • What monthly budget do you contain for running your online store?
  • Do you want to do your own SEO?
  • Do you need 24/7 technical support?
  • How many products and product options will you have?

Answering these queries before you start looking for an Ecommerce solution will assist you to sort the options much more easily.

Conclusion

There is a lot of remuneration and difficulty to using both the platforms. Still, fast analyses show that a Hosted solution is easier to make use of and favored by non-technical business owners and startups while the Self-Hosted solution is favored by technical startups and entrepreneurs. If you’ve answered the questions pointed out before the evaluation, you should have a fair understanding of which bucket you fall in.

For additional information concerning Ecommerce Business Development, contact Webnexs.

 

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