Platform comparison
The two most widespread open source platforms in Europe. Which one for your project.
WooCommerce and PrestaShop are both open source, both self-hosted, both popular in Europe. Technical choices and approaches differ significantly: WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress (CMS-first), PrestaShop is a dedicated ecommerce platform (commerce-first).
Both cover most use cases, but WooCommerce wins clearly on flexibility, plugin ecosystem, SEO and recurring costs. PrestaShop wins when you need native multi-shop or B2B with structured customer-group management.
Detailed comparison
| Criterion | WooCommerce | PrestaShop |
|---|---|---|
| Platform cost | ●●●●● open source | ●●●●● open source |
| Modules/plugins cost (TCO) | ●●●●● many free | ●●●○○ premium €80-400 |
| Flexibility / customization | ●●●●● total | ●●●○○ architectural constraints |
| SEO + editorial blog | ●●●●● WordPress base | ●●●○○ limited blog |
| Multi-shop / multi-brand | ●●●○○ via Multisite | ●●●●● native |
| B2B (group pricing) | ●●●●○ with plugin | ●●●●○ native |
| Multi-currency / multi-tax | ●●●○○ with plugin | ●●●●● native |
| European ERP integration | ●●●●● mature plugins | ●●●○○ available modules |
| Plugin/theme ecosystem | ●●●●● 50K+ plugins | ●●●○○ smaller community |
| Team learning curve | ●●●●● WordPress known | ●●●○○ steeper |
●●●●● excellent · ●●●●○ very good · ●●●○○ good
Real cases
WooCommerce choice
Client: B2B distributor with 200 professional customers, negotiated pricing, also B2C selling. PrestaShop was feasible, but required premium modules to cover advanced B2B + tracking + marketing automation, raising the TCO. On WooCommerce the B2B for WooCommerce plugin (€199/year) natively covers pricing, hidden prices, repeat orders, and the plugin community is larger. Final choice: WooCommerce, online in 6 weeks.
PrestaShop choice
Client: fashion group with 4 brands (luxury, casual, sport, outlet), shared warehouse, centralized invoicing. Native PrestaShop multi-shop manages 4 distinct stores with shared backoffice without custom development. WooCommerce with WordPress Multisite would have required API sync between 4 separate installations. Final choice: PrestaShop multi-shop, online in 8 weeks, 60% infrastructure savings vs 4 separate ecommerce.
Want more cases and full 12 selection criteria? Read the methodology.
Frequently asked
Depends on the case. For mono-brand ecommerce with medium catalogs WooCommerce wins on flexibility, lower costs (no premium modules), superior SEO, larger plugin ecosystem. PrestaShop wins when you need multi-shop under one installation or B2B with natively structured customer groups.
Yes, PrestaShop 8 is actively developed. The European community is large, especially in France and Italy. It's the right fit for multi-brand, advanced B2B, multi-currency. For standard mono-brand projects WooCommerce is usually faster and cheaper to maintain over time.
On PrestaShop premium modules (B2B, marketing, integrations) cost €80-€400 each one-time or annual. On WooCommerce many equivalent plugins are free, others €49-€299 with annual licenses. Total plugin/module TCO is generally lower on WooCommerce.
Yes, it's a common migration. Products, variants, customers, order history are exported from PrestaShop and re-imported into WooCommerce keeping URLs to preserve SEO. Average time: 2-4 weeks based on catalog complexity. Often done to benefit from strong editorial blog, cheaper plugins, lower recurring costs.
PrestaShop has native customer-group management and differentiated pricing. WooCommerce with B2B for WooCommerce covers the same scope. For advanced B2B (P.O., approvals, multiple buyers) both require specific modules/plugins. For enterprise B2B over 200 corporate buyers we recommend Magento Adobe Commerce.
Up to 5,000-10,000 products both hold well with performant hosting. For catalogs 10,000-25,000 products PrestaShop is slightly more architecturally solid. Above 25,000 SKUs we recommend Magento Adobe Commerce.
In a 10-minute free call we'll honestly tell you which platform fits best.
