WooCommerce vs Magento: which platform for your hosting?

The choice between WooCommerce and Magento is one of the most important decisions when starting a webshop. Both platforms have strengths, but differ drastically in hosting requirements, costs, and complexity. This comparison helps you make the right choice from a hosting perspective.

Hosting requirements: the big difference

WooCommerce hosting requirements WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin and therefore has relatively modest requirements:

• PHP 7.4+ (8.0+ recommended)
• MySQL 5.7+
• 256 MB memory minimum
• Shared hosting possible for small shops

Magento hosting requirements Magento is an enterprise platform with heavy requirements:

• PHP 8.1+
• MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.4+
• 2 GB RAM minimum (4 GB+ recommended)
• Elasticsearch or OpenSearch required
• Varnish cache recommended
• VPS or dedicated hosting mandatory

Cost comparison

WooCommerce total cost (first year)

Magento total cost (first year)

When to choose WooCommerce

Ideal for:

• Small to medium webshops
• Budget-conscious entrepreneurs
• Those already familiar with WordPress
• Shops under 10,000 products
• Dutch market focus
• Starting entrepreneurs

Advantages:

• Low entry barrier
• Huge plugin ecosystem
• Easy to manage yourself
• Affordable hosting
• Large community and support

When to choose Magento

Ideal for:

• Large webshops (1000+ products)
• Complex product configurations
• B2B e-commerce
• Multi-store setups
• High transaction volumes
• Enterprise requirements

Advantages:

• Built for scalability
• Advanced B2B features
• Multi-store from one backend
• Sophisticated product management
• Enterprise-grade performance

Hosting comparison

Dutch hosting options

For WooCommerce:

• Antagonist (€4,99+/month)
• TransIP (€7,99+/month)
• mijn.host (€1,99+/month)

For Magento:

• TransIP VPS (€10+/month)
• Dedicated Magento hosts
• Cloud providers (AWS, Google Cloud)

Our verdict

Choose WooCommerce if:

• You're starting out
• Budget is important
• You want to manage it yourself
• Shop has < 5000 products

Choose Magento if:

• You have a large product catalog
• You need B2B functionality
• You have budget for development
• You expect high traffic volumes

For most Dutch webshop starters, WooCommerce is the better choice. The lower costs, easier management, and abundant hosting options make it accessible. Only when you truly need Magento's enterprise features should you invest in its more complex and expensive ecosystem.

Compare WooCommerce hosting in our database.