Magento and Prestashop's customization limits

Question

I am new to both Magento and Prestashop. I have no clue upto what point I can customize on each platform. So, before I decide, I want your feedbacks on to which direction to go towards. Listed below are the feature I need in the ecommerce site I am going to develop:

Product Type: Wedding cards and other greeting cards, some cards might have two sides, so the user might need to fill in the text for both cards prior to adding it to the shopping cart.

Features:

• Each card will have unlimited options, e.g Changing colors of some aspects of the card, so the user can see the differences. Each one is different image, so when the admin adds a product, they need to upload those variations.
• Needs to attach some products to be a suggestion, e.g when you order a wedding card, we suggest them to get Place cards and etc.
• On a custom card, the user can upload their photo, and then can add the necessary text they want to appear, then process the order.

The following is almost as to what I am looking for: http://www.betsywhite.com/arya-wedding-invitation-5586-prd1.htm [Click on the play with pallettes to see the changing color in action]

Those are just some of the features that I think are very unusual for a standard E-Commerce site. Can I do those features with Magento and/or Prestashop or I need to build a custom solution?

Answer 1

The support/community of Magento is a little better in my opinion. A lot of the times you get no response on the Prestashop forums and you are left to find a way for yourself. I have worked with both. I would pick the one you are more comfortable with.

Just my 2 cents.

Answer 2

Installation and customization are two important considerations during the purchasing decision, especially if the goal is to get the e-commerce site up and running as quickly as possible. These characteristics of Prestashop are better than Magento. While Magento is more customizable, therefore resulting in longer set up and installation times, Prestashop makes a trade-off by having fewer “out of the box ready” features available.

One of the key features of an e-commerce software package is its ability to maximize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) capabilities. Magento has distanced itself from all of its software competitors in constructing the best SEO features of any e-commerce platform.

Answer 3

You can make those features with Prestashop and Magento. But no matter which one you chose, you'll have to personalize/modify your shop to get those features to work.

Prestashop is easier to use and to learn and it is faster because it is slim compared to Magento. On the other hand Magento is even more customizable but it is much harder to learn and getting used to it.

I would give you the advice to install test-versions of both shop-systems and try them yourself. So you'll see which is the better choice for your skills, your needs and your products.

I had to make this choice some months ago for myself. After some testing I chose Presthop and I do not regret my choice. But everbody has to make this choice for himself ;).