3 Things Shopify Struggle With But Magento 2 Can Easily Do

I was trying to move a large Magento 2 electronics store to the Shopify ecommerce platform.

I failed and it wasn’t because of my lack of expertise.

I hit various Shopify technical limitations that weren’t obvious.

Today I’ll talk about some of the roadblocks you might come upon when you decide to migrate Magento to Shopify.

I’m going to list 3 things that you can easily do in Magento 2.

These 3 things will be close to impossible when you run a Shopify store.

Let’s go.

Disclaimer: This is purely my experience. I’m not 100% sure of the following Shopify limits. Shopify can lift the limits anytime in the future. Always contact Shopify support for clarifications and more information.

I'm not trying to praise one ecommerce platform over another ecommerce platform. I'm just telling my experience moving a large site from Magento 2 to Shopify.

Shopify is a great way to start your online store, but be aware of limitations.

1. Create More Than 250 Custom Product Attributes

Suppose you have a security camera store with more than 1000 various product attributes: lens size, resolution, sensor option etc.

Magento 2 can easily handle that many attributes.

Shopify can only have 250 product metafields (that’s what attributes are called there).

Here is their support team:

Even with a custom app you can’t go over that limit.

I tried several extensions including Smart Product Filter & Search with no luck.

Know a workaround? - share it in the comment section below.

Magento 2 doesn’t limit the number of custom product attributes you can create.

You can have as many attributes as your hardware can handle.

2. Display Product Filters for Categories with more than 5000 products

Shopify won’t display filters for categories with more than 5k SKUs.

For large collections the filter section is empty.

I tried several apps (Smart Product Filter and Search and others) to see if they can filter 5000+ product collections. They couldn’t.

It seems like a core Shopify limitation that you can’t overcome. Am I wrong? Let me know in the comment section below.

Magento 2 and its OpenSearch product engine can filter an unlimited number of products.

You can build large stores with large inventories.

3. Add Custom Product Attribute Fields to Admin Product Grid

You won’t be able to add new columns to an admin product grid.

That’s a limitation of the Shopify backend panel.

With a large store you can’t easily sort products by a custom attribute. That slows down the admin work.

With Magento 2 you can easily configure the admin grid to your liking.

Did you come across another Shopify roadblock? Let me know by leaving a comment.

If you find my content useful, please share it with your social networks. Thank you!

Find this article useful? Share it on LinkedIn with your professional network, spread the knowledge!

If you find this post interesting do not hesitate to sign up for our newsletter and join the 1007 people who receive Magento news, tips and tricks regularly.

Thank You!