Basket platform or WooCommerce system? Which is better for building your own store (honest comparison)

If you are thinking about launching your own online store and want to manage it, you will find that there are several solutions and methods to help you with that, and you will find that the Saudi Basket platform and the WooCommerce system are among the most prominent solutions that help you with that. It is important to correctly decide the method that is most appropriate for you to build your online store, because if you choose one of the methods and find that it is not suitable for you later, this means losing a lot of time, which may prevent you from transferring in the first place and you will be forced to live with the current situation, and the transfer process may not be allowed in the first place. Therefore, making the decision to choose a basket platform or a WooCommerce system before building your online store is one of the things that you need to think about carefully before launching your online store, and that is why we have prepared this comparison for you fairly.

You will certainly say that you are reading this article on a WordPress site in Arabic, and therefore the recommendation will be the WooCommerce system for which we provide supporting explanations.. Of course this is not true. In this article, we will tell you the important criteria based on which you choose the system that is best for you to build your online store, and then we will go through a comprehensive comparison between the Basket platform and the WooCommerce system, so that you know for yourself the advantages and disadvantages of each choice and how to determine the system that is most suitable for you.

Basket platform or WooCommerce system? You may have a background or previous knowledge of the two systems (I mean WooCommerce and Basket), but before delving into the comparison we want to give a brief overview of the two systems so that you have a background on what we are talking about.

What is a basket platform?

The Basalah platform is an Arab e-commerce platform that was established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the aim of helping merchants create their electronic stores by registering on the platform and using the design tools provided by the platform to help build and customize their own stores for a monthly fee. A basket platform for building electronic stores. The platform provides you with some tools and services that help you work on your own store, such as shipping options and providing payment methods, as well as marketing services such as discount coupons and the provision of special offers. The basket platform provides the store owner with an easy-to-use control panel through which the store manager activates the required settings. The platform manages all the programming and technical matters that take place in the background, as well as managing the server and databases so that what is required is implemented without the need to write a programming code.

What is a WooCommerce add-on? WooCommerce is an add-on to the WordPress system through which you can build your online store, manage shipping and payment processes, as well as obtain other accessories that help you with some additional tasks, such as customizing the store and adding some other functions. You will install the WordPress system on your hosting, then install the WooCommerce extension, and thus you have an online store ready to work. You will then move on to choosing the template for your store, customizing its appearance, and specifying shipping methods and payment methods for your store’s customers.

WooCommerce add-on for building an online store. If we want to simplify the matter, it is like buying an empty house and purchasing previously designed pieces of furniture and organizing them in your home so that your home ends up in the position you want, whether in its decorative form or in its use. This brief idea is the idea behind the work of the WooCommerce system. As for the basket platform, the company buys the house for you and does its decorative design and organizes the furniture pieces so that your house is ready for immediate use in exchange for paying a monthly fee for this use.

Of course, this example is not completely identical in digital reality, but it is an attempt to bring the idea closer to you more easily, because the Basket platform is closed source in exchange for the features that it offers you, unlike the open source WooCommerce add-on in which you can add or modify the settings, functions, and features that you want in your store. You can learn more about adding WooCommerce through the guide we previously prepared on adding WooCommerce here. E-commerce platform requirements Let's talk more about the e-commerce platform requirements that you need to rely on to build your own store, so you can choose the most appropriate platform for you based on them.

We can review these requirements as follows: Cost: The amount you pay on a monthly or annual basis is one of the costs that are considered fixed expenses that you incur. Therefore, it is necessary to know the price you pay for the services you obtain. Ease of use: Your reliance on these platforms is because you do not want to hire a developer or specialist to make every small or large modification, so learn about the ease of use of each and make it an important criterion for selection.

Payment methods: Depending on the country you live in

Payment methods available to your target audience. The platform must offer payment methods that suit you. Integration: You will definitely need to integrate with other external services, and therefore you need to know whether the platform will provide you with the integration options you need or not. Scalability: Don't look at your feet with your current needs for the platform, but look later at how you want other features in your store, and how well the platform supports scalability.

Security and protection: This is because the security and protection of the platform is the gateway through which your private store, your store data, and your customer data within the store are secured and protected. Technical support: Does the platform administration provide appropriate technical support to help you solve your problems and explain the missing features in the system? Just as you are looking for ease of use, you are also looking for someone to help you solve your problems. Tools and accessories: In most cases, the platform will not provide you with the default settings with all the options you need in your store, but you will need other tools that will help you with some additional features, so it is important to learn about the possibility of the platform providing these tools.

1. The cost of the Basket platform versus the cost of WooCommerce. When we talk about comparing the two platforms, we find that the cost is among the first factors that come up in the comparison, especially by withdrawing the budget that you set to build your online store.

Did you set a budget of $500, $1000, or $2000?

Or more or less to build your online store? Let's talk about the cost of a cart platform versus the cost of WooCommerce as one of the variable costs when launching your online store. money bag with pile coins and bills cash vector illustration design The cost of the basket platform The basket platform offers three basic plans, which are: Basic basket: It is a free plan that does not provide most of the basic features for building stores, but is only suitable for experimentation Basket plus: It is an advanced package for a monthly subscription of 99 Saudi riyals Basket Pro: It is a professional package for a monthly subscription of 299 Saudi riyals in the (Plus) and (Pro) plans. The basket platform offers you basic features such as domain reservation, electronic payment, and linking with companies. Shipping, currency support, securing your store, adding an unlimited number of products, issuing reports, linking services to other applications and payment methods, in addition to some marketing features such as discount coupons and special offers.

However, the Pro plan includes higher features, such as the ability to modify the store’s appearance through CSS, linking to Google Tag Manager, optimization for search engines, providing marketing coupons, increasing the number of users, receiving orders from branches, and classifying customers into groups. You will find that you can rely on the (Plus) plan mainly, and you can later upgrade to the (Pro) plan if you need to, or you may find that your needs are in the (Pro) plan so you are forced to rely on it from the beginning. You can view the pricing page for the WooCommerce Cost Basket platform. As we said, the WooCommerce add-on is an open source add-on to the WordPress system, which is essentially open source. Therefore, the WooCommerce add-on is free and you do not pay monthly or annual fees for it.

Before that, I asked a question in one of my posts on the Arab WordPress Forum about: If WordPress is free, how does the company developing it profit? I advise you to read it to differentiate between the concept of offering software for free for a charitable purpose or offering it open source for the purpose of development and improvement. Also, make it clear that the WooCommerce add-on itself is free, but you bear the hosting costs, which usually start at $4 per month if you rely on Digital Ocean, for example, but you will certainly not rely on the cheap plan and will need a higher plan depending on the size of your store.

You will also purchase the domain for around $14 whether you rely on the Basket or WooCommerce platform and connect it to hosting, and also if you rely on a paid SSL certificate. The cost of the Basket platform or the cost of WooCommerce? If we compare the two systems for building your online store, you will find that the cost of WooCommerce is much lower than the cost of Basket because WooCommerce provides you with all the features in the Basket in the (Pro) plan in exchange for what you pay for the hosting price only.

There are also free WooCommerce add-ons that give you greater options and customization for your online store without paying additional fees for the monthly or annual subscription, or paying more fees except in some cases for paid add-ons. 2. Ease of use of Basket vs. WooCommerce The next thing we talk about is ease of use because these platforms basically came to facilitate the management of the store by the work team without the need to appoint developers every time.

Ease of using Basket. The Basket platform hosts your site and manages all the tasks that go on in the background without your intervention. All it does is matters related to the user interface or usage characteristics. Once you subscribe to the Salla platform, you will find that you have a control panel through which you can manage all matters related to managing your store, from designing the appearance, making store settings, managing products, reviewing reports, and these matters without the need to make any technical modifications. It should be noted that these available options are the options that the platform provides to you only in the control panel. If there is an additional option that you want to add to your store, you cannot manage it from the control panel, let alone adding it to your store.

Ease of use of WooCommerce. WooCommerce management differs from Basket in terms of use. WooCommerce management does not host your store and manage it in all aspects as it is currently done in Basket, but you do these things yourself. WooCommerce Control Panel: You will purchase hosting and install the WordPress system yourself, then install the WooCommerce add-on, obtain the template yourself and make its settings, as well as use protection tools, backups, periodic updates, activate some settings, and so on. Not all of these things you will do yourself by modifying the code, databases, or infrastructure. There are ready-made tools that help you automate these tasks, but it takes some time.

If you buy a desktop computer nearby, you will find that you either have to buy a ready-made computer with integrated components from Apple, Dell, HP, which is ready for use directly, or you buy the computer components yourself, such as the graphics card, processor, power supply, and the like, and then install them. Which system is easiest to use? Based on the comparisons we mentioned, the Basalah platform is the easiest to use in terms of customization because the platform administration manages all things in the background, unlike WooCommerce, you will need to manage the server, add-ons, and tools that are used in the background.

3. Local payment methods in a basket versus WooCommerce payment methods. Local payment methods help increase online store sales because they provide easier purchasing options for customers, and may also be lower in commission for customers, especially since they depend on local currencies. Also, international payment options, for example Visa/MasterCard, may not be suitable for all customers, and they need additional options, and if you do not provide them, the possibility of losing the customer will be great.

The same is true for the owners of online stores themselves, as they may not be able to provide the requirements for activating their accounts on international payment gateways, for example due to the need for a commercial register, a tax card, a registered company, an American company, etc., and they need local payment gateways with lower activation requirements. Payment methods in Basket The Basket platform mainly serves the Saudi public, so it includes most Saudi local payment methods among the payment options, for example, mada cards, STC pay wallet, etc. All of these options are pre-set within the payment options, and require direct activation only, but the payment options are still limited to only 5 local Saudi payment methods in addition to the previous international options.

Therefore, the basket platform does not include local payment options for other Arab countries, for example, Vodafone Cash, Fawry, Aman, Masari, Meeza cards, etc., and the same applies to other local payment methods in Saudi Arabia itself. The Salla platform also does not provide assistance options that help you add other local payment gateways, for example, Paymob or Paytab, to your online store to enhance local payment options. Also, you will rarely find local payment gateways that support the Salla platform, so the available payment options will only be available to you. Payment methods on WooCommerce The WooCommerce platform does not provide local payment methods among the automatic payment options on the platform, but it provides you with the ability to add unlimited options to local payment gateways, because it is an open source platform, and when you search for payment add-ons within WooCommerce, you will find more than 1,000 available add-ons linked to external payment platforms.

When you want to add a local payment method to your online store, all you have to do is search for the appropriate payment gateway add-on, then direct installation and setup. You will also find that most local payment gateways provide ready-made add-ons to be compatible with the WooCommerce platform, for example the following: the UAE Paytabs portal. The Egyptian Paymob portal, the Egyptian Paysky portal, the Saudi Moysar portal.

Saudi UrWAY portal. There are many other payment gateways, and all of the previous payment gateways provide many local payment options within them that are compatible with the targeted local audience, and you can use more than one payment gateway on the online store. It is worth noting that you can also set up a local payment gateway completely manually within WooCommerce if it is not available within the payment gateways, by relying on the Custom Payment Gateways for WooCommerce add-on.

Therefore, it can be said that the WooCommerce platform helps you add all local payment options without limits or restrictions, with a large number of options available, and the superiority is definitely clear for the WooCommerce platform at this point. 4. Integration of add-ons and accessories into the Basket platform versus WooCommerce When we talk about building an online store, we do not only look at the basic store options of adding products, shipping, payment methods, and so on, but we must also look at the add-ons and accessories that you will need to add more customizations to your own store.

Integration of add-ons and extensions into the Basket The Basket platform provides an official store that includes a collection of free and paid applications in all major categories, for example marketing, email, site optimization, chat, and more. The integration of the Salla platform and the integration of WooCommerce with other platforms, but you will find the options relatively limited in most categories, because the platform is not open source, and therefore programmers need to submit the add-on for review first by specialized technical support and then upload it to the Salla store. Also, the audience of the Salla platform is relatively low compared to other e-store platforms, so the number of programmers interested in the platform is also smaller. This is definitely reflected in the cost of add-ons, as you will notice that the cost of add-ons is relatively high, and the free options are very limited, and are mostly from the Basket platform programming itself.

Integration of add-ons and extensions into WooCommerce. The WordPress system provides a huge number of free and paid add-ons and extensions on the official store, as the number of free add-ons on the free WordPress store alone reaches more than 59,000 thousand, and this is certainly because it is an open source platform. This number also increases when including paid add-ons on external sources, for example, the Picalica platform or otherwise. It is worth noting that developers can upload external add-ons and use them directly on the WordPress store, and this is certainly due to the open source system. Also, most of the providers of basic services for e-stores, for example, Zaytoun program or others, provide full compatibility with WooCommerce through ready-made add-ons, and are not compatible with the basket platform.

Therefore, if we compare the integration of add-ons and extensions in the basket platform versus the WooCommerce system, we will find that the WooCommerce system is superior in terms of the abundance of add-ons offered, as well as the fact that it is open source. 5. Scalability of the Basket platform versus WooCommerce The Basket platform provides you with infrastructure management, server management, and matters related to security and protection, and therefore does not charge you for the number of visitors, the number of sales, or the like, but you pay a fixed fee for the features that you get from the platform regardless of the size of your store.

On the other hand, the WooCommerce system requires you to have dedicated hosting to install and set up WooCommerce. Therefore, if the size of your store increases and the number of visitors increases, you will need to upgrade the hosting to a higher plan. If you rely on cloud hosting that you pay for consumption, you will find flexibility in this matter because when visitors to your online store increase, you will need more resources for your server. Therefore, this is an issue to take into consideration when talking about electronic stores, because visits often depend on advertising campaigns and promotional seasons, and thus increase on some days and decrease on other days, and thus you need to rely on a flexible plan that can expand or contract according to the size of the market.

Therefore, we can say that Basalt is characterized by scalability due to the platform’s management supporting the entire infrastructure of your store, while WooCommerce is distinguished by this feature if you rely on cloud hosting and you have experience in the basics of server management with the company you will rely on. It is worth noting that we talk about the concept of scalability from a larger perspective, which is owning the source code for your online store, which is important if you want to change the framework on which you rely. When you rely on the Sella platform, you do not own the source code for your own store, let alone the authority to modify it (except for CSS). However, if you rely on WooCommerce, you rely on an open source system and you have the authority to fully own the code.

As we explained previously, in the WordPress programming system, you have complete freedom to control and modify the system as long as you understand the core of the system and the components on which it depends, and also if you want to move to other programming. This is where the WordPress and WooCommerce system outperforms the Basket platform or closed source platforms in general. As we said, you need to look at your needs in the future and not evaluate the current situation only. 6.

Technical Support in Basket vs. WooCommerce You will need to obtain technical support on an ongoing basis while working on your online store, as well as solving problems that you face in the work environment that you rely on or in making the necessary modifications and customizations for your online store. The Basalt platform provides technical support service through live chat within the store owners’ account, through which you can communicate directly with the technical support team to answer your questions and provide the necessary support for your store on the platform. Technical support will fully handle matters related to your store, whether related to the design, store functions, work, or operation, without delving into other details.

The level of technical support in the basket platform and the WooCommerce system. On the other hand, the WooCommerce add-on does not provide you with direct technical support from the add-on administration in the administrative sense, but you get support in different forms or in separate places and not in one place. For example, you will find technical support for adding WooCommerce itself or WordPress itself on the official WordPress website, and you will also find technical support for hosting your site from the hosting service provider with regard to hosting only, and you will also find technical support for your online store template from the author of the template with regard to supporting the template... Likewise, you will also find some communities for the WordPress system being the most famous content management system, as is the case in the Arab WordPress Forum, in which you will find a group of developers and website owners who help you in solving your problems.

It will be difficult to reach a face-to-face technical support person who will help you solve all your various problems, except sometimes in a paid manner, as is the case with the WordPress services available on the Khamsat website, for example. You will find some specialized services in WordPress, and some of them include several aspects of managing your site. It should be made clear that this will depend on the size of the modifications you are looking for. Some simple modifications you may make yourself without the need for support through the explanations we provide on the WordPress Arabic website or by asking your question in the community as we explained. Also, some medium tasks may require paid WordPress services, and some of them will require developers specialized in a specific aspect, such as obtaining a project to develop a custom WordPress template on a freelancer, for example, or making advanced customizations in the infrastructure of your site, or developing a custom add-on for you that performs a specific function that has no similar counterpart published.

Thus, we can say that the ease of obtaining technical support in Independent is better because Basalah’s technical support follows up on all technical matters for you through the technical support representative in one place, unlike the WooCommerce system, which requires you to obtain technical support in more than one place depending on the environment you rely on to build your store. If we look at the popularity of technical support for the WooCommerce system, we will find that it is better than Basketball because it is an open source system that any developer who understands its languages ​​can work on. Also, because of the popularity of the system, you will find many places where you can get support for your site, such as specialized communities, forums, communication platforms, independent people, etc. It is also worth noting that when talking about the level of security and protection on the two platforms, the WordPress system itself and the WooCommerce extension are at the highest levels of security, but due to the extensions, failure to update the system, or wrong behavior on the part of the site administrator, this may cause a security risk to the site.

As for Basalah, the platform is closed on itself, and therefore the chances of hacking are weak because it is not easy for hackers to access sensitive data from the site. The platform has its fame and good reputation, and therefore its development team is building a solid protection system. In the end, which is better?

Basket platform or WooCommerce system?

I could have told you during the previous explanation that the WooCommerce system is absolutely better, or I could have told you that the Basket platform is absolutely better, but this is not the goal of the explanation, to walk with you step by step until you reach the correct choice of the platform that is most suitable for you. In fact, there are some advantages that the Salla platform excels at, such as ease of use and technical support for non-specialists. However, if you invest more time in researching, reading, and exploring the WooCommerce system more, you will find that you can get more customization options for your own store. Be sure that there is no system that is absolutely good and that there is no system that is absolutely complex, but rather that each system has its advantages and disadvantages through which you can choose the option that is closest to your perceptions.

For example, you will find that the Magento system is more intended for online stores and is more secure and protected, but it is very complex and you always need to hire developers. Likewise, you will find the opencart system more easy to use, but it misses many of the basic customizations for online stores. If we look at WooCommerce and Basket quickly, you will find that you get more comfort in use at a higher cost and lose some features, or you invest some additional time and effort to get more freedom in customization and modification. In general, open source software gives you more freedom to customize, modify, and own the source code and infrastructure for your online store or website, unlike closed source environments in which the platform administration controls all the customizations you get, and in the end the decision is made by managing the platform, and if a threat occurs to the platform, this means threatening all the sites hosted on it without the ability of the site owners to take any corresponding action.