The Core

Hey Blazer,  I'm not an expert on either but I selected Prestashop for my new project.  It seems to have a lot of things going for it.  So far I like it a lot, it is easy to install, easy to configure.  I've modified the default theme to make it somewhat warmer, but there are some nice templates available.

What attracted me to Prestashop over Woocomerce is that it is not based on Wordpress, which frankly is a liability I'd like to avoid if possible.  Wordpress is great, but it is so wide spread that it is a giant target that needs to be updated all the time or it becomes very vulnerable.

I'm not really qualified to say.  Maybe someone else will chime in.

Thanks littleman, I still do appreciate your input... and yes, I have Torben but I started this new thread to try to get some new insight specifically on this comparison between Prestashop and Woocommerce.

FYI there's a new free plugin that links kashflow (accounting system you don't end up fighting with) with woocommerce.
Its my now new favourite setup to get sites off the ground and to get the cash flowing before looking for more advance systems

Prestashop is a great platform without a doubt, limited in terms of design out of the box but that depends on your designer and the woo commerce themes although many are good none are amazing yet (please feel to correct me and post good themes  ). My experience is with woo commerce rather than prestashop and this is why...

The flexibility provided by wordpress and the plugins surrounding it is huge, the fact you can tie this in with your ecommerce doubles the opportunity and there are some fantastic plugins. Ecommerce sites are tough to spec out of the box as everyone has their own individual needs from product specifications, forms, variations, shipping equations to addons like gift lists, social vouchers etc. You normally only find the limitations once you start building and playing with it which can end up leading you into weeks of unexpected development. With woo commerce & wordpress chances are there is a plugin for that and you can have it up running and even adapted quickly and easily.

I wouldn't be put off by woo commerce being a plugin, it isn't like the others, it was originally created by the jigo shop boys and they structured it well from the start, ran beta groups etc and even in development it was impressive, just what I had been looking for, for years. Don't be fooled it is a great ecommerce platform in its own right it is just built on the wordpress platform.

I have not run it through the mill with a large database but others have here and said it has passed (should be on another thread somewhere) however this is a real consideration. Now as it is wordpress it is likely to be more resource intensive than presta shop depending on how fancy you want to make it. So it depends on your focus, what is more important to you, customer conversion, brand loyalty, flexibility and freedom or a numbers game, stack em high, keep it simple and running fast. If it is the latter I would go for prestashop otherwise I would give woocommerce a go.

Hope this helps