SN
Head of Service Delivery at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
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Provides seamless administration and out-of-the-box features for OMS integration, but needs better performance and a better way to measure performance
Pros and Cons
  • "As compared to platforms such as ATG or Commerce Cloud, its interface is easy to use. Magento also provides seamless administration for business users. You can also integrate an OMS to an extent. You don't need to have a dedicated OMS. You can leverage the out-of-the-box features of Magento, which is very valuable for startups. Other platforms, such as Commerce Cloud, don't have an OMS, and you have to have your own OMS solution."
  • "I am still playing around and trying to catch up with the latest version to understand all the features, but I do feel that its CMS can be much more streamlined. They provide a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor, which many customers prefer, but based on the implementations that I have done for more than seven years, I have seen that many times, it is run by the marketing team, and they don't find it very comfortable to use. They feel uncomfortable managing and changing the content. As a business user, you need to have at least basic knowledge of HTML, which you cannot expect from all marketing teams. Some companies or organizations have that competency, but many organizations, especially in the Middle East, have a very small team, so it becomes quite difficult for them. This is a common challenge that I have seen across the platforms. Magento is better and easier than Oracle Commerce Cloud, but Shopify is much easier than Magento. A layman or my 10-year-old kid can go ahead and set up a store in Shopify in probably 45 minutes, which is not the case with Magento. Elasticsearch has really been a pain. It takes a toll on the performance. Starting with version 2.4, Magento requires Elasticsearch, which has been causing a lot of serious performance issues. We had a client in the US who was running a promo, and they lost a subsequent number of orders over one and a half hours. They were on the enterprise platform, not open-source. The team had to open a ticket with Magento. Its performance needs to be upgraded, or some kind of guidelines have to be provided for the setup. It looks like even Magento has no clue. When you go through the answers given in the online community, it seems that in spite of having the hardware configurations that they suggest, it is not performing at the optimal level. It should also have a better way to measure performance. Performance measuring has to be much easier. Many times, we see CPU utilization going up and down. We see spikes without any reason. Therefore, we need a better performance management system."

What is our primary use case?

I was working as a service delivery manager in the Middle East. That's where I did Magento implementation for B2B. Currently, I am refreshing my knowledge. I am using the open-source version.

How has it helped my organization?

One of our clients was the largest radiator manufacturers in the Middle East. They were into manufacturing radiators for trucks, cars, and construction equipment, and they wanted a solution to reach out to the B2B market in Europe and other geographical areas. We did a Magento implementation with just B2B functionality, which actually helped them to get more traction. They started getting quite a lot of leads through online channels, and they had their marketing team engaged. Previously, they had to send their salespeople literally all over the northern part of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. After implementing Magento, they could get a lot of potential leads.

What is most valuable?

As compared to platforms such as ATG or Commerce Cloud, its interface is easy to use. Magento also provides seamless administration for business users. 

You can also integrate an OMS to an extent. You don't need to have a dedicated OMS. You can leverage the out-of-the-box features of Magento, which is very valuable for startups. Other platforms, such as Commerce Cloud, don't have an OMS, and you have to have your own OMS solution.

What needs improvement?

I am still playing around and trying to catch up with the latest version to understand all the features, but I do feel that its CMS can be much more streamlined. They provide a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor, which many customers prefer, but based on the implementations that I have done for more than seven years, I have seen that many times, it is run by the marketing team, and they don't find it very comfortable to use. They feel uncomfortable managing and changing the content. As a business user, you need to have at least basic knowledge of HTML, which you cannot expect from all marketing teams. Some companies or organizations have that competency, but many organizations, especially in the Middle East, have a very small team, so it becomes quite difficult for them. This is a common challenge that I have seen across the platforms. Magento is better and easier than Oracle Commerce Cloud, but Shopify is much easier than Magento. A layman or my 10-year-old kid can go ahead and set up a store in Shopify in probably 45 minutes, which is not the case with Magento.

Elasticsearch has really been a pain. It takes a toll on the performance. Starting with version 2.4, Magento requires Elasticsearch, which has been causing a lot of serious performance issues. We had a client in the US who was running a promo, and they lost a subsequent number of orders over one and a half hours. They were on the enterprise platform, not open-source. The team had to open a ticket with Magento. Its performance needs to be upgraded, or some kind of guidelines have to be provided for the setup. It looks like even Magento has no clue. When you go through the answers given in the online community, it seems that in spite of having the hardware configurations that they suggest, it is not performing at the optimal level.

It should also have a better way to measure performance. Performance measuring has to be much easier. Many times, we see CPU utilization going up and down. We see spikes without any reason. Therefore, we need a better performance management system.

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For how long have I used the solution?

I have about four to five years of experience in using this solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is not stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is actually good. You can start with the open-source version, and as you are scaling up, you can move to the enterprise version. Both options are there. In the enterprise version, you also get other benefits and advanced features. So scalability-wise, it is good, but there is a cost for scaling.

In terms of the number of users, we had the end-users and business users. The number of business users varied from four to ten. Up to ten business users were added for managing catalogs and content and for administration and other aspects. You need one person for deployment, code fixes, and maintenance. Apart from that, you need people for testing and catalog merchandising. A very small organization would require six to eight employees.

How are customer service and support?

Their enterprise platform support has not been great, but it has improved. As compared to Oracle and other platforms that operate on SaaS models, Magento support is better.

Their response is great. They normally provide immediate responses, but when there is an infrastructure issue, there are delays. I have seen them taking days to get back. There have been instances where we had the Customer Success Manager from Magento sitting with us on calls for eight hours to ensure that somebody from their side delivers a solution. They just need to handle the infrastructure issues better.

How was the initial setup?

It is slightly complex, and you need technical knowledge. It is not as easy as Shopify, where you just log in and create your domain and a store. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to set a store up in Shopify, and you can then start playing with its interfaces and other things, but that's not the case with Magento. It took me a couple of hours to set up Magento.

What about the implementation team?

For deployment, it definitely requires at least one Magento certified lead or a senior developer. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Many implementations were open-source. We also had a couple of enterprise-level implementations, but I didn't have visibility on the licensing cost.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution, but if you are not technically strong, I would suggest Shopify.

I would rate Magento a six out of ten. It is a decent choice.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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VP of eCommerce with 51-200 employees
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How to Upgrade Magento from Community to Enterprise…the right way.

With the recent feature rich releases of Magento Enterprise, there has been a groundswell of Magento customers that are shifting from Community to Enterprise.

In Magento’s early days – the gap between the community and enterprise products was narrow…but that is no longer the case.  New features, improved architecture, multi-storefront approaches, PCI, scale, speed – these are all areas that Magento has invested heavily in their Enterprise solution.

A large volume of merchants who have successfully grown their existing ecommerce business using Magento’s Community Edition have been confronted with the the need to improve their system scalability and features. as their online traffic increases.

In short, companies are quickly outgrowing the Community Edition.  Many Community edition users have been painfuly confronted with the realization that trying to customize Magento Community Edition to try to mimic enterprise through custom code and the use extensions doesn’t really save money over time and can in fact cost more.

So…for all of you looking to make the Community to Enterprise move…here’s how to do it.

In this review, we will share some of the key items to consider when planning for your upgrade and what to expect when executing your upgrade project.

Step 1: Perform a detailed assessment of your current environment.

Upgrading to Magento Enterprise from Community Edition does not have to be a difficult process. But to do this in a predictable, reliable manner, there are some very important facts you need to know before you start.

First, what version of Community Edition (CE) are you using?  If you are using version 1.5.0 or earlier, your upgrade is going to be more difficult. Architectural updates to the platforms beginning with the release of version 1.5.1 of CE will result in a multi-step upgrading process to resolve differences in the software stack.  If you are working with a partner to do this upgrade, make sure you provide this information and make sure you provider can provide you with a game plan of what to expect.

Second, identify and document which extensions or plug-ins you have installed on your CE instance.  For each extension installed, you’ll need to answer the following questions:

  1. Is the extension you installed on CE required on EE or does EE offer similar functionality out of the box? For elements like coupons, pricing promotions, loyalty points, the answer is likely yes.  As a result, you will likely not carry the extensions over to the new site, but you will probably need some form of data migration to move the data from the extension’s table structures into the out of the box Enterprise Edition instances.
  2. If the extension is not duplicated by out of the box EE functionality, is there an EE version available you can use?  Note, many extensions used on community edition are not supported on Enterprise Edition at all. In some cases, an EE version may exist, but you need to purchase a different version or license key and apply a new package that is compatible with EE.
    1. If you are going to be implementing an EE version of an extension, make sure the provider has documentation or can walk you through how to upgrade your CE version to EE version.
    2. If the extension is not duplicated by out of the box Magento EE functionality, and an EE version of the extension does not exist, you will need a plan and timeline to either update the extension’s code to work with EE or replace it with a custom built set of logic or functionality.

For step 1, plan on spending a day to catalog your extensions and at least one to two days reviewing the alternative solutions and building your plan to address items 1, 2 and 3.

Step 2: Check for Core file changes

Once you have cataloged your extensions lists and defined your areas of impact, the next thing you need to consider is whether you have made changes to the core Magento files (non upgrade safe changes).  Note, Magento’s architecture has a defined method for applying changes in an upgrade safe.  Your IT team member or services partner may want to consider taking a copy of your site, and a clean, unmodified version of Magento CE that you are using and do a ‘diff’ on the core file structures to see what has been changed, if anything.

If you have made core file changes, note, you will want to take a full back up of the changed files because there is a strong likelihood that the upgrade will overwrite some of these changes, if not all.

Make sure you comment the sections of code where you identified core changes.

*A note on integration work. Integrations are typically done in an upgrade safe way. However, you want to pay special attention at this point to document and backup any files you used to integrate Magento to any other system. These will be critical points of verification as you move forward.

Once the changes have been documented and backed up, move on to step 3.

Step 3: Plan for test and deployment

Start with the end in mind, plan for testing and deployment before you start your upgrade project work.

You don’t want to upgrade your production instance right away. In fact, you may not want totally upgrade your production instance at all, you may want the two instances running side by side for a time to give you a fallback option is something goes wrong.

So first, plan on how you will deploy your upgrade to production and where you will do you upgrade project and testing prior to launch.  We strongly recommend you setup a development site and server. This means having a separate physical host (or virtual server) that will not share resources with your production server. The upgrade process can be resource intensive – you don’t want to disrupt any production activity during this project.

Once you have your development / test server in place, take a full back up of your production site (code and database).  Deploy it to your development server, and keep a copy of the backup zipped up for reapplication if you need it. You don’t want to have to take multiple backups if you run into issues early on in the process.

With the development site in place, you’re now ready to plan for your acceptance testing.

It is a great practice to document your testing steps and expected results (an Excel Spreadsheet is fine) before you start work. Take screen shots so you can compare before and after results to make sure your logic changes work the same after the upgrade. Make sure you define all the key conditions you need to validate before you launch to production.

Also, make sure you test scripts include a means of validating that any integration interfaces you had in place still work properly. Integration is usually time consuming, and you don’t want to realize after you’ve deployed to production that you need to update this portion of your site post go live.

Trying to put this together after you’ve done your upgrade can be very difficult – so start with the end in mind.

Step 4: Execute the upgrade

Time to upgrade.

Based on your assessments in steps 1 and 2, you should begin applying the upgrade package and working through your plan for extension or core file change management.

If you are starting with version 1.5.1, the upgrade to the current version will be relatively quick (a day of effort to run through and do an initial validation of results) and painless. Reapplying extensions, core file changes or new logic will then occur and the effort for that will depend on the volume of changes you have to support. If you don’t have many extensions or any core file changes, this part may take as little as a few days.

If you have a large number of extensions, core file changes, etc, you could spend a few weeks going through this process.

**Note, critical success factor for managing time, budget and success.

We strong urge that customers NOT begin adding new functionality or features right away or as part of the upgrade process.  Moving to Magento Enterprise Edition will arm you with an entire new set of features and tools. You should strongly consider releasing the upgraded site first, let it bake in, learn about what you now have at your disposal, and then plan on what new features and functionality you want to add after your new site is in production and you are comfortable that everything is stable.

You will learn that Magento EE does more than you think. You’ll also learn that the approaches to adding new functionality change with EE and it is a much more flexible architecture.  – A little patience on this front will save you time and money overall.

Step 5: Test, Validate, Revise

Once you have what you consider to be an upgraded development instance, it’s time to execute your test plan. Go through and test with detail that the upgraded development site functions substantially the same as what you previously documented. Validate not only that it is error free, but that calculations, taxes, UI elements, etc. all match up.  Be sure to test any integration interfaces you had in place and that integration transactions work properly. Finally, make sure that any extensions you replaced, upgraded or removed work properly or that the intended revised functionality based on EE out of the box tools works as you expect it to.

When you can confidently say you have validated your existing, as is functionality is working properly, you are ready to plan for a move to EE in production.

Step 6: Plan for Go Live

To convert your in production site to EE, you’ll need to do one of two things:

  1. Either plan for some minor downtime on the site (and have a site down for maintenance notice page in place ready to go) <or>
  2. Stage a parallel EE Production site with the completed/ upgraded software in place and plan to cut over from one box to the other, realizing you may have a few straggling orders in the old site that either don’t show in the new site or need to be migrated over via a data migration.

When you do this, the biggest thing to realize is that if you are making DNS changes to point to a new host, those changes may take up to 24 hours to propagate nationwide or worldwide.

As a result, it’s a good idea in advance of your launch (at least 3 or 4 days in advance) to reduce the Time to Live (TTL) settings on your DNS entries to as low a value as possible so that the changes propagate as quickly as possible.

Even with a low TTL, some traffic will still route to the old IP address for a little while unless you’re firewall or network configuration has a rule in place to route to the new host internally.

Either way, plan to make the production move at the beginning of what is a low traffic period for you. Most people automatically assume this means weekends. For B2B oriented sites, that might be the case. But realistically, you should look at which days of the week (and times of day) have the lowest volume. It very well may be that a weekday in the morning is the best time to make the change.

When you plan your cutover, make sure that all necessary support, admin and customer service representatives are aware of the change so that if call volume to your office increases, they can give a clear message and that they are prepared for any spikes in activity.

Step 7: Plan for “Post Deployment” Support – you need a plan in place before you launch your live site

This is the one area that is constantly overlooked or undervalued. When you make any large change, you will find that something comes up post launch that you either didn’t anticipate or that you missed somewhere in your process.

If you are launching in off or late hours, your support staff will need to be calibrated to provide late hours support and probably be in early the next day in the event there is an issue to triage.

If you running a site with high volumes of traffic or orders, you, your support staff, and your IT team or partner need to have a plan in place for ongoing bursts of activity for at least the first week post launch.

Once you get through week 1 and all is calm, then it’s time to prepare for the next batch of new functionality you wish to implement.

Disclaimer: The company I work for is partners with several vendors

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Technical Architect at a consumer goods company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
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A powerful and scalable platform for developing e-commerce websites
Pros and Cons
  • "The platform provides an easy way to customize its features."
  • "The product needs to improve its security. Also, they need to improve B2B features."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution for mainly B2C e-commerce. We use the product to develop e-commerce websites.

What is most valuable?

The platform provides an easy way to customize its features.

What needs improvement?

The product needs to improve its security. Also, they need to improve B2B features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The platform is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. My company is big and we have plans to increase the platform’s usage.

How are customer service and support?

I have no issues with the tool’s tech support.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s setup is not complex. It’s just like any regular platform implementation. The number of people required for the platform’s implementation depends on the size of the project.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI with the solution’s use.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. Magento is a powerful platform with many options for customization. It is a competitive platform compared to other similar products. Before making a decision with Magento, you need to investigate other platforms. You need to choose a platform depending on your needs and industry type.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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CEO at AAlogics
Real User
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Has a modular approach, welcoming extensions that are cost-effective and speed time to market
Pros and Cons
  • "The ecosystem includes thousands of vendors who are providing third-party add-ons."
  • "The performance is a bottleneck in Magento and there is a lot of room for improvement in this regard."

What is our primary use case?

Magento 2 is basically a B2C solution for online retail shops. Our clients are majorly small to medium-sized businesses who are using this product to sell online and manage their orders. They also manage their products, catalog, and customers using it.

Our company includes a structure that caters to the needs of companies who are already using Magneto 2. We have a development team, a DevOps team, and a marketing team. We provide all of the services required to manage, maintain, develop, and implement this solution for our clients under one roof.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this solution is its modular approach.

The ecosystem includes thousands of vendors who are providing third-party add-ons. For anybody who is implementing this solution, they can easily get these extensions for a very cheap price, or even for free, from the market. This provides good value to small and medium-sized customers. Not only can they build a system at a cheap price, but they can get it live very quickly.

Many of our clients integrate this with third-party ERP and accounting applications.

What needs improvement?

There are multiple areas that are in need of improvement because even a small or mid-sized business requires features that are not included. Some of our clients need a CRM, which is not available in Magneto. Others need a complete accounting system, which is also not available by default.

Because of these missing components, we recommend our clients use third-party applications like QuickBooks or Odoo ERP and integrate them with Magento. However, if Magento provides us with these types of features then it will be a win-win because the customer won't have to integrate other systems to achieve the same functionality.

The performance is a bottleneck in Magento and there is a lot of room for improvement in this regard. There are multiple modules that come with Magento by default that are not needed by every business and should be removed. I have seen that in the newer releases, they are already starting to improve this.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our clients for this solution are small to mid-sized businesses that have their own customer base.

How was the initial setup?

Compared to other platforms, the initial setup of Magento is definitely complex. However, when I consider the value of using this application, I think that spending some time on the initial setup and configuration is worth it. It is not a waste of money because it is a very good solution and brings a lot of value.

What about the implementation team?

Our development and DevOps teams implement and deploy this product for our clients.

What was our ROI?

Magento 2 provides very good value.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost of implementation is cheap compared to other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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it_user11022 - PeerSpot reviewer
VP of eCommerce with 51-200 employees
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How to Plan for your Magento Enteprise Infrastructure

One of the items that I am asked about frequently is what an appropriate infrastructure (server) foot print looks like for Magento Enterprise. This is a really tough one to answer quickly as there are many, many variables that impact this. That being said, I want to share a few guidelines about what you need to consider when specking out your environment.

For most merchants doing $5 million or more online in a given year, you should have start with the assumption that at a minimum, you’ll want two servers. One will be a dedicated database server and the second will be a web server. Magento Enterprise was designed to operate in this type of environment. While the web server can be virtualized, we recommend you consider having your database server setup as a dedicated device and don’t skimp on the memory. MySQL will consume and utilize every GB of RAM you can give it. MySQL can be greedy, and if you are running the database and web services on the same box, you will eventually run into performance issues as the two different ends of the site compete for memory and processor time. Also, if you’re catalog is going to exceed 10k SKUs, or if you are going to run multiple store fronts, you need to move your database to a dedicated host.

What’s the significance of $5 million in annual online revenue? I agree that it’s a little bit of an arbitrary number, but we assume at that level that your product catalog is reasonably large (7500 SKU’s or more), your daily site volume is reasonable and growing (1000 visitors or more per day), and that you are also integrated into a backend system such as an ERP solution, which actually adds processing overhead for each integration transaction, just like web visitor traffic.

The next question merchants of this size have is if they need multiple web servers. Our general rule of thumb is that you should assume the answer is yes, at least 2 web servers should be in place. Why? It’s not just about volume. Magento is fantastic at leveraging caching tools (and has some caching built into it, see our blog at http://levementum.com/interview-with-an-expert-russell-mantilla-talks-about-caching-in-magento-enterprise/ ). At a minimum, a second front end server allows you to distribute load while enabling caching to create scale for your bursts in traffic. More important than capacity though, having horizontal scale matters to avoid unplanned downtime is critical. Servers do fail, and even with great SLA response times (which you rarely get from your low end purely virtual cloud hosting companies), you don’t want to have a 2, 3, or 4 hour outages. Having a network load balanced front end gives you fault tolerance you need to not only avoid disruptions to order volume, but to ensure your brand is consistently represented.

For merchants under $5 million in annual revenue, you’re in a grey area. Our guidance is that if you have 10k or more SKUs, you need a dedicated database device. If you have 5k or greater (but less than 10k) SKUs, you need to look at your web analytics very carefully. Pay particular attention to response times and be sure to periodically browse your own site from multiple connections and device types outside of your office. If you refresh your catalog to update inventory often, or if you have a very high conversion rate and a lot of order activity being integrated to your back office solutions, you should at a minimum, begin planning for a two server environment. If you are using a 1 server environment, make sure you up the amount of RAM as high as you can; 36GB or more is not unreasonable. Also make sure you tune your MySQL engine carefully so it doesn’t take all resources away from Apache / PHP stack.

Infrastructure planning is not a cut and dry science. There are a number of variables that can impact it. But with a reasonable framework of questions to ask yourself, you can narrow the range of appropriate options down quickly and prepare an environment that will meet or exceed your needs.

Disclaimer: The company I work for is partners with several vendors - http://levementum.com/company-information/partners/

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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it_user11016 - PeerSpot reviewer
Marketing at a retailer with 51-200 employees
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9 Reasons to Use or Migrate to Magento

Magento is the world’s biggest ecommerce platform which has been chosen by over 200,000 retailers world-wide, ranging from small start-ups to the likes of Fred Perry, Harvey Nichols, Warby Parker and many more. You can find more examples of Magento websites in my Magento showcase blog post here.

Magento was only officially released in 2008 but it quickly gained traction and became one of the biggest open source ecommerce platforms on the market. In 2011, Magento was acquired by eBay.

There are three versions of Magento, there are:

-       Magento Enterprise – premium version which offers more functionality that adds value to enterprise-level retailers. This version of Magento is very expensive and is not necessarily the best option for mid-level retailers.

-       Magento Community – the free version of Magento, which is used by the majority of Magento users. Community has lots of great features and is suitable for most retailers.

-       Magento Go – Magento Go is their hosted solution, which is similar to popular platform, Shopify. Magento Go is more suited to smaller retailers but does allow for users to upgrade.

Magento’s Community and Enterprise editions also benefit from Magento Connect, which features thousands of free and paid third-party modules / extensions to provide additional functionality for stores.

Right, so you’ve read my introduction to the Magento platform, here are nine potential reasons to move to it. There’s every chance that I’ve missed some reasons here, particularly as I’m not a programmer – please feel free to add any others within the comments below.

Developer following

Possibly the biggest advantage of using Magento over other ecommerce platforms (especially premium ones), is the huge global developer following it has. This adds a lot of value as lots of common issues and errors are documented on various different forums and blogs, helping store owners to overcome issues without having to use a consultant / agency / contractor.

There’s also lots of developer resources / guides around online, as well as MagentoU and the Magento certifications, which cover lots of the Magento core and validate a developer’s ability.

Scalability

The community edition of Magento is highly scalable and is suitable for retailers of all sizes. With larger retailers based on the community edition, I’ve seen lots of the functionality from Enterprise implemented on Community, such as full-page caching.

There are retailers that are turning over £20m+ online using the community edition of Magento without having any reason to look to migrate or move onto the enterprise edition.

Smaller retailers who are using Magento Community can operate knowing that their platform will allow them to grow considerably without hindering them.

Because so many different solutions integrate well with Magento (such as Salesforce and various different EPOS systems), retailers can also grow with the help of third-party software that can be fully integrated with the platform.

Magento is / can be SEO-friendly

Although out of the box Magento isn’t particularly good for SEO (because of the amount of duplicate content – read my Magento SEO post for more info), it can easily be tamed with the help of third-party modules.

The basic elements of SEO are already covered with Magento, such as meta content, use of the canonical tag, top-level URLs, search-friendly URLs, redirecting functionality etc.

Open source code

One of the key benefits of using Magento over other platforms is that it’s open source, meaning, amongst other things, it’s more flexible for developers, it’s more accessible (in terms of cost) and it’s more secure.

Lots of developers and agencies

There are thousands of Magento developers and agencies all over the world, meaning that if you get burnt by an agency / developer and want to move away, you’ve got the option. This is one of the main reasons I’d use Magento, because there are so many good agencies out there with experience and you’re not tied to a single provider unless you sign a contract.

Lots of functionality and features

Magento is filled with all kinds of functionality out of the box and has everything you need to run a standard ecommerce shop. In addition to the obvious things you’d expect out of the box, you’ve got a flexible product catalogue (which can be built into a product feed), a Magento module to help you create a mobile app / website, gift code / card functionality and lots more!

Some other examples of Magento features:

  • Built-in upselling / cross-selling functionality
  • Configurable pricing
  • Multi-store (can be ideal for internationalisation, managing multiple shops etc)
  • Product bundles
  • Newsletter management
  • Customer groups
  • CMS pages
  • User management
  • Advanced stock management
  • Multiple image per product
  • Advanced shipping method / supplier control

Magento Connect

Magento Connect is an extension marketplace that features thousands of modules for Magento Enterprise and Community. There are apps for anything from SEO and blogging to image handling and affiliate marketing. All of the apps have ratings and reviews, enabling you to decide whether to install or purchase one.

There are lots of good and bad extensions on Magento Connect, which you’ll get with most platforms, but they are vetted which helps to give the user piece of mind from a security perspective.

Different versions

I know I’ve already mentioned the different versions of Magento about 10 times in this post, but they’re very different and it’s key that you pick the right one.

Magento Go is relatively new and is designed for startups and small businesses who want a one-stop solution for ecommerce. Magento Go is a hosted solution and it has everything built in to allow you to sell products online.

Magento Community is a more robust platform that you will need to install and host yourself. One of my biggest recommendations for people starting out is don’t use Magento Community unless you know what you’re doing, far too many people make that mistake and end up in all kinds of trouble.

Good Magento developers are hard to find, but I’d suggest you need one to run a decent Magento store. If you’re in the UK and are looking for an agency or developer, you can drop me an email on paulrogers@gmail.com.

Magento Enterprise is a very expensive solution, but it’s well suited to large retailers. Examples of retailers who use Magento Enterprise include Dreams, Ford, The North Face, Harvey Nichols, Fred Perry and Paul Smith, although there are lots more.

When you’re paying for Magento Enterprise, you’re paying per server, so if you’re using multiple servers, be aware that the annual cost of additional servers is around $10,000 for each.

The fact that there are different versions of Magento for different sized retailers adds a lot of value in my opinion, as ecommerce platforms are not one size fits all.

Integrations

Hundreds of software providers integrate with Magento and there are also lots of great agencies who work on bespoke integrations too. The agency I used to work for (who are very good with Magento), GPMD, built the integrations for Locayta (a well know merchandising solution) and PayLater (a new payment solution).

Other examples of readily available integrations for Magento include PayPal, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, SalesForce, Zendesk and many more.

http://www.paulnrogers.co.uk/9-reasons-to-use-or-migrate-to-magento

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Digital Strategy Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Real User
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Plenty of analytics, integrates social media, and customization
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature in this solution I have found to be that I have the ability to find all the analytics that I need. It has very good integrations with social media platforms and other tools."
  • "The analytics are good but there is room for improvement. There are some limitations due to new regulations causing customer data time delays."

What is our primary use case?

My clients use this solution for an e-commerce platform, mostly for retail.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature in this solution I have found to be that I have the ability to find all the analytics that I need. It has very good integrations with social media platforms and other tools. From the client's point of view, it is customizable, it has high performance, you can find a lot of tools and install them, and the developers are happy with it too.

What needs improvement?

The analytics are good but there is room for improvement. There are some limitations due to new regulations causing customer data time delays.

In a future release, I would like the solution to be easier to find tools. If you are new to using it, it can be difficult. Additionally, there could be some additional training material available.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable even when you have a large product catalog.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My clients have found when it comes to scalability the solution can expand well. I had one client who created his own plugins for the solution. It is similar to an open-source platform. The solution is geared more towards larger product-sized companies. I would not recommend it for those having more than 1000 products. However, it does operate well for all-size companies.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This solution is cheaper than some of its competitors. However, the price depends on which country you are in. In some countries, such as Greece or some Southeastern European countries, the price for the client can be expensive. If you look at the center of North America and the North European countries, I think the price is very reasonable.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated Shopify.

What other advice do I have?

I think it is one of the best e-commerce platforms right now along with Shopify.

I rate Magento an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementor
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Owner at Designz23
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Highly customizable and easy to manage, but has problems related to stability
Pros and Cons
  • "The open-source PHP code allows our developers to customize pretty much anything on the platform, including allowing us to add some of the most complex shipping and inventory features for clients who have very specific, industry-related business specifications."
  • "More technical knowledge is required to keep a Magento website running smoothly compared to many other platforms like OpenCart."

What is our primary use case?

We used Magento to build an online shopping website for one of our biggest web design clients. Our client wanted a fast and easy solution and did not mind using a pre-made template.

How has it helped my organization?

Magento has made it easy for us to set up, manage, and customize online e-commerce websites for our web design clients.

What is most valuable?

The open-source PHP code allows our developers to customize pretty much anything on the platform, including allowing us to add some of the most complex shipping and inventory features for clients who have very specific, industry-related business specifications. 

What needs improvement?

Sometimes Magento has technical glitches and freezes, slows down, or crashes. The system requires a site administrator to know how and when to re-index and clear the cache. More technical knowledge is required to keep a Magento website running smoothly compared to many other platforms like OpenCart. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for seven years.

How was the initial setup?

We installed Magento on a shared hosting environment quickly and efficiently, without technical problems of any kind.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The system is more modern the OsCommerce and has cleaner PHP code that is more lightweight than some of the other shopping cart platforms.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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April 2024
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