Magento Open Source is a great option for eCommerce entrepreneurs who want to be able to customize their online storefronts, but it’s not always the best choice.
Magento Commerce is the hosted version of Magento Open Source, which allows you to deploy an all-in-one, cloud-based solution, based on the powerful Magento Commerce platform. Using Magento Commerce helps simplify the process of designing and launching a new eCommerce website.
Not sure what option is right for you? In this article, we’ll take a look at a few of the reasons that you may want to consider Magento Commerce over Magento Open Source. Let’s get started now.
1. Native B2B Functionality
If you have B2B customers, you need Magento Commerce.
Unlike Open Source, Commerce comes with a powerful, native B2B suite with a deep stack of features:
- Custom pricing & catalogs
- Sell on terms and with credit limits
- Fast ordering by SKU or CSV upload.
- Share and edit cart with other buyers in the company.
- Streamlined quote management and price negotiation.
While many companies are ignoring the potential benefits of a B2B eCommerce website, sales are continuing to grow and forecasted to reach $1.2 trillion by 2021. Best of all, with Magento Commerce, you can manage both your B2B and B2C storefronts with one Magento instance.
2. Simplified PCI Compliance and Security
If your eCommerce store accepts credit card transactions of any type, you must adhere to PCI standards for data security and storage.
On Magento Open Source, you’re responsible for developing your backend and integrating a payment processor. That puts you on the hook to implement PCI standards and make sure that your website is protecting your customer’s data.
You’re also responsible for maintaining your own firewalls and data security precautions, and ensuring that your customer’s data is not stolen.
As you can imagine, that’s a ton of work.
And if you don’t have a team of qualified web developers professionals helping you set up the right infrastructure, your store can be vulnerable to data theft and hacking.
That’s why Magento Commerce is a better choice if you’d prefer an all-in-one solution for PCI compliance and web security:
- Automatic PCI compliance with powerful, cloud-hosted servers.
- Advanced protection from hacks and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.
- The Fastly Web Application Firewall (WAF), which protects against common vectors like injection, HTTP protocol violations, and cross-site scripting.
Your site will run on encrypted, powerful enterprise-grade servers, and be optimized for Magento – without requiring you to do the legwork of setting up a PCI-compliant database or exposing yourself to legal risks due to accidental noncompliance or data theft.
3. Better Content Management and Page Creation Tools
If you plan on administering your website yourself, Magento Commerce is your best bet.
While anyone can update and change a Magento website with a little bit of research and know-how, doing so is even easier with Magento Commerce.
There are three very useful tools that come with the Magento Commerce that make creating and updating content easier than ever:
Page Builder
With Page Builder, you can create pages in minutes…without a single line of code.
- Add new web product, content or catalog pages.
- Add/remove content blocks from existing web pages.
- And much more, all with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Page Builder empowers you to quickly create a content-rich experience that drives customer engagement and loyalty.
Visual Merchandiser
Gone are the days of manually sorting products for hours with a number system.
With Visual Merchandiser, you can sort your products visually. Just drag and drop your products exactly how you want them to appear on the page.
Products are displayed in Visual Merchandiser exactly how your customers see them on the front end. What you see, is what the customer sees. Sorting now takes minutes.
Easy peasy.
Content Staging and Preview
Easily create, preview, and schedule content and promotional updates – without involving IT. Updates are automatically published and removed at scheduled times, so you can “set it, and forget it.”
You can view your site, with all future content updates in place, in real time. All the way through checkout to confirm all promotions are working as expected. It’s like browsing your website exactly as it would appear and function at a future date.
For example, you know you’re going to have a Christmas Sale with a custom homepage and banners. Well, you can create it, schedule it and browse the site in May EXACTLY as it will appear when your promotion is launched.
4. Faster Website Deployment
Because Magento Commerce provides you and your development team with an optimized, fully-compatible server and an all-in-one, managed and automated hosting platform, you can develop and deploy your website faster.
There’s no need for any system administrators, for example – because all databases and web/caching servers can be deployed automatically.
Not only does this help you deploy your website faster, it also helps you control costs while you’re developing your eCommerce store.
5. Blazing Fast Performance
The performance of your Magento website is reliant on a few key factors, including:
- The quality of your hosting provider.
- If you have a Content Delivery Network (CDN) in place.
- Optimization of your website.
Slow websites lose sales – 57% of customers will leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load – so it’s important to optimize your Magento website for speed.
With Magento Commerce, this is done automatically. The cloud servers are optimized for Magento installations, and a global CDN ensures that content is served up to your customers from the nearest server – ensuring quick loading times.
You also get access to a specialized suite of performance monitoring tools, which allow you to assess the performance of your website and find areas of improvement – further enhancing speed.
Which Magento Version is Right For You?
That’s a good question.
If you’re just starting out with a few products, don’t have complex functionality or customization, Magento Open Source is a great starting point. It’s a free, open source platform that will serve you well.
However, if you’re already online and looking to take your business to the next level, the rich feature set of Magento Commerce can help you get there.
If you’re still not sure, contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss your options. We can help you understand the pros and cons of each version, and decide which one is right for you.
Because building an eCommerce website is a big investment. And you want to do it right. The first time.
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