Magento 2.3 has been with us since November of 2018. But now, Magento 2.4.X releases have superseded Magento 2.3, and Adobe has officially announced that Magento will be entering EOL (End Of Life). Official support for this release of Magento will end on September 8, 2022.
Magento 2.4 was released almost 2 years ago in July of 2020. While it’s not exactly new, many stores are still running Magento 2.3 releases. Maybe you meant to update your store, but you never did. Maybe you never saw a good reason to upgrade, or maybe it just slipped your mind.
That may leave you wondering – what will happen to Magento 2.3? What can you expect, and should you make the jump and upgrade to Magento 2.4 before September? In this post, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about the end of support for Magento 2.3. Let’s dive in!
1. Official Updates, Patches, And Support
Will Be Completely Discontinued
EOL means that Adobe will no longer be doing any work on Magento 2.3. The platform won’t receive any official updates, patches, or support. This includes security patches and bugfixes, too, as well as PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance updates.
Basically, you’re using Magento 2.3 at your own risk after it enters the EOL phase. If there are any serious vulnerabilities, security flaws, bugs, or other problems with the platform, they won’t receive official fixes. This may not be a huge deal at first. But over the weeks, months, and years, these problems may become more significant, and more dangerous to your eCommerce store.
2. Compatibility With Magento Marketplace
Extensions May Become More Limited
Generally speaking, vendors and developers who use the Magento Marketplace prioritize compatibility with the latest versions of Magento. That means they will prioritize Magento 2.4 when adding features, fixing bugs, improving stability, and so on.
In addition, extensions that are only compatible with unsupported versions of Magento – like Magento 2.3 – will eventually be removed from the store. So unless you upgrade to Magento 2.4, you may find that some of your essential extensions will no longer function properly, and this would cause numerous issues on your eCommerce store.
3. You Won’t Be Able To File Support
Tickets For Magento 2.3
Not only will updates be stopped for Magento 2.3, but you also won’t be able to file support tickets for this version of the Magento eCommerce platform. If you start to experience a problem with your store while using Magento 2.3, you’ll be on your own – you and your technical team will have to solve it without the help of the Magento dev team.
4. Magento 2.3 Documentation Will Be
Removed From Their Website
If you start having issues with your store while using Magento 2.3, it will be a lot harder for you to fix them after EOL occurs in September 2022. That’s because Magento removes developer documentation from their website once an old Magento version has become deprecated.
Even if you do decide to stick with Magento 2.3 and you try to fix problems that happen on your own, you may have trouble if you can’t find the proper developer documents. It may be possible to dig some of them up even after September 2022, but it will be a lot more difficult.
Why Should I Upgrade To Magento 2.4?
Six Reasons To Make The Switch:
Now that you understand some of the things that will happen once Magento 2.3 officially reaches EOL on September 8, 2022, you may still be wondering – should you upgrade to Magento 2.4 right away?
The answer is “yes.” There are dozens – if not hundreds – of reasons to make the switch. We’ve compiled six of the most-important improvements that Magento 2.4 has to offer over Magento 2.3. This list can help you start planning your upgrade today.
1. Better security for storefronts and data – Magento 2.4 added tons of security features, hundreds of bug fixes, support for 2FA (two-factor authentication) and a lot of other features that make your store more secure. You’ll also benefit from regular security patches with every new Magento update.
2. BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In Store) support – This was one of Magento 2.4’s flagship features when it launched in 2020. If you own a brick-and-mortar store, you can now natively integrate BOPIS functionality into your web store.
3. Enhanced media gallery, Adobe Stock integration – Magento 2.4 brings performance improvements to the media gallery, and also includes native integration with Adobe Stock to make it easier to add assets to your website. The Magento 2.4 media gallery is up to 30 timesfaster than previous versions.
4. Performance upgrades – Overall, Magento 2.4 offers much better performance than Magento 2.3, with significant improvements to store catalogs, checkout pages, search functionality, enhanced caching, and a laundry list of other boosts. You’ll experience faster loading speeds – and better conversion rates – once you make the switch.
5. B2B improvements – A long list of B2B improvements were added to Magento 2.4, including seller-assisted shopping features, improved B2B approval workflows and approval rules, and enhanced notification features for purchase orders.
6. Improvements to PWA support – Magento 2.4 now supports both PWA Studio 6.0.0 and 6.0.1 support, making it easier to build Progressive Web App storefronts for your store.
Need Help With Your Magento 2.4 Upgrade?
Contact 121eCommerce Today!
At 121eCommerce, we’re experts in all things Magento. From building new stores from the ground up, to platform migration, project rescues, and Magento platform upgrades, we do it all. As an Adobe Gold Solution Partner, we have the team, knowledge, tools, and expertise you need to upgrade from Magento 2.3 to Magento 2.4.
And the clock is ticking. After September 8, 2022, you’ll be on your own if you’re still using Magento 2.3. So don’t wait. Learn more about our services, get more details about the benefits of switching, and take the first steps by contacting us for a free consultation. Our team is always standing by to serve you.
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