Magento Open Source vs Commerce vs Commerce cloud

Magento Overview

Scalable architecture, rich feature set, and ability to customize the smallest details make Magento the best platform for retail. Regardless of editions, Magento Community or Magento Enterprise, Magento is used more often than other CMS for creating online stores.

By the way, if you’re used to using the old names, keep in mind that Magento Community is now called Magento Open Source and Magento Enterprise is called Magento/Adobe Commerce.

General Magento features:

  • Mobile Friendliness.
  • Accessible catalog management
  • Promotional tools
  • Basic dashboard for website maintenance
  • Search engine optimization capabilities
  • Wide range of payment integrations

The platform is considered cost-optimal in both B2C and B2B segments. At the same time, the key difference between Magento CE and EE (Open Source and Commerce) is also the cost of use, although different versions are adapted to different requirements.

The first version is free, while the second requires an investment. The final cost of moving from Magento Open Source to Commerce comes to an average of $24,000 per year.

When comparing Magento Open Source and Commerce, the financial factor matters. The free platform implies that you will be responsible for connecting the server yourself.

Magento Enterprise compared to Community offers hosting and support services. You don’t have to look for hosting and provide any services yourself. The latter guarantees only a basic set of tools for the online store. Magento Enterprise Edition has many more features and well-implemented customer support.

Magento Open Source is great for getting started with the platform itself or launching a small business. However, medium and large market players won’t have enough of it. At the same time, we can`t say that it is impossible to build a successful business with this edition. An experienced development team has a good chance of creating a reliable B2C online store on Magento Open Source, though the amount of effort and the number of potential risks will be much higher.

And now let’s go into more detail and consider each Magento solution separately.

Magento Open Source

An affordable and customizable version of Magento. In addition, it stands in stark contrast to many other SaaS that impose restrictions on users.

The upgraded Magento 2 Community Edition provides a sufficient set of features and functions, including:

  • Web site management.
  • Analytics and report tools.
  • Catalog browsing and management.
  • Instant purchase capabilities.
  • Tools for integrating payment and shipping features.
  • Support services.
  • Private user accounts.
  • Capabilities of functional testing.
  • Indexing and caching options.
  • SEO tools.
  • Multilingual support.
  • Enhanced security.
  • Reliable technology stack.
  • Marketing, promotion, and conversion tools.

In terms of comparing Magento Open Source and Commerce, here are some features that both platforms share:

  • Pricing and discounting tools
  • Search engine optimization
  • Web content management
  • Catalog management
  • Catalog browsing
  • Product Viewer
  • Checkout and Payment Tools
  • Shipping Tools
  • Order management and customer support
  • Loyalty Tools
  • Individual user accounts
  • Global Website Support
  • Analytics and report
  • Layouts and Themes

The list is impressive, you have many features, however there is just one thing. Without extensions, it’s quite difficult for an unskilled user to make any changes. Fortunately, Magento has many partners that will do this work for you. Go now to check out one of them.

Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce)

The paid version of Adobe Commerce offers many other features to take e-commerce to the next level. In the B2B configuration, you can host the site on your servers or use the cloud by selecting one of the available Starter or Pro packages.

The first package is designed for salespeople who are just starting out in big business and would like to focus entirely on growth rather than IT management. Essentially, Starter is Magento with open source and connected support.

The second plan is ideal for B2C and B2B sellers who are looking to grow quickly in the future. For example, if a website needs to be prepared for complex integration and non-linear traffic growth.

It’s a turnkey platform with all the eCommerce capabilities, including features, customization, third-party integrations and Adobe cloud services. You get the option to upgrade to Business Intelligence Pro, as well as expand functionality with numerous add-ons.

Magento Commerce Cloud

Data storage in the AWS cloud infrastructure complements Magento Commerce features. Thus, Magento Cloud has the following key advantages:

  • Fully configured environment. You don’t have to worry about server configuration with the right version of the software, PHP compatibility, or database software. You can pre-install additional tools (such as Elastic) if needed.
  • An integrated source code management system with support for development, testing, and storage runtime environments.
  • Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). Virtual infrastructure for production and middleware environments with a setup of three servers and leased equipment provides a high level of reliability and availability.

It can help you set up the middleware environment to test installed extensions or any code changes without affecting the production server. Moreover, the integrated source code management system stores all changes, allowing for rollback and easy change tracking.

Thousands of brands continue to trust the platform and achieve excellent results. If you’re a large company looking for a highly scalable solution, consider Magento Commerce. Also consider creating an quality app. There are many trustworthy companies that can do that, magento mobile app development company Dinarys is one of them. 

If you’re a budding entrepreneur, Open Source may bring more value to your business. The main thing to consider is the needs of your company and project. Start with the free version, and as your business matures, you can upgrade to the full version of this unique platform.

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.