Similar to how eCommerce has grown, Adobe Magento has thrived as well, with continual advancements of the platform Magneto has never been more reliable while delivering advanced functionalities catering to B2B and B2C Merchants and users alike!
Today, more than 250,000 Magento stores are operating live on the web. This accounts for more than 12% of all online stores. Be it B2C, D2C, or B2B, each business is in a quest to tap the power and financial benefit of operating an online store.
With Magento’s wide adoption as a credible eCommerce platform, it becomes imperative to learn about what each of the available platforms has to offer and what features do they offer for businesses to boost the growth of online sales and revenue.
Magento offers 3 platforms to build your eCommerce store:
- Magento Commerce (previously known as Magento Enterprise Edition)
- Magento Open Source (previously known as Magento Community Edition), and
- Magento Commerce Cloud (previously known as Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition)
In this post, we will discuss the above platforms in a concise, yet elaborative manner.
Difference Between Magento eCommerce Platforms
In terms of licensing, the difference between these Magento eCommerce platforms is relatively simple to understand.
Magento Open Source is a non hosted eCommerce platform. It can be downloaded for free and hosted as per one’s own requirements. Since it’s a free option, the feature set is limited but can be expanded using 3rd party extensions.
Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud are flagship products, each encapsulated with extensive feature sets catering to B2C/B2B and Hybrid merchants requiring little to no customizations as expanded functionalities are baked into the platform, off the shelf.
Magento Commerce can be purchased as their standard, on-premise offering.
Magento Commerce (Cloud) is a PaaS offering built explicitly for building secure, scalable, and fully customizable web storefronts.
In the below sections, we’ll elaborate on each Magento eCommerce platform’s variations.
1. Magento Open Source
Formerly known as Magento Community is a free version of Magento, which can be downloaded, customized, and self-hosted by anyone. While realizing the task of creating an eCommerce store with Magento Open Source, businesses can reach out for technical help to the army of Magento innovators, which are 315,000 trained developers worldwide.
Being a free platform, Magento Open Source is available to everyone for download. You can build your eCommerce platform and extend or configure the platform per your business requirements.
In case you’re thinking about those appealing Magento themes and extensions, a growing community of Magento developers can adequately help and support you.
2. Magento Commerce
Formerly it was presented to the users in two distinct versions as Magento Enterprise and Magento Enterprise Cloud. Most features of both these platforms are unified under Magento Commerce and have been positioned as a premium alternative to Magento Open Source.
When talking about features and functionalities, Magento Commerce secures a top position on the modern eCommerce platforms list. It has erased the boundaries of restrictions of an online webstore and presented entrepreneurs with a chance to create a bold and unique shopping experience.
Features offered by Magento Commerce are ever-evolving. With these, you can marry content with commerce to meet customer demands and deliver a flawless brand interaction. Other than seamless third-party integrations and flexible headless architecture, there are varied features and functionalities Magento Commerce edition offers businesses.
3. Magento Commerce Cloud
Formerly known as Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition, Magento Commerce Cloud is a robust Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) which runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and leverages exceptional features of Magento Commerce. It offers a pre-integration of content delivery network and performance management tools, which offers optimized performance, elastic scalability, and resilience.
Magento Commerce Cloud is positioned as one of the best platforms for any online store with extra upgraded cloud-based features such as:
- High Scalability
- Continuous Deployment
- Rapid Development
- Customizable Environment
- Enhanced Security
Which Magento Platform is best for my business?
The above details certainly assist with gaining an understanding of the different types of platforms Magento offers for eCommerce businesses; but which platform is best suited for your business?
The basis of deciding which Magento platform is best suited for your business can be best estimated by answering the following questions:
- What is the total budget for your eCommerce build and ongoing maintenance? (License versions can be expensive but open source is free)
- What sort of features are required to run your webstore? Commerce/Cloud offers tremendous functionality. Open source is free, but you are dependent on extensions and at times heavy code customizations.
- If your business is suited for cloud or on-premise solutions?
If budget is a concern, Magneto Open Source is a great option.
However, if you have a large enough budget and are serious about creating a presence online, Magento Commerce or Commerce Cloud are superior platforms to move forward with.
Currently, Magento is a preferred platform for eCommerce businesses across major industries in the B2B and B2C space. Magento Commerce and Magento Cloud offer an extensive range of feature sets and are continually advancing those features. In fact, Magento releases new version upgrades and security patches throughout the year; aimed at advancing core functionalities and maintaining the utmost security for its Merchants and their customers.
So, if you’re a B2B/B2C or Hybrid business wanting to build an international eCommerce business with multiple brands or simply cater to stateside or local markets we strongly recommend Magento Commerce or Magento Commerce Cloud.
If you have additional questions regarding the different types of Magento platforms connect with one of our Magento experts today!
