What is Magento? Our Guide to the eCommerce Software
The digital age of e-commerce, businesses have various options when considering which software to use in running their ecommerce platform.
There are SaaS (Software as a Service) options for those comfortable releasing control of their site to a third party who will manage the server backend, as well as self-hosted options where you can install the software on a server operated by your company.
One of the most popular open-source options is Magento. It has established itself as a reliable and trusted software for ecommerce platforms over the years. Let’s take a deep dive into the Magento marketplace; we’ll provide an overview of the Magento platform, how much it costs, and features to make it work for you.
What is Magento? (Adobe Commerce)
Magento is a powerful ecommerce platform that offers a range of features and customization options, making it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. First released in 2008, Magento is an e-commerce management platform developed in PHP.
As of 2018, Adobe Inc. became the parent company of Magento, popularly known as Adobe Magento. There are two versions of Magento software, Magento Open Source, and Magento Commerce.
When trying to understand the major users of Magento, you will find e-commerce retailers of all shapes and sizes leveraging Magento enterprise because of the customizable nature of the software. We will touch on this as we proceed. Keep reading.
Features of Magento
Due to its features and responsiveness, you might consider using Adobe Magento as your ecommerce platform. Some of these key features and benefits are listed below:
- SEO-friendly: One of the major features an ecommerce business store owner needs is a platform that can be found via search engines. Adobe Magento was developed to adapt to the algorithms of search engines.
Its SEO features include – search engine optimization marketing tools, sitemaps, and meta tags. Using the ecommerce platform improves visibility to potentials customers via increased traffic to the website. If you are planning to start your ecommerce website using Magento, ServerMania can also help you narrow down the cost of a server for small businesses. - Flexibility and Scalability: Magento is highly flexible and customizable, allowing you to create a unique online store that meets your business needs. It is also scalable, meaning that it can handle many products and customers, making it suitable for small businesses and large enterprises.
- Extensive Feature Set: The extensive feature set – like advanced catalog management, product options, and promotions, as well as multiple payment methods and shipping options – like PayPal, Amazon Pay, Braintree, 2Checkout, Stripe Bank transfer, Dwolla, Authorize.net, Payment on delivery, Flat Rates, Table Rates, UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx. It also includes multi-store management features, enabling you to manage multiple stores from a single dashboard.
- Community Support: With a large Magento community of developers and users, store owners can get help 24/7, without delay.
Magento’s large community contributes to its development and supports the Magento marketplace store. This means you can find many resources – like documentation, tutorials, and plugins, to help you get the most out of the platform. - Mobile-friendly: Mobile friendliness is one of the things an ecommerce store should possess, with responsive design to ensure your online store looks great on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.
- Adobe Commerce Analytics: Magento’s data analytics and reporting system features provide essential insights into consumer behavior, sales trends, and inventory management.
The resulting data is then used to make educated data-driven decisions and enhance the ecommerce platform for increased performance.
Find out more about how to optimize a server for ecommerce.
Types of Magento
- Magento Open Source: Magento’s free and open-source versions can be downloaded and customized to create online stores. It has basic features and functionalities – like product management, checkout process, and customer management. Learn how to optimize a server for ecommerce here.
- Magento Commerce: This paid version of Magento comes with advanced features such as marketing automation, customer segmentation, and content staging. It is designed for medium to large businesses.
- Magento Order Management: Businesses use this platform to handle orders and inventories across numerous channels. It offers real-time inventory tracking, order routing, and returns management.
- Magento Commerce Cloud: This cloud-hosted version of Magento Commerce provides scalability, security, and performance. It is suitable for businesses that manage complex websites and require high availability.
Find out how you can take advantage of speed and scalability using ServerMania’s cloud hosting services.
Magento Pricing
For users looking to set up Magento Open Source on their own servers, there is no cost for licensing Magento directly. The only costs would be running and maintaining the Magento server, which could be as little as $30 per month. If you would like to find out more about server costs, visit our blog for more details.
If you’re wondering how much Magento Commerce costs, the Magento prices for the Commerce version range from $22,000 per year for sales under 1 million dollars and can go as high as $125,000 per year for businesses with over 25 million in revenue.
Exact pricing for Magento Commerce can be obtained by requesting a quote from Magento directly.
Magento System Requirements
The Magento requirements to run the open-source version are as follows:
- Linux distributions such as CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, or RedHat Enterprise Linux
- 4GB of RAM
- 2.3GHz Processor
- Web Server: Apache 2.2 or 2.4 / Nginx 1.8
- Database: MySQL 5.6, 5.7
- PHP: 7.1.3+ 7.2.x
What version of Magento is available?
As one of the most popular open-source ecommerce platforms and online store creators, Magento has quickly gained traction. It has been split into two versions for affordability and more responsive designs. Two versions are the Magneto 1 and Magneto 2.
Magento 1 vs. Magento 2: The Comparison
When Magento 1 was launched in 2008, it quickly dominated the internet with about 26% market share in 2014.
However, installing extensions to help it function better became complicated, and many bugs were frequently encountered. Hence, Magento upgraded to version 2.0 in 2015, which made installing Magento ecommerce extensions more accessible.
In 2018, Magento 2 was developed to help merchants achieve their sales goals by allowing merchants to set up online sales websites, downloads, services, etc.
Compared to the previous version, Magento 2 utilized upgraded technology, changed the directory structure, the architecture, and the backend, and improved the platform’s interface to support the mobile version.
Magento 2 became better than Magneto 1 in performance, admin dashboard, order optimization page, product inventory, customer relationship management, and marketing. Magento 2 had better frontend and color themes – including design responsiveness.
What is Magento 2?
Magento Open Source is a free version that is intended for smaller ecommerce businesses that do not require as much help as larger businesses.
Large businesses, on the other hand, can successfully use the platform. The free option may be better if you run a low-maintenance business.
Pros and Cons of Magento
Finally, let’s consider the platform’s advantages and disadvantages. This will help you determine if you should select Magento as an ecommerce platform in the first place.
We’ll look at the pros and cons of Magento 2, as this is the currently active and recommended version of Magento.
Pros
- Scalable and flexible for users
- A community of trained experts and users to help navigate arising issues.
- Some free services
Cons
- It is expensive to purchase
- Paid customer support
Why you should use Magento 2
Magento ecommerce websites are an attractive business solution for many reasons. The ecommerce solution offers more help to business owners worldwide.
- Multi-Store Management: Magento 2 has options for multi-store functionality, which means you can manage multiple stores from one Magento admin panel. It benefits businesses operating in multiple regions or selling products in different niches.
- New Frontend Templates: One of the most beautiful parts of Magento is the responsive designs that come with every ecommerce store. However, this is available only to paid users and developers on the platform.
Ecommerce themes cost between $20 – $200. For more beautiful designs, you might need to pay more. - Security: Magento 2 has enhanced the backend architecture, particularly in terms of security. Magento 2 is safer than Magento 1, thanks to regular software upgrades.
The password is additionally strengthened using hashing techniques (SHA-256), which reduces the likelihood of brute force assaults and other security breaches.
Learn more about how to optimize a server for ecommerce.
Key Takeaways
Magento is a powerful ecommerce platform that can help businesses build and manage their online stores effectively. However, choosing a reliable hosting provider is also important to ensure optimal performance and security.
We recommend store owners choose our ecommerce server hosting solutions. ServerMania cloud hosting is a fast and reliable solutions for Magento websites.
Our hosting plans come with SSD storage, high bandwidth, and 24/7 support to ensure your ecommerce website is always running smoothly.
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