Magento Open-source vs. Magento Commerce

With the initiation of eCommerce, there has been a generation of hot topics related to the platforms of execution of tasks. Within a decade, we have witnessed an oceanic change and revolution in the sector of eCommerce.

Amidst all this hullabaloo, Magento has risen as a giant in the category of eCommerce platform. If you are the one planning to befriend Magento for your eCommerce platform, you might have been haunted by a variety of questions.

One of those questions might be the choice between Magento Open-source and Magento Commerce. You would have to weigh both the sides and then have to decide for your business, which can prove to be the defining point for your business.

Well, we are here to take away some of your worries because after having read this blog, you would be able to choose between Magento Open-source and Magento Commerce.

Let’s get started.

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Magento Open-source

Initially known as Magento Community Edition, the zero-cost version of Magento became Magento Open-source while at the 2017 rebranding period. 

Magento, being free of cost platform, proved to be the first choice of the majority of SMB merchants who were looking for a feature-rich and highly extensible platform which can compete with the big brands.

Unlike its usual usage, Magento Open-source has had a wide range of enterprise clients too, which generally belonged to the less aggressive colony of merchants who were in their establishing and developing stage. 

Merchants with the sound knowledge of experts tended to go for the open-source version, and with their developers’ skills, they were able to compete with the feature-rich sites of Magento Commerce. 

People used to use the open-source to build their base and get a stand in the market, and then to compete with the more prominent names.

Initially, there were hardly any differences between the functionalities between both the versions but changed as the time passed on. 

Features like page builder, content staging, visual merchandising and preview are some of the features which were moved to the exclusive and priced category later on. We shall talk about them at some time. 

Summarising, Magento Open-source can be said to be an excellent platform suitable for the enterprise-level retailers; however, it can’t be prejudiced just with the SMB merchants anymore. 

With time, it has gained importance in many other sectors of commerce as well.

Here are some of the examples of larger businesses using Magento Open-source:

• Bucherer
• PMT Music
• Brand Alley
• Erde,
• The V&A

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Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce, initially known as Magento Enterprise Edition, was made specifically for the higher strata of businesses which needed more functionalities and premium access. 

While we have a free version of Magento, the Magento Commerce comes with a license fee of approximately $24,000 per year. Magento commerce further offers two of its types naming –

• Magento On-Premise and 
• Magento Commerce Cloud; 

which are platform-as-a-service hosted solutions and cloud-based service respectively. Although there is a substantial difference between the availability of the update for both the commercials, yet they have a similar codebase.

The on-premise version of the Magento was initially offered at a license price of $24,000 per year, but recently this year, the company has decided to keep the cost of on-premise and commerce cloud at the same pace. 

This has frustrated many of the developers who do not want to use the hosted version of the platform. There also is a premium option for the big-house retailers which has been constructed more around Adobe’s enterprise offerings having all the relevant adobe products at the radar. 

The thing to notice is that Magento Commerce has gained a lot of strength in the past couple of years as there has been an addition to the native features to add the value for the retailers. 

The biggest reasons for choosing the Magento Commerce are their B2B module, page builders, content staging and preview, etc., which have been taken off from the Magento Open-source.

Some examples of big businesses using Magento Commerce are:

• Helley Hansen
• End Clothing
• BrewDog
• Paperchase
• Bulk Powders

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Common capabilities of Magento Open-source and Magento Commerce

Before talking about the things that make the two apart, we need to know what are the similarities between both so that you may understand what you might not be losing while choosing either of the alternates.

Both Magento Open-source and Magento Commerce have the following similar capabilities.

• Catalog management
• Full-page cache
• Marketing, promotions and conversion tools
• Integrated dotmailer marketing automation software
• Customer accounts
• Indexing, cart, and cache operations Improvements
• Checkout, payments and shipping
• Analytics and reporting
• Instant purchase checkout
• Advanced reporting powered by Magento business intelligence
• Magento Shipping

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What lacks in Magento Open-source?

Comfort always comes at a price, and if you are going for a cheaper way, there must be something which would be missed. Here is a list of all the things you won’t be able to see in the Magento Open-source.

Missing native capabilities like –

• No page builder

Drag and drop editor for making or altering the site pages without the IT aid.

• Limited database scalability

There is a ceiling to the abilities of merchants to scale, grow or address the complex business scenarios. 

• No content staging and preview

Advanced scheduling and strategic visibility of the site changes to push frequent and optimized campaigns without IT bottlenecks.

• Magento-certified cloud infrastructure missing

Magento contract including optimized technology stack.

• No integration of B2B functionality

The capabilities to swiftly expand into new commerce markets.

• No Magento business intelligence

True business intelligence and advanced commerce analytics.

• No drag and drop visual merchandising

Fastens and simplifies the merchandising changes.

• No advanced segmentation

Important to accelerate sales growth.

Lacks Magento’s exclusive task support

• Self-support

Magento leaves you astray on resolving technical issues.

• No copyright infringement protection

You are responsible for defending against 3rd party claims of patent or copyrights infringements to your creations.

• No cloud onboarding assistance

No access to the technical aid provider from the side of Magento while launching your site.

• No customer success manager

No access to the advisors for the aid on efficiency increments.

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How can Magento Commerce support your future?

Where on one side, you are left all alone on your voyage while going along with Magento Open-source, on the other hand, Magento Commerce becomes the light at the end of the tunnel for your business. 

Here is how it can help your business grow.

• By delivering superior shopping experiences to gain and regain the tech-enabled market.
• By delivering outstanding performance with an optimized infrastructure and modernized core architecture.
• By accelerating the sales growth and converting more and more visitors to quality leads.
• By boosting operational intelligence using intelligence technologies and analytical tools.

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Functional differences between Magento Open-source and Magento Commerce

Although the core codebase is the same for both the platforms, yet there is a significant difference between the features available in both. 

Magento Open-source, being a free platform lacks some of the features and hence takes a backseat when it comes to being comprehensive. 

Elastic search for better search capabilities

This feature is available on Magento Commerce and helps to improve the performance of the search bar. It has been seen that although it is an additional feature, yet people tend to prefer third-party integrations like Klevu and Algolia. 

For these reasons, Magento has announced the release of an enterprise-grade upgrade which would be able to compete with services of combinations like that of Klevu and Algolia. 

Comprehensive B2B functionality

The B2B suite is a fantastic addition in the Magento Commerce platform which comes with a lot of beneficial features for the merchants, such as

• Price quoting and negotiations
• Quick purchase list support system
• Customer-specific pricing
• Customer-specific payment options
• Credit limits
• User roles, purchasing limits and permissions
• Quick checkout options

These are just some of the many features which come with the B2B suite and also have a scope of extendable usage for stretched benefits. 

This has been one of the most significant upgrades available in Magento Commerce.

Page builder

It is yet another significant feature available in Magento Commerce and allows the merchant to control the templates and designs even more effectively. 

It can also be extended by the developers to use across all the core page templates. It has been working amazingly, and there is an augury of upcoming upgrades as well.

Content staging, scheduling and preview

Over time, there have been a lot of improvements in this feature, which have made it more stable and a lot more user-friendly. It allows you to have a preview of the content changes and can also help you schedule and streamline your tasks.

Visual merchandising

Although it is a fundamental feature, available commonly in all the platforms, people have noted a difference in its performance. 

It is effortless to use and is relatively more stable as compared to the Visual Merchandiser module acquired by Magento Enterprise. 

Also, it is a feature worth mentioning because it is missing in many of Magento’s competitors. 

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On-Premise difference between Magento Open-source and Magento Commerce

After having decided for Magento Commerce, the other dilemma which hovers over the brain is to choose between on-premise or Magento commerce cloud. 

The big businesses who have an experienced in-house development team, having the hands-on to the on-premise, would be going for the same only. It would be difficult for this category of enterprises even to consider using the cloud version. 

But this is not true with the new customers. Even Magento stated that more than 50% of new enterprises are going with the option of the cloud. 

There once was a period when the cloud service was not up to the mark and had many bad reviews. But over time, it has improved so well that it has surpassed the standards of on-premise on many headers.

In general, Magento commerce cloud brings a scalable solution integrated into a single platform without the need of associated self hostings. The benefits it offers are beyond count. 

Not just the costs are predictable, but the burden of security, maintenance and PCI Compliance is widely passed onto the platform. It also has a robust stack, making the use of AWS for its infrastructure and the likes of Blackfire for queue framework. The benefits also include a Quick Web Application Firewall and performance improvements.

If you choose to go with an on-premise version, make sure you use a reliable enterprise-grade hosting partner.

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Key-feature tabular difference between Magento Commerce and Magento Opensource

Features	Open-source	Commerce
License cost	Free	Revenue based license cost (tiered) For license prices tailored to you contact Magento sales
Resposive eCommerce website (Global capability)	✔	✔
Promotions engine/Product & catalogue management	✔	✔
Checkout, payment, shipping & order management	✔	✔
Site management (admin)	✔	✔
ElasticSearch	x	✔
Bluefoot CMS in 2.2	x	✔
Magento order management	x	✔
Content staging & preview	x	✔
Magento shipping	x	✔
OOTB B2B functionality (in v2.2)	x	✔

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Conclusion

Magento has seen some of the most significant upgrades and has crawled to the top of every marketer’s wish list. 

Allow us to set wings to your business by helping you launch your site through Magento. 

We have some of the best Magento developers who have been working on the same for the past many years, spreading their expertise throughout the globe. 

Call us now and explore how we can help your business.