Magento Open Source vs Magento Commerce
Magento Open Source
- Magento Open Source is a feature-rich E-Commerce and CMS platform built on top of open source technology. It provides online merchants with the flexibility and control over the look, content and functionality of their Website and E-Commerce store. There are hundreds of free and commercial extensions available for Magento Open Source which can be used to further enhance its features and capabilities. There is no license cost for this version.
Magento Commerce
- Magento Commerce is a comprehensive collection of E-Commerce best practice, features and modules that provides merchants a world class E-Commerce platform for growth. This allows merchants of all sizes to take full advantage of their E-Commerce presence regardless of the desired channels. It is designed to be completely scalable and is backed by world-class support and therefore offers merchants the ultimate E-Commerce solution.
Feature Comparisons
| Description | Magento Open Source | Magento Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Installation Cost | Free | About $22k per year |
| Suitable for SKU’s | 0 -10,000 | 10,000+ |
| Ideal for online orders per day | 0 – 500 | 500+ |
| Ideal for visitors per day | 0 – 5,000 | 5,000+ |
| Template customization (Theme/Layout) | Yes | Yes |
| Abandoned Cart Saver | Using Extension | Yes |
| Order Fulfillment | Yes | Yes |
| Inventory Management (Stock Management) | Yes | Yes |
| Order Management | Yes | Yes |
| Coupons | Yes | Yes |
| Gift Registry | Using Extension | Yes |
| Shipment Integration | Yes | Yes |
| Payment Gateways | Yes | Yes |
| Content Management System | Yes | Yes |
| Multilingual Support | Yes | Yes |
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | Yes | Yes |
| Magento Developer Support | No | Yes |
| Reports | Yes | Yes |
| Return Management Authorization | Using Extension | Yes |
| Taxation | Yes | Yes |
| Content Delivery Network (CDN) Support | Yes | Yes |
| Reward Points System | Using Extension | Yes |
| Customer Store Credits | Using Extension | Yes |
| Full Page Caching | Using Extension | Yes |
| Automated Email Marketing Reminders | Using Extension | Yes |
| Merging and Rollback | Using Extension | Yes |
| Multiple store / Multiple store view | Yes | Yes |
| Page Builder | Using Extension | Yes |
| Add to Cart by SKU | Using Extension | Yes |
| Category View and Purchase permissions per customer group (limited catalog access) | Using Extension | Yes |
| Private (Club) Sales including Events, Invitations and Site access permissions | Using Extension | Yes |
| Elastic Search | No | Yes |
| Magento Secure Payment Bridge (PA-DSS Compliant) | No | Yes |
| Automated Email Marketing Reminders | Using Extension | Yes |
| Assisted Shopping | Using Extension | Yes |
| Rich Merchandising Suite (RMS) | Using Extension | Yes |
| Private Sales Including Events, Invitations and Category Access Permissions | Using Extension | Yes |
| Strong Data Encryption, Hashing and Key Management | No | Yes |
Detailed Description of some important Magento Commerce Features
Magento Commerce B2B features
The Magento B2B suite (which was released properly last year) is a huge value addition to the platform, featuring a range of important features for B2B merchants, such as:
- RfQ functionality / price quoting and negotiation
- Customer-specific pricing and catalogs
- Credit limits
- Quick checkout options
- User roles, purchasing limits and permissions
- Customer-specific payment options
- Customer-specific purchasing limits and thresholds
- Support for quick purchase lists
These are just a few of the features available via the Magento B2B suite / module and retailers are also able to extend the functionality around their specific requirements. This has been one of the biggest functional developments for Magento for several years and supports their focus on B2B and wholesale.
Assisted Shopping
Customer Service Representatives and other admin users can now manage products and coupons in customers shopping carts and wish lists from the Customer account screen in the administrator panel.
Page Builder (formerly Bluefoot CMS)
Page builder is another major feature that’s only available as part of the Commerce platform. It allows merchants to manage content and templates far more effectively. Page builder (which originates from Magento’s acquisition of BlueFoot CMS) allows for drag-and-drop management of content and the ability to build components to manage content and pages. Page builder can be extended by developers and can be used across all core page templates – I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen of the page builder so far and I’d expect it to improve further over time.
Rich Merchandising Suite (RMS)
Optimize marketing initiatives with Targeted Customer Segmentation, Merchandising and Marketing Personalization Zones segment customers into groups. Create reports and define catalog and shopping cart price rules. Suggest products for customers. Use targeted merchandising to setup automated rule-based selection of products. Provide targeted, rules driven promotional marketing banners/creatives tailored to each customer segment. Associate promotional banners to catalog and shopping cart price rules to improve conversions.
RMA
Although quite basic out of the box, RMA is a good feature to have for those that need it and it’s a good starting point. Larger retailers tend to take this function out of the platform (using something like Rebound Returns for example), but if you need to be able to manage RMAs, it ticks the box and can be extended. This feature also allows for utilization of store credit.
Private Sales
The ability to restrict the catalog, allow customers and admin users to create invitations, and the ability to create events for limited time sales of products makes the Magento Enterprise Edition the perfect solution for Private Sales.
Strong Data Encryption, Hashing and Key Management
AES-256 based strong data encryption and SHA-256 based hashing. Database keys are easily managed and updated.
Gift Registry
It Increases revenue and capture valuable customer data with Gift Registry the feature. Customized settings for your products and customers. Those purchasing gifts can search for the registry by the owner’s name, email or gift registry ID.
Elastic Search
Performance and search quality are improved with layered navigation and features like spelling/synonyms/stop words and weighted attributes.
Magento Secure Payment Bridge (PA-DSS Compliant)
Magento Secure Payment Bridge is a PA-DSS certified payment application, enabling merchants to minimize efforts and efficiently attain PCI compliance.
Automated Email Marketing Reminders
The Automated Email Marketing Reminder module enables merchants to increase customer retention through sending configurable, automated email reminders to customers for abandoned shopping carts and wishlists. This enables merchants to target promotions and discounts to customers based on browsing activity.
Reward Points System
Reward points functionality allows an online merchant to implement unique programs designed to increase customer loyalty and enhance user experience. Points are awarded based on the range of transactions and customer actions and can be easily managed through the back end.
Merging and Rollback
Scheduled merges and rollbacks of content create a staging site to test new categories, product information, promotions and more. Content can be merged to the live site after approval, either on-demand or on a scheduled basis.
Advantages of Magento Community Edition:
Cost
The Community edition is offered for FREE. There is no cost associated with it. All the updates are provided completely free of cost.
Third Party Extensions
Main advantage of using Magento open source is the availability of large number of commercial as well as free extensions. These extensions provide almost all the features provided by Magento Commerce version. In addition, there are many other sophisticated extensions which gives us the flexibility to extend and customize Magento to offer modern features and techniques related to promotions, SEO, user experience, payments, shipping etc.
Customizations
Anyone can make free modifications to the software to keep up with their system requirements. There are many different types of tips and tricks available in the Open Source Edition to deliver an advanced experience to its users. With skilled developers, Community version of Magento can be customized to deliver much advanced results based on the requirements.
Conclusion
Mangeto Open Source and Commerce have their own advantages. Literally seeing, Magento Commerce is a better solution than Open Source and if your business can manage the license cost, we recommend you go with the Magento Commerce solution.
However, Magento Open Source is better than most of the ecommerce frameworks out there in the Market and our expert Magento developer can guide you in picking the right solution and developing the website for you. Get in touch with us for consultation.
