Which is the Right Magento Edition for Your Business: Find Out Here

The Magento eCommerce development platform has been empowering retailers for quite a long time with amazing features and functionalities. With different editions suited to small and large-scale organizations, Magento’s framework is designed to help every eCommerce business grow as fast as possible.

If you are also considering Magento for your online business, your first step should be to find out which edition is suitable for your business needs. In this blog, we will talk about all three versions of Magento – Magento open-source, Adobe Commerce, and Adobe Commerce Cloud – and what they offer to help you make an informed decision.

While all have similar major attractions and benefits, the premium editions accompany more native and intuitive tools than the Open Source edition. Let’s understand the same in detail.

What is Magento?

Magento is an open-source eCommerce development framework, and it is written in PHP. According to reports, it powers over 170,000 websites over the internet, and big brands like Nike, Samsung, and Land Rover use it to build their online websites. It comes in three editions, and these are:

Magento Open Source A free and open-source version of Magento

Adobe Commerce The on-premise and self-hosted version of Magento

Adobe Commerce Cloud The cloud-hosted and premium version of Magento

 

Let’s now find out how you can select the Magento edition for your specific business needs.

5 Factors You Need to Check Before Selecting the Right Magento Edition for Your Business Needs

Each Magento version has its own advantages and disadvantages. To make the right decision, you must carefully research and find out your business needs to align the same with different Magento versions. Check out these pointers to get started:

1. Features and Functionalities

When it comes to features and what you can accomplish using all three versions of Magento, Adobe Commerce Cloud is a clear winner. Here is how we will rank these platforms based on features: Adobe Commerce Cloud > Adobe Commerce > Magento Open-Source.

While all three platforms have amazing functionalities like catalog management, instant purchase checkout, page builder, marketing tools, advanced report via Magento BI, and many others, Magento open-source lacks in many other aspects.

For example, both premium versions have features like advanced product recommendations, live search, SWAT, quick orders by SKU, payment on account, content staging, and other B2B functionalities, but Magento open-source does not provide these features.

To take the experience of Adobe Commerce Cloud a step further, its exclusive features include Fastly for CDN, performance testing tools, and GIT-Based workflow. 

Here is a quick comparison of features provided by all three versions of Magento:

Features	Magento Open Source	Adobe Commerce	Adobe Commerce Cloud
Catalog management	✔	✔	✔
Mobile optimized shopping	✔	✔	✔
Global selling	✔	✔	✔
Instant purchase	✔	✔	✔
WYSIWYG page builder	✔	✔	✔
B2B functionality		✔	✔
Advanced marketing tools		✔	✔
Visual merchandising		✔	✔
Customer segmentation		✔	✔
Product recommendation		✔	✔
BOPIS		✔	✔
Live search		✔	✔
Gift cards		✔	✔
Content staging and preview			✔
AWS hosting			✔
GIT-based workflow			✔
Fastly integration			✔

 

2. Hosting

Web hosting is a crucial part of launching an eCommerce store. Thus, your decision to choose the right Magento edition must be made after analyzing the hosting plans available for all the Magento versions. While Magento open source and Adobe Commerce need separate hosting, Adobe Commerce Cloud is a managed and self-hosted platform built for cloud solutions.

That means, if you choose Adobe Commerce Cloud, Adobe will provide hosting as part of the license fee, and you won’t have to look for a third-party hosting provider to launch your website. Basically, it is a PAAS (Platform-as-a-Service) developed on an AWS-based hosting infrastructure that works smoothly to provide an amazing customer experience.

On the other hand, if you choose to use Magento open-source or Adobe Commerce (on-premise), you will have to manage your hosting on your own, and the Magento team will provide no support.

If you want more control over how your website will be hosted, go for Magento open-source or Adobe Commerce. Or, if you wish to have less headache managing hosting, simply opt for Adobe Commerce Cloud.

3. Cost

Obviously, you can not go out of your budget while selecting the right Magento edition for your business needs. That’s why it is crucial that you set a budget and then make an informed decision. The cost and other expenses associated with each Magento edition are different, and you need to analyze the same carefully. For example:

• Magento open-source is available for free, but you will have to pay for hosting and other development expenses.
• Licensing for Adobe Commerce starts at around $24,000 per annum. Plus, you will have to pay for hosting, which can vary based on the resources needed.
• Licensing for Adobe Commerce Cloud starts at around $40,000 per annum, including hosting charges. But, the cost can go up to $300,000 depending on the tier.

4. Security

From a security perspective, both premium versions are better than the free version. Magento open-source lacks advanced payment security and credit card tokenization, so you may face problems later on.

In addition, it is not PCI compliant. The paid versions are PCI DSS compliant, and you will never face a security issue while using Adobe Commerce and Adobe Commerce cloud. The cloud supplies DDoS protection and CDN, along with Fastly web application firewall. So, if you aim to develop a store with top-notch security, consider opting for premium editions.

5. Performance

Although all editions of Magento deliver amazing performance with proper optimization, Magento open-source lacks a little bit when handling large databases. Adobe Commerce and its cloud version support split databases. It means that you can have different databases for checkout, product information, and other operational features.

This feature lets you divide the load among different databases and scale your store more efficiently. You can improve your store’s performance by many folds using this feature of the premium version.

But, Which Magento Edition is Suitable for Your Business?

Now that you know how different editions of Magento compare against different parameters, it is easy to decide which Magento edition is suitable for you. Here are some additional pointers to help you out:

When to go with Magento open-source?

• If you have budget constraints
• Your store sells in one country only
• You have an expert Magento development team by your side

When to go with Adobe Commerce?

• If your stores require advanced B2B functionalities
• You require 24/7 support from the Magento team
• Your store sells worldwide and in different currencies
• You have aggressive scalability plans

When to go with Adobe Commerce Cloud?

• You do not want to manage hosting yourself
• You require extra fast page loading with a CDN
• Your business needs performance monitoring tools
• You need a web application firewall
• Your business requires enhanced security with DDoS services and Fastly WAF

Wrapping Up

Paying for excessive features and lacking the necessary ones is not a good business decision. Thus, if you plan to work on Magento, you must choose the right edition for your business needs. Or, a simple way is that you start with Magento open-source and then work your way up as you establish your business. If you need further consultation, contact Magento 2 solution specialists at Envision eCommerce.