In June of 2020 Magento 1 will no longer be supported. No ifs, ands, or buts. Any merchant still on this platform come June is going to have to make a decision on what to do moving forward. As shopping carts are the foundational piece of tech for any online retailer, you've got to consider all of the options on the table. We've done the research and have detailed out the main options to help you choose what to do to move forward. Here is what you're looking at:
- Stay on Magento 1
- Upgrade to Magento 2
- Migrate to a new platform
Option 1 - Staying on Magento 1, It Would be a Mistake
Staying on Magento 1 is an option for you and your business. In the short term this is the most cost-friendly and least disruptive choice. However over time, this initially shiny option will be the most harmful to your business. With Magento 1 no longer being supported, your business will incur serious consequences:
- Your store will be at risk of security breaches - no more security updates or vulnerability scanning will take place for your store, meaning you won’t be PCI compliant
- Your payment providers may drop you - as a consequence of security risk, payment providers will not work with non PCI DSS compliant merchants
- You will lack support for the extensions you rely on - no support for Magento 1 means third-party extensions will eventually become obsolete or non-functional
- Your store updates will take longer and be more costly - Magento stores require developers. With Magento 1 no longer being supported developers will be hard to to come by and be more costly, impacting your store’s bottom line
Option 2 - Upgrading to Magento 2, Right for Some Wrong for Many
Magento is a fantastic platform for those that truly need it. When heavy levels of customization are required, it’s hard to beat. However, unless you truly need (and can justify) that hyper-customization, you’re paying a lot more than you should for core shopping cart functionality.
You need to consider what upgrading to Magento 2 really means:
- You can’t flip a switch and move from Magento 1 to Magento 2. You’re going to have to rebuild most of your store and account for the added dev and design cost to do so. Your theme can’t be moved, your extensions won’t work, and some data has to be migrated manually.
- Your annual license fees are going to go up. Magento 2 Enterprise starts at 22k a year and can run as high as 125k a year. Enterprise cloud starts at 40k and runs up to 190k. Competitor SaaS solutions (BigCommerce, Shopify, Woocommerce) can cost a fraction of Magento license fees. They'll save you tens of thousands a year and deliver the functionality that matters most.
- You’re still going to have to account for additional support costs. Maintaining a thriving Magento experience costs a lot more than just license fees. Magento notoriously comes with high infrastructure costs to handle servers and databases. Magento requires specially trained developers and designers which means higher dev costs for you. Lastly, support costs are always a necessary factor to calculate to deal with updates and troubleshooting.
If you can justify all of this additional cost and burden for Magento 2 then maybe it’s the right fit for you. If not, consider switching to help your business’ bottom line.
Option 3 - Migrate Off Magento to a New Platform
More than likely this is your best choice if you’re still on Magento 1. Platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify can offer you most of the customization you need without the need for specific dedicated developers. SaaS solutions come with out-of-the-box PCI compliance, dedicated support staff, and handle the infrastructure aspects needed to run your store. All of the costs previously mentioned in the last option are no longer a factor. BigCommerce and Shopify also handle updating their platforms, whether that be bugs, functional updates, or security patches. Again, less burden on your business.
All of these benefits combine to result in dramatically reduced total cost of ownership and increase operational efficiency.
What Option Will You Pick?
Don't get us wrong, Magento 2 is great at what it does and should be an option to consider. However, that doesn't mean you should rush into signing up for it without doing your due diligence and evaluating your options. If you're considering a SaaS solution, we can help you evaluate the best option for your business and implement it for you. Regardless of what direction you are leaning, the clock is ticking.