3 Platform Options For Magento End Of Life In June

Magento 1 is coming to an end in June (as a fully supported platform) in what is quickly turning into one of the most testing times for businesses in history.

Many have questioned if the end of life date could be delayed given the current Coronavirus issues that are affecting retailers across the globe.

Sadly though, Magento recently confirmed at Adobe Summit that they will not be extending the deadline, and Magento 1 will become unsupported in June this year as planned.

So What Next For Retailers?

A move to Magento 2 is an obvious option, but that can involve longer development times depending on requirements, and as a premium product often a bigger budget, which many businesses understandably might not be able to invest in at this current time.

There are some alternatives though. We have been looking at three viable options for retailers in this position and how they can safely trade past June.

Option 1 – Community Security Patches

The Magento community is massive and there are various security companies we’ve partnered with that have developed ways to extent the life of Magento whilst keeping the platform secure – these can keep your current store alive and safe with reduced security holes and patched vulnerabilities so you can remain trading securely as possible. Whilst this is not a long term solution, it could provide an additional 6 – 8 month window.

Option 2 – BigCommerce

BigCommerce provides retailers with a SAAS cloud eCommerce solution which has considerable scalability features over its core competitor Shopify, as well as inclusive hosting and support costs. If you’re looking for a quick deployment time and reduced running costs then you should consider BigCommerce. Media Lounge have recently become a partner and definitely see it as a viable option to Magento, depending on what functionality businesses require.

Option 3 – Shopware

Shopware 6 provides a true alternative to Magento 2 for many retailers. It has a headless approach, PWA options and one of the best CMS page builders we’ve seen. It’s incredibly easy to use and has a number of Magento Commerce features available as standard, but without the high license costs. If you’re looking for more control over your page content, layout and design then this will likely be a strong contender.

Magento 2 is still the market leader in the SME space and benefits from the huge community which help the platform progress at an unmatchable pace. However, if you’re looking for alternatives we’d strongly recommend arranging a demo with our team so we can showcase the range of functionality to you first hand and explain how this could fit in with your current business software architecture.

We are always open for advice at no cost, so start a conversation now to get a better understanding of the potential next steps for your eCommerce business and how you can plan for the future of your online sales channels.