The Pros and Cons of Magento 2

Magento has long been a trusted tool for serious e-commerce users, but it’s a fast-moving marketplace out there and you have to adapt to keep up.

With Shopify and other platforms gaining in popularity, and some saying that Magento has lagged behind in development, it’s worth taking a look at the facts so you can decide for yourself.

First, let’s talk about what’s good for Magento 2 users.

Pros

It’s good if you’re not a techie. The admin interface is designed to be accessible for everyone’s use. In the earlier version of Magento this was an issue, but with Magento 2, everything has been optimised and improved. Magento knows that not everyone in eCommerce is a software developer.

The speed is impressive. This is another area where Magento needed to up its game. Efficient caching in Magento 1 required the use of bolt-on extensions like ‘Varnish.’ But not any longer. With Magento 2 the caching is built-in ready for you to use. Page loads can be a matter of 1 or 2 seconds now, rather than 5 plus. That’s a key selling point for contemporary shoppers who, as we know, don’t like to hang around for long.

Payment gateways such as Paypal and Worldpay weren’t always supported by Magento, but with Magento 2, that problem has been solved. That’s a relief because when customers are ready to trade with you, you need to be able to offer them the chance to pay the way they want to pay. And now you can.

Okay. So let’s look at the downsides.

Cons

You can’t import Magento 1 themes into Magento 2. In time you may be able to, but for now, you can take the data with you, but not your customised features. And because Magento 2 is new, there aren’t too many themes available yet. The Magento community is still working on them.

Likewise, with the extensions, you might have been using in Magento 1. Here’s the crunch – you’ll have to purchase them again, and you’ll need to pay for integration support. Add to that the cost of the license – if you’re looking to upgrade to the Enterprise Edition, you could be paying an annual fee of around $22,000. Of course, the free edition is still available.

On balance, if you’re happy with Magento 1 for now, the advice is to wait for six months before you make the move. At that time more support and functionality should be in place.