Whether to go with the free Community Edition of Magento, or set up store with the full-feature Enterprise edition, can be a difficult decision to make alone. From selling clothes to art prints, car parts to cuddly toys, you’ll want to know which versions is best placed to list, sell and promote your products. In this article then, we’ll look at the benefits of both platforms, breaking down the features of the two versions side-by-side; helping you to make an informed choice, whichever platform you eventually go with. To begin with though, let’s look at the basic differences between the two versions. Magento Community (Magento Open Source) Recently rebranded ‘Magento Open Source’ (we’ll call it Magento Community in this article; this is still the name most Magento developers use) this release is free and its code can be modified: packed with features such as integrated shopping cart, instant search, table-optimised templates and instant purchase, it gives an ample taste of what Magento can do before committing to a purchase. Magento Enterprise (Magento Commerce) Originally called Magento Enterprise and now branded Magento Commerce (again, we’ll use the original name in this piece for the same reasons as before) this platform is somewhat different. Although based on the same code as the free version, it contains out-of-the-box functionality that would be possible in the Community edition only with a lot of extensions plus a great deal of time (and money) installing them. This is generally the preferred choice for medium to large business looking for streamlined performance and scalability. Similarities Between Magento Community and Enterprise Edition The main similarity between the two Magento platforms is that they are both open source and share many of the same core features. This means you can see whether or not Magento Enterprise is right for you by installing the Community version which is free and can be downloaded here. Some of the shared feature include: APIs integration This enables a single web API to run With Magento 2. Amongst the primary features are support for SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST (Representation State Transfer). No matter which version of Magento you are running, integrating with third-party apps to run with the platform should be hassle free. Catalog management This controls the display of your inventory on your ecommerce site. Via the backend settings, you can control how many products are listed per page, while also allowing you to determine the onsite catalog search settings and the catalog price scope. Layered Navigation Eliminating the amount of on-page clutter, Layered Navigation is a form of Catalog Navigation which makes it easy to find products based on product type, such as price, material and colour. The manual method lets you specify a division limit for price intervals, while using the tool automatically, you can set a threshold for a number of products within a particular attribute, and Magento will do the rest. Mobile Commerce Both versions of Magento allow you to design ecommerce sites on mobile platforms. In practice, this means the underlying code of both systems will operate on devices like smart phones and tablets. For instance, you can set the browser to automatically respond to the width of the browser window so your online retail store fills the whole screen. Magento Connect Featuring hundreds of extensions for nearly every conceivable application, Magento Connect is Magento’s original marketplace for extensions. These enhance Magento’s already comprehensive set of features. Extension are created by community members. At 247 Commerce, we have our own extension too. See our own extensions page. Quick Tips to Boost Sales on Amazon How to Install Magento 2 Differences at a Glance: Magento CE and EE Community vs Enterprise Comparison Community Edition Enterprise Edition Technical Support No Yes Built-in Security No Yes Store Credits No Yes Advanced Customer Segmentation and Targeting No Yes Advanced Return Management Authorisation No Yes Private Sales, Event, Invitations No Yes Price and Promotion Permission No Yes Minimum Advertised Price No Yes Enhanced Catalog and Content Management System No Yes Staging, Merging and Rollback of Content No Yes Reward Points No Yes Full-page Caching No Yes Gift Registry and Gifting Options No Yes Call Centre with Assisted Shopping No Yes Solr Search No Yes Benefits of Enterprise over Community Read further to learn more about the differences and decide for yourself on what you need. Improved Functionality Although Magento Community and Enterprise edition share the same core code, the paid version offers more advanced features. The most important of these are advanced customer segmentation and targeting, advanced return management authorisation, advanced customer segmentation and targeting and advanced return management authorisation. In a nutshell, by using these tools, you can quickly identify your most valuable customers, group them together using a range of variables, thereby delivering a customised shopping experience. Performance Performance here is directly tied to use: Magento Community edition gives a faster performance to small website owners who have fewer resources on their website. On the other hand, Enterprise works quicker on websites with high volumes of traffic or products listed. Therefore, if you are a large scale retailer, Magento Enterprise will offer the best speed performance. Some of its perks include; split data for products, order management, and checkout across three master databases for superior scalability, as well as support for checkout and order management database clustering via MySQL Cluster. Multiple languages, Multiple Currencies Unlike with the Community Edition, Enterprise comes with a multiple language pack straight out of the box. This gives you access to around 80 languages in total. In addition, EE integrates with multiple payment gateways, including PayPal, Authorize.net, CyberSource and WorldPay. This makes it incredibly easily to receive and manage international orders – spreading your customer-base as far and wide as it can go. Security Unlike Magento Community, Magento Enterprise provides a PCI compliant secure payment bridge. This enables the storage and collection of credit card data. Magento EE allows integrated payment gateways which in turn allow merchants to securely transmit credit card data via direct post API methods. In addition, you can transact with hosted payment forms – provided by the payment gateway – which integrate with your checkout page. Gift registry /Gifting Options This is an advanced feature which promotes sales via a gifting strategy. It allows the customer to create a ‘gift list’. When this is done, an email is then sent to the customer with a link which can then be shared with their family and friends. Alternatively, as a merchant, you have the option to send notifications to the customer’s gifting nominees on their behalf. EE also supplies you with predefined templates to make the process much smoother. Drag-and-drop Content With the Enterprise Edition you have far greater flexibility and control over the design interface. You can now easily drag content into rows and columns, as well as swap content positions with a single drag or click. Unlike before, content now remains fully responsive after being resized; even when using Magento 2’s reference theme – Luma – or any other theme which Magento or one of its third-party vendors provides. Technical support In addition to the Magento Stack Exchange, and the self-help resources online, with Magento EE you have access to special technical support. Store owners can ask for general advice or open a case where you have a specific issue. Magento’s analysts will audit your problem and, where possible replicate and isolate it. According to Magento’s site “all currently licensed Magento Enterprise Edition Merchants or Partners can reach Magento Customer Support via our online portals, or telephone, based on the level of support plan purchased by the customer.” …What About Magento Cloud? For those looking to migrate, integrate, or start from scratch, there is third option: Magento Commerce Cloud. Previously known a Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition, it provides all the same core features as the previous version, with the addition of managed hosting. This gives you access to Magento’s own hosting plan so you don’t have to worry about installing and running it on your own dedicated server. In practical terms, you are less likely to experience downtime due to traffic spites or server attacks with this packaged, since your installation will be networked over a number of different servers at once – if one goes down, the other picks up the slack. If you are thinking of going with the paid version of Magento, this is definitely a package to consider. It could save you a lot of time in the long run. Summing Up Having gone through the main differences between the paid and free version of Magento, hopefully you now have a much better idea of which package is right for you. If in doubt, however, try to keep in mind such factors as site traffic, product sales and your future development. If you are listing or hoping to list over 6000 SKUs, or looking to expand your customer base with steady growth, then you’ll need Magento Enterprise; recently rebranded Magento Commerce. For anything else, Magento Community (now Magento Open Source) is more than capable of placing your business on the map. Ready to Make the Switch? See our Magento 2 Migration Page for Help and Advice Have a Question or Want to Check out our Credentials? See our full list of services here Further reading Choosing the Right Magento Agency for You Explore how Magento 2 Works
