With Adobe declaring End of Life for Magento 1 by June 30, 2020, more than 250,000 businesses across the world are wondering what will happen to their Magento 1 stores.
Will they stop working?
The good news is – they won’t.
Your Magento 1 store will keep running as usual.
The important news you may not be aware of is – your store is no longer secure and is vulnerable to cyber-attacks and hackers.
If you don’t know how this impacts you, then we recommend you read our previous post without delay – 7 reasons you should upgrade from Magento 1 to a better eCommerce platform. Today.
If you are aware of the impact, you must be planning to migrate to a better eCommerce platform. The future of your business depends on this one decision.
As a Magento user, your first thought might be to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2. But is that the right decision? This post will lay down the key points you must consider before making this decision.
1. You are likely to end up spending up to $60,000 indirect costs, to upgrade to Magento 2. Not counting any indirect costs such as your time.
According to a thread on Magento Forum, migration for a typical Magento 1 store to Magento 2, with minimum third-party integrations can cost anything between $30,000 to $60,000.
Table A gives you an idea of the base price of the two editions of the Magento 2 platform.
When it comes to the cost, the critical thing to remember is that the cost for Magento 2 depends not only on the edition & hosting option you choose but also on your sales revenue, third-party extensions and customizations in your existing Magento 1 store.
In other words, the more the customizations, the higher the cost.
2. It takes 3 to 5 months to complete the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2
Magento has prescribed a process to do this upgrade yourself. But if you have customized your store and have integrated third-party extensions, the upgrade is not going to be simple or adhere to the prescribed process.
Even a site with minimum third-party extensions and customizations can take up to 6 months to migrate and be fully functional. This means your business would have to function without your online store for up to 6 months. How will this impact your sales? The time, cost, and potential loss of revenue are key factors to think about it before you make a decision.
3. Magento comes with its own set of issues
One of the primary reasons behind Magento’s popularity is its vast ecosystem of developers and implementation partners. This very structure has caused a lot of problems for Magento and its users, like vulnerability to hacking and malware, lack of support for original developers, etc.
One such incident was the Guruincsite malware, where Google had to blacklist almost 7,000 retailers who were using Magento, for the first 90 days of the breach.
4. You will be dependent on multiple parties to keep your Magento 2 site up and running
Due to Magento’s complex architecture, you will have to commission an implementation partner to complete your migration from Magento 1 to 2 successfully. Even after your migration is complete, to keep your store up and running, you will be dependent on multiple parties.
- Adobe Magento – Developer of Magento platform
- Implementation Partner – For regular maintenance of your site
- Support Partner – In this case, it would be the Magento Forum, as like most of the open sources software, getting support from the original developers is almost impossible
This coordination is time-consuming and at times, challenging.
5. There are better and affordable Magento alternatives
Given the challenges, it will be useful to research options. There are new-age platforms that are built to avoid the issues associated with Magento.
There are B2B eCommerce Platforms providers like BigCommerce, ewiz commerce, Shopify Plus, etc. who are on par with Magento in terms of technology. Some of these are even better when it comes to features and pricing. It makes sense to check out the alternatives as well before making a crucial decision like this for your business.
(Need help in looking for Magento Alternatives? You can start your research with ewiz commerce)
And the last and most important one …
6. There’s always the fear of Adobe withdrawing support for Magento 2
What if and when Magento 3 is launched? You may find yourself in the same situation again in the future. Why not instead get a platform which not only provides you with lifelong support but also gives you regular updates?
Some eCommerce platform providers even provide dedicated support packages. These packages help you in getting your queries resolved at a faster speed and you get more time to focus on your business.
I hope that this second post from our series – Moving away from Magento 1, helps you in making this critical decision. There are a few additional links at the end of this post, which may provide you more information about Magento 2. If you need any further assistance in moving to a better eCommerce platform, then start your research with this Magento Alternative.
Additional Resources:
- Problems with Magento that you need to know about
- 7 reasons you should upgrade from Magento 1 to a better eCommerce platform. Today.
- How much does Magento 2 Cost
- ewiz commerce Vs Magento – Detailed Comparison
(This article is part of the series — Moving away from Magento 1 by ewiz commerce. ewiz commerce (a Powerweave product) is the world’s first AI-powered B2B eCommerce platform, which allows you to digitize all your business functions at speed and scale. With over 18 years of experience across the B2B landscape and catering to more than 500 customers across the world, Powerweave helps businesses with merchandising, order management, and marketing automation.)
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the author and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity unless explicitly stated.
