7 Myths About Magento Ecommerce Platform

As Magento ecommerce specialists, we spend a lot of time looking at Magento and each competing ecommerce solution. After all, we have a responsibility to our clients to identify the best ecommerce platform for their given circumstances. So we try not to favor some enterprise ecommerce platform over another.

Part of the reason for that is that our ecommerce clients often come with a ready-made decision of which ecommerce solution they're looking for. When we think it's in their best interests, we challenge them and suggest a different platform to consider. Still, we're always there for the client and ready to go with whichever enterprise ecommerce platform they specify, especially when we're dealing with an existing build.

Still, it's commonplace for people to compare different platforms to choose the best possible ecommerce experience for their store. We love to explore everything related to ecommerce latest tech insights. That helps us give our clients the best possible service, whether they're using Magento Enterprise or whether they're using any other enterprise ecommerce platform.

Who are Core dna? Why do they believe they're Magento experts?

One thing that caught our eye was a recent piece on Magento by Core dna, in which they claimed that Magento isn't the best ecommerce solution. We beg to differ, and we think our years of ecommerce experience as a Magento development company means that we're worth being heard, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

First, let's take a look at Core dna. As a full-service digital agency, we service a similar marketplace, and so it would be unprofessional of us if we were to badmouth them. Instead, what we will say is that they have their ecommerce platform/web CMS, and so perhaps they have a vested interest in not wanting their clients to use Magento. Quite obvious.

Core dna made a list of seven reasons why they don't recommend Magento Enterprise and Magento Community, so let's take a little look at each reason they list and see if they hold up.

Seven reasons why their facts are just a manipulation

Should we all give up on our Magento Enterprise cloud sites and switch to some other enterprise ecommerce platform? Our answer to that is a resounding "No". Even Magento 1 has a lot going for it, and if you're running the latest build of Magento Enterprise or Magento Community, then there are even more good reasons to stick with it. Here's what you need to know about Core dna's claims.

Myth 1: Ongoing Costs

Their first claim is that running a Magento website is expensive because of the associated ecommerce development and support costs. From our point of view, that's simply not true. Here's why.

When you're choosing an enterprise ecommerce platform, you'll always have to pay for hosting, support, and development. These expenses exist no matter which ecommerce platform you decide to go for. Every ecommerce platform needs ongoing support because ecommerce sites typically experience ever-increasing traffic and an ever-growing number of customers.

When compared to every other enterprise ecommerce platform, Magento starts to work out as a cheaper option, mostly because it's an open-source ecommerce platform and so you don't need to pay for a license. As an open-source ecommerce platform, you also save money because you can download many themes and plugins for free thanks to the community of Magento developers. You can learn more about Magento pricing here.

Myth 2: Needy technology

The next claim about Magento is that it's a tough ecommerce platform to figure out, and it takes a lot of time to learn how to use Magento commerce. Honestly, if that's something that they truly believe, they've either been using an old build of Magento 1 or they've been hiring employees and working with clients with no idea what an ecommerce platform even is.

Magento commerce is extremely easy to understand, and it's arguably the ecommerce platform with the shortest learning curve. Don't believe us? Check out a demo!

Even more importantly, every ecommerce platform requires a certain amount of training if you want to get the best possible results from it. Running an ecommerce business requires a lot more than simply adding blog posts, which is all you need to run a WordPress site. The secret to running a successful ecommerce site is to keep adding multiple products with different attributes. Setting up a Magento commerce store requires much more than a single day of work.

Myth 3: The support sinkhole

This claim seems to rely on the idea that Magento 1 has poor support, but that's only telling half of the story. Sure, support for Magento 1 is being discontinued as of June 2020, but it's outdated, and there are more recent versions of Magento commerce available. There's also a huge community around Magento, and so even if Magento themselves won't help you, there's no trouble to hire someone with the necessary skills.

In our experience, Magento commerce has pretty good support. Magento users' tickets are almost always quickly responded to, and Magento also goes out of its way to share links to the latest updates where most of the common questions can be answered. 

Last, but by no means least, Magento has a vibrant community (you can check it out on Github) where Magento commerce experts are always on hand to help out. So in the rare event that you do have some problems with your Magento ecommerce platform, you can ask for help and receive a response to almost any question.

Myth 4: Magento is not enough for an enterprise

This one's just a flat-out lie. Magento commerce is arguably the most powerful eсommerce platform on the market, and it's definitely the best among open-source solutions. You can do everything with Magento that you could hope for from an ecommerce platform, from website data analysis and CRM integrations to generating landing pages for special offers, ad campaigns, and email campaigns.

And even with all of that, we're only touching on the basics that Magento commerce has to offer. If you're looking for a more advanced ecommerce platform than you can get with a default Magento build, there's also a massive network of third-party designers and developers creating everything from themes to plugins to augment your Magento build.

Myth 5: Updates, Migrations, and Headaches

This is arguably where Core dna is closest to being "right", mainly because a hot topic today is whether to upgrade from Magento 1 to Magento 2. The good news is that these upgrades are entirely optional. For example, if you're running Magento 1, you can stay with it without upgrading to Magento 2, but only if you want to.

The important thing here is to evaluate the risks and to decide whether it's worth the reward. Magento 2 was only created because Magento 1 was starting to feel a little dated. So by upgrading to Magento 2, you get the benefits of Magento reliability but with the bonus of added ecommerce functionality.

Upgrading to Magento 2 doesn't cost any more than switching to any other ecommerce provider, and it also doesn't have to cause too much of a headache. There's also the fact that nobody is forcing you to update. Just because Magento 1 will no longer be officially supported, it doesn't mean that your Magento commerce store will stop working.

Myth 6: Open Source vs Closed Source

This mostly comes down to personal preference. Open-source ecommerce sites have the advantage that there's typically a large community of developers working on added functionality. Still, the drawback of open source ecommerce is that the popularity of such software can make them a target. Closed source is typically more expensive, though, and it often lacks features and isn't necessarily more secure.

The open-source vs closed source ecommerce debate has been taking place for a while now, and to some extent, it's a matter of personal preference. But for us, the winner is obvious, and that's Magento open-source. Features vary depending upon which ecommerce platform you're using, and additional functionality is required by the market on a regular basis.

That means that if you're using a closed source ecommerce solution and your competitors are using something that's open-source, they might have access to more features than you can expect from a closed source ecommerce build. The decision to go with an open-source Magento commerce build might not give you a competitive advantage, but it may stop you from getting left behind.

Myth 7: Magento Isn't Built for the IoT Era

This final claim seems to focus on the idea that Magento commerce can't be integrated with the Internet of Things devices, but if you think that, then the chances are that you haven't tried hard enough. First, let's go back to what Magento is: it's an ecommerce solution, a fact that's beyond argument. It was specifically designed for ecommerce.

When we start to talk about IoT devices, we're talking about integrating ecommerce within the IoT. The problem with this argument is that the Amazon Echo (and competing devices) can be integrated with any platform. Voice assistants aren't exclusive to Amazon and can be integrated via API with any solution, Magento included.

Integrating various services into your Magento ecommerce store is simple enough, and pretty much everything in the tech world can be integrated into Magento.

To Sum Up

Here at Zfort Group, we're obsessed with ecommerce, and with good reason. We work with a number of Magento ecommerce clients and we try to keep on top of the latest thinking at all times so that we can provide them with the best service possible.

Because of that, we love expert reviews and always support people in our industry when they share valuable information. In this case, we think that their article was more about trying to hijack interest in Magento and to sway people into using their own proprietary software, but that's just an opinion – in the same way that their piece is an opinion too.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the debate and to continue the discussion on social media and in comments, so be sure to reach out to us, whether you agree or disagree. Bring on the discussion!