Converting your business into ecommerce is the second daunting task to do, but choosing the right platform remains the first one.
Isn’t it?
Don’t worry folks it won’t be that much tough once you read the detailed comparison of Magneto Open Source vs Commerce.
While researching for an ecommerce platform for your growing business or even for a startup, you can easily find several options over the internet.
Let me share a few most famous ecommerce platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, CraftCMS, BigCommerce, OpenCart, etc. that can help you to scale your business online.
However, we know that all ecommerce solutions aren’t the best fit for all kinds of business niches. I personally LOVE Magento and have been developing stores using it for the past few years.
But I think there is a bit of confusion when it comes to Magento variations. So, in this blog, I will talk about the Magento variations i.e Magento Open Source vs Commerce, and which one you should choose to build your ecommerce store.
Background: Magento Editions
Among all the ecommerce platforms, we can still witness the popularity of Magento. Almost, 773,070 websites around the globe are using Magento in which the USA is on the top.
Image Source: Builtwith
Magento has three major variations of its core product. So the two most famous products that you may have known are “Magento Enterprise Edition” which is now referred to as “Magento Commerce”, “Magento Open Source” and third is “Magento Commerce Cloud”.
And I think the differences between Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce leads to a debate among the users. Honestly, Magento is built with a complex architecture and it is even hard for experts to remember all the little differences between them!
Stick around till the end to know the major difference among them. Before that, it’s also important to know why you choose Magento.
Why Choose Magento for Building an E-commerce Store?
Magento recently announced the latest version 2.3.5 with 180 functional fixes, 25 security enhancements, and the resolution of over 46 issues by community enthusiasts. In this unprecedented time for businesses, Magento didn’t let it go and released the update for all the store owners. One of the most attractive parts that bring me closer to work more around the Magneto platform.
Being a Magento developer and community enthusiast, I’ve found it the most reliable and flexible with the great user interface. For those considering building up an ecommerce store, the most appealing part is to build an online store without pursuing any daunting task. This is one of the main features of Magento that attract people to choose for their online business.
There’s no doubt that Magento is a famous ecommerce platform and that’s why these big giants companies depend on Magento.
- Nike
- Ford
- Olympus
- Coca Cola
- Vizio
- Christian Louboutin
- Victoria Beckham
- BVLGARI
- K-Swiss
- Liverpool FC
Highlights of Magento Features
Magento keeps on upgrading and executing brilliant ideas to enhance the online shopping experience.
- Magento 2 has become more user-friendly, offers more strategies in terms of SEO like each product MT, MD, image alt-text, and much more.
- Being a Magento store owner, you can add items to the stores on your own which means you don’t need a developer to do it.
- Magento has the capability to set up and manage multiple stores which makes it unique from other ecommerce platforms.
- Magento also helps the merchants to manage the store’s products so they can market specific items to a particular segment of the customer easily.
- Coupons and gift cards are other features that give Magento an advantage on other platforms.
- Magento can easily integrate with third-party applications, allowing users to utilize as many options as possible to grow their online store.
- If you’re having a brick and mortar, you can configure with Magento POS extensions while managing all the relevant operations
- With the latest version of Magento Commerce, you can experience Adobe Sensei for product prediction.
- Offering more efficient content creation options across multiple sites with Page Builder Templates.
A look at Magento 2 Open Source Edition
If you are newbies and want to start your startup then Magento Open Source is for you with a minimum turnover of $5,000 depending on your store. Magento Open Source Edition (previously known as Magento Community) is available for everyone to download and install for free.
With the Magento 2 admin panel, the developers can configure the ecommerce store as per the requirements. Magento 2 Open Source offers excellent features which include:
- Catalogue Promotional Pricing
- Multi-Tier Pricing
- Flexible Coupons
- Product Videos
On top of that, there is a Magento Marketplace where you can find various extensions and themes to configure within your online store.
Moving up to Magento 2 Commerce Edition
Let’s talk about Magento 2 Commerce Edition which was formerly known as Enterprise Edition is the paid edition of Magento – designed for medium-to-large sized ecommerce businesses with great annual revenue. Although, it’s a fact the more you invest the more you get rewarded.
As compared with additionally, it has advanced and more additional features like:
- Admin action logging
- Assisted shopping
- Customer segmentation
- Targeted offering
- Secure and additional payment gateways
- Loyalty benefits
- Technical support and much more…
Magento 2 Commerce Edition users also have access to the Magento Extension marketplace to download all free and paid themes and extensions from there.
Magento Commerce Exclusive Features
For those considering Magento as their next platform, you guys can go for both options depending on your specific requirements. If Magento Commerce is the preferred option, then let me discuss some exclusive features around it.
Cloud Hosting
Magento Commerce comes with the cloud hosting included with a reliable AWS-based hosting environment designed to support a Magento store. This hosting solution is scalable and backed by a high-speed CDN, and the latest performance management technologies.
Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch allows the store to handle search queries through large catalogs without any problem. It looks after the customer’s suggestions, corrections to misspellings, stop words, synonym management, and much more which ultimately helps the customers to find what they are looking for.
Automated Product Relations
This one is the most valuable feature for larger catalogs in which you don’t have to curate product relations manually. You just have to use rules in Magento to automatically assign products to be related for cross-selling or up-sell products.
Content Staging & Scheduling
Content staging and schedule are some of the most useful that are incorporated within Magento Commerce. This feature helps you to edit your content on pages, products, or any other blocks, etc., and view your content changes to make sure it’s up to the mark.
On top of that, you can also schedule content that is extremely useful for promotions or holiday seasons.
Customer Segmentation
Magento Commerce allows you to segment the list of customers so that you can target the specific market to fulfill the desires and needs of each individual. This way you can save your time, more focused on marketing, operations, and other critical areas of the business.
Rewards Program
With Magento Commerce, you don’t have to use any other third-party extensions to offer reward programs to your customers. It has a built-in rewards program that is potentially saving you extra money.
Additional Payment Options
Magento Commerce offers various payment options like Cybersource, eWay, WorldPay, Authorize.net and more. It helps the customers to pay against their orders in a more convenient style.
How Much Magento Open Source & Magento Commerce Edition cost?
Magento Open Source Edition – This edition is completely free. Download the latest version and start building your ecommerce store.
Magento Enterprise Edition – No doubt, this edition comes with a whole lot of bells and whistles. The Magento enterprise price starts from $22,000. This could go up to $40,000.
Quick Comparison: Magento Community vs. Commerce
The below table will help you to understand the quick difference between Magento Open Source and Commerce.
| Built-in Features | Open Source | Magento Commerce |
| Integrated Checkout, Payment, and Shipping | YES | YES |
| Mobile Optimized Shopping | YES | YES |
| Global Selling | YES | YES |
| Catalog Management | YES | YES |
| Extended Functionality via App Marketplace | YES | YES |
| Instant Purchase | YES | YES |
| Site Search | YES | YES |
| Business Intelligence Dashboards | NO | YES |
| B2B Functionality | NO | YES |
| Advanced Marketing Tools | NO | YES |
| Advanced Marketing Tools | NO | YES |
| Customer Loyalty Tools | NO | YES |
| WYSIWYG Page Builder | NO | YES |
| Visual Merchandising | NO | YES |
| Account Manager | NO | YES |
| Technical Support | NO | YES |
| Access to quick-build Express Packages | NO | YES |
Table: Source
The Verdict
It’s time for the decision!
I hope after reading this blog you’ve got enough knowledge about the major difference between Magento Open Source vs. Commerce. And, I’m also assuming that you’ve made a mind which edition to opt for building your ecommerce store.
Comment down below which edition you are using or will use in the future.
