What is Magento eCommerce?
Magento is probably the most well-known Ecommerce platform, certainly in terms of self-hosted solutions. It was released in 2008, acquired by eBay and then sold to Adobe. Every year, Magento handles over $100 billion in gross merchandise volume.
Ease of use
It must be said that there is quite a learning curve to be encountered when considering Magento. The reality here is that unless you have some coding experience and understand a range of technical terms you will not maximise the true power of this platform.
From our Magento review we feel the Magento Content Management System (CMS) is less user friendly than other builders unless you are well versed with programming and coding. This is because there are lots of technical terms to overcome and some of these can be quite intimidating for the beginner, but those with such experience or those willing to invest time in understanding Magento will certainly benefit from the platform’s flexibility and use. Being open source means Magento gives a lot of freedom once coding experience develops.
There are also lots of resource guides that will help get you through any difficult processes but time and patience is required for the beginner.
Features and flexibility
Out of the box:
Looking at the Magento eCommerce platform its major features should be viewed in one of two ways:
- Free Download: Download from Magento website and install to your own reliable hosting from a 3rd party web hosting service.
- Hosted Service: No installation cost with the hosted service offering, but a much higher price tag comes with this option.
Themes and Templates:
The Magento eCommerce platform does not in itself offer custom designs for your online store. However, finding quality themes and designs to meet your needs is easily achievable via 3rd party providers.
To understand exactly what is available you would either browse the Magento Connect catalogue or avail of a premium theme by visiting a major theme provider in this arena such as Template Monster.
A final option but only for those with know-how. Due to the open-source code available it is possible to build yourself a ‘Ground Up’ Magento Theme. But again a higher level skill set is required.
Magento Pricing, The Cost of Magento
I have good news and bad news for you.
- Good: You can get the Community version of Magento for free. Just download it from the main website and install it on your web server.
- Bad: The Enterprise version – the one that’s set up by the Magento guys for you – is a lot more expensive. In fact, the company doesn’t even list the prices openly on the website. To get a quote, you have to fill out a contact form and tell them about your business first. After that, it’s been reported that you can hear anything from $15,000 to even $50,000 / year.
Final Verdict
As far as open-source software goes, Magento Open Source (formerly Community Edition) is one of the best platforms out there. Its rich feature-set and ever-expanding pool of add-ons and integrations make Magento a reliable option for a store that’s hoping to expand. I think any store offering a large number of detailed products with tons of options, variants, and customizations will be particularly pleased with Magento Open Source right out of the box.
Magento is difficult to set up and customize without any experience in web development. However, the basic business operations are fairly straightforward with a bit of practice. If you have extra resources with which to hire someone to take care of the “techy” stuff, you should be able to use the platform day-to-day without too much trouble. And, if you’re prepared to trudge up the rather steep initial learning curve, Magento could definitely be the robust software solution you’ve been looking for.
If you’re thinking Magento is the right approach for your business, there’s no harm in signing up for a free demo, keeping in mind that you’ll be looking at the more advanced (and extremely not free) Magento Commerce version. A Magento representative will guide you through the admin and storefront, so you can get a good feel for the platform without the trouble of downloading and installing.
Happy shopping and happier selling.
