Magento is still one of the leading options for e-commerce development, despite it being around for more than a decade. With the right focus and development team, it can be one of the best tools for your company. However, there are certain benefits and drawbacks that come with choosing Magento. Here are the top four pros and cons of choosing Magento for e-commerce platform development to consider.
Pros of Using Magento
There are plenty of reasons why companies choose Magento as their platform of choice. Over the years, companies have found creative and effective ways to put it to good use. When done well, your Magento resources can be among your strongest assets for your company. You just need to understand what makes Magento a good place in the first place.
Magento is Open Source
Open source e-commerce platforms are a great option for companies on a budget. Since these are free for download and use, there is no upfront cost. This can be appealing to companies that may not have the funds to pay for a fully hosted platform. However, it’s important to do your research to ensure you choose a reputable platform that has been heavily vetted.
Magento has Robust Features
Magento’s robust features make it a great choice for B2B and B2C companies. It offers functionality such as robust search functionality, product configurability, and multiple payment options. All of these are great for B2B companies looking to do large scale e-commerce or B2C companies that are looking to offer a wide range of products.
Magento is Highly Customizable
Magento is highly customizable, which can be great for companies that need to add additional functionality. Magento’s open source code makes it easy to add additional functionality to better fit your company’s needs. However, this is where a lot of the complexity comes in. You need to have the resources to navigate that complexity so that you can get the full benefit from it.
Magento has Enhanced Security
Magento has a reputation for being one of the most secure e-commerce platforms out there. It has been battle tested with B2B and B2C companies, and has stood the test of time. Magento also develops at pace with cybersecurity threats, making it a future-proof platform to base your e-commerce resources on.
Cons of Using Magento
While Magento can be a great e-commerce platform to use, there are some potential downsides. If navigated properly, you can avoid many of these problems. The key is knowing what to look for so that you can prepare properly.
Complexity
Magento is a full-featured platform designed for large-scale e-commerce. It has all the bells and whistles one would expect from an enterprise e-commerce platform geared toward B2B companies. However, the added complexity of a full-featured platform can be difficult for smaller businesses to manage.
A Steep Learning Curve
Building out an e-commerce platform from scratch can be one of the most cost-effective ways to build your own e-commerce platform. However, Magento’s steep learning curve can deter smaller companies from trying to build it out themselves. Instead, these companies may want to consider a hosted solution.
Limited Scalability
Magento is great for large-scale B2B e-commerce. However, as your company scales, Magento doesn’t have the capabilities to scale with you unless you invest heavily in expanding your resources. In many ways, it can be difficult to get a Magento implementation to scale in the ways that you need, which can become a hindrance as you try to grow.
Lack of Technical Support
One of the pros of using Magento is its open source code. This makes it easy to add functionality to your platform to better fit your company’s needs. However, there is limited customer support available for the open source version of Magento. You may be on your own if the open source community does not have an answer for your current problem.
Avoid the Pitfalls of Magento Development With Help
Although there are several potential pitfalls to using Magento, you can avoid them by working with a company that specializes in business platform development. At KitelyTech we specialize in helping businesses develop-commerce resources using a wide range of technologies, including Magento. Call us at (800) 274-2908 to discuss your next development project.
