Adobe Commerce offers a unique offering: Magento Open Source (formerly Magento Community). Adobe Commerce also includes the free, open-source Adobe Commerce edition. It is quite powerful and offers many benefits. But just how far can this Open-Source edition take you, and what are your options once you reach the end of this road?
Here, we will discuss the limitations and capabilities of Magento Open Source. We’ll also compare it with Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento2 Enterprise) to help you choose the right fit for you.
Depending on your business, you may be a good candidate for the Open-Source platform or if it makes more sense to avoid technical debt long-term by implementing Adobe Commerce instead.
What is Magento Open Source?
Magento Open Source is a free and open-source version of Adobe Commerce. This version is best suited for small businesses and allows you to add functionality to your Magento extension to improve your store’s performance.
It is not difficult to see why Magento Open Source is so popular. The Magento Open Source is free and can be downloaded thousands of times per month. It is home to a strong community of developers and evangelists and a codebase marketplace that allows users to share tools and extensions. It is a true expression of the open-source spirit.
If you have staff proficient in coding on the platform and can spend time managing backend requirements (payments and shipping, order management, logistics), then the Open-Source edition might be the best choice.
But even if you have the technical skills to manage Open-Source software, the slow speed of adding functionality can hinder your growth.
What is Adobe Commerce?
Adobe Commerce includes everything that Magento Open Source offers and much more. You can drag-and-drop content management with preview and design features to allow content creators to create and manage content without needing a developer. This will make your marketing team more flexible and speed up the development process. But if you need custom solutions tailored specifically for your brand, involving the Best Adobe eCommerce Development Company India is essential.
Adobe Commerce is an enterprise platform that allows for rapid innovation. It combines powerful out-of-the-box functionality, unlimited scalability, and robust business tools to help you stay ahead of the ever-changing digital commerce landscape and increasing customer demands.
What is the difference between Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce?
The main difference is that Magento Open Source is free, and Adobe Commerce is a premium option that costs a certain amount. Adobe Commerce has a long list of built-in features and functionalities you would need to build yourself with the Open-Source edition.
Let’s look at the following parameters to compare the two options:
- Cost
- Scalability
- Security
- Features
Cost Comparison
Magento Open Source, as mentioned, is free. Adobe Commerce, however, has a fee. The license fee is a percentage of your annual revenue.
It is important to look at the value of a product when evaluating its cost. The value you get from the paid edition is far greater than the cost. It is also important to consider the cost you would pay for the best Adobe eCommerce development in Bangalore time to develop things already incorporated in the paid version.
With Adobe Commerce, you will need to pay the minimum licensing fee, even if the revenue of your business is not high enough. In this case, the minimum license fee could prove too expensive for your business. If you don’t see rapid growth that would justify investment in the paid platform, then the free platform might be more advantageous.
To administer and customise Adobe Commerce, you need to have high-level technical knowledge. However, if you run a small business, this will cost you more. The Magento community, however, is more approachable and manageable.
Scalability
When deciding on the right eCommerce platform, it is important to plan for future expansion. If you anticipate rapid growth, Adobe Commerce is a perfect choice. Adobe Commerce offers a wide range of features that will give your growing business the agility it needs. There will always be a risk of being held back or slowed down if you choose to use the free version.
Magento Enterprise is a good option for companies that anticipate rapid future growth because it is built to manage large volumes of traffic and transactions. The Enterprise version also includes enhanced load-balancing technologies and caching mechanisms to guarantee the performance and speed of websites.
Security
From the security perspective, Adobe Commerce is significantly more secure than Magento Open Source. The free version does not have advanced payment security and credit card tokenization, which could turn out to be problematic as these are essential features for secure transactions. Another big issue with the free version is that it does not comply with the PCI DSS security standards.
Adobe Commerce provides more advanced security options. The paid version of Adobe Commerce is PCI compliant and includes the Magento Secure Payment Bridge to handle card processing. The paid edition includes bug bounty programs, regular scanning, and secure payment gateways such as PayPal, WorldPay, CyberSource, Authorize.net, and more. Additionally, action logs in Adobe Commerce ensure every modification made with access to the admin panel is recorded and stored.
The Cloud provides CDN, DDoS protection, and the Fastly Web Application Firewall. Upgrade to the Pro version, and you get additional security features like New Relic infrastructure & logs and a dedicated technical advisor.
Features
Although both the paid and free ecommerce platforms have similar core features, Adobe Commerce offers advanced functionality in different areas, including:
- Complete Business Suite: Company Accounts, Quick Order and Requisition Lists, Company Credit and Payment on Account, Shared Catalog, Configuring company email, B2B quotes.
- Advanced Search: Smart corrections for misspelled questions, quick autocomplete functionality and search for product attributes.
- Cloud: Compliance, site-wide assessment tool, Fastly Web Application Firewall, and New Relic APM.
- Cloud Pro: Multiple environments, isolated & dedicated hardware setup, logs & New Relic infrastructure, B2B module, and dedicated technical advisor.
- Catalog and System: Order archive, order management software, full catalog export, and scheduled data import/export.
- Marketing: Google Tag Manager, private sales & events, product rules, email reminders, visual merchandiser, AI/ML based product recommendations, and automated email marketing.
- Advanced segmentation and targeting: Dynamic & personalized product display, customer attributes, and real-time segmentation.
- Advanced Content Management: Drag and drop content management with preview and staging features, page hierarchy, and dynamic blocks.
- Gifting options: Ability to offer customizable gift cards, gift registries, reward & loyalty programs, and vouchers.
- Add to cart by SKU: Customers can add multiple items to their cart using the SKU list.
- Sales: Returns, address search, cart thumbnails photographs, and managing shopping cart.
- Support: 24/7 support available.
Speed -To-Market
Adobe Commerce’s most significant benefit is its speed-to-market. Adobe Commerce comes with the same spirit and community as open source. Still, it is complemented with out-of-the-box functionality far more potent than the capabilities of even a seasoned Open Source build. The most important advantage of having access to this robust functionality from day one is the agility and speed-to-market it brings you.
Speed is key when entering new markets, creating new sales channels, introducing new products, or changing the structure of your business. It is essential to be fast to stay ahead of your competitors and take the lead. So, outsourcing your online store development to a competent Adobe eCommerce development company is very important.
The Adobe Commerce platform allows your team to focus on innovation and strategy rather than security testing and downtime. This means digital talent can stay cutting-edge and ahead rather than getting bogged down in tedious implementation. Adobe Commerce’s highly flexible backend allows you to easily modify, adapt, and configure the most important part of your website: the customer experience.
The Takeaway
Choosing the appropriate eCommerce platform is a challenging task. It is essential to think about how your business functions currently and how you want it to perform in the future. It is important to consider whether your audience will stay the same or whether you intend to add new sales channels and marketplaces.
You need the right tools to deliver the digital experience customers expect when they visit your website, and it’s also important to consider the eCommerce platform investment cost and ROI of your investment.[A1]
Adobe provides a solid foundation for building your ecommerce store, regardless of whether you choose the paid or free version. Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce provide functionality such as responsive web experiences across devices, simple checkout, payment, standard shipping, and site administration. It is sufficient to manage a simple site with a single purchase path, but it limits how customers can interact with your products.
The paid edition will, however, improve customer experience in many ways. Adobe Commerce is driven by the out-of-box functionality, B2B suite, and advanced cloud features. ElasticSearch, existing CMS capabilities, Content Staging, Preview, and customized shipping are some key components. With these features, your chosen Adobe eCommerce agency in India can perform wonders for your online store.
Also, think about the future. Will you require multi-site, multilingual, and multi-currency capabilities? What data will you have from transactions? Will it be used for commerce analytics and business intelligence? Will Drag-and-drop visual merchandisers help you get to market faster? Do you desire the ability to upsell and cross-sell? Do you want the ability to scale, grow or change your selling structures?
As a leading web development company, 18th Digitech specializes in assisting multi-brand, multi-currency, multilingual clients synchronize their channels. Our team excels in crafting winning ecommerce strategies. Reach out to us to choose the ideal platform for your business and kickstart your growth journey today!
