Magento, a leading open source e commerce platform that is written in PHP language. Magento is convenient for Magento development teams because of its flexibility and customization properties. It empowers retailers, brands, developers by providing highly flexible cloud solutions. It provides control over the content and functionalities of the online store to the developer. Search engine optimization, marketing, and catalogue management tools are some of its crucial functions. Companies like Vizio, Inkcartridges, Gear.jeep. Created using the Zend framework and written in PHP Magento provides heaven to Magento developers because of its functionality and ease of usage.
But the question remains the same, should Magento developers upgrade to Magento 2.0 from Magento 1.9?
The first thing they did is that they changed the name. Magento Community is now known as Magento Open Source and Magento Enterprise is known as Magento Commerce. Luma is a theme that comes with the upgraded version. The main feature includes
- Clean and modern design
- A responsive layout
- Replace carousel for tiles
- AJAX for baskets
- Checkout is more intuitive
In 2015 when Magento 2 was released a huge stir within the Magento developer community and many Magento development companies. The Magento company has already announced that they are not going to provide support for Magento 1 after June 2020. Online store owners have fear before migrating from one version to another. Some of the reasons why they hesitate to migrate from older to an upgraded version are
- Timing of migration (is this the right time)?
- Cost of migration.
- Fear of change.
Reason 1 - Security patches issues
More than 650,000 websites are using Magento 1. Just imagine if all of them want to upgrade at the same time, they will be the easiest target for hackers and scammers. Hackers are not always for money, they can steal a database of customers, inject malware, establishing backdoor. So, it the responsibility of Magento developers and Magento development companies to check any leakage or drawback of their design.
Reason 2 - Data Leak fines
If the owner is not following PCI compliance, the chances of the data leak are too high. This will lead to crippling fines from authorities and various payment agencies. There is no fixed amount of fine for such a crime. Some payment processors freeze account during the investigation period which will hamper the reputation and business revenue of the brand and Magento development companies. GDPR laws protect the interest of customers and can lead to significant charges/fines.
Reason 3 - Roadblocks in term of Technology
Technology changes rapidly and hence frequent updates are required. It is necessary to keep up the development because staying behind can hurt sales. Magento 2 provides the best features and ensures the delivery of the best UX. Hence, various Magento Development companies and Magento developers are confident of using Magento 2.0.
Magento 2.0 has many features that Magento 1.9 is lacking such as PWA (Progressive Web App) studio which is fast, reliable, and works without the internet. PWA provides apps like UX in all of the major web browsers. PWA studio uses enhanced and modern tools, libraries that create a fast and engaging user experience. Previously, the Magento developers cannot create PWA due to the absence of GrapghQL.
Reason 4 - Customization
Big website owners with a high customization interface are adopting Magento2.0 because of security and new features. Magento 2.0 comes with built-in tools for better customization which saves money and lots of hard work of Magento developers and Magento development companies
Reason 5 - Lack of Updation
Magento 1.9 was not receiving any updates and new features and in e commerce business lacking back in technology is a huge setback. Even though many additional features can be added with third party extension. Magento 2.0 has more than 30% of themes in comparison to Magento 1.9.
Reason 6 - Technology Lapse
With fast-changing technology server and hosting environments are becoming stagnant. Many developers are not using outdated PHP and MySQL. So, it is better to move now and adapt to the change.
Reason 7 - Development and Support Cost
Maintaining an aging environment is a hectic task. Efforts and costs put in can cause unnecessary expenses. It’s hard to find a developer that work on outdated technology. Magento 1 is not that old but further, down the road, it will get older.
Reason 8 - Admin features and Checkouts
- Data safeguard to help users to work on the same thing simultaneously
- Video Embedding Capabilities
- Menu Logic
- New Admin Panel
- Grid view.
Reason 9 - SEO improvements
Magento 1 has a bad reputation when SEO is concerned and how it controls duplicate data and various meta tags. The Dev team has worked on multiple contents and came out with better SEO functionalities. Meta tags are present on every page natively. By all means, Magento 2.0 comes with better SEO techniques and therefore they are becoming favourite of Magento developers.
Reason 10 - Mobile Friendliness
No need to say that the mobile world is increasing day by day. The number of mobile users crossed 5 Billion as per some research agencies and expected to grow by 4.8 Billion by 2020 end. This makes it crucial that online stores should run perfectly on websites and mobile. Magento is tailored to run smoothly on any mobile devices (phones, pocket PC, tablet) on any operating system( Windows, macOS, Android)
Points to be considered
Duration of migration heavily depends on many unseen factors such as
- Number of extensions additional features
- Add-on
- Design and theme requirement
- Store view
Challenges in Migration
- Architectural
- Migration team challenges
- Compatibility
Conclusion
Although some Magento developers hesitate to adopt any change but its always better to go for the latest in technology to prevent any setback. The new version Magento 2.0 will grow with the business. E commerce websites are rapidly moving to Magento 2.0 to avail new extensions and updated features.
