eCommerce Websites built with Magento


What is Magento?

Magento is a self-hosted e-Commerce software that specializes in omnichannel solutions. This PHP software is open source, and thus highly flexible. Given the customization options available, Magento is a vital tool for bringing together a physical store or chain with an online store front. Magento has products available for digital commerce, order management, and industry solutions.

How Does Magento Work?

Businesses use Magento by downloading the free Community version or paying the licensing fee for the Enterprise edition. After obtaining Magento in some form, a company must develop their online store in PHP using Magento as the backbone. With a working Magento digital store, the business pays for hosting and can then sell their goods or services.

Pricing

The pricing schedule for Magento offers a variety of options.

Magento Community

As an open source platform, the Magento Community edition is free to download. In order to create an online store, business owners work with a developer or development agency to build the site. Since every business has a unique store, support is then up to the business owner or the hired developer.

The beauty of Magento Community is that it can scale to any budget. A small business can have a site up and running for no more investment than the developer’s payment. Companies with tighter deadlines or those who require more advanced features can elect to hire an entire team of developers to create and maintain their online store at a faster pace.

Magento Enterprise

For some businesses, Magento Enterprise may be a better option. For a licensing fee starting at $18,000 per year, businesses can acquire talent directly from Magento to ensure top notch development and support. This is the more expensive option, but has obvious benefits for businesses that can justify its cost.

Hosting

For both Magento Community and Magento Enterprise users, hosting is a required decision. There are many companies online that claim to specialize in Magento hosting. Of these, Magento officially recognizes Nexcess.net as their favorite, and thus would be a good starting point in researching hosting companies.

Who Runs Magento?

Magento is owned by Magento Inc, but was initially created by Varian Inc. As an open source project, it is managed by a core team of developers, but accepts and reviews new changes from volunteers.

Is Magento Right for Me?

So how can you determine if Magento is the best e-Commerce solution for your business?

The idea Magento customer is a business with very specific needs and the technical ability or capital to hire a developer that can handle the PHP requirements to build a digital store. While other e-Commerce solutions may offer one-size-fits-all tools for a business, the entire premise of Magento is its flexibility.

Smaller businesses that may be new to e-Commerce may be more inclined to use Magento Community, for its reduced total cost. A business on a budget needs to cut corners where possible without sacrificing quality for the end user. Utilizing free software and hiring an external developer is the best way to meet a strict budget.

Larger businesses with high volume would be better suited for Magento Enterprise. With sufficient capital to pay for both hosting and development directly from Magento, a company can ensure the best possible end product in the shortest possible time. With sales on the line, large companies need a polished site finished quickly.

As a competitor of Magento, some customers may consider WooCommerce. While both of these e-Commerce solutions share many of the same features and operate in a similar manner, there are key differences. The biggest difference between Magento and WooCommerce is that WooCommerce is limited to WordPress sites, while Magento requires building a site from the ground up.

Who Uses Magento

Some big names in business use Magento for their e-Commerce needs. These companies include

See a more complete list at https://magento.com/customers/customer-showcase.

Learn more at: https://magento.com/