E-commerce has forever changed the business world. Not only can people buy whatever they want wherever they want, but you can manage your entire business virtually with just a couple of taps on a tablet or phone.

While there are several big names in the e-commerce business, Magento is the most popular and stands alone at the head of the class for various reasons. That said, although they are few and far between, the Magento content management system has a few disadvantages as well. 

Below, you will find a complete detailed list of the pros and cons of using Magento as an e-commerce solution. First, however, let’s dive into the history of Magento to understand its place in today’s online-driven business world.

Magento CMS – A Brief History

The Magento content management system (CMS) has been one of the most renowned e-commerce platforms on the Web for well over a decade. Released in 2008 by then Varien Inc., it surpassed four million downloads by 2012, becoming one of the world’s most popular e-commerce platforms.

Today, Magento was acquired by Adobe and is used to power over 25 percent of online stores, including websites for several leading companies like Ford, Land Rover, Vizio, Harvey Nichols, Sigma Beauty, and more. Altogether, Magento handles over $150 billion in transactions every single year.

The first version was called Magento Community Version for a good reason. Like several other CMS platforms, Magento is open source. Instead of a company, it’s developed and maintained by a community, so it’s constantly evolving and getting better.

With each new version of Magento, more and more things set it apart from other CMS platforms. It has hundreds of extensions and advanced features to infinitely scale websites and online stores.

That said, Magento is far from being a plug-and-play e-commerce solution. It’s less beginner-friendly than some other CMS options and has a few other downsides to consider. 

Still, Magento has become today’s most popular CMS for a reason – well, several. 

Here’s a breakdown of everything Magento offers and some things to consider when opting for this powerful e-commerce solution.

Pros of Using Magento CMS

Out-of-the-Box Features

 Magento delivers arguably more out-of-the-box features and functions than any other CMS. With it, you can manage multiple stores with a single Admin Panel, make your store available in various languages, have multiple pricing options, and accept various currencies.

 Other value-added features include:

• Simple and intuitive interface
• Quick and easy one-step checkout
• Advanced filter and navigation options
• Detailed analytics and reporting
• Landing page and online poll creation
• Promotional pricing tools
• Integration with third-party applications, networks, and multiple payment gateways 
• Quick and easy site migration

Magento’s flexibility and features are hard to ignore when doing a Magento vs WooCommerce or Magento vs Shopify comparison. Both the Community Edition and the Commerce Edition offer robust features and dynamic functionalities to build a powerful online store.

Extremely Flexible

As an open-source platform, CMS Magento allows users and Magento web developers to modify the source code according to their specific needs and requirements. Users can also customize themes and templates to achieve their desired functionality.

Flexible promotional and marketing tools also make Magento a welcome choice for back-end administrators. With an intuitive page editor, building and managing dynamic and fully customized product pages is also not only possible but easy.

Plus, as any quality CMS should, Magento allows for third-party integrations. This flexibility is one of Magento’s most significant selling points. It easily integrates with Google, PayPal, eBay, and a variety of other apps. This makes Magento extremely scalable as well.

Infinitely Scalable

Nearly everyone who starts a small business does so with thoughts of future expansion. Magento was designed to scale right and any e-commerce business to handle more and more products ad sales. 

Many CMS platforms claim scalability but fall short in several areas and hinder a company’s growth. This isn’t the case with Magento. Magento can handle ten products or 10,000. Magento can also support thousands of transactions an hour.

Whether you’re selling 100 products a week or 100 products an hour, the Magento can handle orders, payments, inventory, and other necessary tasks. 

Seriously Robust

Another significant advantage of Magento is its outright robustness. The popular CMS can host up to half a million products per site. It can also support up to 80,000 orders every hour, giving e-commerce companies the ability to develop robust online storefronts while providing customers with the best possible shopping experience.

Developed for Developers

Magento is great for developers. It’s a one-stop e-commerce solution with a diverse set of fully customizable features designed to power any e-commerce store. It includes advanced catalog management, multiple payment gateways, multiple shipping options, localization and multi-lingual website support, and much more.

Meanwhile, intuitive dashboards provide in-depth views of integrated Google Analytics, customer orders, inventory, and just about anything else a developer or e-com business owner would like to know. In a nutshell, it makes developing a robust e-commerce store easy and allows administrators to extract as much value as possible from their websites. 

Mobile-Friendly

Of course, Magento is mobile-friendly as well. With fully responsive designs, mobile-friendly shopping carts, and seamless iOS and Android integration, the platform’s focus is clearly on mobile commerce, and rightly so.

It was clear years ago that e-commerce is growing rapidly and forever changing the way people shop. People are browsing online to buy anything from cars to groceries, mainly due to smartphone technology.

Several studies have shown that people prefer shopping on their smartphones over laptops or PCs. These days, fewer and fewer people even own a computer or PC. 

Magento is on the right side of this trend. It truly is a mobile-friendly e-commerce solution. With it, users can build fully responsive mobile websites and online stores with ease. Meanwhile, customers receive the best possible viewing experience, resulting in lower bounce rates and increased sales.

Cost-Effective

Magento offers two versions of its CMS. The Magento Enterprise Edition is the paid version, which delivers a substantial value for all of the capabilities and functionality it provides. However, the Magento Community Edition is completely open-source and free. 

Both versions provide users with a cost-effective e-commerce solution. The free edition is ideal for startups and first-time online store owners, while the paid version is better suited for more established e-commerce businesses with more products, page views, and transactions.

SEO Optimization

Receiving organic search engine traffic is a must for any e-commerce business. Fortunately, Magento was built with SEO-friendliness in mind.

 With the Magento Content Management System, you can:

• Create SEO-friendly URLs
• Add product Meta descriptions
• Optimize Meta tags and product images
• Build optimized landing pages
• Auto-generate site maps and more

Thanks to these advanced SEO capabilities, Magento allows business owners to focus more on the core of their business and less on essential yet mundane details like SEO.

Advanced Testing Capabilities

Magento also comes equipped with advanced testing capabilities to identify bugs and errors before taking a site live. In addition to ensuring smooth website operation and performance, this saves valuable time and money, both of which are badly needed when launching any business startup.

Large Active Community of Users

Since it is one of the world’s most popular e-commerce platforms, Magento has a large community of users. Open source by design has an extensive support community to determine if you find yourself experiencing a complicated website issue. 

Magento’s large and vibrant community of users has also resulted in the development of endless extensions, plugins, and other resources. Best of all, these are available for free or at highly discounted prices. 

With Magento, every function one can think of has already been done by someone who is usually willing to share.

Cons of Using Magento

Complex and Time-Consuming

Magento has numerous benefits, extensions, plugins, and features. It becomes complex and time-consuming to find the best combination of features and extensions for designing a particular store.

Experienced Developers Required

It is not facile to create a Magento e-commerce site for a non-technical person. A Certified Magento Developer can help you build a successful eStore equipped with one-of-a-kind functionalities and features. 

Chetu has a team of experienced Magento Developers who have built many successful e-commerce websites earning good revenue.

Is Magento Right for Your Business?

Despite its cons, the pros beat the cons. The unique features of Magento CMS will allow you to build a full-functioning profitable e-commerce store. That’s why it stands out as the best e-commerce platform in the market.

 Deciding the best e-commerce platform for your eStore could be a challenging task. To come up with a profitable decision, do consider the below questions.

• Will Magento will be able to meet the functional needs of your online store? Yes, it will!
• Will you be able to find an experienced Magento Developer who can help you run a successful online business? Undoubtedly, you will!
• Will Magento will be able to provide functionalities that can keep you ahead of competitors? Definitely yes!

 Knowing your business goals, what you expect from the e-commerce platform you are looking for, and using our pros-cons list, you are ready to decide which e-commerce platform is suitable for your online business.

If you want to take your e-commerce business to the next level, Chetu’s experienced team of Magento CMS developers can help. 

Author Bio

Dave Wood is an industry expert within the supply chain and logistics technology landscape. He works at Chetu Inc., Plantation, Fla., a custom software development provider and thought-leader within the IT community. He offers commentary on changing tides within logistics and how inventory and warehouse management systems can propel all retail and supply facets.