How much is Magento Commerce?

Over the years, Magento commerce has proven to be a leading enterprise-level eCommerce web development platform. The platform is known for its advanced, robust, and scalable functionalities and features, helping online merchants rapidly expand their operations.

Here in this blog, we have come up with the complete Magento commerce guide to help you get started with the platform. So let’s dive in…

What is Magento Commerce?

Magento Commerce was previously known as Magento Enterprise Edition (EE). The product is aimed at large enterprises with extensive operations looking for advanced functionalities and premium support levels. Unlike Magento open-source is offered as free to install the platform; Magento commerce comes at a hefty licensing fee starting at USD 22,000 annually.

Magento offers its commerce edition as two separate versions, including Commerce Cloud and Commerce On-premise solution. Both versions share the same codebase; however, cloud commerce benefits from automated updates and patches and is offered as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) hosted solution.

As for the Magento on-premise version starts at USD 24,000 annually, and it is offered as a complex tiered model based on Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). This means that the final price of Magento Commerce’s on-premise solution will be influenced by the overall merchandise value of your store. Some time back, Magento did announce to keep the similar price for commerce cloud and on-premise versions; however, the move was rejected by the majority of the merchants who weren’t interested in using the commerce cloud version of the platform.

Like the on-premise version, the commerce cloud version also offers various tiers for users, including Cloud Starters and Cloud Essentials. Apart from the basic packages, there are other more customized packages available, including Adobe products like; Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Campaign, and others. Then still, there’s a premium package for conglomerates and largest enterprises that are designed around Adobe’s enterprise offerings, including all core and relevant Adobe products.

Over the years, Magento has significantly strengthened its commerce solution by adding various native features and bringing in more value for online merchants. While dedicated platform-level support is a premium feature that adds much value for online merchants, still some of the most significant features that make Magento commerce a leading platform includes;

• Page builder
• B2B module
• Content staging, preview, scheduling
• Magento BI
• Magento Shipping

Some of the leading eCommerce stores using Magento Commerce include;

• Bulk Powders
• Helly Hansen
• Paperchase
• Paul Smith
• com
• End Clothing
• BrewDog

Magento Commerce vs Magento Open Source

One of the most common considerations for businesses looking to venture onto the eCommerce marketplace is to choose the right development platform. Magento, as the dominating eCommerce platform, is the natural choice for most SMBs, and enterprises. However, choosing between Magento Open-source and Magento commerce remains a debatable topic.

Let’s briefly review each of these versions and see what each of these brings to the table for online merchants.

• Magento Open-source:Magento open source is the most popular and widely used Magento platform. It’s free to install the platform, which can be customized and self-hosted.
• Magento Commerce: Magento Commerce is marketed as a premium eCommerce solution for enterprises and conglomerates. The Magento commerce solution is offered as two models, including; commerce cloud and commerce on-premise.

Magento open-source is free to download and install platform that is easily accessible to everyone. As an open-source platform, it brings in a high level of customization options for businesses, making it a preferred choice amongst small and medium businesses. To further reinforce its domination as the premium eCommerce solution, the platform boasts thousands of extensions that can easily be integrated additionally to optimize the functionality and user experience of the store.

However, you would need a professional Magento 2 Development Company to ensure the creation of a functional and smartly designed online store. You may also need to hire professional Magento integration services to integrate various extensions required to meet unique store needs. Also, you may need a professional Magento B2B Development Company to fully leverage the specialized B2B module offered by the platform.

Unlike Magento open-source, Magento commerce is a premium version offered at a hefty price starting at USD 22,000 annually. As a premium solution, Magento commerce brings advanced features, tools, and robust support services for stores. The prices of Magento commerce are tiered to the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of the store.

As you may expect, Magento commerce offers more robust features, including targeted promotions, marketing tools, dedicated 24/7 technical support, and customer reward programs to support rapid growth and scalability.

As we have already mentioned in the above sections, Magento eCommerce stores are loaded with features and various customization offers. Customizing the Magento store helps meet the customers’ needs which improves the conversions. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that adding the custom features will streamline and speed up customers’ shopping process. If you are unable to handle the customization, you can also get in touch with professional Magento or Shopify design team agencies with relevant experience!

What is Magento Commerce Cost?

As mentioned above, Magento commerce solution starts at USD 22,000 annually. However, this is just the base price for the Commerce Cloud version, and that the prices will continue to increase with the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of the store. Contrarily, Magento commerce on-premise version prices start at USD 24,000 annually and are again offered as a tiered model depending on the GMV of the store.

Commerce Cloud solution offered multiple packages, including Cloud Starters, Cloud Essentials, and premium packages, including Adobe’s enterprise offerings (Adobe Analytics, Adobe Campaigns, Adobe Target, Adobe Experience Manager, and others).

What are the Features of Magento Commerce?

Some of the worth-mentioning features of Magento Commerce include;

• CRM
• Content Management
• Reporting and analytics
• API
• Customer Touchpoints
• Communication management
• Mobile access
• Order management
• B2B module
• Cataloging/categorization
• Inventory control
• Payment options
• Loyalty programs
• Channel management
• Customer accounts
• SEO management
• Web/mobile app development
• Returns management
• Shipping management
• Shopping cart

Magento Commerce: Pros & Cons

Pros

– Fully customizable:

Just like Magento open-source platform, Magento commerce brings in a host of built-in functions along with a high level of customization options. This means that online merchants can easily integrate available extensions (hundreds of thousands of customized extensions available for integration) or develop custom extensions to meet their store needs. There is not much difference between customization of Magento commerce as compared to customization for traditional Magento 2 open-source platform.

While the development and customization process may be the same, the deployment process is different. For Magento commerce cloud deployment, you would have to access the cloud database via SSH to run queries.

– Performance Tools:

Magento Commerce offers a robust suite of performance management tools that bring in much value for online stores. Developers can use the NewRelic monitoring tool to analyze PHP execution and server speed quickly. Magento Commerce also supports Blackfire.io to help assess performance test page loads to optimize the store’s performance (although some known glitches in the tool need to be worked on).

Apart from performance management tools, Magento commerce also includes performance-boosting tools like ElasticSearch, which is essentially an advanced version of the default MySQL search function. While ElasticSearch does bring in advanced search features, it is a complex tool and may require a longer learning curve. Furthermore, Magento has opted for Fastly CDN for caching purposes, supported by the platform’s CDN delivery system.

– Git Versioning:

As mentioned above, the Magento Commerce cloud comes with a different deployment process. For deployment on Magento commerce, you would have to use Git. This essentially means that the developer would have to push any new update to the Magento 2 code to the cloud environment via Git. In case of any error, the server will reject the update and revert to the earlier state.

– PCI requirements:

Cybersecurity concerns remain a top priority for all eCommerce businesses. Magento Commerce comes with PCI compliance, which makes it ideal for businesses requiring strict PCI compliance. Magento commerce cloud comes as a Level 1 Solution Provider for PCI Compliance.

Cons

– Restricted Server access:

Previously we did mention that Magento Cloud deployment needs Git Push. This essentially means that majority of the file system is read-only, which may result in issues with third-party integrations. While this problem may be solved by creating specific read/write areas on the server, it only adds to the already complex deployment process of Magento Commerce.

–  Long wait times for support:

This got to be one of the most frustrating and unfortunate problems with Magento commerce. Dedicated technical support has remained one of the most substantial marketing and selling points for Magento Commerce; still, the wait time to receive support is often frustratingly long. Waiting time for technical assistance may particularly be even longer for sites, which are not live and require technical assistance in development phases (wait times for support are often in the order of weeks). That’s because, absurdly, the priority support ticket for sites that are not live is automatically reduced, which means you will have to wait for weeks to receive crucial technical assistance.

–  Extra overhead:

Magento commerce platform uses multiple development environments for different stages, including integration, production, and staging. Now, while this may not appear to be of much headache, in reality, adjusting to the different server configurations and integrations of unique environments not only adds to the complexity of the process but also adds unnecessary overheads. This also creates lots of confusion and slows down the development process as well.

Magento Commerce vs Core DNA

Now let’s compare two of the more popular eCommerce web development platforms, Magento commerce vs. Core DNA, and see what each of these brings to the table for online merchants;

1) Inventory management

Inventory management is a crucial aspect for all eCommerce businesses. Online merchants (especially large enterprises) are always looking for an inventory management solution that helps them achieve more in less time. Magento Commerce and Core DNA bring robust inventory management systems to assist online stores in managing inventory more efficiently. Let’s see what each of these platforms has to offer;

Magento Commerce

Magento commerce does bring in some robust and advanced native inventory management features. For instance, the platform does allow online merchants to add as many product variations as they want on the portal.

Apart from native features, Magento Commerce also offers a complete suite of customized inventory management features through its massive range of custom extensions. Thereby, you can be sure of getting the most customized and high-performing inventory management features for your store.

Core DNA

Core DNA also comes with a range of robust inventory management features that allows online merchants to manage large and distributed inventory stocks more efficiently. The platform also offers 80+ pre-built applications further to reinforce the inventory management system of the stores.

2) Multi-brand and store management

Magento Commerce

Multi-store management is a key selling feature for the Magento Commerce platform. Magento’s advanced system architecture enables store owners to share product catalogs across multiple websites easily. The platform also allows stores to set varying product attributes for different markets.

Core DNA

Core DNA also offers a robust multisite management feature that lets online merchants manage an unlimited number of stores through a single interface. You can also share the product catalog across multiple sites or manage separate catalogs with store-specific customization’s.

3) Payment Gateways

Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce brings an incomplete suite of robust options for accepting online payments. The platform can integrate with all major payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and others. To make it even better, Magento doesn’t charge any transaction fees for online payments.

Core DNA

Just like Magento Commerce, Core DNA also supports the integration of all leading payment gateways. Online merchants can easily integrate with any payment solution using the platform’s robust open API, making it easier to integrate multiple payment gateways. Core DNA also doesn’t charge any transaction fee for online payment; instead, you only pay a flat monthly subscription fee (the fee varies with the number of monthly server requests sent).

4) Marketing & SEO Features

Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce brings in powerful marketing and SEO features to help online merchants get more visibility, higher ranking, more leads, and increased revenues. Apart from various built-in SEO & marketing features like redirect links, nofollow links, and canonical tags, you can also integrate multiple custom extensions to create robust marketing & SEO functionality for online stores.

Core DNA

Core DNA does offer pretty robust SEO features, thanks to its headless web CMS architecture. The CMS platform can be used to create new pages, FAQs, blogs, and other pages quickly. Core DNA also enables online merchants to develop content marketing strategies for their website, either under the same domain or via a separate domain.

Magento 2 Commerce Total Cost of Ownership

Here’s the average cost of ownership for Magento Commerce. Remember, these are just estimates, and the final cost of the Magento commerce store may vary greatly depending on the store’s unique requirements and specifications.

• Magento Commerce Average Development Cost – USD 125,000
• Magento Commerce average annual maintenance – USD 25,000
• Magento Commerce Annual Licensing Cost (starter price) – USD 22,000
• Magento Commerce Business as Usual development costs – USD 40,000
• Magento Commerce First-year Costs – USD 212,000

Final Words

Magento commerce certainly has a lot to offer for eCommerce businesses. However, the platform is definitely an expensive option. With all the advanced features and pretty robust support, there is nothing that should stop eCommerce businesses from choosing the platform, apart from the budgeting constraints.

So, in the end, it really comes down to whether you have the required budget to afford the Magento Commerce platform or not. Personally, we believe that if you aren’t the biggest and largest conglomerate enterprise, it’s better to choose the traditional Magento open-source platform or some other cloud hosting solutions like Shopify, which offers better value for money.

FAQs:

What does Magento Commerce do?

Magento Commerce is a robust open-source eCommerce web development platform that offers online merchants flexibility, scalability, and manageability for their stores. The platform offers powerful eCommerce solutions through advanced tools and features like flexible shopping cart, content management system, business intelligence, progressive web apps, marketing, inventory management, and search engine optimization solutions to assist them in maximizing their sales and revenues.

Is Magento Commerce free?

No. The total Magento website development pricing will depend on the individual business size and operations. Magento offers two modules for eCommerce businesses, including Magento Open Source and Magento Enterprise Edition. While Magento open-source may be free to download, you will still be required to pay for the Magento web design and development, Magento custom extension development, web hosting, Magento optimization services and other required integration.

All of these costs may add up significantly; thereby, it’s important to understand your store needs to have actual Magento Commerce monthly costs.

On the other hand, the Magento Enterprise development cost will depend on your store’s average order value. Magento enterprise pricing is based on Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), which means that you will pay as per your store’s annual turnover, which may start at USD 22,000 per year and goes as high as USD 125,000 per year.

Is Magento good for eCommerce?

Magento is one of the best eCommerce web development platforms that bring in a wide range of advanced features and functionalities. The platform is highly recommended for its flexibility, scalability, customization options, and convenient integrations.

Apart from various powerful built-in tools, Magento also offers easy integration with hundreds of extensions that further improve the platform’s flexibility and assist store owners in creating a highly functional and sales-driven eCommerce platform for maximum sales and revenue.

How much does Magento cost per month?

Magento’s total ownership cost will depend on your store’s operations, size, and complexity. IN general, Magento offers two exclusive modules, including Magento open-source and Magento Enterprise Edition.

Magento Open-Source is free to download software; however, you would have to pay for the development, integration, customization, and hosting requirements to manage the store. All of these costs need to be carefully considered to come up with an accurate monthly cost estimate for Magento.

As for the Magento Enterprise Edition, the monthly cost will depend on the size and turnover of your store. The Magento Enterprise Edition is priced per your business’s yearly turnover, starting at USD 22,000 and going as high as USD 125,000.

How much is Magento Commerce in the US?

The Magento Commerce pricing in the US will depend on the Edition and hosting you choose. The Magento 2 Community Edition is open-source software that can be downloaded for free (however, you still pay for other necessary stuff, including designing, development, customization, integration, and others). The other option is the Magento Enterprise Solution Edition, where you would have to pay anywhere from USD 22,000 to USD 125,000 annually (based on the yearly turnover of your store).

Thirdly, Magento also offers its Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition in the USA, where the licensing and managed hosting (AWS) is bundled. The cost of Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition ranges from USD 40,000 to USD 190,000, again based on your store’s average gross sales revenue.

What is Magento Commerce cloud?

Magento Commerce Cloud or Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition (CE) is a SaaS-based eCommerce web development solution from Magento that offers eCommerce businesses a cloud-based hosting solution. The Magento Commerce Cloud pricing started from USD 40,000 to USD 190,000 annually, depending on the annual gross sales revenue.

Magento Commerce Cloud bundles the Magento Enterprise license with the AWS-based managed hosting, thereby reducing the hassle of hosting the store.

How much is Magento commerce cloud pricing in Australia?

Magento Commerce Cloud pricing in Australia starts from USD 40,000 to USD 190,000 annually. The pricing is inclusive of the licensing fee for the Magento Enterprise and AWS-based managed hosting. The final Magento Commerce cloud pricing in Australia will depend on the annual gross sales revenue of the store.

Does Folio3 provide Magento Development Services?

Yes, Folio3 provides Magento development services. They have a team of experienced Magento developers who can help businesses with custom Magento development, theme development, module development, migration to Magento, and maintenance and support services. They can also help businesses integrate their Magento store with other platforms like CRMs, ERPs, and payment gateways. Folio3 has worked with clients across various industries and has delivered successful Magento projects.