Introduction
If you are new to eCommerce and are trying make choice between Magento Enterprise and Community editions, then this post will surely help you. As we all know Magento Community and Enterprise editions are two widely used eCommerce platforms. Apart from the fact that one is free and the other is a paid version, there are many other important factors to consider in order to make the right decision.
Magento Enterprise VS Magento Community Editions
We are very well aware of the fact that the Magento Community edition is free of cost while the Magento Enterprise edition is a paid platform. While the community edition is more than enough in case you are a new business owner, however as the company grows and the number of products increase Magento Enterprise edition will be the only answer.
Here are some of the important differences Magento Community and Magento Enterprise editions.
Number of Products
As the number of products on your website increase, you need more reliable and extensive platform to manage them. Magento Community Edition is meant for small businesses with a limited number of products, but the Enterprise edition can handle a large number of catalogues with 1.3x speed when compared to the community edition.
Full Page Caching
Full page caching is a process that creates a snapshot of each page in the server and offers to for faster access. This feature is extremely useful to speed up page loading on your website and is available only in theEnterprise edition.
Scalability
The Magento Community edition runs on a single server that handles multiple process which makes it less scalable. The Community edition can be improved further but the Enterprise edition is specifically designed for scaling up your operations. Each of the processes can be executed on different servers, thereby improving the scalability and performance.
Complex Tax Calculations
The tax calculations are fairly simple in the Community edition. These calculations can be extended using third party tools but that only makes the process more complex. The Enterprise edition is designed for businesses with larger scale of operations, hence the tax calculation regime is well structured and simplified to suit your nature of business. So it would be a wise decision to opt for the Enterprise edition if your business operates in multiple geographic locations and has a fairly large scale of operations.
Well Structured Checkout Process
The Checkout process is more streamlined and well structured in the Enterprise edition when compared to the Community edition.
Advanced site Administration
The enterprise edition come with advanced site administration features that allows us to manage administrative roles and site access permissions. The site access feature is so sophisticated that admin site access can be designed such that the administrator of one site cannot access other sites.
Advanced Customer Segmentation
Magento Enterprise Edition offers advanced customer segmentation options that allow us to personalise the shopping experience for our customers. Advertising campaigns and marketing messages can be customised for different customer groups and the right message can be conveyed to the right audience.
Security and Compliance
The Magento Enterprise edition offers a highly secured environment for your transactions. The PCI Compliant platform allows you to store your customer credit card information in a highly secured environment.
Multiple Landing Pages
With the help of Advanced Customer Segmentation features, the Magento Enterprise Edition allows you to create multiple landing pages for each of your customer groups with ease. This helps you customise your offers basing on the interests of your target audience. The Enterprise edition also comes with an inbuilt version control feature to track and manage various versions.
Automatic Coupon Generation
The Magento Enterprise Edition allows you to generate coupons automatically. The system tracks a customers purchases and in case it is his/her first purchase the system automatically generates a coupon which can range anything from a free shipping to a fixed percentage off on their next purchase. This can be done in the Community Edition as well, but that requires some amount of manual intervention.
Conclusion
We hope this post gives you an overall idea on the major differences between Magento Community and Enterprise editions. So if you are small business owner with limited product portfolio then the Community Edition works for you, however as you scale your operations further the Enterprise Edition will empower you to tackle larger business challenges with ease.
If you have already made your choice, do let us which one you chose and why?