We often get asked the question "What is the difference between Magento Community and Magento Enterprise?" Below are some tips and facts to help you decide which one to use:

Magento Community and Enterprise Comparison

Community is a FREE open source solution perfect for start-up or low volume ecommerce players, while Enterprise is a paid licence solution (starting from $18k per year) for larger volume ecommerce players. When I say "volume" here I am referring mostly to site traffic and online revenue.

We generally suggest that if a client is expecting to exceed AU$1M p/a in online revenue within the next 2 years they should go onto Magento Enterprise for their magento web development needs. This is because the enhanced "out of the box" functionality that comes with Magento Enterprise should increase sales enough to easily cover the cost of the licence fee.

The advanced functionality that comes with Magento Enterprise covers "Marketing & Customer Engagement" and "Data Security & Performance". I will list those features which are not included within the free Community edition:

Marketing & Customer Engagement

- Customer Segmentation & Targeted Offerings - Target promotions for specific customers—even site visitors—based on specific characteristics such as location and purchase history. - Automated Email Reminders - Send friendly reminders about abandoned shopping carts, wish lists, and more to increase conversions and customer retention. - Reward Points - Drive repeat purchases and increase customer engagement with points-driven incentive programs. - Store Credits - Create and tie store credits to customer accounts. Use store credits to refund orders or offer virtual gift cards. - Private Sales & Flash Sales - Offer exclusive shopping experiences to your most valuable customers or set up a special “sale site” with invitation-only access. - Gift Registry - Increase sales and attract new customers with private, searchable registries. - Gift Cards & Gift Options - Generate repeat purchases with virtual gift cards and printable gift certificates and increase order values with gift wrapping and messaging options. - Enhanced Content Management System (CMS+) - Easily build and manage custom content pages — including rich content — with our user-friendly CMS tool. - Return Management Authorization - Make managing returns easy and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. - Minimum Advertised Price - Offer promotional pricing while meeting manufacturers’ rules.

Data Security & Performance

- Secure Payment Bridge - Follow an easy path to PCI compliance and create a more secure store. - Full Page Caching - Convert more customers with a faster, more responsive site. - Solr Search - Increase potential sales with faster, more relevant customer-initiated search results. - Price and Promotion Permission - Control multiple admin roles for editing prices and promotions. - Advanced Administrator Roles & Site Access Permissions - Restrict site access so that staff can view only data that is relevant to them. - Content Staging, Merging & Rollback - Test new content before merging it with your live site.

Deciding Between The Magento Community and Enterprise Edition

Much of your decision on your magento website development requirements, as to whether you would with Community or Enterprise edition, should be based on whether or not you will actually utilise the above functionality. If not, well maybe Magento Community is fine for you. It is actually possible to enhance Magento Community (for example) with Full Page Caching and Extensions to cover much of the above functionality though if these enhancements will cost over $18k (the cost of the Enterprise Licence) then it makes more sense to start your build on Magento Enterprise.

If you have any questions or would like a free consult on which magento platform is best for your business, please do not hesitate to get in-touch with us. You may also approach us should you have a need to hire the most talented Magento developers in Sydney area.

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Acidgreen is an award winning Magento Australia company with over 15 years of  e-commerce experience. Our certified Magento developer and designers are highly qualified to create aesthetically pleasing magento web design projects that generate the highest amount of conversions and provide the best ROI. For more information with regards to our expertise in Magento Software along with our magento development services, contact us today.