Magento is widely accepted as one of the finest eCommerce platforms that come with virtually all the requisite features, is highly scalable, secure, and has tons of support. But when you proceed to actually use it for your business, you will have to make a major decision- to choose between Magento CE (Community Edition) and Magento EE (Enterprise Edition). While the names themselves carry ample hints for their use cases, here is our detailed breakdown between the two:
Performance
While Magento 2 CE offers robust performance, the EE version is markedly better. Platforms built on Magento 2 EE load exceptionally fast, generally within 2 seconds and even rank higher on search engine results. This improved performance is primarily achieved through a more efficient caching process including image resizing and server configurations. The checkout process too gains considerably with this improvement and latency between each step remains lower than 2 seconds.
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Features
In terms of features, there are basically three sections you’ll be concerned about:
Admin Panel
- The EE version has multiple languages, currencies, and even payment gateway support that can be accessed right from the dashboard.
- Ability to create and edit multiple invoices, and even tweak prices when the product is in the cart.
- Creation and customization newsletters for effective marketing.
Payments
The CE version is not PCI compliant out-of-the-box and you would have to go through a lot of formalities to make it work and still have your payment route through third-party gateways. With Magento 2 EE, there are no such overheads. Everything comes built-in.
Support
The EE version offers 24/7 technical support from Magento- which even the large community support for CE simply can’t match. There is an account manager from Magento team to consistently assist and monitor for security vulnerabilities- most of which gets fixed even before you notice.
Cost
What Magento CE lacks in performance, features, and support, it more than compensates when it comes to cost- it’s free! For Magento 2 EE, you’ll have to pay at least $22,000, which will continue to rise as your business scales up. The commission in strict percentage terms will get lower as your GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) rises but in absolute terms, you will end up paying up more.
So which one should you choose?
If you ask Magento, they will tell you to
Deploy Magento 2 CE if your platform has:
- Less than 1000 unique visitors per month
- Less than 100 orders per month
- Turnover less than $118,486
CE editions can be typically implemented within 6-8 weeks and have considerably lower hosting costs as well.
- Deploy Magento 2 EE if your platform has:
- More than 50,000 unique visitors per month
- More than 50,000 orders per month
- Turnover more than $1,184,739
They can typically be implemented by certified Magento developers in 14-16 weeks and you will also have to pay higher hosting charges.
But what if your business metrics fall in between those two groups? Which should you choose then? The most important factor, in this case, would determine how fast do you expect to expand and how much time would it take you to get into the EE category?
If you can’t seem to decide that on your own, get in touch with any Magento development services- they generally offer a free consultation, to let an expert decide on your behalf.
