In this article, I would like to answer the most frequently asked questions about the Magento platform and its available versions
How many versions are there in Magento?
Usually, there is a division into two versions: Community (free version) and Enterprise (paid version). The enterprise version is not really called Magento anymore, but Adobe Commerce.
Adobe Commerce also offers the option of purchasing B2B modules (B2B for Adobe Commerce)
Regarding Magento Community, a fork of this version called Mage-OS is also available recently. It is a lightweight version of Magento maintained by the community.
In summary, there are versions of Magento available:
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Magento Community edition
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Mage-OS
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Adobe Commerce (Magento enterprise edition)
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B2B for Adobe Commerce
What is Magento Enterprise Edition?
Magento Enterprise Version is Magento’s paid version. Comparing Magento community, Enterprise Edition provides enhanced customization features on other advanced features. Additional features include promotional pricing for a range of stores, product categories, and more.
Moreover, you can also use hosting services (Magento Cloud), technical support, and security support.
What is the difference between Magento CE and EE?
Community Edition is available free for Magento and does not charge additional for use. Enterprise Edition is available in Magento – costs are dependent on merchant sales. The higher the gross sales value of EE stores, the higher the fee is.
What features are available only in Magento 2 Enterprise Edition?
Magento enterprise edition offers many valuable features that can help sellers to provide the best shopping experience for their clients
Private sales
Thanks to private sales, you can create personalized shopping experiences, limited-time sales, or create a private sales page.
Gift Registry
Adobe Commerce gives your customers the ability to create gift registries for special occasions and to invite their friends and family to purchase their gifts from the gift registry.
Reward and Loyalty
Possibility to implement unique programs and promote customer loyalty.
Multiple wish lists
Magento community edition allows customers to have only one wishlist, but in the Magento enterprise edition, customers can have more than one wishlist.
Store credits
Magento enterprise edition offers customers to pay for products by using store credits.
Customer segmentation
In Magento 2 enterprise edition, there is an option to display content and promotion to specific customer accounts.
Customer attribute management
Enterprise edition allows administrators to manage customer attributes in the admin panel so that they can add custom attributes to the customer model.
Order management
Magento Commerce offers integration with Order Management System (OMS) Connector
Google tag manager
Magento enterprise edition allows configuring Google Tag manager, while the Magento community edition doesn’t have a google tag manager module out-of-the-box.
How do I know if Magento is a community or enterprise?
Developers can easily check if a Magento enterprise edition or Community edition by inspecting the code or composer.json file. It’s also possible to check the administration panel. If there are some features that are available only in the enterprise edition that means it is paid version
How much does Magneto cost?
The cost of Magento is specific to the needs of a particular business and requires a bespoke quote. Total costs are calculated from your retail store average sales value, as well as annual online sales. It starts at around $22,000 a year and reaches $125,000. Licenses are yours.
Why is Magento so expensive?
Magento enterprise edition is a platform dedicated to large enterprise customers. Whether it is expensive is a subjective opinion. Magento will be expensive for some and not for others. I think that for customers considering Magento enterprise, price is not the most important factor.
What is the difference between the support of each version?
Magento community support includes support on Community Forums, Open Source, documentation, StackExchange, Reddit, Blogs, and many other groups. The official forum documentation can be found in Adobe Commerce. Despite this support, the Magento business edition has its own support. Magento commerce customers that paid for the license can, of course, count on support from Adobe.
What is the feature coverage of the Magento enterprise edition in headless solutions?
PWA Studio has little support for Magento enterprise features; Vue Storefront for Magento is integrated with the Magento community edition, so you won’t find support for enterprise features there.
In both cases, you have to take custom development into account. You should also bear in mind that Magento GraphQL API does not support all enterprise features.
What is an alternative for Magento enterprise edition when I really want Magento?
Magento community edition is good for many clients, but Magento commerce offers many interesting features. So community vs enterprise edition is theoretically a hard choice, but not really at all when you start thinking about license cost. You may ask, is it worth the money? The answer is: it depends on your business! I think small businesses should consider the Magento community edition with some third-party solutions and modules from the marketplace that can cover missing Magento 2 enterprise edition features.
Conclusion
Magento community edition is a great proposition for small businesses, while Magento enterprise is a good solution for large players.
Magento enterprise is distinguished by additional features that are not available in the community version and support.
Resources
https://developer.adobe.com/commerce/webapi/rest/b2b/
https://business.adobe.com/pl/products/magento/features.html