Magento 2.1 is finally launched after eight years of the first launched Magento 1. It is an upgraded version of the Magento 1, which was launched in the year 2008. Magento is an e-Commerce development company in the USA which provides open source e-commerce platform. There were a lot of speculations about the release of Magento 2 in 2010, due to which it was postponed to 2011. In between several versions of 1.X were released, from which 1.9.3 is the latest one.
In early 2011, eBay bought 49% of Magento and the remaining percentage in the next following year. eBay doesn’t show any interest in Magento’s upgraded version and created X commerce platform, which wasn’t that successful. But in mid-2015, after the split of eBay and PayPal, Magento was sold to a group of investors by eBay, who showed interest in Magento and then launched Magento 2.0 on 17 November 2015. The recent version available in the market is 2.1.7.
Is it Required to migrate from Magento 1.X to 2?
A good decision will be to move from the older version to newer version. However, if you are not using a too old version of Magento and your website isn’t facing any performance issue yet – you need not rush. Still, as most of the resources and deployments will be developed for Magento 2 now, it is wiser to migrate, than to stay. Users using any version of 1.X can migrate to Magento 2.X; all they need is to consult with the professional to apply the necessary changes.
After November 2018, Magneto will cease its support for all the 1.X versions. No more security updates mean your e-commerce will become vulnerable to errors, malicious attacks and security breaches.
What are the Benefits of Migrating from Magento 1.X to Magento 2?
Before you choose to upgrade your Magento 1.X to Magento 2, there are the few things that you need to know. You can either add Magento platform to your website on your own or hire top rated Magento developer to do the task. Here is the list of features that are upgraded to the newer version.
- High Performance
Magento 2 is highly optimized, improved performance and 20% faster in comparison to Magento 1.X. With image compression, improved browser caching, minimized and bundled JavaScript and no need of installing third party module, Magento 2 become more efficient, better, and faster performer.
- Improved Admin Panel
Magento 2 is having improved and friendly Admin panel as compared to the Magento 1.X. Magento 2 admin panel comes with the navigation interface that allows you to scroll or navigate to different modules of the admin panel, manage and store data and information very effectively. It also allows you to review or check all the details, track order quantity, revenue collection, and management. You can link videos or images for the newly added product.
New product creation tool allows you to add the new product with step by step guide.
With the help of Data migration tool, you can transfer all your data from Magento 1.X to Magento 2
- Magento 2 Frontend
Along with the admin panel, the front end of Magento 2 is also optimized and now have improved user interface that allows easy usability and comfortable default theme to work either on computer or smartphone. Magento 2 Luma theme is much better in performance and looks, then the Magento 1.X default theme. The user can easily access the store through their smartphones. Magento 2 has a more user-friendly enhanced interface for your website. Optimized performance makes Magento 2 front end very efficient and responsive.
- Enhanced catalog page view
E-commerce web platform with higher catalog page view per hour is considered more productive. In Magento 2, it supports up to 10 million catalog page views per hour through the system as compared to the Magento 1 .X which has only 500,000 catalog page view per hour.
- Improved Database
Magento employs PHP programming language and My SQL/ MariaDB relational database based on model view architecture and Object-oriented programming model.
Magento 2 comes with an improved database functionality that allows a user to scroll and navigate through various database fields comfortably. It allows you to track order, quantity, shipment, altering various product fields through changing columns. It also provides better order and product management as compared to Magento 1.X.
- Simplified checkout process
The checkout process is a very important task in any online purchase and almost half of the purchases have been cancelled out by the customers either due to consuming long time or complex payment process. In Magento 2, it has simplified and optimized checkout process. It has simple registration process during checkout or you can also enable guest checkout. Magento2 can itself identify existing customer by analyzing email into its database. With more transparent shopping cart and direct transfer to the payment gateway, after confirmed order from a customer makes it more productive and convenient for your customer.
- SEO and Security
Magento 2 is equipped with Strengthened Hashing Algorithm also called as SHA 256, which provides more secure login and password protection.
Our Verdict
If you are an e-commerce client and looking for a new efficient platform for e-commerce development, Magento 2 is the best option for you to go with. With improved functionality and optimized performance, we recommend you Magento 2; it also has more than 350 extensions.
If you are using Magento 1.X, you have an option either to upgrade to more efficient Magento 2.X or you can continue with Magento 1.X till November 2018, after which Magento will cease the support to all its 1.X versions. But if you are looking for something to be more productive and lucrative for your business, Magento 2 is the better option. There are various firms that provide Magento development services. Magento has more than 25 % share in e-commerce web development across the world and you can also trust Magento for its services and features.
