Magento 1 End of Life: Magento 1 vs Magento 2
June 2020 was the End of Life for M1 websites. They will no longer receive official security patches, support, and quality fixes for the system. No matter the security issue found, there will be no new patches or support. This leaves an extreme vulnerability that makes the site an easy target for cyberattacks or hacks. Before your conversion rates start to fall or competitors leap in with higher performance, consider making the upgrade as soon as possible.
Magento 1 Vs Magento 2: Should you migrate?
Faced with the choice to upgrade or move platforms, here are the key differences between M1 and M2 and how M2 efficiently addresses your store’s needs.
Note: Some features listed below are exclusively part of the M2 Commerce paid license platform.
1. Support
2. Design
3. SEO
4. Extensions
5. Performance
6. Admin/Dashboard
7. B2B Features
Support
We can’t say this enough, M1 end of life means no support. No support means no security patches, PCI compliance updates, and no software updates. Also, developers are now more focused on M2 projects which may cause difficulty finding legacy support for your M1 store.
Design
Magento 2 took in a user-friendly design (LUMA theme) by replacing the carousels with titles as many UX studies have shown that carousels have no effect on user conversions. By displaying more tiles (banners) you are able to capture more eyes from users, allowing them to find the one that makes the most sense for them. For example, if you had men’s and women’s clothing, you could have two separate banners for both.
The new responsive web design also incorporates more visible product images, cleaner navigation, and intuitive checkout. The frontend design also makes it easier to add customizations and extensions.
SEO
M2 has made many improvements with SEO features and design. Magento 2 has a responsive design that makes it mobile-friendly with improved speed of the site by supporting the latest PHP.
It has incorporated schema markup and rich snippets to improve SEO of stores and catalogs. Other valuable SEO utilities include easy canonical tag implementations to avoid duplicate content and automatically enabled meta tags for individual pages with easy customization.
Extensions
M1 extensions support is now at end of life as well. Magento Marketplace is now the place to work with quality extensions that provide review and trustworthy background information. They are monitored specifically by Magento’s team. This helps with migration fears to be answered through marketplace support for any questions regarding M2 extensions. The M2 platform provides easier installation, compatibility, and peace of mind with purchasing extensions.
Rocket Web features Google Shopping Feed on Marketplace, it’s recommended by Google AdWords Team as its reliable, easy to use, and highly customizable. If you would like more information, and intuitive visit our Google Shopping Feed page or marketplace.
Performance
The big improvement from M1 to M2 is its modern technology stack. This includes a coding process that allows for efficient development and contains the latest PHP, Varnish, Elastic Search, and automated testing. This improved overall store speed and page load performance. Product creation capabilities have also improved through being simplified. One can now create configurable products without manually creating simple products. The product creation process is now much faster and even easier to create attributes. The efficiency of the platform is great for businesses to make quick changes, decreases the reliance on developers and reduces training time.
Admin/Dashboard
Magento 2 has upgraded their user dashboard to be a much more intuitive admin area. It shows you the current state of your business. This includes average and last orders, last and top search terms, lifetime sales, revenue tax, shipping and quantity, customers, and bestsellers.
Furthermore, Magento 2 has the capacity to host both B2C and B2B on the same installation as well as built-in features that help account management. An example of this is having multiple security options, CAPTCHA functionality, added user preferences, and more.
Magento B2B Features
B2B stores are still a newer concept in the ecommerce world for users and business owners. Before M2, it was quite difficult to develop, as there was a great deal of extension and custom work that went into creating a business to business interface.
Within the features, account holder buyers and store owners are able to easily access the catalogue and the ability to negotiate quotes, just as customers are able to request quotes directly from their carts. They are also able to add documentation or comments to their requests. Purchase process is streamlined and accelerated with saved and recurring ordering.
Overall, B2B features create a very personalized experience with many customizations available for catalogs, pricing, shipping, content, and promotion.Note: Commerce Only
Migration Plan
Before migrating to Magento 2, make sure your team has a plan with every aspect of your website in mind. Some things to consider are the following:
1. Review your current website – what can stay, what needs removed?
2. Make sure you have a full backup of your Magento 1 store database and files
3. Check if your current extensions, are there upgrades you will need?
4. Check needed custom code and themes, are they compatible with the Magento 2?
5. Check out Magento Migration Plan
Your website will thank you, stay updated, not outdated.
If you need help creating your plan or migration development, contact our experienced team to help with your migration to Magento 2! Have peace of mind with Rocket Web, an exclusive Magento development company.
