“Can I use Drupal for project management?” Definitely.
Given all its content-oriented baked-in capabilities — file management, version control, easy content creation, and editing — Drupal makes the perfect software for:
managing your projects the easy and the... smart way
streamlining communication among your team members and with your contractors
In this respect, Drupal provides its own feature-rich distributions to help you put together your robust setup in no time. “Distributions” that come already packed with a set of useful sub-modules and themes, that all support the core functionality: project management (and smooth collaboration).
And without further ado, here the 2 most popular Drupal distributions for project management and team collaboration for you to evaluate first: RedHen and Open Atrium.
1. RedHen CRM
Loaded with robust and modern features, this Drupal-native CRM is designed with flexibility in mind. Meaning that it integrates seamlessly with the enterprise solution that you're using (Blackbaud, Salesforce) and it supports a wide range of use cases...
And speaking of its functionalities:
engagement tracking and monitoring
data management: information about your contacts, the relationships among them and with your own company (e.g. memberships)
event registration integration
one-page donation forms to custom-tune to your liking
As for those many use cases that this Drupal distribution's built to accommodate, let's pick just a few real-world examples:
It's the best choice if smoothly integrating your CRM with your other enterprise solutions is critical for you
It streamlines tracking interactions with your contacts and organizations. Furthermore, since you can easily integrate it with your website, you get to leverage the provided data in order to adjust the user experience accordingly...
It allows you to customize it and thus to give it a Drupal-like look and feel: to integrate it with modules like Rules or Views, to go for the same field creation UI, etc.
Is your contacts list a huge one? This CRM comes to your rescue with some powerful baked-in tools: an efficient find-and-dedupe interface, an automated filter built in the UI, that you can use to filter your contacts by specific fields, etc.
It automatically syncronizes data in your Contacts list with any newly updated data on your Drupal Users list
In short: RedHen CRM makes one of the top choices when you consider using Drupal for project management purposes. It's a lightweight, self-contained framework, more of a “cluster” of multiple specialized modules:
Organization
Activity
Fields
Organization Group
Dedupe
Registration
and a few more...
2. Open Atrium
Looking for a Drupal-native distribution built around the team collaboration functionality?
One that should be:
convenientyly extensible
“loaded” with robust collaboration and information sharing features?
Then Open Atrium fits the profile in the slightest detail.
Built on top of the Organic Groups and Panopoly modules, it's a framework flexible enough to support discussion configurations by key criteria like team, project, organization...
And here are some more powerful features worth considering when you're still thinking whether you should use Drupal for project management:
an access control system, that grants granular control to certain sections of your project
a drag and drop layout with plenty of widgets to select from for customizing your landing pages and dashboard
file storing and sharing features
built-in Events, Files, Discussions, Issue Tracking, Document Wiki
an easy to customize, responsive theme
The END!
These are but 2 viable answers to your “Can I use Drupal for project management and team collaboration?” type of question. 2 of the options available that best meet some of your main requirements when looking for a project management software:
to be easy to use
to ship with an entire collection of file management and communication features
to be flexible enough and allow quick customization and seamless integrations
Have you tried other Drupal modules/distributions built around this functionality so far?
Image by jessica45 from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jun 06'2019
On one hand, you “crave” improved site performance, improved checkout process, improved scalability and all the other improvements that Magento 2 “seduces” you with. On the other hand, just the thought of risking to compromise your data, your Magento extensions or the various customizations in your store simply... paralyzes you. It's obvious: you need a bulletproof, actionable and 101% safe plan for migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2...
A step-by-step guide to:
reduce some of the intimidating complexity of the process
secure each one of its phases (from the preparation phase to the data migration phase... all the way to deployment)
streamline it
Well, here it is: the 7-step migration roadmap that you need to safely and efficiently structure your Magento 2 migration process.
1. Evaluate Your Current Implementation and Try to Estimate Your Migration Effort
The first step to take in the preliminary part of your plan is to review your Magento 1 implementation.
Start by assessing your current environment and setting it against this list of Magento 2 software and hardware requirements:
PHP: 7.0.13+ or 7.1.x
+2G of Ram
MariaDB 10.0,10.1,10.2 or Percona 5.7 or MySQL: 5.6, 5.7
PHP extensions: soap, curl, mcrypt, gd, iconv, PDO/MySQL, openssl, intl, ctype, bc-math, libxml etc.
Next, take some time to analyze your current e-commerce store's provided user experience, extensions, configurations...
Then, reflect on the following key questions:
How many storefronts and domains are included in your Magento 1 architecture? Needless to add that moving a highly customized multi-site infrastructure is going to be a lot more challenging than migrating a single store...
How large is your current store (run an inventory of all your products, users, attributes, orders, categories)?
How bulky is your ecosystem of third-party extensions, Magento core customizations, custom themes, various integrations (CRM, ERPs)?
It's only after you've performed an in-depth analysis of your current online store (or multi-store) that you can roughly estimate the migration complexity.
Word of caution: remember to backup your Magento 1 online store (secure your folders, database, and files) and to always migrate data from your cloned database instead of transferring it straight from your live online store...
2. Make an Inventory of Your Extensions: Search for Similar Versions in Magento 2
And this step makes a perfect opportunity to... declutter:
Run an inventory of all the extensions on your current e-store and decide which ones are to be kept and which of them you should let go of...
Next, divide your “pile” of extensions into 3 categories:
Magento 1 extensions with corresponding versions in Magento 2
Magento 1 extensions with third-party alternatives instead
Magento 1 extensions that were custom-built for your current store, that you now need to rebuild
Run a 1:1 analysis and identify the extensions, themes and custom code on your e-commerce store that are compatible with Magento 2...
3. Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2: Choose the Right Migration Tool
In this respect, the Magento 2 data migration tool is a highly reputed one. It will greatly streamline the whole process, but do keep in mind that:
you'll still need to write custom code to seamlessly merge data into the new platform
you'll need to adjust your custom code to fit in; for instance, tables and columns aren't considered standard dataset in Magento 2
Note: now it's the best time to reconsider your third-party extensions. Do they really compensate for all those data entries and product parameters that they injected into your Magento 1 store?
If you still consider them relevant and valuable enough to be moved over to your new Magento 2 store, you might want to consider the Magento 1 to Magento 2 code migration tool for this.
4. Migrate Your Theme
And this will be possible only if:
your current Magento 1 theme is compatible with Magento 2
there is a version of your current theme available in Magento 2
If not, if you've been running your e-commerce website on a custom theme, let's say, then you can either:
create a whole new theme from the ground up
purchase a Magento 2 theme
Note: this is also that step of your “migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2” roadmap where you integrate your new online store with your key corporate systems.
5. Migrate Your Extensions
As already mentioned, there are 3 possible actions that you can take regarding your current load of extensions:
check whether they have Magento 2 counterparts
if so, incorporate those Magento 2 versions into your new store
if not, integrate some brand new extensions, that provide the same or similar functionality
6. Migrate Your Code Customizations
Rely on the Code Migration toolkit for this and let it do all the heavy lifting that the code migration process involves.
Word of caution: after you've let it perform its function, remember to go back and focus on all those files that need manual editing.
7. Migrate Your Data
As already mentioned, the Magento 2 Data Migration Tool is one of your most reliable “allies” in migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
And I'm referring here to the orders stored in your store, products, settings and configurations, categories and so on...
How do you use it?
It's no more than a 5-step process:
Use Composer to install the tool
Enter your authentication keys (Magento Marketplace > Sign in > Click on My Access Keys) or generate a new pair
configure your tool
migrate your Magento 1 store's settings (system/store configurations, shipping, tax settings...)
Migrate your data by entering this command: php bin/magento migration:data --reset <path to your config.xml>
Next, it's testing time: test, test, test, then... test some more! Check whether your new Magento 2 store works properly.
Make sure you run your performance analysis and optimization process on real data. This way, you can check whether the actual Magento 2 store is capable to withstand real-life loads of data...
Also, do keep in mind to update the existing data with the newly added one before deploying your Magento 2 store. And that because at this point you might end up with identical data: identical products, users, categories...
Once you've fixed this issue, you only need to pick the right time — preferably not the “peak traffic” hours on your website — to launch it...
The END!
Have I missed any key step(s) that anyone migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 should take?
Image by Ross Mann from Pixabay
Silviu Serdaru / May 31'2019
What makes the Cache API in Drupal 8 any better than Drupal 7's cache system? What's so revolutionary about it? Which of the old limitations does it remove? What are those new concepts and terminology that you should learn about?
And, most of all: how complex is it to set up a cache in Drupal 8 for a specific use case?
You might have already bumped into terms like “max-age”, "context cache" or "cache tags".
But how precisely do these new concepts, part of Drupal 8's cache system, refine and streamline the way you cache data on your website?
Let's try to demystify the terminology of Drupal 8's Cache API and to translate its new “fancy” terminology into... crystal-clear benefits for you:
1. What Is Caching More Precisely? Why Do We Cache Data?
To your “What” question I'd answer:
Caching is a... strategy (or layer) for storing data from your website. Or: it's a software or hardware component where you store your data.
Why would you want to store your data?
Because this will streamline the way your website serves all future requests for that cached data.
And it goes without saying that reading data straight from the cache takes less time than... retrieving it from a slower data container or fully recreating the result.
In short: caching data translates into faster page load time.
2. Cache API in Drupal 8: The Automatic Cache System
A brief, yet accurate definition of cache in Drupal 8 would be:
Storing data that takes too long to load.
And if I am to detail it a bit I'd have to add that:
Caching can be either permanent or time-limited and that you're free to cache any type of data on your website.
Now, talking about Drupal 8's cache API, what everyone points out is that: it is much improved. That it's so different from the cache systems of the previous Drupal versions that... you even risk turning your website uncachable if you're not familiar with its new concepts.
“But how different/sophisticated can it be?” you might ask yourself.
Before we delve deep into details let me add just one thing:
We're talking about an... automated cache system. Basically, your Drupal 8 website retrieves cache data for both anonymous and logged in users with no configuration whatsoever. All by default.
And now, let's shed some light on all these new fancy concepts that the Cache API in Drupal 8 is based on:
2.1.The Cache Tags
We all do agree that “invalidating cache” is one of the most challenging tasks of any cache system.
Luckily, not anymore. At least not in Drupal 8, where you now have the concept of “cache tags” that you can use for tagging:
specific pages
specific page elements
various types of content
… and thus invalidate them all. Improved efficiency and high accuracy through... basic tagging.
Basically, using these cache tags you can easily identify outdated data stored in multiple cache bins and... invalidate it.
This way, you no longer run the risk of invalidating “still green” cache items, in bulk, not knowing which data to invalidate.
2.2. The Context Cache
Here's an all too common scenario:
You're faced with multiple variants of the same data; only one of them should be cached, based on a specific criterion like language, user, country, content access permission...
Well, how do you automate targetting the right variant to be cached? And how do you automate caching the other left variants, as well, depending on the... context.
You use “cache contexts”, that's how...
They're one of those new remarkable features that the Cache API in Drupal 8 ships with, that allow you to specify the criteria to be used to vary for the cached content on a page. By user, by language, by country, by path...
2.3. The Max-Age (The Cache Duration)
Maybe you don't want certain data to be forever cached. Maybe you need it stored for a certain period of time only.
In this respect, the “max-age” property in Drupal 8's cache system allows you to define that time limit. To invalidate data that will have run... out of time.
2.4. The Bubbleable Cache Metadata
What does this even mean “cache metadata... bubbling”?
Let's take this example:
You have a parent item with its own “family” of... children items. In this context, “bubbled tags” makes it possible for the parent item in this render array to receive cacheability metadata from its children.
Bubble cache metadata streamlines the whole process of invalidating outdated cached data. As simple as that...
The END!
Is it any clearer for you now what makes the Cache API in Drupal 8 so powerful? How its new features come to remove most of the limitations that you've already faced in Drupal 7?
And how you can use them to refine and automate caching on your own Drupal 8 website?
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
RADU SIMILEANU / May 24'2019
But why should you even consider Magento Commerce Cloud as an option for your e-commerce store in the first place? What makes it any better than JetRails or Rackspace or even... Magento Commerce?
What are its biggest selling points?
And are there any reported downsides so far? Any drawbacks to consider and to weigh against its upsides before making your final choice?
Now, let's get you some answers:
1. What Is Magento Commerce Cloud? How Is It Different/Better than Magento Commerce?
Some might just reduce it to this basic formula:
Magento Commerce + bundled hosting (or cloud infrastructure)
Yet, I'm not one of “some”, so my definition would be:
It's a full-managed, automated hosting platform for Magento Commerce — the once Enterprise Cloud Edition — that ships with some additional powerful features.
Now, let me try and point out some of these features:
integrated source control management system (GIT), which translates into automatic build, deploy and management; it provides you with development, staging and live production environments
streamlined development cycle
quick and continuous deployment
entirely customizable components
enhanced security: the inherent security benefits of cloud computing + using WAS (Amazon Web Services) as the underlying infrastructure platform + tapping into the shared responsibility security model + leveraging the Fastly Web Application Firewall +...
continuous availability: a particularly important feature for online stores, with a huge impact on user experience, the overall traffic and the level of security that your eStore guarantees its customers
2. 10 Main Reasons Why You'd Want to Run It on Magento Commerce Cloud
Now, let's put its biggest selling points into the spotlight! Those benefits powerful enough to influence your decision and to make you opt for this cloud-powered e-commerce solution:
2.1. It's a Centralized Point of Management & End-to-End E-Commerce Solution
Of all the Magento Commerce Cloud features, this must be one of the most “luring” ones:
you get to orchestrate your whole “infrastructure” of online stores from one single centralized point/store
from marketing to analytics, to commerce across industries, it allows you to handle every specific operation, every aspect of the customer experience delivered on your e-commerce website
2.2. Inventory Order Management
No more “out of stock” scenarios.
At least not on your web store, since this feature allows you to always be one step ahead of customer demand and to... restock.
2.3. A Vast Ecosystem of Third-Party Extensions to Explore
Another one of Magento Commerce Cloud's biggest selling points is its impressive marketplace of extensions.
From:
Amazon Sales Channel
to Google's Smart Shopping
to lots of machine learning-based extensions
… you get to select from a huge ecosystem of add-ons to create a feature-rich, highly interactive shopping experience across your store.
2.4. It's Perfectly Equipped to Power Your PWAs
Thinking about reaching out also to those potential customers who don't (always) benefit from fast-speed internet connection? Thinking about building a PWA for your online store?
Good news: MCC is designed precisely with such a challenge in mind. It makes the best option for powering a PWA development plan.
2.5. High Scalability
The hosting platform's built to accommodate the needs of both big retailers and small e-commerce businesses.
And, in this respect, I should add 2 specific features that translate into enhanced scalability:
being a cloud environment, it grants you the freedom and the flexibility to allocate more memory and CPU, when needed
it ships with an ece-tools package
2.6. It Supports Intuitive Experiences for Both Store Admins and Customers
All the enhancements that Magento Commerce Cloud comes packed with bubble up to the user experience: both the “staff” user and the end-user.
Meaning that all the tasks included in the store management process and the shopping process are well thought-out to be... highly intuitive.
2.7. Designed to Power Multi-Site Architectures
Planning to go... global? Don't let your hosting platform stop you!
In this respect, Magento Commerce Cloud allows you to:
update an entire ecosystem of online stores from one centralized point (I know, I've already pointed out this powerful feature)
“conquer” new markets fast and surprisingly easy, with no major intervention from a tech-savvy team
tap into the local knowledge expertise that Magento provides and to create some highly personalized, ideally localized experiences for multiple audiences
exploit the advantage of the +150 languages available
And you get to run all your “globalization through localization” type of operations, to orchestrate your entire multi-site architecture, from one single point of management.
Note: speed and agility are 2 additional benefits that you can “reap” from using a cloud-based hosting platform; they become crucial when you want to enter new markets at high speed.
2.8. Built-in B2B Quote Management Feature
Just imagine: a tool incorporated into your hosting platform “in charge” with everything... quotation-related.
You can skip that time-consuming sequence of operations aimed at setting a price for a product.
2.9. Built-in Image Optimization Tool
Magento Commerce Cloud provides you, right out of the box, with a tool to optimize your images and to boost your page loading speed...
2.10. It Easily Integrates With Fully-Managed Services
Another great news is that it “plays well” with full managed services. From Redis to MySQL, to RabbitMQ, to Elasticsearch, it allows you to easily incorporate the service of your choice.
3. 3 Main Downsides Reported by Magento Commerce Cloud Users
For, although this managed platform is still relatively new and so we can't yet be talking about a whole “pile” of user reviews, the reported drawbacks gravitate around the same issues:
slow support
certain limitations of the underlying technology: Platform.sh
the need to invest time and effort to get everything live
3.1. Support... Could Be Better
Most of the Magento Commerce Cloud users have signaled it: support is slow. Therefore, expect to be put on a lengthy waiting list till you can actually get hold of a hosting engineer.
Do you need permission changes? Is there a hosting issue that you're “grappling with” and you need the support of someone with expertise in platform.sh?
You might need to invest a bit more time than predicted to get the support you need.
3.2. Running Updates and Upgrades Takes too Long
Not everyone's thrilled about the Platform.sh technology that MCC runs on.
Quite enough users have reported that each time they need to:
add new CSS
upgrade their e-commerce stores
run certain feature updates
… the underlying system takes too long to process. And, during all this time, their online stores are... down.
3.3. It Takes More to Get Everything Up and Running
More time and "X" times more effort. At least that's what some of the users say.
The END!
Does this answer your question(s)?
Are these benefits and drawbacks solid enough to help you decide whether Magento Commerce Cloud is the best option for your online store?
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / May 23'2019
Ready to discover 5 more world-famous brands that are tapping into Magento's capabilities — scalability, robust built-in features, high level of customization? 5 more high-trafficked online stores running on Magento?
From Seat to Canon, from Helly Hansen to Jaguar and NGC, here some of the globally-known companies “advocating” for Magento through their own e-commerce stores:
6. Helly Hansen
The e-commerce website of the highly-reputed Norwegian manufacturer of textile and sports gear, trusted by professionals worldwide, is the perfect example of:
Globalization through localization...
And here's what I mean by that:
we're talking about an “ecosystem” of 30 online stores (of +30,000 products each)
6 different languages
a unified look for the whole “cluster” of stores, yet the customer experience delivered on each store is highly personalized, with multi-language and multi-currency features implemented
See what I mean?
We're talking about a worldwide retailer leveraging Magento's robust features to the full to:
provide its shoppers with multiple payment and shipping methods
make its product available in 19 different countries
Furthermore, Helly Hansen's Magento cloud project has been one of the most notorious ones back in 2016.
7. Sergio Rossi
Another one of those worldwide known online stores running on Magento. Sergio Rossi's leveraging Magento's full potential to:
“awe” its online customers with visually-striking, beautifully designed product pages
enrich their shopping experience with engaging features like the on-page “heel height” selector
8. Seat
The Spanish car manufacturer turned to Magento with some specific needs in mind: to deliver a fast and friction-free mobile experience to its young customers.
Luckily, Magento's perfectly equipped with mobile-responsive functionality, which bubbles up to the user experience provided on Seat's mobile version of the website:
fast-loading pages
a contrasting color palette that enhances readability
intuitive website navigation
efficiently structured and visually-appealing text blocks
9. Canon, One of the Most Popular Online Stores Running on Magento
Did you know that the Australian division of the giant brand of consumer and professional-level photography equipment faced quite a challenge when they decided to make their products available online, as well?
Well, they're currently running their e-store on Magento, which helps them deliver a feature-rich and highly interactive experience to their customers:
users can check products' compatibility, a critical feature particularly for amateur photographers
in addition to the “bulky” product catalog, users can go through an impressive collection of photo books, helpful tutorials, useful reviews of specific products...
the services provided there include “immediate assistance”, as well, for anyone passionate about photography, who's thinking about... getting started and needs at least some sort of professional guidance
the cross-sell functionality integrated into their online store guides photography “enthusiasts” towards buying the perfectly compatible items
That, instead of leaving a beginner to deal with N types of lenses or N types of memory cards alone, trying to figure out which one's compatible with the items he/she's already selected/bought...
10. Jaguar and NGC
Did you know that the e-commerce website where customers could buy the first fully-electric Jaguar car was Magento-powered?
The giant automotive brand is capitalizing some of the platform's powerful capabilities to deliver a fully interactive experience to its users. And here, I'm thinking of the four-step progress bar available on their e-store, which allows customers to select:
their preferred model of electric Jaguar
their preferred design features
This way, they can witness the “birth” of their entirely-customed cars.
Where do you add that they get the price at every phase of the self-design cycle and that they get to select both the dealer and the payment method of choice, as well?
In short, the brand takes full advantage of Magento's high level of customization. Moreover, it transfers it to its own online customers, “tempting” them with multiple options and the chance to... design their own prototypes of Jaguar.
The END!
These are 10 of the worldwide-known online stores running on Magento.
10 giant brands tapping into this e-commerce platform to power their complex, feature-rich e-stores and to create some unique experiences for their online customers.
What other brands would you have added to the list?
Image by 200 Degrees from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / May 20'2019
It's flexible, it grants users total freedom of customization, it's robust enough to power large, complex e-stores, it ships with a heavy load of powerful built-in e-commerce features and it's backed by a large, thriving community. And still, there are no better advocates for this platform than all those world-famous brands having their online stores running on Magento, right?
But which are these global brands more precisely?
And I'm sure that their big names alone wouldn't be enough to inspire you, right? You're looking for leading e-commerce websites that:
deliver an outstanding, highly interactive customer experience
have a visually-striking design
With these 2 main criteria in mind, here's a top 10 worldwide-known Magento e-commerce websites:
1. Liverpool FC
The globally-famous, century-old football club is using Magento to power its online store...
And it exploits the e-commerce platform's robust features to the full for crafting highly immersive, rich user experiences:
it leverages the power of storytelling on its front page
it personalizes the services provided to its customers
it “bids on” user-generated content to engage and to secure its online fans' loyalty
In short, the team behind Liverpool FC's online store taps into Magento's high level of customization to create some unique experiences for its customers.
2. Nike, One of the Most Trafficked Online Stores Running on Magento
The world's giant manufacturer and supplier of sportswear is exploiting Magento's robust features to run its high-trafficked e-store.
And when it comes to the customer experience delivered there, there's one particular feature that stands out: the product configuration tool.
Basically, any shopper can select a product from the catalog and design it himself/herself. He can get creative and style it so that it perfectly meets his preferences.
Moreover, users can see the results live, in real-time...
3. Ford
Ford Motor's yet another global brand that decided to partner with Magento for powering its own ideas of personalized online customer experiences.
Speaking of which, here's but one example from the company's e-store:
Say a potential shopper selects a specific car model on the front page. Next, Ford's product catalogue will adapt to that particular selection, displaying results accordingly...
Personalization at its best, to say the least...
4. Kurt Geiger
The major challenge for the well-known UK-based shoe retailer has been to efficiently “joggle with” multiple languages and currencies.
And they turned to Magento for that...
With its built-in multi-lingual support, Magento makes the ideal e-commerce platform for their localization requirements. Now, here's how this functionality is being leveraged on the Kurt Geiger online store:
Once a customer selects a country, he/she'll get accurate delivery time and shipping fee displayed across the website...
Note: search functionality and layered navigation are another 2 aspects where this e-store rocks supreme, thanks to the e-commerce solution that it is leveraging.
5. Paul Smith
Another one of those highly popular, most-trafficked online stores running on Magento. On Magento 2, to be more accurate.
And the stellar customer experience delivered on this e-store makes the best proof that... Magento suits it:
lightening fast checkout process
thought-out main navigation layout
a “Model Wears” functionality integrated into the product detail pages that enable users to shop/steal a whole look featured in an image
END of Part 1!
These are just 5 of the 10 most popular online stores running on Magento.
5 leading brands whose unique ways of implementing certain features of this robust e-commerce platform are great sources of inspiration for anyone still thinking about getting started with Magento.
Image by Megan Rexazin from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / May 17'2019
Here I am, as promised, with 5 more important criteria to use when running your Magento vs Shopify 2019 evaluation and weighing these 2 e-commerce platforms' pros and cons.
Or, better said: weighing the benefits and limitations that result once you've put their features against your own particular needs and use-specific priorities.
So, without any further ado:
6. Extensions and Add-Ons Available
The ratio between the 2 platforms is of +100 vs +5000. There's no question about it: Magento reigns supreme in this category...
And with no surprise, if you remember that it's an open source e-commerce platform, backed by a thriving community of developers.
As for Shopify, it might not provide as many apps and add-ons, yet it provides some perfectly curated ones:
you don't need to worry that you'd be implementing buggy, risky extensions on your e-store
from email marketing to loyalty programs, to accounting, you'll find apps and add-ons for pretty much any type of functionality that you might need to integrate to your online store...
7. Magento vs Shopify 2019: The Price Factor
When using the pricing strategy as a criterion for your Magento vs Shopify 2019 analysis you'll realize that:
Shopify doesn't charge any fee for e-store setup and installation; moreover, it grants you a 14-day free trial
Magento is, by definition, a free e-commerce solution; and yet, you'll still need to pay for your hosting and payment gateway
Speaking of transaction fees, you should know that Shopify comes with zero costs if you decide to use their out-of-the-box payment gateway. Whereas in case of Magento you'll need to pay the fees charged by your gateway provider.
No extra costs from Magento in this case, but no built-in payment gateway either...
In short: Shopify charges you a monthly fee, that covers both the hosting platform and the payment gateway for your e-store. On the other hand, Magento's a free, open-source platform, that still “surprises” you with inherent hosting costs...
8. Inventory Management
Another “tricky” category, since it looks that both Magento and Shopify allow you to enter an unlimited number of products into your e-store. And to easily manage your inventory...
Nevertheless, you'll still identify some key differences:
in Shopify, you're limited to fewer options when it comes to administering your inventory
Shopify integrates easily with third-party dropshipping inventory apps (e.g. Oberlo)
since Magento doesn't provide the hosting of your e-store, as well, adding too many items to your store might, at some point, have a negative impact on your host server's performance (and, implicitly, on your page loading speed...)
9. Customization Opportunities
Once you've reached this criterion while running your Magento vs Shopify 2019 evaluation you'll realize that:
Shopify scores better when it comes to its highly intuitive theme editor; you can easily drag and drop content elements across your website
Magento grants you total freedom of customization — you can fine-tune every single aspect of your e-store — but at a cost: you depend on a team of experienced Magento developers to do all that customization work.
In other words, while both platforms are designed to power complex customization scenarios, Magento scores better since it's open source. Therefore, it allows you to custom-tune the look and feel of your online store and to extend its functionality any way you want to.
While both platforms ship with user-friendly, thought-out UIs that empower you to edit your HTML/CSS code directly, Shopify comes with a menu-driven editor. One that you can use to play around with fonts, colors and other attributes of your theme.
10. Multi-Lingual Support
While Magento provides you with multi-lingual support right out of the box, Shopify depends on third-party apps for this type of functionality. Or, you can always custom-write your code to include multilingual features...
Localization, based on a “cluster” of multilingual online stores, is not one of Shopify's strong points, that's for sure.
The END!
What do you say now: judging by your own Magento vs Shopify 2019 analysis, which e-commerce platform best suits your feature needs and best serves your priorities?
Do you value ease of use more than... freedom of customization? Is an impressive collection of advanced e-commerce features more important to you?
Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay.
Adriana Cacoveanu / May 15'2019
It's either one or the other: you're either planning to set up your eStore or to port it to a new platform. So, the question “haunting” you right now must be: "In a Magento vs Shopify 2019 debate, which one's the most suitable for my e-commerce website?"
For, it's a “no-brainer”:
There's no such thing as “the best” eCommmerce platform, but "the best suited one for one's specific e-commerce feature needs". For his/her particular niche specifications and business requirements.
In this respect:
on one hand, you have the “all-in-one” Shopify, a hosted e-commerce solution, famous for its ease of use and high level of convenience for novice e-store owners
… basically, if you have no coding skills or a dedicated web development team and it's a small-medium size store that you have in mind, Shopify empowers you to set it up quick and easy
while on the other hand you have powerful Magento shipping with a heavy load of extensions and advanced eCommerce features, perfectly equipped to power complex, large eCommerce stores
A simple, intuitive UI vs a rich collection of built-in robust features. Ease of use vs a high level of customization... A paid e-commerce solution or a free, open-source one, but with auxiliary costs (e.g. hosting)?
Now, here are the 10 most important criteria to properly evaluate the 2 e-store creation and management solutions.
Note: with each factor that you'll consider, do keep in mind to always look at those results against your own feature requirements, priorities, and limitations.
1. Basic Web Store Functionality
From checkout modules to shopping carts, to product pages, both e-commerce platforms provide you with the essential functionality that you need to get your store up and running.
And still, there are differences that you'll most likely identify when evaluating them based on this criterion:
Shopify is easier to use; thanks to its simple, conveniently intuitive user interface, you can create your new e-Store, unlock and leverage all that basic functionality in no time
Magento goes far beyond the basic functionality that you need to get everything set: it provides you, right out of the box, with all those advanced features that, in case of Shopify, you can benefit from only after you've first added the corresponding extensions
2. Available Themes and Templates
Any Magento vs Shopify 2019 comparison would reveal to you that: both e-commerce platforms are “spoiling” their users with their rich theme and template collections.
And I'm talking here about responsive templates, as well (both free of charge and... with a price tag on).
In this case: how do you rank them differently?
First of all, although Shopify provides fewer free themes than Magento, they're considerably more modern, more visually appealing, compared to Magento's free themes...
Furthermore, there's also another factor that sets them apart: while Shopify provides premium themes starting from $80, Magento's premium themes are way cheaper (starting from... $1)
3. SEO Capabilities
This is one of the categories in this “duel” where... there's no winner.
Both Magento and Shopify ship packed with extensive SEO-friendly features, that you can power your e-store with and... give your rankings a boost.
4. Magento vs Shopify 2019: Supported Payment Gateways
A category from this “competition” of the 2 most popular e-commerce platforms where Shopify seems to outshine its... competitor.
It supports +70 payment gateways, while Magento could only reach that record via integrated 3rd party apps.
5. Ease of Use
Another aspect where Shopify steals the spotlight away from its “rivaling” platform.
Although both of them ship with well-designed, intuitive user interfaces, Shopify:
provides you with a wizard to help you set up your e-store in no time; no web development experience needed
is a fully-hosted, fully-managed e-commerce solution; unlike Magento, that requires you to find your own hosting and to approach it with some level of technical expertise in order to set up your store...
END of Part 1.
Stay tuned, for I have 5 more important criteria to share with you.
Criteria that will allow you to run an accurate “Magento vs Shopify 2019” evaluation and to identify the most suitable e-commerce platform for your specific needs and priorities...
Image by suju from Pixabay.
Adriana Cacoveanu / May 14'2019
Let's take this scenario: you need to create a landing page for your Magento 2 website. You have no coding experience, you need it built fast and preferably as easily as... dragging and dropping some builder elements. “What's the best Magento 2 page builder extension?” you then ask yourself...
Now, let me try and guess the other key features on your “must-have” list for this page builder:
to provide a drag and drop interface (definitely!)
to be optimized for speed
to come packed with powerful customization options
to support responsive design and mobile-ready layout
to make it easy for you to change the layout elements and build new blocks
to be integrated with Magento WYSIWYG
to provide a rich collection of widgets for you to “joggle with”
to be compatible with other Magento themes and extensions
Have I guessed most of your “wishes”?
Now, here are 5 Magento 2 page builders that meet your expectations of performance and ease of use:
But First: What About the Built-In Page Builder in Magento 2.3?
First of all, you should know that you'll get this page builder out of the box with the Magento 2.3 Enterprise Edition edition only. The Community edition doesn't provide it.
So, if your eCommerce website's running on the EE edition, the default Magento 2 page builder gets automatically installed.
It provides you with powerful content creation tools and visual drag and drop page builder to create and to easily edit your pages.
1. Landing Pages for Magento 2, from Amasty
A flexible module for creating landing pages in Magento 2.
Expect to get “spoiled” with lots of powerful functionalities aimed at boosting conversation:
it allows you to create custom sub-selections of your products/services, for each page
… custom meta tags
… Google friendly URLs
it enables you to put together unique and engaging content for your landing pages
Key features:
it allows you to display your custom CMS blocks at the top/in the bottom of your landing page
it allows you to create page-specific lists of products by leveraging the flexible conditions that it provides
it allows you to list your landing pages to your sitemap
it allows you to create a wide range of landing pages
2. Bluefoot CMS & Page Builder for Magento 2
In your “quest” for the best Magento 2 page builder extension, you'll definitely want to consider Bluefoot, as well.
It's a content management system and page builder that empowers you to create custom, feature-rich webstore pages, with zero technical knowledge (either PHP or Magento template system related...).
Using it is unexpectedly easy:
its interface resembles the already familiar admin panel in Magento 2
just use Bigfoot once you have the WYSIWYG in Magento popping up
Key features:
drag & drop page builder
easy third-party content integration: from Google Maps to Youtube, building feature-rich web pages, posts and categories becomes surprisingly easy
a whole collection of styling options
Magento WYSIWYG integration
static block integration
open source code
In short, with Bluefoot CMS and Page Builder, creating custom web pages turns into a matter of... minutes.
3. Magento 2 Page Builder, from Landofcoder
The best Magento 2 page builder extension if you fancy the idea of creating and configuring your (complex, feature-rich) pages right at the front-end. No admin panel needed...
Easy to use, convenient and highly intuitive.
Key features:
create an unlimited number of page layouts
easily change your layouts
a collection of +50 popular Magento widgets
a built-in element builder to create your own content elements and mix and match them to your liking
visual drag & drop admin interface
CSS skin builder, that grants you full control over your web pages' looks
block builder: create your blocks, then assign them to specific positions on your pages
top performance; it's built with page load time in mind
4. CleverBuilder
Simple, intuitive, flexible and fast. What more expectations could you have from the best Magento 2 page builder extension, right?
Key features:
intuitive interface: just swipe through and select out of hundreds of content elements and templates
an all-baked-into-one solution: manage your whole web design workflow from one place
live front-end editor & inline editor: apply changes to your webstore pages (and test the end-results) in real-time
top performance
100% visual design: simplicity & flexibility at its best
5. Front-End CMS Page Builder, from Magesolution
From homepages to content pages, to ads pages, to landing pages, this page builder allows you to create your CMS pages right at the front-end, by just dragging and dropping content elements.
Key features:
+30 builder elements
enhanced speed for your newly created web pages
highly intuitive drag & drop interface that display the updates you're making in real-time
responsive design options
compatible with other extensions and themes
6. Page Builder for Magento 2, from Magezon
Another candidate for the title of “the best Magento 2 page builder extension”. And no wonder why: Magezon's page builder empowers you to create custom page layouts in no time. With zero coding experience required...
From adding descriptions to your products to putting together your website's structure, you're free to configure everything about your layout.
Key features:
+50 content elements
drag & drop page builder
fast performance with cache
ready-made templates
Magento WYSIWYG editor
a wide range of plugin integrations
a wide collection of customizable options
The END!
Needless to add that it's not the best Magento 2 page builder extension that you should be looking for, but the most “suitable” one for your own needs. So, what features do you value most?
Would you trade ease of use for... lightning fast performance? Is it flexibility and freedom of customization more important for you than simplicity and an intuitive interface?
Image by 200 Degrees from Pixabay
Silviu Serdaru / May 10'2019