Expert Tips on Magento

Magento is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms available. Powering at least 0.8% of all websites on the internet, the platform handles more than $150 billion in gross merchandise each year. 

As the platform continues to grow, changes are being made to its existing products. This entails the end-of-life of Magento 1. While it was known for quite some time that Magento 1’s support would come to a close, many users have hesitated to migrate over to the newer Magento 2 platform.

This guide will break down all of the information concerning the end of support for Magento 1 and your best course of action for migrating to Magento 2.

What Does This Mean?

Any time software or an application ceases support, it means that the manufacturer has discontinued that product.

This, of course, means you can use the product. However, the manufacturer won’t provide any technical support or updates for the product.

Therefore, if you are experiencing any problem with the outdated product, you’ll have to service the issue on your own. The end-of-life process of an application places an obsolete product in purgatory. Over time, the product ceases to exist when newer versions are available.

When Will Magento 1 Be Discontinued?

The official date that Magento 1 will be discontinued is June 2020. Again, multiple sources have speculated the end of support for Magento 1 for several months. Yet, more than 189,000 out of a total of 240,000 sites are still operating on the Magento 1 platform as of June 2019. 

As the platform comes to an end, you can expect to see more merchants make the move to Magento 2. Many e-commerce retailers rely on personalized support to navigate their businesses.

How Will Your Magento 1 Be Affected?

There are still many merchants that are using Magento 1 to conduct their business. Although Magento 2 will become the new standard moving forward, it’s not exactly required to make the switch.

Nonetheless, if you decide to wait until the end of service for Magento 1, your online store will be affected. Here are the ways that this change will impact the design, extensions, security, hosting, and costs related to your platform.

Design:

Regardless of if you’re migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2, you will have to endure a website redesign.

Depending on how extensive your M1 website is, this process can be extremely time-consuming and expensive.

Before taking part in any website redesign process, you should create a plan for your next move. Also, you should carry out a comprehensive audit to ensure that your new website will maintain the same user experience and functionality. 

Soon, many audit checklists will be created to help merchants make the switch when they deem the time necessary.

Extensions:

While your M1 website is being audited, you should check the integrations and extensions you are currently running.

Although popular M1 extensions are not directly compatible with M2, several original extensions have been updated and are now compatible with the M2 platform.

This ultimately makes it easier and affordable for merchants to migrate over to M2. Still, switching over to any new content management system (CMS) will require you to find new integrations, extensions, and plugins to salvage the functionality of your existing website.

This may result in you creating a dev site to test these integrations for your live site. During the auditing process, you will be able to identify plugins that are obsolete and determine whether you should move forward with them.

Security:

When a manufacturer ceases support of an application, security issues almost certainly arise. After all, if manufacturers refrain from servicing their software, they can open up the opportunity for security fractures.

If you want to enhance the functionality of your e-commerce website, then you have to make sure that your integrations and extensions will continue to receive updates. This helps your business to avoid security issues and stay on top of compliance mandates. 

Granted, members of the Magento community have said that they will continue to provide support to users who are still using the M1 platform. No one knows how long this support will last before more retailers flock to M2. As a result, many merchants are already making the switch.

Hosting:

Fortunately, there won’t be many changes to the hosting after the end-of-life for M1. Though, when an increased number of users migrate to M2, they will likely ask a change in how their hosting is structured.

With Magento being a complicated application, the hosting structure is based on cache, PHP, and much more. Thus, Magento will have to consider changing their hosting structure.

Ultimately, migrating to Magento 2 will give you the opportunity to rethink your hosting provider and make the necessary changes to improve your business. 

Costs:

The majority of migrating costs will be derived from auditing your existing site and creating a new site for the M2 platform. Most likely, a website redesign will be necessary, further driving costs.

If you have a budget and are hesitant to move to the M2 platform, then you’re clearly at a crossroads. While you may have limited financial resources to make the switch, migrating to M2 will be better for your entire online store. 

For this reason, consulting with a reputable web development agency is your best chance to make the right decision.

Who Can Migrate My Website?

If you don’t want to put forth the time and effort of migrating your website to the M2 platform, then you’re in luck.

There are countless qualified web developers that can assist you throughout the process.

Agency Partner Interactive specializes in Magento migrations to ensure that your business is placed in the best possible position to thrive.

Migrate Your Website Today!

Migrating your website to M2 can be a massive decision. If you need assistance with kick-starting the process, feel free to give us a call at (877) 682-2012 to learn more about how we can help you. 

Not big on reading? That’s okay. Watch “Magento 1 End of Life – Migrating to Magento 2” instead.

Using the power of Artificial Intelligence, we turned this blog into a video for you. Check it out below!