Upgrading To Magento 2: Do Retailers Need To Switch From Magento 1?

Magento 2 was released almost two years ago and we’ve offered Magento 2 hosting since day one. But many Magento eCommerce retailers have a long history with Magento 1 and aren’t eager to switch, although the process of upgrading isn’t onerous.

I’d like to take a look at some of the reasons retailers should consider moving to Magento 2, and whether those who prefer to stick with Magento 1 are likely to face problems in the near future.

Why Upgrade To Magento 2?

Magento 2 was a long time in the making. Its developers learned a lot of lessons from their years building and supporting Magento 1, lessons that profoundly affected the development of Magento 2. Magento 2 is an eCommerce platform for the modern web.

Enhanced Performance — A lot of attention went into making Magento 2 as fast as it could possibly be. Improvements to Magento 2 include considerably more performant indexes, better Varnish integration, and full-page caching.

An Improved Shopping Experience — For Magento 2, the shopping experience was streamlined, providing a more intuitive interface, a simplified checkout experience, and enhanced capabilities for mobile shopping.

More Efficient Admin Experience — The admin panel is now fully touch-friendly, allowing users to manage their stores from phones and tablets. Additionally, the admin panel is now more logically and intuitively organized, cutting down on the complexity of carrying out everyday store maintenance operations.

Easier Updates — Updates are an essential part of Magento security, and Magento 2 makes it easier than ever to install updates, move between versions, and install the Magento application.

That’s just a fraction of the features available in Magento 2. Retailers who have upgraded to the most recent version of Magento have found the gains to be well worth the move. Magento 2 is the future of the Magento project, and retailers will have to upgrade at some point, but is moving to Magento 2 urgent?

Users of Magento 1 Enterprise Edition don’t have anything to worry about. Support for Magento 1 Enterprise Edition was originally scheduled to end three years after the release of Magento 2. But, earlier this year, Magento announced that it has no plans to end support for Magento 1 Enterprise Edition. Support — including security updates and bug fixes — will continue for the foreseeable future.

The situation is less clear for Magento 1 Community Edition. It’s likely that support for the community version of Magento will end in the near future. However, because Magento 1 remains so popular, it’s possible that the Magento Community will fork the project and continue to provide support. Nevertheless, if your company depends on Magento Community Edition, it’s probably wise to at least make plans to upgrade.

Magento 2 is a fantastic eCommerce application, but if you prefer to remain with Magento 1, it’s unlikely to cause serious problems for the foreseeable future. Nexcess Magento hosting customers can choose between Magento 1 and Magento 2 when setting up their hosting account, and we continue to support both versions.