When something gets popular, people talk about it. The ecommerce world is no different. When a CMS, extension, or theme gets popular, myths start flying left and right. Magento is a renowned CMS in the online shopping world, and yes, you’ll find several Magento myths that might divert you from choosing it as your platform of choice.
But worry not. Here at Magenticians, we know what is right and what is wrong. Hence, we sorted out the top 5 myths about Magento and busted them so hard they might not surface again soon.
So wear your Magento hats and see if you knew whether these were mere myths or you thought were facts till now.
Magento is Slow
Topping our list is perhaps the most said myth about Magento that is furthest from the truth. If you have used WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla etc., you’d know that the performance of any CMS depends on different factors. So while the person who floated this myth initially may have had chosen the cheapest hosting and activated more plugins than necessary (the probable reason his site was crawling), the same might not be the case with someone who has it perfectly optimized. You wouldn’t expect the likes of Nike and Adidas to use Magento for their business if it were slow, now would you?
Also, Magento developers have been optimizing every version of Magento with new bells and whistles. So with every update comes a version that is faster than the previous one, which ultimately means that you don’t have to worry about ‘slow Magento.’
Magento is a Free Platform
Before you jump on your seat and call us names for including this as a myth, hear us out. Yes, Magento at its core – and official documentation – is termed as open-source and free to use. So you can use the popular CMS to start your own online store and get going, you won’t have much empowerment. There is a paid version called the Enterprise version that you’ll have to pay for if you want to go big with your store.
Even if you keep using the free version, you’ll have to invest in buying the best theme, extension and other tools that truly turn your website into a competitive beast.
Magento is Easy to Use
Downloading Magento is easy. After you’ve downloaded it though, you’ll realize that it’s not a walk in the park like those developers with years of experience said. Actually, a lot depends on your level of skills. If you’re experienced enough, Magento may seem simple to you. But the average person will find it really complex to handle given that it’s built on Zend Framework which is complicated itself.
Therefore, to make the best use of Magento, you must have the necessary expertise in PHP or at least have some form of familiarity with Zend Framework.
Magento is only for large scale businesses
Magento is used by 25% of online stores worldwide. The list of names that use Magento for their business include Nike, Samsung, and Adidas. While those names may already enforce this myth a little, take comfort in knowing that it’s a highly flexible and scalable CMS that can be used for both small and large businesses. If you know the needs of your business very well, then you should have no problems in deploying Magento for your purpose.
While we’ve made it clear that you need some learning curve to get started with Magento and make the best use of it, let it be known that the scale of your business isn’t important. Even if you plan to target a small market with your online store, Magento is the solution for you.
Magento doesn’t have customer support
Magento provides you a free CMS to start your online store and get on the success ladder. That also means that thousands of others have the same ambition and they use Magento for the same purpose. In this case, Magento cannot possibly provide free support to everyone. But when you choose the enterprise version, which you pay for, of course, then you get 24×7 customer support. So it depends on the version you choose, which means Magento does have customer support (and a very useful one at that).
Even if you’re using the free version, you have a vast Magento community out there who can help you on almost every problem or roadblock you face. You just have to pay or the privilege of private on-the-spot support!
No matter which ecommerce platform you choose, it will have its advantages and disadvantages. Magento is perhaps the most famous which is why it gets to have the most myths among the rest. However, we have done the work for you and debunked the ones that were keeping you away from using it. Leave your thoughts in the comment below, and don’t forget to share this article with your awesome community and circle of friends!
