07/19/2022

Is Magento Free Or Paid? How Much Does Magento 2 Costs?

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Global commerce has been transformed by the rapid development of digital technology. Online shopping is becoming more popular. No matter what industry you are in, if you want to get more customers and increase revenue, then you should definitely have an online presence.

Magento is a popular eCommerce platform for starting an online store. Magento is a well-known eCommerce platform. It is flexible, stable, scalable and customizable. It can be used by all sizes and types of businesses.

This post will cover everything you need to know regarding Magento. What is the cost of this shopping cart? What is it good at? What is the cost to create an eCommerce website with Magento?

Let’s get started!

What is Magento?

Magento, which was first introduced in 2007 by Varien, Inc, and then recently acquired by Adobe, allows merchants to build eCommerce websites quickly. Magento is technically open-source. It’s written in PHP scripting language and leverages Zend Framework components.

Magento can handle almost all of your online business needs, including managing customers, orders, inventory, customers, and catalogs. It also supports marketing and SEO. Magento allows multiple shipping and payment options. Magento also allows users to edit the source code and add third party modules to modify or extend existing functions.

Magento now ranks in the top 3 most popular eCommerce platforms, as used by more than one million websites. Each 8 of the 100 most well-known online shops are powered by Magento. Magento is used by many large companies like Nike, Samsung and Coca Cola.

Magento is preferred by many website developers because of its extensibility and customizability.

Magento 1 vs. Magento 2

In March 2008, Magento Community Edition 1.0 was released. The older versions of Magento 1 were more optimized, safer, and more stable. There were not many new features.

Two years later, Magento 2 was released. The beta version was made public on GitHub, which allowed the community to submit source code.

The platform reached a new height with the launch of Magento 2 merchant version, which was launched in 2015.

Technology

Magento 2 supports the latest innovations such as voice search and UX/UX AI. Magento 2 continues to add new features, thanks to an active community.

Architecture

The platform’s performance has been significantly improved by supporting the latest versions of PHP (programming language), MySQL(database), Apache (web server), and Nginx (“web server”)

Performance

Magento 2 loads 30 to 50% faster than Magento 1. Magento 2 can load 10 million pages per hour. Magento 1 could only handle two hundred thousand. This increases the number of orders processed in one hour by as much as 39%.

Dashboard

The Magento 2 admin panel is simpler and more modern than the cumbersome design of Magento 1. Users can manage their stores more efficiently with a responsive, interactive and user-friendly backend.

Security

Magento 2 is stable and secure. It prevents all types of attacks by strengthening the password hashing algorithm.

Magento 2 is generally more flexible, functional, and reliable than Magento 1. In addition, Magento 1’s security patches and updates were terminated in July 2020. There is no reason to build a website using Magento 1 or delay the migration to Magento 2.

Magento Open Source vs. Magento Commerce

It is important to understand the different options Magento offers when talking about Magento. Magento is often viewed as an open-source, on-premise solution. However, there are commercial and cloud-hosted alternatives.

Each edition has a different set of features. You can choose the best option for your project by understanding their capabilities.

Magento offered two solutions in its early years: Enterprise Edition (EE) and Community Edition (CE). These plans were rebranded as Magento Open Source in 2017 and Magento Commerce in 2018. Magento Commerce Cloud was introduced to provide a cloud-hosted solution.

Magento Open Source

Everyone can download and install this free package. Magento Open Source merchants are responsible for any website development costs such as domain and hosting.

These default functions support basic business requirements. Store owners have the option to integrate third party modules for more advanced features.

Magento Open Source is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses because it doesn’t require large initial investments. Merchants can also be supported to upgrade to higher plans as their businesses grow.

Magento Commerce

This premium self-hosted solution offers rich features such as targeted promotions, price lists, custom catalogs, and customized catalogs. You can also use the built-in functions to create loyalty programs, request quotes, and quick ordering. You will also get support 24 hours a day from Magento’s technical staff when you subscribe to this plan.

Magento Commerce is ideal for global companies with large product catalogs, high traffic and higher business complexity.

This plan includes all Magento Commerce features as well as cloud infrastructure hosting. This package includes Git integration as well as all necessary environments including development, staging and live production.

Magento Commerce Cloud Cloud is ideal for large businesses with complex business needs.

Is Magento free?

Many people are still asking if Magento is free. Magento Open Source is completely free, as we all know.

The package can be downloaded from the Magento official website. You can make configuration adjustments or customize the source code to meet your business needs.

To enhance your website, you can also use free extensions or themes from Magento extension builders.

Launching an online business requires more than downloading and installing the platform. Hosting and domain registration are required.

Magento’s flexibility comes back to its complexity. Magento can be difficult to use if you don’t possess technical skills.

A developer or agency will be needed to set up the system correctly, make customizations, or manage maintenance. You will need to buy third-party plugins and paid themes to improve the visual appeal of your site. These items are expensive.

While Magento Open Source can be referred to as free, building a Magento eCommerce website requires.

What does it cost to create a Magento eCommerce website?

Magento 1 is no longer supported and Commerce Cloud’s price is well-informed. We will be focusing on Magento 2 Open Source Store development costs in this blog.

It can be difficult to determine how much money you will spend. There are many factors to consider. Some components may not be obvious. We would like to help merchants plan their project costs more effectively.

Website domains at a cost

The domain is the name of an online store. Your website domain must be attractive, easily readable, and easy to remember. It is difficult to find and purchase a great domain.

A domain can be purchased new or used.

A brand new domain costs between $10 and $15 per annum, depending on which domain name extension is chosen.

An aged domain (also known as expired domain) costs between hundreds and thousands of dollars. This includes the domain value. An older domain can be a good investment for SEO as it will give you valuable data such as page authority and domain authority.

Hosting service costs

Hosting is an important cost factor in Magento stores. There are many plans and types of hosting available. Prices can also vary from one provider to the next.

A self-managed hosting provider charges between $10 and $250 per month. Managed hosting will cost you at least $190 per month.

Hosting costs will depend on the size of your business and the expected site traffic.

Magento 2 themes at a cost

The Magento 2 theme will be the foundation of your store’s visuals. You may not find the default theme, LUMA or any other free themes that you need to create a unique and sophisticated frontend for your store.

A paid template purchased from Magento Marketplace is the most cost-effective. You can choose from a variety of themes starting at $30 and ending at $499.

You may need to hire a frontend designer to customize the theme to your brand. You may be able to get work done for as low as $1000-2500 if there aren’t many complex tasks. A junior frontend developer earns between $50,000 and $60,000 annually.

You can also get your theme built by a web agency. A custom design can cost more than $10,000.

Magento 2 Extensions: Cost

Despite the richness of the Magento 2 extensions , they still play an important role in ensuring stores’ success. Magento extensions allow you to extend the default functionality of Magento and provide new functions for solving unique business problems.

You can build extensions from scratch, just like the Magento 2 theme. This will require you to hire Magento developers who are highly skilled.

Integrating third-party modules is a more efficient approach. Magento Marketplace offers 3000+ extensions, both free and paid.

Depending on the features you select and the vendor, a Magento 2 plugin may cost between $50-500. Modules that connect Magento 2 to other platforms may cost over $10,000. The budget range you can spend on Magento extensions is not exact.

Website development cost

Magento eCommerce stores are most expensive to launch because of the high cost of website development. Magento is a complex platform that requires technical skills and an in-depth understanding of its mechanisms. Store owners might consider hiring a Magento developer (freelancer), a web agency, or creating an internal IT team.

Hiring a web developer

You can hire a Magento developer for between $10 and $200 an hour. Based on the developer’s portfolio and experience, the exact amount will be calculated. Prices can vary greatly from one market to another.

South-East Asia: $10-20/hour Eastern Europe: $20-$60/hour US, UK and Western Europe: $150-200/hour

You should carefully evaluate the profile of freelancers, such as his certificates and reputation. To avoid poor performance.

Leverage development agency

The most costly option is to hire a web agency. You will receive professional and high-quality support from certified Magento developers.

Magento agencies charge based on their developers’ expertise. Magento experts charge an average of $125 per hour. Magento Open Source website development can cost as low as $50,000, for both design and development.

Establish an internal developer team

The annual expenses of an in-house IT department can run from $60,000 to $120,000.

This method is preferred by large and medium-sized enterprises to adapt to rapid business changes. You can control every aspect of the development process by building your technical team.

Maintenance costs

Regular maintenance will ensure store stability and smooth operation, which can prevent any disruptions due to technical issues. Updates to Magento versions and security patches may be part of maintenance activities. These activities cost based on the store’s scope, frequency and level of expertise.

The hourly rate is between $80 and $125, with an annual fee that can range from $500 to $1,000 depending on the service provider.

You may need to spend between $30,000 and $40,000 annually if you want to receive superior support. The key takeaway is that there is no fixed price for building Magento-based websites. Merchants have many options when it comes to building eCommerce stores. The total costs reflect the goals and decisions of each store owner.

Commonly, Magento 2 Open Source is used to build functional websites. It costs between $1,000 and $150,000.

Conclusion

Magento has been a robust eCommerce platform since its inception in 2007. Magento can be updated immediately with modern technology to meet changing eCommerce business needs.

Magento Open Source is a great way to launch an online business. While it is not free to open an e-store Magento-based, the initial investment can be affordable. Magento makes it easy to jump into eCommerce.

About the author

Kobe Digital is a unified team of performance marketing, design, and video production experts. Our mastery of these disciplines is what makes us effective. Our ability to integrate them seamlessly is what makes us unique.