Magento 2 Community Edition vs. Enterprise Edition: Which One Should You Use?

Are you planning on building a new Magento store so you can sell online? You have a challenging choice to make: going with Magento 2 Community Edition (CE) or the Enterprise Edition (EE). The former is a self-hosted option while the latter is cloud hosted. So which one should you pick?

Here are some of the major differences between the two, to help you make an informed decision:

Cost to Setup and Complexity

The CE is free to download and use. All you have to do is pay developers to set it up – DIY building is tough - and also a monthly hosting fee. With EE, big stores end up paying upwards of $15,000 per year as maintenance costs. Because you get help from Magento developers, it’s easy to set up and administer such a store.

Suitability

Community Edition is suited for eCommerce stores that are just starting out or small to medium-sized businesses that don’t have to handle a lot of concurrent customers. Enterprise Edition is better suited to big firms that have massive inventories, lots of traffic, or even B2B firms.

Developer Support

For the Community Edition, you don’t get any support from Magento – but you can always hire an external developer if you have a problem. With Enterprise Edition, you get 24/7 premium support from Magento’s team. They will help with handling customer queries and ensure your store runs smoothly.

Performance

With CE, it’s possible to build lightning-quick websites with little-to-no tweaking. Adding extensions or third-party apps to it can slow the store down. With EE, the performance is acceptable, but the store can be slow if multiple modules are integrated into it. Performance depends on optimization.

Functionality

Out-of-the-box, with CE, you can build a solid store with many functions like order management, payment, shipping, and Google Analytics. EE offers all the features that CE does and more. It lets you build scalable stores; allows you to implement powerful marketing, search, and merchandising; supports customer loyalty/rewards programs; and has advanced management tools.

The one you should pick will depend on your budget, the size/type of your business, projected demand, and goals for the future. Magento Community Edition is a good starting point, while Enterprise Edition is a good pick for established businesses. Openwave provides customized magento development solutions for businesses at affordable rates. Get started today and build your online retail store.