In this article, I’ll try to describe all the options you have as merchant concerning Magento EOL. Hint, It’s not that dramatic as it sounds although still not fun.

Here’s a recap of what you already know:

• Magento Inc. will end its support for Magento 1 on June 30th 2020.
• Security, performance and bug fixes no longer updated by Magento Inc.*
• Third party extension support will vary from vendor to vendor

*There is still a strong Magento 1 community out there that has even more incentive to continue contributing.

Here’s what you might not know or have forgotten:

• Magento 1 Enterprise must stop using Magento on day one
• Magento CE is Open Source  – Use it and abuse it however you want
• You are not alone!

For Magento 1 Enterprise Merchants

Bad news is that if you wish to avoid violating software licence you’ll need to stop using Magento 1 Enterprise or face the consequences. I’m not sure  what to think about this since legally Magento has the right to pursue their interest and sue everyone while on the other hand, you paid for the software and now can’t use it anymore because their support is no longer.

I’m not suggesting you violate your software licence I’m questioning Magento Inc. rationale to go after every single merchant when it’s in their best interest those same merchants upgrade to Magento 2 and better yet to Magento 2 Commerce Cloud.

Magento community is a huge factor still and will continue contributing to the Magento 1 Open Source project.

In the mean time here are the options  you have in the near future:

1. “Downgrade” to Magento 1 CE –  Rebuild Enterprise features on your own
2. Move to another platform altogether – In the end moving to Magento 2 is almost like moving to another platform. Because it is but somewhat easier and more familiar than anything else.
3. Pay the piper – Move everything to Magento 2 either self-hosted or up in the Magento Commerce cloud

1. Magento downgrade to community edition

Totally doable. All you need is to make a list of features you are actually using on Magento Enterprise, get a cost analysis and compare with the cost of No.2 and No.3

This might a moment to sacrifice a few features you absolutely don’t need. Make performance adjustments and do some code cleaning. Turn it into an opportunity to improve the store.

2. Move to another platform altogether

Why not?

I could come up with several reasons why Magento 2 is the platform to stay on:

• Familiar interface
• Improved Admin UX
• PWA support and market ready solutions
• Improved performance, stability and security

…but you know your business. All of these you might not value as much as some features on a hosted platform like Shopify+ or a totally different platform like Spryker.

What ever you choose, incorporate the cost analysis form No.1 to get to a rational decision.

3. Pay the piper

That’s it. All the benefits outweigh the costs and that’s why you recognised Magento 2 Commerce (ex. Enterprise) as the solution and you are willing to move.

You have these two options:

a) A Self hosted Magento 2 Commerce website

b) A Magento 2 Commerce Cloud website

I won’t go into details about each. I just wanted to emphasise that you can offload your server infrastructure burden to Magento and focus on sales without loosing your customisation freedom.

Your Magento 1 Enterprise store won’t stop working the day Magento 1 “dies off” but those annoying pop-ups will still be jumping at you as might Magento or their lawyers for breaking their software licence agreement.

If you choose the first option, learn about the four key areas that need to be covered when migrating to Magento 2.

For Magento  1  Community Edition merchants

If you didn’t skip the first part targeted to Magento Enterprise merchants you are now aware that nothing drastically happens to your store operations.

You only loose support from official Magento channels while similar options are still on the table:

1. Do nothing and rely on a cast Magento 1 community support
2. Move to another platform altogether
3. Migrate to Magento 2 – In this case self-hosted is the only option

I strongly suggest you calculate the cost of each of the options and think ahead in terms of platform longevity, features and profitability.

Magento is a part of Adobe family for some time now and betting on them is the safest option in my book considering Adobe’s plans with e-commerce.

If you need any help, consulting or just exploring options don’t hesitate to send us a message.

We’ll be glad to help you out.

P.S. While writing this one option I left out is building your own custom e-commerce solution from scratch. It was deliberate since in 2019 very few companies can afford to do it especially since all these market ready solutions already exist.

However, if you have a modern ERP system this might a viable solution since only thing you would need to do is to build the frontend for it. If that’s the case give us a call or write to use and let’s see if that option would actually make sense.