Disadvantages of Magento

Magento is, according to many, the open source solution for online stores. In itself this is understandable: Magento offers a large number of advantages. I personally think Magento is a very good system, but in my opinion Magento is not the ideal solution for every webshop.

Most of the disadvantages of Magento are directly related to its distinctive advantages: the size of the package, or in other words the many possibilities. To customers, I like to compare Magento with a large truck containing all kinds of tools. Everything or almost everything is possible with it, but there is also a lot that is not used but that causes a lot of speed loss and unwanted work. And wrong settings can be made in an instant, causing the system to perform poorly.

Speed of Magento

Actually I didn't want to start with the point about speed because this aspect is mentioned first by almost everyone. With dedicated Magento hosting, a lot can often be made up for but the size of the package in many cases still causes a lot of speed loss so Magento is still not a speed wonder even then. This remains a major drawback of Magento.

• Vicus' solution: good Magento hosting and optimization of the installation Vicus has a lot of experience in optimizing Magento web shops since 2007.

Maintenance of Magento takes time

The maintenance of Magento often takes a lot of time. Often, unexpected problems arise over time that, of course, need to be fixed quickly. This also applies to problems that "haunt" Magento: problems occur and disappear again spontaneously, without the cause being immediately clear. Not only is this annoying, it also takes time. Upgrading Magento is also not something to do quickly in between, often upgrading takes a day. Of course no one is waiting for these problems, also because time spent on these problems can be at the expense of what it's all about: making sales. Especially if you don't have the knowledge for this yourself, the costs for tracing and solving problems can add up undesirably quickly.

• The Vicus solution: enter into a maintenance agreement with us. The specialists of Vicus have much experience in maintaining webshops software including Magento. Vicus has all the technical and functional knowledge in the field of webshops.

Magento search function is far from perfect

The search function within Magento is, in my unsourced opinion, very poor by default. Both the ranking and the results are not as you would expect from Magento.

• The Vicus solution: use Google Search, Sphider or another external tool like Site Search.

Focusing (too much) on America

Many options in the system seem to be geared primarily to the U.S. system. This is evident, for example, from the discount rules and VAT rules. Although it is easy to set up for the Dutch market, it is still often cumbersome and unnecessarily complicated and therefore time consuming.

• The Vicus solution: immerse yourself in the configuration and test extensively whether everything works as thought and desired and consult with Vicus advisors. And for an optimal return, definitely participate in the workshops that Vicus recommends in its offers!

Conclusion

There are many webshop builders who rely exclusively on Magento but all in all there are quite a few aspects to consider carefully. In general, I would recommend Magento to webshops that have the budget for regular maintenance and to internet marketing companies with the experience to manage the technology themselves. For smaller webshops, Magento is also certainly an option, but it is advisable to consider alternatives. For example, there is Zen Cart where you don't have to worry about the technology. In short, consider carefully why you choose Magento! Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or are there better alternatives? We'd love to hear about your practical experiences!