Is The Community Edition of Magento Sketchy?

[RedEvo]

We've been playing with the community edition of Magento and we've found it to be buggy and slow. Has anyone else had issues with this software?

On paper it looks like the muts.

d

 

[Faevilangel]

Depends on the server, ideally it should be on a dedicated one as it is a huge system so needs all the oomph it can get.

No idea on buggy as not played with it much.

 

[RedEvo]

Our dedicated server has plenty of oomph but it is running other sites. It's a pity as Magento looks great but it's not use if it needs tons of server resources and has the bugs we are seeing.

Thanks for the input.

d

 

[Faevilangel]

Our dedicated server has plenty of oomph but it is running other sites. It's a pity as Magento looks great but it's not use if it needs tons of server resources and has the bugs we are seeing.

Thanks for the input.

d

Edmonds commerce (member on here) uses Magento a lot so will be able to tell you if it's set up right etc.

I have heard many good things about it, and keep thinking about learning the ropes but I would only use it if it helped clients and not hindered them.

 

[RedEvo]

I have heard many good things about it, and keep thinking about learning the ropes but I would only use it if it helped clients and not hindered them.

I've never knowingly provided or created a software solution that hindered what my clients were trying to achieve

d

 

[Toni Anicic]

Our dedicated server has plenty of oomph but it is running other sites. It's a pity as Magento looks great but it's not use if it needs tons of server resources and has the bugs we are seeing.

Thanks for the input.

d

Which bugs are you talking about?

 

[RedEvo]

Which bugs are you talking about?

Slow performance and misc JavaScript errors. One of my developers is doing the actual evaluation but it's been less than ideal thus far.

d

 

[Toni Anicic]

Slow performance and misc JavaScript errors. One of my developers is doing the actual evaluation but it's been less than ideal thus far.

d

Magento is a really big solution, and by far the most advanced one out there in the open source world. We've been working on lots of different e-commerce solutions before we decided to settle with Magento.

It's not a solution for a small local store with 100 customers per month. If you're working on something like that, there are solutions out there that will outperform Magento. However, Magento works as advertised. You can see very large stores running on Magento, and some of them are really fast. Optimizing Magento's speed is not a kids game, you really need to know what you're doing when you're playing with it.

Just my 2 cents

 

[RedEvo]

We've got the resources and skills to make the solution work, we're not amateurs My concern was that out of the box we are seeing a lot of basic software errors popping up and that's my concern.

d

 

[stugster]

Dave,

We've used Magento extensively and know exactly what you mean about the bugs. (one of such bugs: http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/45866 )

The software itself is phenominal, as long as you get the server geared towards Magento, and not the other way around. We've had it on a shared server environment running really fast with and without the caching. The server in question has a SSD dedicated to the database, so not sure if this is what dramatically improves peformance.

Having said all that, it was a while ago we really heavily used it (mid 2009), so things might have changed since then.

 

[alanc]

It's not a solution for a small local store with 100 customers per month. If you're working on something like that, there are solutions out there that will outperform Magento. However, Magento works as advertised. You can see very large stores running on Magento, and some of them are really fast. Optimizing Magento's speed is not a kids game, you really need to know what you're doing when you're playing with it.

So why do so many people on this forum recommend Mageto to every request for "I need an e-commerce website"?

 

[Toni Anicic]

So why do so many people on this forum recommend Mageto to every request for "I need an e-commerce website"?

Well, if they gave us more details we might recommend something else. If someone asks me for general recommendation, I'll go with Magento, and so will "so many people on this forum"

 

[brownie]

Well, if they gave us more details we might recommend something else. If someone asks me for general recommendation, I'll go with Magento, and so will "so many people on this forum"

Standard practise, with all IT requirements, is to fully qualify the business requirements first and then recommend a solution.

Strange if you do not have the whole story to just blindly recommend a solution. :|

 

[alanc]

Well, if they gave us more details we might recommend something else. If someone asks me for general recommendation, I'll go with Magento, and so will "so many people on this forum"

Given that most people asking the question are new start-ups, and your own comments about Magento, that would seem rather bad advice.

 

[kulture]

I have got a couple of sites running with Magento. I have found the latest version (1.4.0.1) relatively fast on a VPS. I have not had any bugs on my live systems.

I did find bugs during development. The biggest thing I learnt is not to add too many add on extensions. Especially from multiple suppliers. There are so many extensions the temptation is enormous, but you must resist.

The software is very feature rich, and provided you stop and plan the set up properly, it can deliver great e-commerce sites.

 

[edmondscommerce]

Javascript bugs are to do with the theme by and large. Try installing a different theme and see if you still see them.

As for other bugs, yes there are still a few bugs in Magento though in all honesty its not very often that I see a serious bug or one without a relatively trivial solution.

The latest version is without a doubt the best one in terms of speed and stability.

As for hosting - the whole "it needs a dedicated server" is getting really tired tbh - its just simply not true.

Finally as for recommending it to everyone, well that's not true either in fact I recently lost a potential contract because I was arguing against using Magento because I did not think that with the clients measly budget we could achieve their lofty aims if it was based upon Magento, whereas if we had used CRE Loaded (which is bit old but crammed with the features this client needed) we could have done it within budget easily..

In the end they found someone else who has agreed to do it in Magento for peanuts, I hope they knew what they were letting themselves in for

If you want some more in depth Magento discussion check out this unofficial magento forum - I'm on there a lot and will try to ensure questions are answered ASAP if no one else pipes up before I get to them.

 

[astutiumRob]

As for hosting - the whole "it needs a dedicated server" is getting really tired tbh - its just simply not true.

Magento require a properly configured and tuned apache/php/mysql/pdo installation, which is not "out- of the box" compatible with most "hosts" or "reseller" click-and-install webserver mentality.

However for full PCI compliance Magento (or any ecommerce software) _does_ require a dedicated server ...

 

[edmondscommerce]

that's just not true either... unless you are actually storing card details on the server (bad idea) and even then I'm not sure that you HAVE to go dedicated to meet PCI requirements (as opposed to VPS)

 

[homehydro]

Magento works great for me, and the latest version is the best yet. No bugs that cant be sorted out within minutes and as stated mainly to do with extensions or themes. Took a while to learn but once you get the feel for it it's excellent (and I'm no novice either) - I would hate to think what it would have cost to build from scratch

One thing though is that if you are a complete novice, and want to do it yourself, forget it - especially if you want to get a site up and running super quick and are serious about selling online.

Just my 2 pence and I know many will disagree.