Magento 1 End of Life – Here’s What You Need to Know

What’s in store for Magento 1 users in 2020? Quite a bit, in fact. With Adobe announcing the End of Life cycle for this platform, retailers currently using it will be forced to make a decision.

Here’s what you need to know.

Magento 1’s Shaky History 

The Magento platform has had some growing pains, much like any other ecommerce platform out there. In fact, in 2014, after eBay had purchased the platform, Magento announced that it would be shuttering services, a decision that would have affected an estimated 10,000 users (at the time). 

Magento later backpedaled and assured users that their services would stay live through February of the following year (2015). This, of course, did nothing to stop the exodus of active users, with eBay actively naming BigCommerce, a former competitor, as its integration partner to manage offboarding of active users onto its more robust ecommerce platform.

In May of 2018,  Adobe bought the struggling platform for $1.68 billion and added it to its ecommerce services suite. 

In a press release regarding the purchase, Adobe said:

“The addition of the Magento Commerce Cloud will enable commerce to be seamlessly integrated into the Adobe Experience Cloud, delivering a single platform that serves both B2B and B2C customers globally. The Magento Platform brings together digital commerce, order management and predictive intelligence into a unified commerce platform enabling shopping experiences across a wide array of industries.”

A crazy twist of fate suddenly saw the revival of this platform, with Adobe making immediate moves to update it. Shortly after that, it was announced that Magento 2 would be coming soon. The update would allow for improved security, streamlined development, better extensions and more options for retailers. 

Answers to why Adobe spent such a large sum on the acquisition of this platform were outlined in a statement the company issued: 

“Adobe is the only company with leadership in content creation, marketing, advertising, analytics and now commerce – enabling real-time experiences across the entire customer journey,” said Brad Rencher, the executive vice president and general manager of Digital Experience at Adobe in the press release. “Embedding commerce into the Adobe Experience Cloud with Magento enables Adobe to make every moment personal and every experience shoppable.”

In the months and years that followed, Adobe’s focus shifted over mostly to Magento 2 and what it could offer. But now, they’re planning to end all support for Magento 1 in the near future. Here are some important things to keep in mind if you are planning on continuing your usage of this platform after its end of life cycle. 

Magento 1 End of Life

Adobe has recently announced that they will be ending any and all support and updates to Magento 1 starting in June, 2020. As the company pushes ahead with a full rollout of Magento 2, they’ve decided to put a shelf life on the previous platform in favor of the more robust, secure and efficient second version. 

What this means for retailers using Magento 1 is that they won’t get any new updates from Adobe (after June) and they won’t be provided with support, either. It also opens the door to some other issues, like extension updates, which developers won’t roll out after June, and usability, since routine updates won’t be scheduled.

Security Breaches

Adobe’s team has been proficient in identifying and mitigating ongoing risks to the Magento 1 platform. But that’s all going to change when they stop rolling out updates for it. While this may not present an immediate risk to users, over time, intrusion attempts will increase as hackers find vulnerabilities. 

Without regular updates, retailers could see their PCI compliance revoked and may end up failing to meet standards for privacy and security in processing transactions — two issues that go hand-in-hand with using legacy ecommerce software. 

Limited Developers & Extension Support 

As Magento 2 becomes the mainstay for Adobe’s venture into ecommerce, developers will follow the cash trail to this platform. Most will stop providing new extensions for Magento 1 after it reaches its end of life cycle, and many will stop updating existing modules as well. 

What this means is that extensions you grew to rely on could suddenly become unreliable. What’s more, they could become less secure. Couple this with the fact that many developers will be focused on gaining business for the new platform and you might find yourself in a pickle if you need an update or have an outdated extension.

Timeline of Migration

Depending on the size of your online store, the timeline to migration could span as few as three days or as many as 30 days. This is, of course, presuming you’re spending adequate resources on a reliable and experienced developer team, which also comes at a cost to your company. 

Migrating your data also requires that you revisit every product, description, image, price and extension to ensure viability. This can bog down you and your team for weeks, but is a necessary step to migration. In so many words: If you’re planning on making the switch, the timing has never been better than now.

So, Now What?

One last thing to consider for Magento’s end of life cycle is data retention. Where will all your order data go if you migrate to a different platform? What order data will you keep if you upgrade to Magento 2? The answer can vary. For example, if migrating to a new shopping cart, you may only get a CSV of your data, and if the cart doesn’t recognize it, you’re out of luck. For users upgrading to the new Magento 2, you’ll be able to keep most of your order data. 

Did you know ReadyCloud Suite helps you take your data with you? If you are ready to switch ecommerce platforms, just plug ReadyCloud CRM into your existing platform and sync your data. Next, add the platform you’re switching too, and keep all your customer contacts, orders, invoices, tracking numbers, shipment, return and reporting data. ReadyCloud makes it easy to sync your data and roll to BigCommerce or the platform of your choice, all in just a few minutes of your time. 

Here’s the complete breakdown of how it works. 

Need Even More Tips?

Have a look at our related guides: 

• Why Magento 2’s Robustness Pairs to CRM Like Fine Wine and Steak
• Eight of the Best Magento 2 Extensions for Your Online Store

Or glean some interesting Magento factoids from the infographic below, which outlines all the 2018 (to current) Magento statistics you need to know.