Magento 1 End of Life – What does that mean for you?

At the end of June, Magento officially announced that all versions of Magento 1 will become end of life. What does that mean and how will this affect your website we hear you ask? Well, let us tell you more…

What does ‘End of Life’ mean?

Pretty much what it says on the tin. No more. No longer. Capeesh?

It means that if your website is currently running on Magento 1 then moving forward there are no longer any quality fixes or security patches that can be deployed, and you will need to migrate to another platform.

How will this affect my website?

Leaving your website on Magento 1 after 30^th June means you’re leaving your site, data and business vulnerable to security breaches and ultimately it will not comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.

These standards are set by card schemes including Visa and Mastercard and apply to all merchants that process payments and outline (in requirement 6) that all payment related systems must be on a safe and secure platform that checks and implements safety patches; which Magento 1 no longer complies with.

My website still works fine, do I really need to change platform?

In one word… YES.

The most important reason for you to migrate following this recent announcement is to prevent security breaches and hacks to your website. The cost to change migrate platforms may seem like an unnecessary one but the damage to your brand and reputation from such a breach can be long-lasting and much more costly.

If your website has been running on Magento, then this has meant they have actively carried out searches for vulnerabilities and patches them; once these updates are installed your data and website are protected. Since the 30th June, Magento are no longer carrying out these active searches on this version, and more importantly they will not be addressing them.

Saying this, leaving your site on Magento 1 means that you’re leaving your website vulnerable to hackers that will hunt out security loops on your ecommerce site leaving it open to a breach of data protection laws.

How do I Check Which Version of Magento I am on?

You can check which version of Magento your website is running on by logging into the Magento Admin and scrolling to the bottom of the page. The version that your website is running on will be shown at the centre of the footer.

What do I do next?

At Platform18 we work predominantly with WooCommerce which is a completely customizable eCommerce platform built on WordPress. Similar to Magento, WooCommerce is a self-hosted application and is used on about 2.3 million eCommerce stores around the world. Why we favour WooCommerce is because it is combines ease of use with lots of flexible features such as inventory management, secure payments and shipping integrations.

Not only does it provide great ecommerce functionality but is has clear and concise reporting and is able to integrate seamlessly with Google Analytic extensions. Whether you’re a small business or supplying products to hundreds of shoppers a minute WooCommerce can scale with the complexities of your business and provide a fast and responsive eCommerce experience for online stores of all sizes.

If your website is currently on Magento 1 and you’re looking to migrate to another platform, get in touch with our team today that can guide you through the next steps to ensuring your website is not only secure but running to its best ecommerce capabilities.