I have been involved in about 50 Magento projects, and I disagree with most of the comments.
1) It appears that "Magento has a hard learning curve" is a common complaint. Yes, so what? Software and specifically, code generators and content management systems, are supposed to make it easy for "Non Programmers" to roll out software. If and WHEN those middleware tools can't handle all business situations, then you need a real custom programmer. Magento is powerful AND flexible AND modular, and it takes time for a custom programmer to learn. We inherited several projects where its obvious the previous programmer was a Wordpress programmer who thought Magento was similar and found out he/she was in over their head. A junior programmer can spend a weekend on Wordpress and be up to speed on most features; not so with Magento. That's not Magento's fault; that's the fault of poor programmers. Powerful software requires more intense training to manage; if you don't want to put in the time to learn it, then quit whining.
2) If you are complaining about the costs of extensions in the $200-$500 range, then your client shouldn't be using Magento in the first place. Our average Magento deployment is $25,000, depending on the number of customizations. A $500 extension that saves 20+ programming hours to build from scratch is chump change. Extension developers should be charging money; that encourages them to update the extension. People resentful of trivial charges like that are just cheap. This ain't Wordpress.
I have one exception: www.southnfrance.com. This is a mom and pop outfit, and I convinced them to go with WP Commerce at first to save money. She was already used to Wordpress as a simple blog website, and they only offer about 30 products; seemed like Magento was way overkill. Unfortunately after WP Commerce rolled out, she turned out to be very high maintenance, and kept asking for changes and changes and changes that were custom in WP Commerce, but standard issue in Magento. We finally reskinned Magento to match her Wordpress theme, integrated them together so she can still blog with Wordpress, and all of her business needs were met using Magento. So in her case, a small mom n pop outfit did need Magento, but I have found that is rare.
As a general rule, Magento clients need to be doing at least $10,000 a month in sales BEFORE they move to Magento.
Magento is not perfect, but it has nearly 25% of the market because its pretty darned good.
I have been involved in about 50 Magento projects, and I disagree with most of the comments.
1) It appears that "Magento has a hard learning curve" is a common complaint. Yes, so what? Software and specifically, code generators and content management systems, are supposed to make it easy for "Non Programmers" to roll out software. If and WHEN those middleware tools can't handle all business situations, then you need a real custom programmer. Magento is powerful AND flexible AND modular, and it takes time for a custom programmer to learn. We inherited several projects where its obvious the previous programmer was a Wordpress programmer who thought Magento was similar and found out he/she was in over their head. A junior programmer can spend a weekend on Wordpress and be up to speed on most features; not so with Magento. That's not Magento's fault; that's the fault of poor programmers. Powerful software requires more intense training to manage; if you don't want to put in the time to learn it, then quit whining.
2) If you are complaining about the costs of extensions in the $200-$500 range, then your client shouldn't be using Magento in the first place. Our average Magento deployment is $25,000, depending on the number of customizations. A $500 extension that saves 20+ programming hours to build from scratch is chump change. Extension developers should be charging money; that encourages them to update the extension. People resentful of trivial charges like that are just cheap. This ain't Wordpress.
I have one exception: www.southnfrance.com. This is a mom and pop outfit, and I convinced them to go with WP Commerce at first to save money. She was already used to Wordpress as a simple blog website, and they only offer about 30 products; seemed like Magento was way overkill. Unfortunately after WP Commerce rolled out, she turned out to be very high maintenance, and kept asking for changes and changes and changes that were custom in WP Commerce, but standard issue in Magento. We finally reskinned Magento to match her Wordpress theme, integrated them together so she can still blog with Wordpress, and all of her business needs were met using Magento. So in her case, a small mom n pop outfit did need Magento, but I have found that is rare.
As a general rule, Magento clients need to be doing at least $10,000 a month in sales BEFORE they move to Magento.
Magento is not perfect, but it has nearly 25% of the market because its pretty darned good.