You should use Magento if you need a platform that is free, secure, built for ecommerce, supports a wide variety of integrations, with robust catalog and order management functionality, and is SEO-friendly out-of-the-box.
When you need security
Security is an essential requirement of every ecommerce platform. Magento prioritizes data security and offers robust security measures to tackle common security exploits. Magento safeguards stores from clickjacking attacks through an option to use X-Frame-Options HTTP request headers.
The Magento Framework regulates the escaping of data in outputs for HTML pages and email by default. This measure enhances the prevention of cross-site scripting attacks. Magento allows the use of non-default admin URLs and uses strengthened hashing algorithms for password management.
When you need powerful catalog management
Magento offers robust catalog and inventory management functionality by default. It can support an unlimited number of products across various product types, including simple, configurable, grouped, bundled, and virtual products.
Perfect for dropshippers and businesses that supply stock from multiple warehouses, Magento allows store managers to configure multi-source inventory. It also provides additional APIs to extend and add to the existing inventory management functionality.
When you need advanced promotional functionality
Magento allows its users to create complex product relationships and price rules to trigger discounts at both the catalog and cart levels.
At the catalog level, store admins can configure a set of catalog price rules to offer discounted pricing. These do not require the use of coupon codes and are applied automatically when a set of predefined conditions are met.
At the cart level, store admins can configure automatic discounts based on a set of conditions or using a coupon code. Coupon codes can be created manually or auto-generated from within the admin panel to offer free shipping for certain products, discounts based on minimum purchase values, and “Buy X, Get Y” style promotions.
When you need unlimited customizability
Customizability is built into the core of every Magento store. By packaging all core functionality inside modules, Magento allows every aspect of the platform to be customized and extended without editing the core code.
From its frontend design to its backend functionality, each aspect of a Magento store can be customized entirely using third-party extensions. This customizability has promoted the development of a rich-product ecosystem around the platform.
When you need multi-store functionality
Magento supports the creation and management of multiple websites or stores using a single backend admin panel. Using a single codebase, Magento users can create multiple websites and store views to offer products, promotions, and content localized to different regions.
Perfect for businesses catering to global audiences, Magento even offers multilingual support straight out of the box. Besides having independent stores and languages for different regions, it also supports multiple tax rates and shipping configurations based on the billing or shipping address.
When you need powerful integrations
Magento has API functionality built into its core making it capable of supporting powerful integrations with third-party applications. It supports popular API technologies like File Exchange, SOAP, REST, and GraphQL.
Leveraging its API, merchants can integrate their Magento stores with POS systems and automate their order management processes. Creating a well-integrated system can help businesses leverage the benefits of multiple platforms and develop an omnichannel approach.
When you need performance
Having a high-performance website that loads fast and creates a stress-free shopping experience is vital to boosting sales and conversions. Magento offers multiple features to improve store performance, such as support for Varnish cache and different operation modes.
Varnish is a powerful HTTP accelerator that caches static data and serves it to website visitors before the request hits the webserver, thus reducing latency. In addition to using Varnish, operating a store in production mode further boosts its performance by generating static content in advance instead of on the fly.
When you need an SEO-friendly platform
Magento provides essential SEO functionality straight out of the box. It comes pre-packaged with structured data markup based on Schema.org standards added to the store’s product templates.
This feature allows search engines like Google to display enhanced product listings using rich snippets and makes it easier for customers to click through when the information is displayed on organic search results.
It also provides site admins with complete control over a store’s URL structures, sitemaps, meta-descriptions, and meta-tags.
When you need open-source technology
As open-source software, Magento is more cost-effective to use and takes away the risk of being locked into proprietary software.
Magento’s open-source nature provides developers across the world complete access to its code. This transparency enables developers and businesses to make more informed decisions when considering the platform. It also makes it more reliable as the code is open to scrutiny by experts across the globe.