What is Magento Enterprise Edition?
Let's start with the basics: Magento EE is not an 'inexpensive' solution. It costs about a $16,000
a year (check Magento's website for specifics).
So, what do you get for this investment? Among other items:
- A mobile-friendly store
- A service level agreement (SLA) with Magento for support (see the
note below)
- Improved search functionality with Solr: definitely a worthwhile
investment given the poor default search in Community Edition!
- Full page caching: simply, your website loads faster. And faster
websites mean more sales.
- Enhanced content management and catalogue management tools
It's worth noting that the support provided by the SLA
is limited to Magento's core, whereas in my experience, problems are often caused by third party extensions
installed which would then require additional development time at extra cost to fix.
So, is Magento Enterprise Edition for you?
If you're planning a ground breaking store and you turn over more than around £100,000 – £200,000
per year, then probably!
The enhanced search feature
, catalogue (product) management tools
and page caching
itself are probably worth the fee alone.
However, if you're operating on a smaller scale, that money may be better invested by retaining your Magento Community Edition store, and looking at site improvements
to improve your conversion rate
and search engine optimisation
of key pages in your website.
Some useful links
MAGENTO ENTERPRISE DEMO REQUEST
Magento General and Enterprise Feature List
Comparison Chart