The End of Support for Magento 1

Updated as of June 11th, 2019

In November 2015, Magento launched Magento 2.0, the long-awaited overhaul of their eCommerce platform. Far more than a facelift, Magento 2 brought an entirely new experience to Magento retailers. The new version resolved some common frustrations while offering a variety of new features and improvements.

With all the buzz surrounding the launch of M2, Magento also announced that it would discontinue support for Magento 1. These drastic changes meant that upgrading from Magento 1 to 2 would be no small project.

Since 2015, “end of support” rumors swirled, and concrete information about the final sunset for Magento 1 hasn’t been easy to come by. Some retailers have rushed to make the switch, but thousands of others, daunted by the time and cost involved, have hesitated to do so.

If you are the retailer patiently waiting for final support dates this post is for you. As of June 2020, Magento 1 will no longer be supported.

End of Support for Magento 1 Enterprise & Open Source

In September of 2018, Magento officially announced the end of support for Magento 1 Enterprise and Magento 1 Open Source.

“For Magento Commerce 1 (formerly known as Enterprise Edition):

For Magento Commerce 1, we are providing software support through June 2020. Depending on your version, software support may include both quality fixes and security patches. Please review our Magento Software Lifecycle Policy to see how your version of Magento Commerce 1 is supported.

For Magento Open Source 1 (formerly known as Community Edition):

For Magento Open Source 1, we are providing software security patches through June 2020 to ensure those sites remain secure and compliant. Please visit our Legal Terms page and review our Magento Open Source Software Maintenance Policy to see which versions of Magento Open Source 1 continue to receive software security maintenance. “  – Joe Ayyoub, Director of Support Operations, Magento

For Magento Enterprise retailers specifically, this news was released in the policy for Magento 1 Enterprise Support. The policy also applies to the Magento 2 version of Enterprise, now called Magento Commerce:

Here are the facts: for versions 1.9 – 1.14 Magento will keep releasing security patches only until June 2020, and no new updates will be released.

The only reason support has lasted this long is likely a response to retailers who recently launched sites on 1.13 and 1.14—the idea of replatforming so soon is daunting and would naturally cause an outcry. To date, retailers who have waited to upgrade have no time to waste. If you’re still using any version of Magento 1, the time has come to make a change to Magento 2 or replatform to something else.

Interested in Magento 2?

Our team has over 10 years of experience doing platform migrations; we have it down to a science. Let us be your guide for your next replatforming project.

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What does the End of Support Mean?

As we have already stated, the end of support means the end of security patches and much more. Magento 1 retailers will face a variety of challenges when it comes to the end of Magento 1:

1. Most payment gateways require a quarterly PCI compliance scan to be conducted on your store. Without proper security patches and security monitoring, your store could not pass those PCI scans, leaving you unable to take credit cards in as little as 90-days after support has ended.
2. Handling security on your own is an expensive and tedious undertaking. You are better off replatforming, eliminating the risk of maintaining your own security and also saving money.
3. Security aside, updates will also become a challenge. New extensions are no longer being made for Magento 1. All of the energy is going to Magento 2 extensions. Any updates or new features additions would have to be custom, which is costly.
4. There are about 350 Magento Partners worldwide who are equipped to handle a replatform project. There are roughly 180,000 Magento 1 sites currently operating. If you do the math, all of these Magento 1 sites needed to replatform as soon as possible. That would mean each partner would have to do at least 514 site migrations by June 2020. This is unrealistic and most partners capable of handling these builds are booked out. With the average replatforming project taking up to 6 months to complete, even our team is limited to 3 more projects before the end of support.

You are looking at a difficult road ahead if you believe that you can maintain your store on an unsupported version of Magento or that you can just wait and find an agency at the last minute to help you replatform.

Make Your Move

The end of support is here and you don’t have much time to make a decision. Once it passes, all stores still on Magento 1 will be taking a major risk. Your safest bet is to move and to move soon.

If you are ready to talk about replatforming to Magento 2 or another solution, such as Shopify, we’re here to help. We would be happy to speak with you and find a solution that works best for your business.