In September 2018, Magento officials announced that they are ending support for Magento 1.x with effect from June 30, 2020. This means that Magento 1.x will receive no security updates moving forward. The announcement was made 18 months prior to the EOL (End Of Life) as it is difficult for merchants to re-platform in a short amount of time.
End of Life of Magento 1 does not mean that your e-commerce store disappears from the internet after June 2020. It will still exist.
However, Magento will not be supporting the website, that is, you will not receive security updates or patches.
Without Magento’s support, the website will be vulnerable to security breaches. This is a violation of the PCI-DSS (Payment card Council data security standards).
Your best two options are:
- To update to Magento 2 or
- To get a security system installed.
Take this opportunity to assess the current scenario of your website, find out what you’re lacking, and switch to the perfect CMS for you. This article will help you know more about Magento 1-end of life and what to do next.
About Magento 1
Before getting into the current scenario, let’s learn some more about Magento 1.
Magento 1 was launched in 2007. It is an open-source CMS written in PHP. It gained popularity and awards in the first year itself. Magento Open-source was the third most popular among the top 10k sites in the open-source category.
There are two types of Magento 1 software:
- Magento Commerce 1 (Enterprise Edition): Requires purchasing license for software
- Magento Open-Source 1 (Community Edition): Free or low-costing software
What Happens to Magento 1 Websites After June 2020
1. Exposure to Security Breaches
Without the security patches and updates, your website becomes vulnerable to security breaches and attacks. This could lead to the loss of data of customers. Fixing a website after an attack is not easy. This would also damage the reputation of the e-commerce store and can increase the number of eCommerce Frauds. Many customers would deem the website unsafe and leave.
2. Noncompliance with PCI DSS
PCI-DSS compliance is mandatory for any business to process payment using credit cards. Using Magento 1 will be a violation of Requirement 6 of the PCI-DSS.
“Develop and maintain secure systems and applications.”- Requirement 6 of PCI-DSS. Businesses that are not PCI compliant will be fined heftily.
3. Risk of Losing Payment Service Providers
Payment Service Providers facilitate the payment process by bringing all the financial parties together and processing the payment efficiently. They are a fundamental part of running a successful e-commerce store. Since businesses using Magento 1 are not PCI compliant, most payment service providers would opt to stop working with our business.
One of the most popular payment service providers, Ayden, has already announced that they will no longer work with websites using Magento 1.
4. Difficulty in Updating the Website
Since Magento will no longer be supporting Magento 1, you need to find a developer who workers on Magento 1. This task itself is quite difficult. Further, the processing of updating would be complicated and expensive.
You will also lose most of the third-party extensions that you use on your website.
What You Can Do Now
Continuing with Magento 1 is clearly not a good idea. You can either upgrade to the next version of Magento, that is, Magento 2, or migrate to a different CMS.
1. Upgrade to Magento 2
Magento 2 is an improvised version of Magento 1 with a completely different architecture and enhanced features. Many sources cite that it provides a better check out experience and is more mobile-friendly. However, the expense would be higher for Magento 2.
An important thing that you should know is that you cannot just simply upgrade to Magento 2. It requires the same work and effort as switching to a different platform. However, the Magento team has chalked out a plan (with several tools such as - Magento 2 Data Migration Tool, Code Migration Toolkit, etc) for their customers on Magento 1 to ensure a smooth transition. You can learn more about the Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration plan with this linked guide.
2. Get a security system to protect you
Magento has already made it evident that all Magento stores operating on versions prior to 2.x will become highly vulnerable to cyber attacks due to the loss of security patches and updates. We have discussed how Magento 2 is the better option ahead. Having said that, Magento 1 owners still may not want to migrate because they have developed extensively on the dying version. If you are against migrating to the latest version of Magento, there are some measures you can take to mitigate risks.
One best option, from a security perspective, is to get a dedicated security solution that can protect you from cyber-attacks.
Conclusion
Magento 1 will no longer be supported by Magento. It is very crucial for your business to either upgrade to the next Magento software or shift to a different CMS. You need to make an informed decision as it can affect your business tremendously. This post contains the important details you need to know about Magento 1- End of Life.
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