Pros and Cons of Magento versions + with or without demo data?

[webmastero6c7f]

Having used a few Magento installs in the past few weeks, I am wondering which to use.

I first installed 2.3.6 and it was good, but due to changing domains I deleted it and went to re-install but found it was changed to 2.3.6p-1 (using Siteground Hosting) but it "fails" to install.

2.4 requires elasticsearch which involves appache and getting permissions (and seems like it's a paid service - is it?) so it's not an easy option.

So I tried 2.2.11 and it appears to be good.

Now I am wondering whether to instal with or without the demo data.

With the data which is 1000's of products I get everything the shop has to offer already configured - without the data it is empty and I have to configure everything - so I am trying to delete all the products just to see what happens - if it is worth trying to use the demo data minus the products?

So I am not the first to load the demo data and want to delete it, so who has had experience with what to do with all the 1000's of products since they take up space --- is it a matter of installing a fresh clean copy and implementing everything from scratch?

PS. deleting all the products doesn't seem to work, I'll be here all year lol.

Thanks! Hoping someone can set me straight.

[Mukesh Tiwari · Accepted solution]

Hi @webmastero6c7f 

You should use the Magento installation with sample data to understand the default functionality of Magento2.

If you are developing a new website, do not install sample data. You can create test products, customers and orders for testing purposes. You will not need to clean entire sample data here and it can be done easily.

If you install and configure Elastic search on your own server, it is not paid service. If you take any cloud based subscription of the Elastic search then you have to pay for it.