I've tried to make a product with Simple product and Configurable product. Both of them can use configurations (i.e. 1) color 2) size ) and I had applied the same attributes in both products type. And it turned out to be the same on a frontend page. My question is that is there a two ways to make a configurable product ultimately or is there any differences in both products though it looks the same on a frontend page?
Magento keeps the stock status for a configurable product's simple variants , but does not do so for a simple product's configurable options.
In addition to stock keeping differences (quantities of variations are not tracked for simple products with options and for configurable goods inventory can be managed) there are also the following differences:
- associated to configurable simple products are independent items, so they can be used in search and in layered navigation (for filtering), custom options cannot be used for the mentioned purposes
- SEO approach - configurable items with associations are so-friendly and if sold separately can be taken into account by search engine and bring more interested clients to your store
Here is the article with detailed comparison -