Can I DIY most of a Magento Store?

[Casey8981]

Hello everyone,

Was wondering what your thoughts are on a small 2 person business DIYing most on a Magento CE Store. I know HTML and a little CSS basic coding. I really don't want to go with Shopify if I can make this platform work? Thoughts?

[brendanb]

Hi Casey,

Well just some other things to consider.

1. What about hosting. Are you thinking of looking after the hosting yourself?

2. What about maintenance tasks form shell. Are you competent in working from shell prompt?

3. Are you going to setup the site from scratch yourself?. Have you read some of the books available for Mage2.

4. Are you comfortable with using git.

5. Do you have a development site to try things about?

6. What about things like deployment from a development site to product using tools like capistrano

I think if you just after a basic store with little to no customization than what is magento delivers out of the box, then yes. I think that is one of the reason magento has had a large uptake. The ability to add extensions to deliver additional functionality is great.

Before revisiting magento 2x, I looked around at other options like the "hosted" solutions, but found they had interesting limits for certain features. Like you want faceted filtering, that's an enterprise option with enterprise pricing. As much as I wanted a solution, I also wanted the flexibility to do my own thing.

These are just some initial things to consider, just ask away if you have any questions

Regards

Brendan

[Casey8981]

Thanks Brendon,

I was just wondering if I could get a basic store set up myself and maybe hire a developer a few times at a minimum just to get started.

I seen I can download a bunch of different themes etc.

I know it takes more work but seems better in the long run for my business. Like you said for customization etc later.

Also it seems like it would be cheaper than Shopify long term because you pay once and have it. In shopify its all SAAS ..even the plug-ins have monthly charges!

What you think? See what i mean?

Thanks for your advice!

Casey

[brendanb]

Hi,

I would urge against not making the money value a key decision point, just one of many to consider. It may start off cheaper in the short term, but you will be frustrated at some point. Then weight that up against the time invested by yourself and others in delivering a solution that works. In the end, magento may not be so cheap.

Out of the box magento CE is Free yes, but then you have to add onto this

1. Hosting Costs

2. Your time setting up the site

3. Any theme you add

4. Some customization by a competent magento 2x developer

5. Some ad-dons from good reliable developers.

You will also need to ensure its always up to date. For example security issues need to be resolved, again by either yourself or a developer.

If you wanted to dive in, sure. There are plenty of hosting services out there that can spin up a magento site very quickly for you to start up. Check in the Hosting Forum.

In regards to hosting, look around online, pick a few reputable hosts and ask them some questions. Id recommend checking our reviews of these hosting companies. Just to get a feel for their service. Spin up a test site and have a play around with some of your own data. That way you can start to see the scope of your site and what things are missing.

brendan

[Casey8981]

Hi Brendon,

I will give it a test first. Thanks