Magento 2 vs Zoey: what to pick

Magento 2 & Zoey are two great examples of E-commerce platforms with robust feature sets. Each has the ability to help your business to grow and thrive with a strong online storefront to enable shoppers to browse and search for products and made a purchase. Each also offers additional connections in order to leverage other best-in-class SaaS platforms. However, while they share some commonalities, they are very different E-commerce systems, so we’ve gone ahead and taken most of the mystery out of those differences for you:

Support

Zoey, with a starting price of $199 per month, provides unlimited ticket support and a minimum of 2 scheduled support calls per week to all merchants on their platform. Magento 2 Community comes with no direct support from Magento, although teams like JLB offer comprehensive long-term support services. Magento 2 Enterprise, with a starting price of $20,000+ annually, comes with some support on the Magento 2 platform, but not on Magento Extensions, and other site customization. Magento 2 Cloud Edition starts at $40,000+ annually and comes with more support for those large enterprises that can afford this pricing.

Maintenance

Magento 2 is an open-source platform which you need to host and keep patched and secure. This requires you to work with a separate host and to address ongoing security concerns, including making Magento PCI compliant.  Magento store owners are also responsible for applying bug fixes and addressing other long-term software maintenance. Agencies like JLB offer such services, allowing you to have one team build your site and then manage hosting, patching, upgrading, and security.

Zoey, as a cloud-based platform, requires minimal to no maintenance. Zoey hosts your site, and software and security updates happen automatically, including app updates. This even includes the deployment of new features that Zoey adds to their platform. Zoey’s model brings your business more predictability in terms of costs and labor, with the exception of merchants who can budget for Magento 2 Cloud Edition who can anticipate similarly minimal maintenance.

Out-of-the-box Features

Zoey has taken a standard Magento feature list and added generously. They’ve included a user-friendly theming system, advanced store analytics, B2B Features for manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors, more payment gateway options, a blog to add more rich content, a shipping calculator that can be placed on product pages, and a CDN for faster worldwide loading speeds. While Magento Enterprise includes some additional features that come with Zoey, such as Gift Card functionality, Zoey will beat out Magento Community in a side by side feature comparison. Zoey also offers more ready-to-go features that require a small additional fee, like the ability to add PDF’s and other files to product pages, or setting up a Google Shopping Feed. Zoey will typically stand out as more feature rich in the SMB market.

Extensions & Apps

Magento, by far, offers more extensions than Zoey does Apps. However, Zoey’s Apps are generally better curated, more likely to work together, and more supported. While Magento’s new Marketplace does force Extensions to be reviewed, Magento is not testing extensions for conflicts. This will completely depend upon if you need features or Apps that Zoey does not provide, although, those on the Zoey Premier plan can create and install private apps and custom themes. In general, Zoey Apps are preinstalled, and simply need to be enabled, whereas Magento Extensions need to be installed, and even patched from time to time. If Zoey has the features and Apps that you need, it can cut down on development labor needed to install and maintain Extensions that you would have with Magento.

Flexibility

Zoey is a very strong and capable platform, however, for merchants that need a lot of flexibility, Magento’s open-source nature can certainly bring value. We’ve worked with merchants whose needs for features and functionalities required a level of customization. Zoey provides great B2C and B2B features for retailers and wholesalers alike, but there can be a breaking point. Zoey is working on an SDK for developers, which will help to narrow this gap, but there is a difference between an open source software like Magento and a SaaS solution like Zoey.

As Zoey includes hosting in their plans, they do place some limits on merchants, depending on which monthly plan you sign up for, so it is important to make sure that the Zoey plan that you’re looking at will be a match for your needs.

Costs of Ownership

Zoey will almost always be expected to have a lower cost-of-ownership, which is why it stands out. Zoey requires less setup, less maintenance, and in general, less custom development. It also bundles in hosting and other long-term costs. Even though Magento Community Edition, Magento’s free version, has no licensing fee, it would be hard to beat Zoey’s pricing when you add up all of the upkeep that a Magento store requires.

Magento 1 Merchants

As Magento 1 creeps toward an End of Life, and moving to Magento 2 requires a full re-build / re-platforming, many Magento 1 site owners are considering which platform is best for them. For Magento store owners that have been happy with their costs, labor, and stability with Magento 1, Magento 2 may be a great option, especially with a team like JLB supporting your long-term store hosting, security, and maintenance. Our team is currently helping multiple merchants move from Magento 1 to Magento 2. However, for merchants that are looking for an environment with more predictability and less fuss, Zoey is a very strong contender.