To Hate Magento is Divine ...

Magento made huge waves in the open source shopping cart community less than two years ago. The platform was the slickest, easiest to use out-of-the-box, and most robust eCommerce option web developers had ever seen. For designers, it never came close to living up the "ease of customization" hype.  So, as with most open source tools, Magento went through serious growing pains.  Software updates are still problematic, if not, incredibly painful and time-intensive. There are still a few nagging bugs like the automated sales emails customers receive that wind up in their mailbox displaying html code. Lastly, basic feature omissions such as Gift Cards, that have been requested time and again on Vairen's suggestions forum, never so much as received a comment from anyone at Varien. As "nice" as Magento is compared to other eCommerce platforms, it simply doesn't live up to the hype.

So, this morning I received an email from Varien touting their new "Enterprise" edition of Magento ... and, discovered why so may feature requests have been ignored. 16toads is, in general, not a fan of Open Source software platforms and our opinion was bolstered with Varien's big product announcement. Magento's free commercial edition was nothing more than a lab experiment designed to sucker thousands of developers into helping them troubleshoot and further develop their product so they could eventually turn around and releaese a paid licensed version. You may argue, "fair enough, we got something for free and they have a right to make money off of their product". We would agree and then argue that "we, as a community have given back tens of thousands of hours and untold dollars worth of consulting, testing, and code that have enable them to release a new version to the public that incoroporates numerous features we have all been requesting. And, wouldn't you know? Gift certificates are a standard feature in the Enterprise edition.

Now, I can't say for certain whether or not Varien has ever mentioned their intention to create a licensed version of Magento that would, in fact, incorporate features not available in the open source version. I simply haven't ever read anything anywhere on the web that so much as hinted at this intention. If I missed an article or press release somewhere, that's my fault.  But, if, in fact, this intention has been kept under wraps, we don't appreciate the slight-of-hand.

Okay. Varien releases a new enterprise version complete with a whole slew of features not available in the open source edition and we are all excited about the product. How much does it cost?

Hold your breath.

Magento's Enterpise Edition will cost you $8,900.00 annually!

No shit. Are you [censored] kidding me? Up until now, even the most expensive eCommerce platforms available cost in the neighborhood of $2000 to $5000 dollars and most of them are lifetime licenses.

The cost is so absurdly absurd it almost bears mentioning that April Fool's day passed two and a half weeks ago ... [censored] you Varien.  Interspire just got my business.