| 03 January 2011
Posted in Tips and Tricks

I do not know that you have noticed or not but InstantPhp.Com has a help desk for Magento and Virtuemart (lknSupport ). It's also the support system that we use on our web site.

After writing our first product for Magento, I've decided to write my own "Magento and Virtuemart comparison". This blog post will contain my personal opinions


Before Starting

1. The writer of this blog post is actively using Virtuemart from starting Mambo times
2. The writer of this blog post is going to continue with Virtuemart after finishing this blog post
3. The writer of this blog post is able to code for Virtuemart for a long time and is able to code for Magento for a short time

Criterias for the Magento and Virtuemart comparison

1. Installation
2. Minimum Requirements
3. Security
4. How it's easy to use (Learning Curve)
5. Features
   1. Shopping Cart Features
   2. CMS Features
6. Extension Development
7. Documentation
8. Price
9. Maintance

1. Magento & Virtuemart Installation

Magento Installation

• My first try with the Magento Downloader v.1.3.2.1 . Magento Downloader has tried to download the full package (nearly 120 mb) 3 times. I did not get successed with the Magento Downloader. Because this , I've downloaded the full package from Magento web site and i've installed it
• After I've completed the Magento Installation. I've wanted to install the magento sample data. I've imported to the sample sql file with using the phpmyadmin. After importing the sample data from phpmyadmin, Magento installation is crashed and started to give "There has been an error processing your request" error. After making some search about the error, I've learned that Magento Sample Data must be imported and after you must run Magento Installer. This mistake costs be a few hours
• Installing Magento took 2 days for me as a new user

Virtuemart Installation

• Virtuemart Installation was completed in 30 seconds and You can able to install sample data with one click

2. Magento & Virtuemart System Requirements

Magento
Before you continıe see from http://www.magentocommerce.com/system-requirements. I want to take your attention to the "Memory_limit no less than 256Mb (preferably 512)" , "InnoDB storage engine" and "Required Php Extensions" part. You may get problems on a shared hosting with this requirements. My personal opinion is that you will need a dedicated server (I mean a dedicated server, Not a VPS.)

Virtuemart
Before you continıe see from http://virtuemart.net/documentation/User_Manual/Installation.html. It does not need high requirements like Magento. It can work on shared hosting too. But Virtuemart 1.5 may need higher requirements (There is no clear requirements page for Virtuemart 1.5).

3. Security

Core code of both cart is secure but you must also take care the extensions for both ones

4. How it's easy to use (Learning Curve)

Magento
Magento is an ulta-complex shopping cart. If you plan to download magento and start a shopping cart in 1 week, It may be a good dream but it's just a dream. I've mentioned above that importing a basic sample data can be a problem reason too (Some people may say the importing sample data issue was your fault. I agree with that but my point is learning curve. I was not knowing that. I've just imported a sample sql like the other scripts). CMS features of Magento is also complex and it may take a bit time to learn CMS features too

Virtuemart

Virtuemart has lower learning curve. It's easy to use when you compare it to Magento

5.1 Shopping Cart Features

I've mentioned more than one negative thing but when it comes to the shopping cart features, Magento definitely beats the Virtuemart. The biggest advantage of Magento is they've solved a lot of common e-commerce programming problems really well. It's better you to visit http://www.magentocommerce.com/product/features and see the features).

Virtuemart has also a great features too but when you compare it to Magento , It's limited. You can visit http://virtuemart.net/home/features to see the features

5.2 CMS Features

You may want to add some articles, news, polls for your shopping carts.

Magento
If you are a new Magento user and playing with the Magento CMS features, You may really get angry and you may decide to stay away from the Magento because of Magento CMS features. It's hard to understand and it's hard to discover what is what. But when you have learned what is what, Things are changing. It's an easy thing to manage the cms features. This also can be considered a part of Learning Curve (See above)

Virtuemart
It does not any CMS features. The biggest advantage of Virtuemart, Joomla!, has advanced CMS features

6. Extension Development

Magento
Magento is developed with Zend Framework. Magento core code is also a framework and it's coded with EAV (Entity-attribute-value model) model . Magento is loading nearly 6000+ files for a basic page.

You must learn about the Magento & Zend Framework for developing an extension for Magento

Magento EAV model makes all this even more difficult as data is coming from different sources and is difficult to follow . This adds extra development time.

I also suggest you to read 'Documentation' part of this blog post

Magento Extension Development is really difficult issue but when you compare it to Virtuemart , It has a development interface without hacking the core code. It's difficult but it has one

Virtuemart
There is no real Extension Development interface for Virtuemart. You do the most things with hacking the core code of Virtuemart

7. Documentation

Magento
I'm going to say 4 words: "Magento needs more documentation". I agree Magento has great features. I agree that Magento has a great structure. I agree that it has a wiki on http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/ but it's a complex script and it needs more documentation. You will spend most of your time for digging your questions. It's possible that you will not find your answer on official web site. For example, I've mentions about the extension development for Magento. There is no documentation about extension development on official site. You will need to google it. Unofficial Magento documentation is better than official ones

Virtuemart
Virtuemart great manual on http://virtuemart.net/documentation/User_Manual/index.html

8. Price

Virtuemart is a free product for Joomla!. Price will be zero

Magento has more than one version. Community Edition is free. You can see the versions on http://www.magentocommerce.com/product/compare

9. Maintance (Development Speed)

Magento has more active development than Virtuemart. See http://virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_versions&catid=1 and http://www.magentocommerce.com/download/release_notes. You must also understand one thing. Virtuemart is a free product and it's being developed by the developers when they are free but there is a company behind Magento and they earn money from Magento

Magento and Virtuemart comparison table & Result

For people who does not wants to read the blog post. 5 is best and 1 is worst (I'm repeating again. These are my personal opinions)

	Magento (1.4.1)	Virtuemart (1.1.4)
Installation	3	5
Minimum Requirements	1 (It definitely high)	5 (It can work on avarage hosting)
Security	5	5
How it's easy to use (Learning Curve)	2 (Learning curve is ultra high and limited documentation makes everything harder)	4 (It has lower learning curve)
Shopping Cart Features	5	3
CMS Features	5 (But you must think about the Learning Curve. Until you learn what is what, Everything will be so difficult for you. I mean really difficult)	- (It has no CMS features. Joomla has the CMS features for Virtuemart)
Extension Development	4 (It's hard to develop extension)	2 (It has no real development interface. You must do the things with hacking the core code. Virtuemart 1.5 will have plugin feature but time frame for Virtuemart 1.5 Stable is unknown)
Documentation	3	4
Price	It has free version	Free
Maintance (Development Speed)	Magento has a better development speed than Virtuemart (See the note above)

If you

- have time to learn Magento because you will need to learn many things.
- have budget for a decicated server
- are looking for only a shopping cart (For example, If you are planning to add a help desk or a gallery or user group feature, It will be a problem for you. I know "Magento Connect" many extensions but when you check them, You will not find a good one like Joomla! has)
- are planning to manage 1000s of products (I mean a big shop)
- need a shopping cart for business growth
- have hobby like digging google for your questions (Do not expect much from official documentation)

Magento is the best choice for you

If you
- want to setup a shop quickly
- want run your shop on a shared hosting
- want to extend your shop with different features (For examle, If you want to create a community on your site)
- plan to have limited products (like our shop on instantphp.com )

Virtuemart is the best choice for you

lknSupport

As told above, InstantPhp has a help desk system, lknSupport , that works with Magento and Virtuemart.

1. Is your help desk showing the purchased product list while you are replying a ticket? (When the product is purchased? What's the status of order (comfirmed,pending etc) and order details? If the product is a digital good, Is it expired?)
2. Is your help desk allowing you to have Access Control according to the purchased products (like accessing documentation accoding to the purchased product. For example, lknSupport installation document is on http://www.instantphp.com/tickets/module/kb/task/view_article/id/6 When you click on the link, You will see 'Record is not found' message but the link is valid. You can see the documentation when you purchase the lknSupport)?

lknSupport is saying YES to the questions above. Is your help desk saying YES to these questions?

What do you think the about the comparison & criterias?