Looking at the features of the Enterprise edition, I am wondering whether I should recommend it to clients.
I have many years of experience with the community edition and have looked into the Enterprise edition.
It seems to me that it will almost always be cheaper for my client to use a community edition with a full page cache solution (like Varnish with an appropriate module) set up.
There are some more add-ons to Enterprise like rewards or better management of staff rights, but all these can be easily built using appropriate modules in the community edition it seems.
Then there is the service level agreement (SLA), but again having very much Magento experience, so far, I was always able to solve problems in a timely manner.
I am probably overlooking something, since the Enterprise edition is extensively used, so please give me insights / scenarios when to recommend Enterprise to a customer.
Best Answer
When comparing two editions of any software package, the best way to come to a decision is by weighing the costs and benefits. While Magento EE does have some great additional functionality, if you're not using it then it may not worth it. Jake Smith is absolutely correct in mentioning the scope of Enterprise Edition support. It is limited to1 :
Generally, you'll be using your in-house development team or a hired team, which would cover issues not covered by that scope:
This leaves you in a position to decide if you need the features available. Take into consideration these key features2 :
During the planning phase of your project, you'll need to think about how you will track the ROI for these features. Each feature will need to be thoroughly planned, implemented, and then reported against. You'll want to make sure that the money coming in more than covers the cost of the features. Also, you'll want to make sure that if you only plan to use a handful of these features that it wouldn't make more sense to have them developed or to purchase existing ones (use caution when purchasing third-party modules, but that's a different topic).
For some sites, Enterprise makes sense. There is a marketing team, internal or external that will help plan usage for the marketing suite. They might have a team in place to analyze usage and to constantly maintain these features. If not, then start with Community. We have large clients on both Community and Enterprise, and talk extensively before making a decision. As a trusted extension of our clients' companies, it is of utmost importance to put their needs first.
The biggest scare tactic that I've seen is that Community is "Not PCI compliant". This is a long-winded topic, and can be very complex. If you're doing the following, then you'll be ok:
You'll be ok. Once you start doing more than 20,000 transactions per year, there will be more paperwork - but this shouldn't scare you. Your provider will be happy to work with you to not only fill out the documentation, but answer any questions you may have (we also do this). If this is too vague or anyone would like to discuss, feel free to contact me. There is much more to it than this, but it's a great start. Basically, don't ever let anyone bully you into not using Community because it's "not for production use" or "only for development".
As far as I know, Magento does not go through PCI certification for Community Edition or Enterprise Edition. It is a long and expensive process. The only products available from Magento that are PCI compliant are:
So, hopefully this is an alright guide to helping make a decision. Remember - if the features in Enterprise will pay off, then get it. It's a great product and has some really neat stuff. If not, then wait. Although it's a bit more involved to migrate from Community to Enterprise than starting on it, you'll save some money that you can use for an extra custom feature or better hosting.
Sources: