The end of Magento 1 is in sight. As of June, Magento 1 is considered end-of-life, meaning that security updates will no longer be released. Webshops running on Magento 1 will continue to function as normal, but are at increased risk of being targeted by hacking attempts. It is also expected that extensions will get reduced support, think for instance of your payment service provider. Therefore, it is important for webshop owners of a Magento 1 webshop to have a plan on what they will do after June. Fortunately, there are several options available. Below, we explain some of them.

Community initiatives

From the Magento community, a number of initiatives have been launched to continue supporting Magento 1 via proprietary patches around Magento. The two best-known initiatives are Mage One and OpenMage.

OpenMage is a free open source initiative built by a group of volunteers. Mage One is a monthly-fee initiative developed by a regular group of security researchers. In addition, Mage One is continuously tested via the bug bounty programme. The cost of Mage One depends on sales by the shop and ranges from €29 per month to more than €300 per month.

Little is yet known about either initiative. The frequency of updates and responsiveness to leaks is still unclear. On paper, Mage One sounds more secure than OpenMage because they do not rely on volunteers. Whether this is so remains to be seen. We are keeping a close eye on both initiatives and may start deploying them from June onwards.

Switching to a new platform

If you want to be sure that your webshop is secure and up-to-date, it is high time to switch to another platform. Over the past few years, we have been able to set up a Magento 2 webshop for many Magento 1 customers. Not only is the system safer thanks to new technology, it is also faster, more mobile-friendly and easier to manage than Magento 1.

Our advice is not to wait too long to make a choice. We will gladly advise you which option suits your webshop best.