"Magento" an Open-source e-Commerce

Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP. The software was originally developed by Varien Inc., a US private company headquartered in Culver City, California, with assistance from volunteers. Varien published the first general-availability release of the software on March 31, 2008. Roy Rubin, former CEO of Varien, later sold a substantial share of the company to eBay, which eventually completely acquired and then spun off the company. According to the research conducted by ahead Works in May 2015, Magento's market share among the 30 most popular e-commerce platforms is about 29.8%.

On November 17, 2015, Magento 2.0 was released, with an aim to provide new ways to heighten user engagement, smooth navigation, conversion rates and overall revenue generation, it has well-organized business user tools speed up build up time and enhances productivity. Table locking issues have been considerably reduced, Improved Page Caching and also allows in streamlining Guest checkout process for existing users, Enterprise-grade sociability, improved performance and better code base are only a few benefits of new Magento version. Magento employs the MySQL/MariaDB relational database management system, the PHP programming language, and elements of the Zend Framework. It applies the conventions of object-oriented programming and model–view–controller architecture. Magento also uses the entity–attribute–value model to store data.

Magento Community Edition is an open-source eCommerce platform. Developers can implement the core files and extend its functionality by adding new plug-in modules provided by other developers. Since the first public beta version was released in 2007, Community Edition has been developed and customized in order to provide a basic eCommerce platform. The current release and each of the previous historical release versions of the 1.X and 2.X version branches of  Magento Community Edition are available on the Magento Commerce, Inc. website for download as singe-file downloads Development of the 2.X version branch of Magento CE is coordinated publicly on GitHub. The latest actively supported versions of  Magento Community Edition are CE 1.9.2.4 and 2.0.4 released on March 31, 2016.

Magento Enterprise Edition is derived from the Magento Community Edition and has the same core files. Unlike Community Edition, this is not free, but has more features and functionality. This edition is designed for large businesses that require technical support with installation, usage, configuration, and troubleshooting. Although Magento Enterprise has annual maintenance fees, neither Community nor Enterprise Editions include hosting. The Magento team develops Enterprise Edition by cooperating with users and third parties. Development on the 2.X branch of Magento EE is coordinated publicly on GitHub. The latest actively supported versions of  Magento Enterprise Edition are EE 1.14.2.4 and EE 2.0.4 released on March 31, 2016.

Magento Go was a cloud-based eCommerce solution that included web hosting by Magento Inc. It was launched in February 2011 to support small businesses by providing an option that did not require software installation. Magento Go was the least customizable platform, though it still had built-in modules and could have Magento extensions enabled for more functionality. On July 1, 2014, Magento Inc. announced that they would be shutting down the Magento Go platform on February 1, 2015.

Magento Go was a cloud-based eCommerce solution that included web hosting by Magento Inc. It was launched in February 2011 to support small businesses by providing an option that did not require software installation. Magento Go was the least customization platform, though it still had built-in modules and could have Magento extensions enabled for more functionality. On July 1, 2014, Magento Inc. announced that they would be shutting down the Magento Go platform on February 1, 2015.

There are four different Magento certifications. Three of them aim to prove developers' competency in implementing modules; one (Certified Solution Specialist) targets business users (consultants, analysts, project managers). Magento Front End Developer Certification is mainly focused on improving the user interface (UI) of built-in applications. This certification is related with templates, layouts, Java script, and CSS. Magento Developer certification is geared toward back end developers who implement the core modules. The Plus certification tests deep understanding of Magento Enterprise modules and the entire architecture.