What are Magento extensions?
Magento extensions bring in new functionalities to extend the ecommerce platform’s out-of-the-box features. Extensions can be bought or downloaded for free from the Magento Marketplace or can be obtained directly from the company or developer who created them.
Types of extensions
Here are some common functionalities that extensions offer:
- Integration of payment (e.g., Epay, Quickpay, PayPal)
- Shipping and track and trace integrations (e.g., Integration with UPS, FedEx, GLS, Parcel Soft etc.)
- ERP integrations (e.g., integration with NetSuite, Oracle, Dynamics, SAP or most ERP systems specific to your country.)
- One-step checkout
- Gift card management
- Caching
- SEO
- Google Analytics integration
- And more — there’s almost no functionality that you can’t find an existing extension for
Should you buy or develop Magento extensions?
We advise that you buy extensions if you can—chances are there’s already an existing one for the functionality that you need. Buying extensions will save you time and money since you will not be responsible for the development yourself.
Aside from that, commercial extensions are typically made by companies who develop Magento extensions full-time, ensuring not only quality but also that they will support the extensions with updates and bug fixes along with Magento’s own updates to newer versions. You can read more about our Magento development and support to learn more about what is the best solution for you.
Modifying purchased extensions
Generally, we do not modify purchased Magento extensions because it can considerably complicate future upgrades. In addition, there’s a huge risk that an extension may not fully function as intended when it’s changed. Although it’s tempting to make small changes, we advise that you do not, unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Custom Magento extensions
Our team at 1902 Software has extensive experience in working with Magento extensions.
We can help you find the right one for your needs, or if there’s none available in the marketplace, we can develop a custom extension for the special functionality that you want.
