A Quick Overview of Magento 2 Extensions

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Creativity and flexibility are the keys to any eCommerce solution to make online businesses more efficient. Magento is one of the most trusted solutions available on the market now. To improve productivity, the Magento extension is used to help set up an eCommerce store with a plethora of features and functionalities.

However, not everyone understands what Magento extension is and whether you are choosing the right one for your website. You can see the details in the following article.

Besides, if you want to discover everything about Magento, let’s take your time in this latest blog post: Everything You Need to Know about Magento.

What is Magento 2 Extension?

A Magento 2 extension is the package of PHP code which contains functions to upgrade the functionality of Magento 2 default store.

Every action on the site, frontend or backend, goes through an extension. Magento extension acts as containers for one or more of the following: settings, database schemas, database data, rendering objects, utility helpers, data models, action controllers. A Magento 2 extension can be made of all seven of these things, or just one.

Extensions are further grouped into code pools, which allow for safe and secure customizing and extending of its core functionality. By using code pools, developers ensure that native functionality can be upgraded with a new release of the core product and it is protected from any changes that a merchant wants to make to the platform.

Extensions are developed through the vast network of Magento partners to provide you with the flexibility and ability to maintain your store by the way you want. 

Besides, the Magento community provides us with a great variety of modules both free and paid ones, available for downloading and installing from the Magento Marketplace catalog, and third-party developers’ websites as BSSCommerce, AheadWorks, Amasty and so on.

Together with the rich Magento default functionality, Magento extension allows us to solve many tasks without programming skills.

⇒ Explore Top 100+ Best Magento 2 Extensions Free Download!

Where to Buy Magento 2 Extensions?

There are many options out there. In this article we will show you two of the best marketplaces.

1. Magento Marketplace

It is always the first choice of both developers and the store owners because it is the official Magento extension store and the global eCommerce resources to apply and serve Magento solutions with new features and functionalities.

The official Magento 2 extension store provides sellers with the simplified user experience to quickly discover the products and services in the high quality to extend the functionalities of their Magento stores and to deliver engaging experiences to their customers.

Furthermore, the marketplace offers extension developers access to a significant and growing customer base. The Magento Marketplace introduces a new vetting process that includes a technical, marketing and business value review, which ensures that merchants only buy high-quality technologies from the most trusted developers in the Magento ecosystem.

Magento curates Marketplace inventory to feature the best technologies Magento has to offer, ensuring a positive experience for merchants, technology partners, solution providers, and extension developers.

Steve Yankovich, CPO of Magento Commerce said, “The Magento Marketplace represents our continued investment in fueling this innovative commerce ecosystem. We are focused on offering the most value, access to the latest solutions and making the experience better for our community.”

Magento Marketplace brings benefits to all merchants, extension developers, technology partners and solution providers. This marketplace displays extensions that have undergone a manual code audit inspection process to ensure higher quality and new editorial content to highlight the new functionality and innovative solutions that are being developed on the Magento platform.

Besides, with Magento Marketplace, developers, solution providers, and technology partners can grow their extension business while gaining new opportunities to more quickly deliver innovation and value to their clients.

Thus, you can see that there is a competitive market, and with new code checks and plagiarism reviews, Magento Marketplace protects developers’ work and increases merchant trust. That makes Magento Marketplace the site where most store owners search for extensions.

The search doesn’t end at the Magento Marketplace. Apart from Magento Marketplace, perhaps you think it is a little bit difficult to trust on other third-party Magento extension providers.

However, whether you can find what you are looking for on the marketplace, or you can only see a Magento 2 extension that meets your needs outside of the market, it is always worth evaluating the company that built the extension. There are many official partners of Magento, and you can directly purchase Magento extensions from them such as BSSCommerce.

BSS Commerce

BSS Commerce is one of the best Magento extension providers who develop a variety of modules for both Magento 1 and Magento 2 including free and paid extensions.

Magento default has some cons for both admin and customers, BSS Commerce provides users the best Magento extensions with high quality to help build your Magento stores better as well as improve the drawbacks of default Magento and enhance the user shopping experience.

By installing BSS Commerce Magento 2 extensions, you can easily configure for your online Magento store from the admin panel and save much time for finding free codes on the Internet. Also, you will have a better user experience for your store, and your products will become more competitive and get more sales.

Many of BSS Commerce Magento 2 extensions are reviewed on Magento Marketplace, and thousands of customers around the world chose and trusted these extensions.

BSS Commerce offers you a wide range of choices with Magento extensions in many different fields to select the most suitable modules to your website and also promises to provide the best policies such as Free Installation, Free 1-year Support and Free Lifetime Updates for any Magento extension you bought.

BSS Commerce is proud to be one of the frontiers in web development and extensions for Magento based eCommerce websites. From the beginning, BSSCommerce aims at bringing the Best Success Solution for customers’ online store. BSSCommerce mission is providing not only the highest quality software products but also the best support service to bring pleasure to customers.

BSSCommerce have been working with up to 5000 clients all around the world and received reliance and appreciation from customers. Nearly 100% of customers said that they experienced a happy time working with BSSCommerce.

With a lot of effort, BSSCommerce has become a Select Magento Extension Builder. The company is so confident that they offer the best price for customers. Beside free extensions, BSSCommerce also provides paid extensions with the ideal price, only from $49 to $159.

How to Choose the Right Magento 2 Extension

There are too many extensions to choose from, aren’t there? Thus, the suggestion below will guide you to select the right Magento extension for your site, because it is a skill that both merchants and developers should have.

Today, there are more than 8,000 free and paid extensions available for you to choose from currently. With the release of the Magento 2 platform in 2015, industry experts have predicted that this number will rise more.

Therefore, if you need a Magento 2 extension, how can you make the right decision? This is such a deal for you!

1. Clarify your purpose

This is the most critical stage when choosing a Magento extension for your store. Make sure that you take action on your search for extensions with the aim of installation!

Why do you need extensions? Have you found the answer to that question? If yes, you need to identify a specific functionality for your store. This step is so important because no one can understand your business demand more than you.

Sometimes, you have not only one option to get the same functionality to your store. In such a case, compare these extensions to zoom in on which one can fulfill your needs better without packaging in other capabilities. Some extensions are essential for any store such as:

• Magento 2 SEO Suite Ultimate Extension
• Magento 2 One Step Checkout
•  Checkout Custom Field
•  Advanced Review

Take a look if you’re interested in Magento 2 checkout extensions.

2. Identify the trusted providers

As mentioned above, there are many Magento extension builders, so identifying the trusted one is not an easy task. Below is the list of the best ways for you to know which provider is professional and trusted.

Check Updates Frequency

A Magento extension as other kinds of software should frequently be updated. Thus, you look for the developers that are on a proactive stance at releasing updated versions and necessary bug fixes. This is because the advanced version is always smarter than the previous ones, and it has added new features and new functions.

Although most Magento 2 extensions are relatively new, you can still compare them with the provider’s previous versions.

Read Online Customers’ Reviews

It is crucial to look through customer reviews of your interested providers as well as extensions. You might find critical reviews of Magento 2 marketplace and social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube), etc. However, you should remember that one provider might not be good at all extensions they have but only at specific extensions.

Thus, you should pay attention to a general aspect of a provider such as quality of code, customer service, and support, etc. Then whether you are interested in the specific extension, you might take a closer look at extension reviews which are standard at the bottom of the product page.

Let’s take Add Multiple Products To Cart for Magento 2 for example. You can see both reviews and services that BSSCommerce offers customers in the description product page.

It is possible that you cannot find enough user reviews to help you decide because Magento 2 extensions have been released very recently. In such cases, the next step will help you.

Try Communicating Provider

As soon as you have any requirements on the product or are not clear about the extension, you should contact them before you make any decision.

Live chat: It is an easy way to get the best communication with the provider’s sales staff. Your question will be supported quickly. Besides, there are many ways to contact the providers such as live calls, email contact, and social networks.

You might be known if they are just eager to make a sale or they are trying to understand your matter and concerns and adequately address them. Furthermore, you should make sure that the after-sales support and other services are included in the package if you purchase them.

An early conversation before buying is crucial, especially when you use a custom template or have particular requirements.

Look for Money Back Policy

In Magento 2 extensions, this policy is still considered relatively new, so you need to assure that the paid extension fully meets your requirements.

Let’s think about it, and if the vendor feels confident about their products, they will be ready to offer it with the money-back guarantee. Additionally, the money-back guarantees policy should not be less than two weeks because you need enough time to try the extension and be acquainted with it.

3. Compare Prices among the Extension Having the Same Functions

As you know, the price always plays an essential, decisive factor when choosing any product.

Usually, the lower the price is, the more people want to buy. Nevertheless, it can not only cost you time, but it also ruins your business if you do not check other essential factors such as the quantity and quality of features, refund period, support services, upgrade policy. So it is not useful if you only depend on price as your guiding factor.

That’s the reason why we look at the price after identifying the trusted providers. There are many extensions, which seem alike in features, but the prices are too far different.

Are you considering why the same ideas appear? The first reason is they might have the same thoughts and release at the same time. The second one is that there is just a copy provider because no one depreciates outstanding efforts that he or she has made on developing extensions.

If you are still not sure about your choice after defining the trusted providers and comparing their prices offered let’s see the tips below.

4. Test Magento 2 Extensions

Self – experience the extension

Sometimes, the providers announce different features of extensions, which are all the same. Nonetheless, the user experience makes the difference. You should spend your time experiencing both frontend and backend demo.

The things you might consider at this step are the smooth running, easy configuration and frontend design, etc. Sometimes, it is not perfect for all features. Hence, the best one is the one suits your need most.

If there is an available demo version of an extension, you should ensure you download it and test it. If you can check both the frontend and backend aspect of that demo, that’s even much better. You will want to make sure the extension is easy to set up, runs smoothly and live up to your expectations.

Furthermore, no extension will be ideal for each store, so you have to go one step further and think about making small adjustments to convert it into an extension that truly ticks all the boxes. That means the communication with the providers about certain extra functionalities and discussing the price of the modified product is essential and necessary.

Check Product’s Life Cycle in Release note or Change Log

This stage will help you get to know the product’s life cycle to see how the provider focuses on improving outcomes with the number of improvements, newly added features, bug fixes, etc.

The extension could be useful in the past, but you know that eCommerce is changing so fast, it should usually be updated to meet current customer’s demands. Besides, the provider, who pays attention to upgrade extensions frequently, should be highly appreciated.

5. Other Quick Tips for the Final Decision

Free Installation or Paid Installation

 To install an extension without any error is not easy for newbies or inexperienced person. As such, free installation is always the top priority. Read more in BSSCommerce Free Magento Installation.  

Product Customization

 You should make sure that this extension can be customizable. If you are viewing extension which its builder also offers product customization service, it is very straightforward to understand that they customize their extension is quicker and easier than others. More details at BSSCommerce Magento product Customization.

Support Duration

 This is the time you need the dedicated free support patiently. As soon as your site has been arisen bugs or get an error, you can contact them and get their support immediately. Usually, time to support the builder adds to the detailed product page.

So support time needs to be required when you make your decision about an extension. Most Magento extension builders provide at least one-year support.

Show the extension to your Magento developer

Your developer might have a glance over a couple of code pages and then tell you whether it is a quality and suitable extension for your site.

Extremely cheap or extremely pricey extensions are not always the best choices

Any extensions can be buggy, which will cost you not only money but also time. Therefore, nothing can make sure that a cheap or expensive extension does not have any problem.

Always test the extension on your demo store within the money-back period

Make sure that your test store is a copy of your site with all the data, extensions and settings. In this way, you will catch any issue for your store, for example, conflicts between extensions, frontend display problems, extension errors connected with real store settings, or the number of products.

Are you still confused? Please read more Top 100+ Best Magento Free Extensions.

Conclusion

Hopefully, with the above useful tips, this guide has given you some valuable advice on how to choose the right Magento 2 extension for your business.

Operating a Magento 2 store means that you will likely encounter the occasional poorly built extension, extension conflicts, and many extension updates corresponding with updates to the platform since it is still a young platform.

Magento is making notable efforts to improve the quality of available extensions on the marketplace, combined with a cautious and well-contemplated approach to evaluating the additions you make to your website will lead to overall cleaner and more functional Magento 2 websites.

BSS Commerce is one of the leading Magento extension providers and web development services in the world. With experienced and certified Magento developers, we commit to bring high-quality products and services to optimize your business effectively. Furthermore, we offer FREE Installation – FREE 1-year Support and FREE Lifetime Update for every Magento extension.

CONTACT NOW to let us know your problems. We are willing to support you every time.