Magento 2.0 was released in November 2015. The former had fresh features absent in the older version. However, users found the tool pretty slow and possessing several bugs. Hence Magento 2.1 was released in June 2016 featuring bug fixes. The former offers superior stability when benchmarked against Magento 2.0.

There is plenty of discussion happening regarding the difference between Magento 2.0 and the latest version Magento 2.1? What is new? Is there better performance offered? How do the main features of Magento 2.1 stack up when benchmarked against the older version?

The primary cause behind releasing a new version is to take care of the bugs existing in the older version. Magento 2.1 doesn’t have bugs existing in Magento 2.0. There is concern regarding the version 2.1’s stability because of insufficient support provided. Magento 2.1 provides improvement in security as well as function fixes. The latest version of Magento offers support for PHP 5.6.5 as well as PHP 7.04. The former is also compatible with MySQL 5.6.

Significant features of Magento 2.1

  • Superior Admin User Interface – The administrator can implement activities in more seamless as well as accessible way.
  • PayPal payment Method Integration – Helps in the streamlined checkout procedure. Ramps up conversion rates by asking customers to pay using PayPal without exiting the merchant site.
  • Fresh user interface – The brand-new user interface possesses more flexibility and is highly customizable.

The advantage of Magento 2.1 is that owners of ecommerce stores can put fresh content with greater ease than before. Loading, viewing and scheduling product updates, promotions, fresh categories and more is simpler and more convenient. Thanks to the updated dashboard teams can view the whole content in a glance which includes campaigns as well as promotions.

When users upgrade to the latest version of Magento they get the following benefits

  • Seamless and superior user experience
  • Superior search functionality
  • Modifying the location of customer will be factored in the shipping charge which was absent in version 2.0
  • PayPal enhancements which result in a smooth checkout experience

Even though there are major updates to version 2.1 users may experience teething issues. The latter will be sorted out in the future versions. However, Magento 2.1 provides immense enhancements as well as features when it comes to user experience as well as functionality. Note that many pre-existing classes have been deleted or changed in Magento 2.1.