Magento enjoys its status as one of the most popular CMS platforms in the world. Founder Roy Rubin envisioned an ecommerce platform that offered stability and flexibility to all online merchants. Today Magento has downsized the hassle which online store owners had to face like last 5 years ago. Currently, there are 978,132 websites using Magento.
Regular and frequent updates and security patches also count among the reasons for Magento’s popularity. The latest updated version always builds upon the strengths and weaknesses of its predecessors. Hence, ecommerce merchants can update their store to the current Magento versions for more optimized store performance.
In this article, I will show you how to identify the Magento versions/editions of your store, and then explore the release of the latest Magento version 2.4. In the end, there will be a tour of the different Magento versions over the years, from the beginning to now.
Magento 1 End-of-Life on July 28, 2020, followed by the release of the Magento latest version 2.4.0. This release includes:
- All the improvements to core quality that were included in Magento 2.3.5-p1
- 100+ new fixes to core code
- 30 security enhancements
- The resolution of 226 GitHub issues by community members
In addition to these fixes and improvements,, the latest version also has new features, such as:
- Introduced support for PHP 7.4, Elasticsearch 7.6.x, and MySQL 8.0
- 2FA security for Magento 2 admin panel
- Purchase approval workflows
- Seller assisted shopping
- In-store pickup
- New media gallery
- PWA Development
- Headless commerce
History 101: Magento 1 Versions Through the Years
Magento CE 1.0 – Beta – August 31, 2007
The first public Magento beta version released.
Magento CE 1.0 – June 24, 2008
This version lets you enable features stores such as API, bundled and virtual products, custom product options.
Magento CE 1.1 – July, 2008
The first stable Community Edition version available for download.
Magento CE 1.2 – December 29, 2008
More advanced features such as FTP, layered navigation and downloadable products.
Magento CE 1.3 – March 30, 2009
Introduced the catalogues feature for the first time.
Magento CE 1.4 – February 12, 2010
Added changes in customizability and appearance, and launched the widgets and WYSIWYG editor.
Magento CE 1.5 – February 8, 2011
Enabled the functionality to add Magento for iPad and Android.
Magento CE 1.6 – August 8, 2011
Let you run several different ecommerce stores at the same time, and offer multi database support.
Magento CE 1.7 – April 24, 2012
Introduced mobiles phone themes, auto generating coupon codes, and customer group pricing.
Magento CE 1.8 – December 11, 2013
Improved taxation calculation, and introduced Redis cache.
Magento CE 1.9.X – 2014 – 2015
Addition of infinite themes, responsive theme, responsive emails, and more.
History 102: of Magento 2 Versions Through the Years
Magento CE 2.0.0 – November 18, 2015
Transformation of Magento Platform. Flexible architecture supporting innovation and fast time to market, and enterprise-level scalability and performance.
Magento CE 2.0.1 – January 20, 2016
Several important functional updates, including official support for PHP 7.0.2.
Magento CE 2.0.2 – January 29, 2016
Resolved issues of upgrading from Magento 2.0.0 to Magento 2.0.1.
Magento CE 2.0.3 – March 31, 2016
This Magento version was replaced by version 2.0.4, which was released the next day.
Magento CE 2.0.4 – April 1, 2016
All of the security enhancements and performance improvements of Magento 2.0.3, in new packaging.
Magento CE 2.0.5 – April 28, 2016
Miscellaneous functional fixes.
Magento CE 2.0.6 – May 17, 2016
Security enhancements as well as several functional fixes.
Magento CE 2.0.7 – May 24, 2016
One functional fix in payment gateway.
Magento CE 2.0.8 – July 19, 2016
Several functional fixes.
Magento CE 2.0.9 – August 11, 2016
Several functional fixes.
Magento CE 2.0.10 – October, 2016
Multiple security and functional enhancements as well as enhancements to the Sales API.
Magento CE 2.0.11 – December, 2016
Over 70 bug fixes and enhancements. Like Management of configurable products with many variations in the Magento Admin interface without degrading performance.
Magento CE 2.0.12 – February, 2017
Over 20 functional fixes and enhancements, and one security enhancement. Like Removal of vulnerability with the Zend framework Zend_Mail library.
Magento CE 2.0.13 – April 17, 2017
This release updates the copyright date in every file. It does not contain any functional changes or security improvements.
Magento CE 2.0.14 – May 31, 2017
Critical enhancements to the security of your Magento software.
Magento CE 2.0.15 – June 21, 2017
Support for changes in PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification (IPN) service.
Magento CE 2.1.0 – June 23, 2016
Numerous functional fixes and enhancements. Like PayPal enhancements, Braintree Hosted Fields, Improved management interfaces and many more.
Magento CE 2.1.1 – August 30, 2016
Several functional fixes and enhancements to the deployment of static assets.
Magento CE 2.1.2 – October 12, 2016
Release includes security enhancements, several functional fixes,Support for PHP 7.0.4 and 5.6.5,Compatible with MySQL 5.7 and 2 new web APIs (or service contracts) for the Sales module .
Magento CE 2.1.3 – December 14, 2016
Release includes many functional enhancements and fixes. Like new PayPal and Braintree payment features, Increased storefront performance and many more.
Magento CE 2.1.4 – February 7, 2016
Numerous functional fixes and enhancements. Like after this Magento version release one can now successfully complete Paypal checkout with products that have custom options.
Magento CE 2.1.5 – February 21, 2017
This release updates the copyright date in every file. It does not contain any functional changes or security improvements.
Magento CE 2.1.6 – April 28, 2017
Performance enhancements, especially for operations that involve the category page and image resizing.
Magento CE 2.1.7 – May 31, 2017
Release includes critical enhancements to security
Magento CE 2.2.0 – RC – August 4, 2017
Magento Community Edition 2.2.0 Release Candidate includes significant new features like the release of this Magento version includes the first third-party extension that we are bundling with Magento Commerce – Magento Social, as well as many bug fixes.
Magento Open Source 2.1.8 – August 9, 2017
Magento Open Source (formerly Community Edition). Includes enhancements to Magento software like Improve Elasticsearch and indexing performance of large catalogs.
Magento Open Source 2.1.9 – September 14, 2017
Includes security fixes and enhancements to Magento software. Like Remote Code Execution (RCE), Information Leak (system), Abuse of Functionality, Invalidated Redirection and Insufficient session expiration.
Magento Open Source 2.2.1 – November 07, 2017
Includes functional fixes and enhancements to Magento software. Like Integrated Signifyd Fraud Protection is now available in Magento Open Source.
Magento Open Source 2.2.2 – December 12, 2017
Includes new tools, functional fixes and enhancements, along with a number of contributions from Magento community to Magento software.
Magento Open Source 2.2.3 – February 27, 2018
Enhancements to product security and to ACL control for cache management through Magento Admin.
Magento Open Source 2.2.4 – May 02, 2018
New tools and numerous functional fixes and enhancements. Like Magento now provides dedicated payment and shipping debug log files to store information specific to those functional areas.
Magento Open Source 2.2.5 – July 01, 2018
Improvement in product security, bug fixes and enhancements.
Magento Open Source 2.2.6 – September 18, 2018
Critical improvements in product security, core code fixes and enhancements.
Magento Open Source 2.2.7 – November 28, 2018
Improvements in product security, core code fixes and enhancements.
Magento Open Source 2.3.0 – November 28, 2018
This release includes numerous functional fixes and enhancements. For further details, read this.
Magento Open Source 2.2.8 – March 26, 2019
Critical improvements in product security, core code fixes and enhancements. Like Improved order creation workflow in the Admin, Magento now supports Elasticsearch 6.x. and much more.
Magento Open Source 2.3.1 – March 26, 2019
Functional fixes to the core product, over 500 pull requests contributed by the community and security enhancements.
Magento Open Source 2.3.2 – June 25, 2019
200+ functional fixes to the core product, 350+ pull requests contributed by the community, and 75+ security enhancements.
Magento Open Source 2.3.3 – October 8, 2019
Made significant platform upgrades, substantial security changes, and PSD2-compliant core payment methods.
Magento Open Source 2.3.4 – January 13, 2020
This Magento version focused mainly on shopping carts & payments, categories, payment methods, user interfaces, general bug fixes, clean code, and performance improvement.
Magento Open Source 2.3.5 – April 28, 2020
This version offers significant platform upgrades, substantial security changes, and performance improvements, including over 180 functional fixes to the core product and over 25 security enhancements.
Magento Open Source 2.3.6 – October 15, 2020
This was the last version of Magento 2.3 released. It includes over 160 functional fixes to the core product and over 15 security enhancements.
Magento Open Source 2.4.0 – July 28, 2020
Introduced support for PHP 7.4, Elasticsearch 7.6.x, and MySQL 8.0. Substantial security changes include the enablement of two-factor authentication in the Admin by default.
Magento Open Source 2.4.1 – October 15, 2020
This version enhanced performance and security. Security enhancements include support for the SameSite attribute for cookies, and the addition of CAPTCHA protection for payment-related and order-related API endpoints, as well as the Place Order storefront page.
Conclusion
Magento has continually evolved over the years. With each new update, it added numerous functional and bugs fixes, enhancements and critical updates. It is no surprise that Magento powers thousands of online stores, given its commitment to constantly enhance the efficiency of its platform.
