If you’re interested in e-commerce, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Prestashop’s latest announcement: the launch of the Prestashop Cloud platform in beta version. Is this a good thing, or an undesirable development? We could debate the positive and negative points for hours if we dwell on the smallest details, but in the meantime here’s a quick presentation of this future service.
What about accommodation?
The first thing you’re probably wondering about the Prestashop Cloud platform is how hosting works, and who takes care of it? At Monte à bord Victor, we also work with OVH. For the time being, it’s a partnership between OVH and Prestashop, which guarantees a minimum of stability. As Prestashop does not specialize in hosting, we can understand the concerns of some, but these should quickly be swept away by this news. Prestashop is not spreading itself too thinly in areas far removed from its core business, but is simply setting up strategic partnerships to provide a better quality ecosystem for its users.
What if I decide to change host?
Would you like to change your hosting provider? In principle, data import is planned, so a migration shouldn’t be a problem. However, it is currently impossible to migrate from a third-party hosting provider to Prestashop Cloud, so it would seem that this platform is primarily aimed at future users rather than existing ones. Hosting on Prestashop Cloud seems to be primarily aimed at making life easier for the novice e-commerce seller, for whom technological aspects still represent a major barrier.
What will happen to the modules?
One of the most controversial aspects of Prestashop Cloud’s architecture is the fact that installing modules that don’t come directly from the Prestashop Addons store will become more difficult, if not impossible. Impossible for all modules that have not been directly validated on Prestashop Addons, and more difficult for those that have indeed been validated, but are also on sale on other platforms. To install them, there will be additional technical constraints, such as going through the FTP server. On the one hand, we can say that Prestashop Cloud is designed in this way for IT security reasons, but on the other it looks very much like an attempt to distort competition, as Apple is doing with its App Store. These are not simply two opposing philosophies between an open and a controlled market, but commercial imperatives, even if it’s perfectly understandable that Prestashop Cloud wants to set up qualitative selection criteria to protect its brand and its product.
Any other important points to remember about the Prestashop Cloud platform?
We haven’t mentioned it here yet, but using Prestashop Cloud is free and not mandatory. You can continue to use Prestashop in the version you want, if you don’t want to use the 1.6.0.10 version imposed on Prestashop Cloud. As for the above points, it’s easy to understand that for a mass-market offering with a free product, it’s necessary for the company to continue to generate profits through the sale of themes and modules on its own store. In short, industry professionals don’t necessarily need to worry, but rather to ask themselves how they can adapt to this changing ecosystem.
