Success stories

Customer success stories - a description of the product implementation process in well-known companies: the tasks set by the customer, development stages, feedback from developers and customers, implementation results, project development plans.

Active lifestyle United Elements Group

Customer: United Elements Group
Executor:
The number of employees: 300
Industry: Air conditioning, ventilation and heating

Experience in implementing the corporate portal "1C-Bitrix"

Company

United Elements Group was established in August 1993 and until March 2004 operated under the brand name Petrospec. Today it is one of the leading companies in the wholesale and maintenance of high-quality equipment for air conditioning, ventilation and heating in Russia and the CIS countries.

Situation

An internal portal for an organization with more than 300 people and with offices in different cities is considered a necessity in the company. Only this tool, according to Olga Zavalyevskaya, director of personnel, allows you to solve several problems at once: to quickly inform employees online and get quick feedback from them feedback, provide the team with access to a variety of useful documents, as well as increase the loyalty of specialists and their motivation.

	“United Elements Group is a very bright, active and dynamic company that is constantly developing and improving. In the fall, we began restructuring - a complex process that requires global information support and gave rise to many new tasks, says Olga. “People in such a situation need to be told about what is happening inside the company, why we decided, for example, to change the business format and enter new markets. In our case, the corporate portal is the main tool not only for highlighting changes, but, more importantly, for involving employees in the change process. We just needed him."

Developer

The Dialog Information Technologies group of companies is a leader in the field of complex automation of enterprises in the North-West of Russia. Many years of experience in implementing projects of varying complexity - from the supply of boxed products to the automation of large industrial enterprises- allows "Dialogue IT" to work successfully with companies of any size.

Web-studio "NetPr1me", which became the developer of the project, is a division of "Dialogue IT", which provides a full range of services for the development, maintenance and development of corporate business solutions.

Reasons for choosing a software product

After analyzing the systems existing on the market, representatives of the developer company and the United Elements Group decided to implement software product. The main reasons for choosing Mikhail Belyaev, head of the NetPr1me web-studio, have become the simplicity and ease of working with the portal, the speed of implementation and the abundance of various tools that provide internal communications.

Ready functionality

United Elements Group plans to actively use simple, familiar and therefore effective tools for the user - social media, instant messaging, search, forums and blogs. And more than 500 ready-made components for constantly occurring tasks enable employees to start working with the portal almost instantly, gradually increasing its functionality as they get used to it.

Simplicity and ease of operation

An adaptive interface that “remembers” the preferences of each specialist working with it on a daily basis, allows you to spend a minimum of time and effort on posting and updating the necessary information.

Updating news feeds, publishing materials in corporate publications, replenishing the photo gallery and entering information into the employee database is easier, faster and more correct.

Implementation speed

A ready-made portal with a pre-configured structure and services that can be brought into line with the characteristics and requirements of the company as soon as possible is an ideal solution for such a large and dynamic organization as the United Elements Group, aimed at implementing several extremely urgent tasks at once.

Development progress and results

After the presentation, the company deployed a test version of the portal to determine the functionality, then the development process began at full speed, which lasted about two weeks. And a month later, immediately after filling the resource necessary content, it was launched.

Welcome to United Elements Group!

The brightest and effective tool, according to the unanimous opinion of the staff, has become the blog of the President.

	“This is a person who is the initiator of all the changes taking place in the company. In addition, it is the President who directly manages all the structural units that are part of the Group. In order for people to be motivated, to believe in what they are doing, it was vital for them to hear about the company's immediate plans from the first person. The results exceeded all our expectations,” recalls the launch of the blog Victoria Panchenko, PR manager. “The blog, which was originally conceived as an “anti-crisis” tool and should have been considered just an additional functionality of the portal, has become almost its main “trick”. Analyzing the statistics, we see that on the days when new messages are published, the portal traffic almost doubles. The blog is being updated new information. The President about once every two weeks comments on the most important events that have occurred during this time, ”she continues.

The change in the standard design of the portal, which was carried out by the United Elements Group, did not happen by chance, according to employees. The launch of the intranet portal coincided with a process of internal restructuring and a change in corporate identity. “It was important for us to “fix” in the minds of people a new logo, new corporate colors and make the resource more “personalized”. Therefore, we abandoned the standard design and changed it to a corporate one, ”says Victoria.

Employee Profile

“Another interesting implementation move was the transfer of the United Times corporate publication and the newspaper Uniting the Best to the portal,” believes Mikhail Belyaev. “This has accelerated the formation of an internal information space that brings together newcomers and “old-timers” of the team and has a positive impact on the coverage of major events in the life of the company,” he believes.

Project development

“Since the process of mastering the portal is quite active, we plan to “connect” everyone to the portal with the possibility of authorization during the first half of 2010. Be sure to include vlogs, instant messaging, forums, and polls. We are very pleased that users themselves are asking to expand the functionality,” Victoria Panchenko says when answering a question about the project’s development plans.

Company life

Until the end of 2009, United Elements Group plans to launch the following headings:

• Company faces. Here employees will talk about how they came to the company, what it taught them, how work in their current position influenced their professional growth.
• "Hot News" main news weeks will be highlighted in color, which will draw attention to the most relevant topics.
• At the beginning of the new year, the company intends to:
• To make the portal look like a modern electronic media with the help of the sections "Interview", "Photo report" and the release of analytical articles.
• Integrate a resource with Outlook to export the employee base.
• Give the web project more more life by posting photos of employees and major events in the life of the company in the photo gallery.

Below we consider the reasons why for 1C-Bitrix it is not the first hosting that is optimal, but the one that is suitable for certain parameters. The features of this CMS and ways to choose a hosting that meets these criteria are described.

Control system Bitrix content from 1C is rightfully one of the most popular solutions in web development. It is chosen by such giants as Gazprom, Euroset, Eldorado and other companies. Despite the paid and "heavy" CMS, it is gaining more and more market share every year. The reasons for such popularity are understandable, because Bitrix has a number of advantages that distinguish it from its competitors, such as:

Ease of site management

High performance,

Extensive functionality from more than 40 ready-made modules,

Integration with 1C: Enterprise, etc.

However, for the successful functioning of the CMS, it is necessary to carefully approach how to choose the right hosting for 1C-Bitrix. After all, the issue of reliability is a key point that affects the stability of the project. This is especially true for high-load projects and projects tied to the business logic of enterprises.

Let's look at the main criteria for choosing a place to host and choose the best hosting for Bitrix that meets all its features.

For Bitrix to work, you need to pay attention to the amount of RAM allocated to PHP processes that execute CMS scripts. The minimum threshold value is 64 megabytes, even a simple business card website cannot work with less. Recommended 128-512 mb.

The second important configuration parameter is free disk space. For the simplest projects, it starts from 300 megabytes, but for sites with a lot of content, such as online stores, it is highly desirable to have at least 1024 megabytes or more. Lack of resources can lead to instability in the operation of the site, so it is important to ensure that there is always a margin for these parameters.

Another important indicator of a suitable hosting is the presence of a PHP accelerator and some web server settings recommended by the manufacturer.

Hosting or server

Another criterion related to "iron" is the choice between virtual hosting, virtual servers (VPS) and a dedicated server (dedicated) to host the project.

Despite the popular belief that shared hosting is not really suitable choice to host a site on Bitrix, this is not the case. Hosting providers may have powerful tariffs or even special hosting tariffs for Bitrix that meet all the necessary conditions for hosting sites on this CMS.

Of course, a separate dedicated server with a good hardware configuration is completely different than being next to other hosting clients for an online store, but, again, specialized tariffs can be successfully suited for hosting complex and loaded projects.

DB server

Bitrix uses a database in its work, and it can work both with the common MySQL and with more powerful, but less common Oracle and MS SQL Server DBMS among hosting providers.

The importance of choosing a fast enough server where the DBMS runs is as high as the server for the site itself. Without access to the database, the site will not be able to function normally, and under heavy loads, the database server must successfully withstand a large number of calls to it.

Access rights

During the installation and operation of Bitrix, it is very desirable that the owner of the files created via FTP / SSH and the user on whose behalf PHP is executed on the server have the same account. The difference in this point, for example, when the files are created by the admin user, and the processes run as root, can lead to conflicts and errors in the system, and especially when tuning and upgrading it.

An additional criterion is the ability to edit files via FTP/SSH. Usually, not only hosting for Bitrix, but in general any hosting on SSD disks provides such an opportunity for its customers.

Load distribution

This criterion should be seriously considered for high-load projects on Bitrix. The ability to separate the reception of requests from visitors to an additional web server, and to carry out their processing on the main web server, for example, in the nginx + Apache2 bundle, can greatly reduce the need for resources during peak loads.

You can go even further and set up 1C-Bitrix CMS hosting so that all statics in the form of image files, CSS styles and JS scripts will be processed by the same additional web server, and dynamic pages - by the main one. This will greatly increase the reliability and fault tolerance of the system as a whole, as well as increase productivity.

Above, we examined the points that must be followed in order to choose the hosting that is suitable for hosting a Bitrix project. It is important to remember that the basis on which the reliability of both the CMS itself and projects based on it is based is precisely right choice hardware and its administration.

Even a project with a high load can work relatively quickly and stably on a not the most expensive solution if its architecture and configuration are done by a specialist. However, the best solution would be to use a specialized hosting provider's tariff plan designed for hosting sites on Bitrix. With all of the above in mind, we recommend the services of AdminVPS hosting company.

There are articles about the shortcomings of Bitrix, which are written by programmers. The disadvantages described in them are indifferent to the average user, because he is not going to program anything. But the mere existence of such articles and negative reviews from some programmers (even if they have 2/3 ordinary person unclear) increases the fear of making the wrong choice, questions about the pros and cons of Bitrix become even more relevant. In this article, I will list the shortcomings that are faced not by programmers, but by real users.

License cost is the main problem

You need to understand the purpose of the tool. It is enough to look at the cost of a "Small Business" or "Business" license to make it clear that not everyone individual entrepreneur Bitrix will do. First of all, for the price.

If you have 10 products - Bitrix will do. If you have 100,000 items, that's fine too. But if you are sure that the store can be ordered on fl.ru for 10 tr. or assemble it yourself with a mouse in Nethouse, then Bitrix is ​​not your choice. Even a ready-made solution will not be comfortable for you in terms of cost, not to mention individual development.

If you are buying a small number of goods on Chinese / Korean sites, and then selling on Avito, Vkontakte and Instagram, you hardly need a store where only a CMS license will cost 36/73 tr. Add here the annual renewal of updates, which allows you to receive new features and bug fixes in Bitrix (the first year of updates is included in the price of the license). The upgrade costs another 20% of the license price. These are optional expenses. You can not buy updates, it will not affect the operation of the site, although their presence is desirable.

As you understand, it's not so much the price, but the expediency of investing in an expensive site. For small shops There are many easier and cheaper solutions. Another thing is if you plan to increase the range, turnover, open a retail store that will have a single database with an online store. Then half-measures in the development of the site can become a problem in the future and it is better to immediately lay with a margin.

A rather tangible price is the first minus of Bitrix, which prevents many small / novice entrepreneurs and individuals from using it.

It's not as easy as they tell you

I must say that speaking of simplicity, you are not misled and do not even embellish reality too much. It is simply impossible to foresee everything and, from experience, I can say that the client will always find something to surprise in his particular situation. And since the situations are different for everyone, then you have to finish Bitrix under them. Furniture does not fit perfectly into every room, let alone complex information systems.

Let's write down in the shortcomings of 1C-Bitrix another discrepancy with your expectations in the ease of integration with 1C and settings. In justification, I can say that this applies not only to Bitrix, but to any CMS. Bitrix, perhaps even to a lesser extent.

Big and shaggy

Bitrix has many features that you will never use. You can go to the admin panel of the Business editorial office and be afraid that you will never learn how to fly this starship. There's just too much there. But you should not be afraid. Windows also has a lot of different things that you don't use and don't even know about. And also on your smartphone. Nothing without this. Any mass product that covers most of the typical tasks of stores from small to large will be stuffed with functionality.

But, if everything is done correctly, the “extra” things for you will not interfere. Modules can be easily disabled, and do not climb into the "unnecessary" sections of the settings. Not everyone understands what is disabled and how, not everyone knows how to remove unnecessary fields in the admin panel so that they do not interfere. Even developers, doing expensive and time consuming, far from all set up an admin panel for their clients, so that it would be convenient for them to work, make fewer clicks, and be less confused.

Just know that you can disable something, hide something so that it does not interfere, close access somewhere at the user rights level. It will immediately become easier, clearer, more convenient and not so scary.

In approximately the same way, in the Bitrix admin panel, you can remove everything superfluous. Only without tape.

It turns out that there are many possibilities that are difficult to understand - this is a drawback that scares the average user.

A good developer will add hints to the fields in infoblocks, create a manual for the main actions, provide a link to training materials and videos, record his own videos on typical operations, disable/hide/deny access to unnecessary features. Well, if it was decided to do it on your own, then you need not be lazy and read the training materials.

Crooked golden hands

There are many specialists on freelance exchanges who are ready to take on any job. Since CMS 1C-Bitrix is ​​very popular, even those who do not know how to work with it and do not like it do not refuse to work with it. Order something from these guys - the right way get problems.

At first they will make it crooked, and when the customer says: “something slows down my site and is poorly searched”, they will answer: “what did you want, you have a site on Bitrix”.

Hence the problem - the difficulty of choosing competent, responsible developers, among all those who are ready to take money from you and blind something on their knees.

In order not to fall into the clutches of such shots, I can advise you to watch if the studio works on something other than Bitrix - be wary. If a private specialist takes any orders, he is unlikely to be an expert in any CMS and I would not recommend trusting him with a site on Bitrix. If the studio can have different specialists for different systems, then one person can almost never boast of excellent knowledge of several CMS.

Lots of negative reviews

CMS is not only program code and functionality - it is a set of characteristics, like a puzzle, which consists of many parts. The success of the project depends on every piece. All pieces of the puzzle that score 3 are better than one piece that scores 5 and the rest score 2 or none at all.

I was always surprised how, even being a brilliant programmer, you can confidently declare that “Bitrix is ​​shit” and carry this erroneous truth to everyone who is ready to listen and to those who are not. How can you not understand that from your bell tower you can’t see the whole picture?

A programmer may not like a few pieces of the puzzle in Bitrix's picture: architecture, shitty code, documentation. It's like disliking a person just because he has a deer sweater.

A sweater with deer and a deer himself is a big difference that not everyone understands.

Professionals usually don't put labels, especially on market leading products (and Bitrix is ​​the leader). Pros understand that tools are for different tasks, that even a very high bell tower does not provide a 360-degree view.

Seeing only your part, and scolding the product as a whole is usually characteristic of “young specialists”, whose halo over their heads has not yet been hewn by personal experience.

It's unusual to shit-code - Bitrix is ​​bad. You need to read the documentation to understand the product - Bitrix is ​​shit. You need to buy a license - Bitrix sucks and sax. There is no favorite feature that Joomla has - well, you understand ... At the same time, logic outside of one's own interests is completely excluded. Any arguments that are hidden behind blinders and therefore not visible cannot be taken into account.

A typical conversation with Bitrix haters. You ask: “You don’t think that large stores such as Evroset.ru, Sopato.ru, Eldorado.ru randomly chose cms without at least some evaluation of the existing offers?” They say: "It's just that Bitrix has excellent marketing, which fooled everyone's heads." That is, in fact, they say that other specialists made their choice without understanding the advantages and disadvantages, but only looking at advertising booklets.

For some reason, the "smartest" do not think that other specialists, and clients too, see the shortcomings, but choose not according to one criterion, but according to a complex. They look at how Bitrix suits their project, how many tasks it closes, what risks it reduces.

I came across situations when such a smart guy came to the company. Scolded Bitrix, praised ModX / Drupal / favorite framework. I reworked the project, translated from Bitrix to another cms. When transferring, I forgot about SEO requirements and did not bother with transferring old materials, users, and “other little things”. And then, a year later, when the company management realized that the genius turned out to be too original, they again spent money on developing a site on Bitrix, and the new developer already had to take into account both the first site on Bitrix and the second on ModX. It is clear that this affects the price of work paid by the customer.

Do not listen when they tell you that Bitrix is ​​bad.

Those who “bomb” write a lot, they can reach everywhere. 20 thousand partners of Bitrix, among which almost all major studios Runet work silently, making websites and online stores only on 1C-Bitrix. Do you think they are masochists? After all, there are alternatives, including among commercial CMS. Look at the percentage of sites on Bitrix in RuNet among commercial CMS.

Thus, another minus is a lot of negativity on the Internet and little constructive. This makes it difficult for customers to make the right choice. In addition, there are many old reviews on the network that are no longer relevant.

Weigh the facts and think for yourself

To make it easier for you to communicate with experts, consultants and other pros who scold 1C-Bitrix, I will show you the direction of thought that you need to follow.

When will the next time a studio or a private developer say “Bitrix is ​​shit”. Just know that man makes mistakes. At a minimum, Bitrix does not know how to cook, or it tends to make incorrect generalizations, and at the most, it deliberately misleads.

You need to think like this:

• The site slows down - Bitrix is ​​not to blame.
• It is inconvenient to work with the site - Bitrix is ​​not to blame.
• Poorly searched - not to blame.
• Tupit and buggy - not to blame.
• Database errors - not to blame.

If your site has problems, then the developers cannot solve them. And 1c-bitrix has nothing to do with it.

So, it turns out there are no cons? There are, but most of them are the problem of developers, they almost do not concern you as an ordinary user. Bitrix is ​​just a tool that not everyone knows how to work with.

Brief conclusion

So, the disadvantages-cons of Bitrix.

Expensive

• Perceptible price of the license.
• There is an annual paid update.
• The cost of work / services in studios and private specialists is on average higher.

For an ordinary user (not a programmer), the main problem of Bitrix is ​​the price: for a license, for renewal, for the work of more expensive specialists.

The price of a license alone reliably cuts off small budgets up to 100 thousand rubles. Count yourself. If the license for the editorial office "Business" costs 73 tr. then another 50 hours of work / consultations at a completely divine price of 500 rubles / hour, just about this amount they fly out. And if you have an individual development of the store, then you will not get off with 50 hours.

heaped up

• Lots of features to deal with, some of them will never come in handy.
• Visually, the interface looks difficult if you don’t customize it for yourself, don’t disable / hide the excess.
• You need to read the user manual.

There may be difficulties with integration with 1C

It may not be. It's not about Bitrix, rather, on the contrary, if you have difficulties in Bitrix in order to make friends with 1Skoy, then on other CMS these difficulties would be even greater. Therefore, no matter what CMS you have, there may be difficulties.

I wrote down this point as a disadvantage, because ordinary users expect integration “by magic” from Bitrix. These expectations do not always come true and it turns out to integrate “out of the box”. There is disappointment, a feeling that I made a mistake. Here you need to understand - miracles do not happen. It is not enough just to buy a license, there will be other expenses and budget and time for this.

Lots of unskilled workers

There is a demand for development and improvement on Bitrix and, of course, there is also a proposal from relevant specialists. But not all of them can do well. I know a studio that writes on its Twitter about dislike for Bitrix, but at the same time makes projects on it. You can sympathize with the clients of this studio.

That's all the cons. I remind you that we are talking about cons, for ordinary users - not programmers.

Hello! My name is Leonid Koshcheev, I am the development director of Cart-Power. In this review, I will try to give as much as possible objective assessment two significant CMS in the Russian E-Commerce market: CS Cart and 1C-Bitrix.

The information in this article is based on my personal experience work with both platforms, information available on the official resources of companies, based on a survey of more than 50 web studios, their managers and developers who had experience working with both CS-Cart and 1C-Bitrix, as well as based on a number of experiments that I conducted in the course of writing this material.

When I started writing this article, almost two months ago, I had no idea how big a task I had to solve. Both CMS online store have a huge number of chips. However, even chips that are identical in functionality differ significantly from each other.

My goal is to show all the strong and weak sides products. I sincerely hope that I succeeded, and the article will save you a significant amount of time and money.

Both online store platformshave different editions. Open an online store with1C-Bitrixyou can use one of the two editions of 1C-Bitrix: Site Management- "Small business"or "Business". In addition, there is an opportunity to save a lot and create an online store using one of the ready-made solutions on MarketPlace. These solutions can be installed even on the basic edition of "Start". However, along with the savings, you get a very limited number of functions.

Conclusion about the installation process

Install CS-Cart online store enginecan be a little faster (about 10 minutes versus 20 minutes that the installation required1C-Bitrix). The Bitrix solution, a virtual machine, allows you to do everything necessary settings server automatically. Set up the server for CS Cart You can also use ready-made scripts. 1C-Bitrix, in turn, provides great opportunities for presetting the store at the installation stage, there is also a wizard for setting up an online store. AT CMS online store CS-Cart the main part of the settings has been moved to the setup wizard, which allows you to perform the configuration necessary for launching immediately after installation.

Base box composition

Platform for online store CS-Cartis a highly specialized product focused on the rapid creation of an online store. 1C-Bitrix: Site Management - Businessdesigned for a wider field of use: development of a business portal, corporate website large organization or enterprise, information and reference system, online store. The consequence of this fact could be more opportunities for online trading in CS-Cart, however, 1C-Bitrix also has a significant number of useful chips. At the same time, it may seem to someone that the product has a lot of superfluous (again, due to the wide field of focus).

A detailed analysis of the composition of the base box took more time than the description of the other evaluation criteria in this article. The result was an informative table, which I published in a separate article:

Conclusion on the composition of the base box

The platforms are quite functional and have a large number of possibilities, delving into each of them, you can go into the details of the evaluation factors more and more. I recommend that you personally familiarize yourself with the list of possibilities and make a choice based on the specifics of your project. On the one hand, Bitrix has a lot of functionality that is unlikely to be useful in an online store, on the other hand, it can be useful for you. CS-Cart includes exactly the functionality that is needed for online sales.

box cost

And then did the same operation withCS-Cart product card:

Of course, when we talk about speed and loads, the need for load testing of both systems follows. And I was about to do this, but then I stumbled upon the research of the guys from loaddy.com:

1. Load testing CMS for online stores
2. Which CMS for an online store survives load testing best

platform for online store CS-Cart can withstand approximately 450 visitors, which is very good result, especially compared to previous testing.

Concerning1С-Bitrix and NetCat, they are reversed from the previous test. But if you look at the graphs, then both have absolutely inadequate behavior on the load. Bitrix crashes immediately, NetCat also crashes immediately, but then sometimes it gives out successful answers, alternating with errors.

The second study also did not leave CMS representatives indifferent and gathered a lot of different comments.

Let's go back to the cases and talk a little about them. Both on the basis of CS-Cart and on the basis of Bitrix there are live high-loaded projects with a large number of commodity items.

Conclusion about the friendliness of the interface

In general, it is not difficult to understand the administration panel in both the CS-Cart engine and Bitrix, however, many clients and representatives of web studios highlight this as an advantage and note that the CS-Cart administration panel is intuitive. My analysis showed that the number of actions required to perform a particular operation in CS-Cart is less (for example,6 actions in Bitrix against 4 actions in CS-Cartto change order status). I think that when it comes to manual processing a lot of content, this can play a role.

Mobile friendly

For those who do not know, let me remind you that back in 2015, Google announced that it was going to take into account the friendliness of the site in relation to mobile phones when generating search results for a search query.

And Google fulfilled its promise, however, like Yandex and, of course, other search engines.

In turn, Google's Mobile Optimization Tester showed that the default themes of both platforms are perfectly optimized for mobile devices.

CS Cart	1C-Bitrix

While collecting information, I came across a study by CMSMagazine, SImilarWeb and Insales, which states that 54.98% of all online stores created on the basis of the CS-Cart platform are adapted for mobile devices. For Bitrix, this figure is 18.86%.

Ready solutions

Bitrix marketplace has a special section "Ready-made solutions» . This section presents various solutions for opening an online store of a specific theme. In the CS-Cart online store engine, this direction is just emerging.

We will talk about the Marketplace with modules and themes below, here we are looking at ready-made solutions for an online store.

Documentation

Bitrix has a very good level of documentation. In general, documentation always lags behind the actual capabilities of the product, and this is not unusual. After all, in order to compose a competent technical documentation, resources are required that need to be allocated after the functionality is implemented, and very often this happens after the release.

Basic Documentation1C-Bitrix Site managementavailable on the site dev.1c-bitrix.ru.

There are relevant sections of the documentation for developers, site management, class schedules in training centers.

Documentation for CS-Cart is available at the following links:

Sales training

CS-Cart offers its customers an opportunity at their University. After purchasing a license, the client gets access to the materials and the opportunity to learn. The goal of the university is to teach how to sell.

In addition, the company that develops the CS-Cart online store engine has launched a very ambitious project at the moment -, the idea of ​​which is to show online how an expert will open an online store and bring it to profit in 3 months.

The result of this pilot project is very interesting. I don't remember analogs. In any case, during the course of a reality show, it will certainly be possible to emphasize a huge number of useful lessons and learn from the experience of an expert.

Bitrix does not currently teach its partners and clients to sell, providing only software.

Technical support

Full regulation technical support Bitrix is ​​available at the link: https://dev.1c-bitrix.ru/support/sla.php

In short, Bitrix provides technical support for its products for free. CS-Cart provides support for credits, but provides free credits when purchasing a license.

Release of updates

Bitrix regularly releases updates for its modules. But as noted above, the cost of a subscription to Bitrix updates is twice as expensive as a subscription to updates from the CMS of the CS-Cart online store.

CS-Cart also releases updates frequently and announces them in its .

In Bitrix, the database structure is not implemented so transparently.

Single Entry Points

In 1C-Bitrix, to create a page, each time you need to create a file with the correct name and php at the end. The file orientation of Bitrix leads to the emergence of a large number of entry points (through files), so it is more difficult to control requests in Bitrix than in CS-Cart. CS-Cart does not have a file orientation, and there are single entry points (index PHP, ADMIN PHP, API or vendor PHP), which increases the level of control over the project.

Support for PSR 0.1.2

CS-Cart developers follow PSR 0.1.2. standards and strictly adhere to formatting rules, which increases the readability of the code.

Bitrix developers do not follow this standard.

Development without core changes

Hooks in CS-Cart are analogous to events in 1C-Bitrix (it is hooks and events that make it possible to refine the CMS without changing the core), however, the number of hooks in the platform for the CS-Cart online store is much greater than the number of events in 1C-Bitrix, which gives developers have more opportunities to influence the operation of the system by changing the standard behavior of the addon code. Moreover, if in Bitrix you often have to use copying and adding functionality, then in CS-Cart it’s enough just to connect the addon through a hook to desired function. This provides more flexibility for CS-Cart compared to Bitrix. With the help of hooks, you can expand the list of tasks of a function. For example, schemes allow addons to add their own conditions or bonuses to PROMO promotions. However, it is difficult to bind hooks to all functions, for example, to cumbersome cart recalculation functions..

CS-Cart has a toolallowing you to find out information about any hookand see the history of its changes.

Bitrix does not have such a powerful tool, but there is a page where all the events of the main module are presented.

Number of developers and their experience

On Bitrix, the total number of developersmore like their experience. I have already mentioned more than once that Bitrix has been developing much longer.

Development cost

I have heard many times that the cost of developing an online store on Bitrix is ​​much higher than the cost of developing on the CS-Cart platform. There is also independent research done by CMS Magazine, SimilarWeb and Insales.

However, it is very difficult to assess this factor in reality.

Let's imagine that you need to integrate a new unpopular payment method, which is not available in either CS-Cart or Bitrix. You requested integration documentation from the support team and sent it with a pre-compiled terms of reference two developers. What happens next? And then the project manager goes with this technical task to the developer and specifies how difficult it will be to implement this task. And here the fun begins:

• With what level of competence does the developer evaluate the project?
• Has the developer faced a similar problem before?
• Maybe the developer has already integrated this particular payment method before?
• How busy is the developer to carefully study the problem?
• How experienced manager will interact between you and the developer?
• Will the department head have time to oversee the evaluation?

And the further, the more we can delve into the various problems of the internal processes of the web studio, which will inevitably affect the estimate of the cost of work that you will receive. Difficult, right? But that is not all. Now let's imagine that you need to implement a complex turnkey project, starting from UX / UI prototyping, followed by design development, integration and a lot of functionality, some of which are implemented in CS-Cart, and some in Bitrix. Even if you evaluate such a project within the same CMS, referring to different partners, you will not be able to draw a conclusion about the development cost of a particular web studio. Since the assessment of any other project by the same web studios can change exactly the opposite, and an expensive studio will seem more loyal in its assessment of the cost.

In fact, this question deserves a separate article, which I plan to write in the near future.

Development training period

In general, the periods of learning to develop for both platforms do not differ much. Both platforms use roughly the same technology stack.

If we talk about the transition from Bitrix development to CS-Cart, then from my personal long-term experience I can say that a person who is familiar with the basic technologies used by the CMS of the CS-Cart online store: HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, does not it is not difficult to start writing under the system. All that is required for such a specialist is to understand the interface (which, as we found out above, is friendly and intuitive) and the functionality of the system from the user's point of view.

Marketing and Sales Director of Simtech Development Maria Azizova

Written by: Evgeny Ivankin
in technology

12 myths about "1C-Bitrix: Site Management"

For almost 5 years of developing sites on the 1C-Bitrix platform, I often encountered various kinds of prejudices, and sometimes even absurd misconceptions about this CMS. In this article I will try to dispel these speculations and myths.

CMS(from the English Content Management System content management system) is a software that allows users to post or change information already posted on the site without involving site developers. This means that the user does not need to have programming skills in order, for example, to publish news, an article or add an image on his site.

I have been working with CMS 1C-Bitrix for almost 5 years, as they say: I made websites on Bitrix when it was not yet mainstream and I can safely say that this system now suits me completely and closes almost all possible tasks that come to us customer. I managed to work with many popular CMS and some frameworks, and in 95% of projects I will choose "1C-Bitrix" as a tool for implementation. It cannot be said that this system is ideal, it also has its disadvantages, which are absent in a number of free content management systems, but all its advantages more than cover a small number of disadvantages, which become less and less every year, and the system becomes more versatile and flexible .

"1C-Bitrix: Site Management" is flexible and multifunctional system, which is suitable for creating most projects from small to large and highly loaded portals and online stores.

Back in 2010, "1C-Bitrix" had many shortcomings for which it could be criticized for a whole day in a row by two teams, perhaps it was from that time that most of the stamps regarding this system were used. Despite the problems that took place 5 years ago and are no longer relevant at all, I still hear the opinion that 1C-Bitrix is ​​a shitty bad content management system. To my question: "why do you think so?", most often the interlocutor cannot clearly answer or begins to give the only and most important argument, in his opinion, is that "1C-Bitrix" is a paid system. That is, it turns out we know that "1C-Bitrix" is a shitty bad CMS, but we don't remember why.

I picked up the most common misconceptions and questions from clients, fellow developers and will try to answer them.

1. We are a small company and have a small budget. We heard that 1C-Bitrix products are suitable only for large web projects.

"1C-Bitrix: Site Management" is suitable for almost any project, and the cost of editions depends on the needs of each individual website. total cost project often does not depend on which CMS is used. Sometimes it turns out exactly the opposite: when using the "1C-Bitrix: Site Management" CMS, you avoid the cost of developing many components and functions of the site, since they are already included in the edition, and it remains only to configure them correctly while reducing development time.

2. Why should we buy "1C-Bitrix: Site Management" if we can order a site on a free CMS?

The main advantage that you should pay attention to first of all if you are creating a website for your business is the guarantees that the commercial system gives you. This is characterized by technical support for your project, the release of regular updates, including security updates, assistance in solving any non-standard issues.

In the case of choosing a free CMS, you will be entirely dependent on the company that develops the site for you, the concept of alienation is inapplicable here in most cases. It is also important that developers of free systems, as a rule, do not pay due attention to security. As a result, many vulnerabilities in such systems are known and do not close for a long time, and this is a huge risk for business. Have you often heard about the found vulnerabilities in Bitrix? I have not heard about them since 2010, but several times a year I hear about new critical vulnerabilities in free CMS, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, which allow you to get either full or partial access to the site.

3. I heard that 1C-Bitrix is ​​crooked and resource-demanding, so you need a very expensive hosting?

Expensive hosting is required for projects with high traffic, complex structure and dynamic content. In such situations, there is practically no difference on "1C-Bitrix" made a site or on another CMS, since free analogues do not win much in terms of resource requirements. It also happens vice versa, for sites developed on the Start edition, which are simple sites with low attendance, cheap shared hosting for 1,500 - 2,000 rubles is enough. Also, the 1C-Bitrix platform includes unique technological tools that, when used professionally, allow you to increase the speed of the site by dozens of times; other CMS have no full-fledged analogues today.

4. I am a programmer, I want to make websites on a CMS recognized by the world with a large developer community, a bunch of ready-made modules and open source code.

"1C-Bitrix" is the most popular commercial CMS in Runet, which in its share surpasses almost all free systems,. "1C-Bitrix" is popular not only in Russia and has been translated into many languages. Since 2010, the source codes of 1C-Bitrix are open. The community of "Bitrix programmers" is now very large and it is not difficult to get qualified help in any matter, especially if there is Russian-language documentation for the product. By default, 1C-Bitrix already includes a large number of modules that depend on the edition, which allow you to implement most basic tasks, there is also a 1C-Bitrix Marketplace with a large number of ready-made modules, components and typical sites, both paid, as well as free. And unlike most free platforms, 1C-Bitrix is ​​regularly updated and at least 2 times a year they present a big release update with new system functionality.

5. Only amateurs make websites on 1C-Bitrix. I will make a site on the most fashionable framing, because I'm cool.

This is a big misconception. On "1C-Bitrix" it is not difficult to make typical sites on turnkey solutions. To make a good non-standard site, you need to have good site development skills in PHP and Bitrix-framework. When making a website on any free framework, you entrust yourself with many typical tasks that are available in Bitrix out of the box and are well thought out, both in terms of functionality and security. The customer can spend a lot of time and money before he sees the finished site on the framework, which in many ways will be inferior to the site on Bitrix. It makes sense to use the framework for very simple sites where no admin panel is required, or for very complex and loaded projects for which it simply does not make sense to use 1C-Bitrix, such a project can be a small social network or some large portal with a specific functionality, but as a rule, a large team of professionals works on such projects and makes it on their own framework.

6. I heard that 1C-Bitrix sites are slow.

Lies and provocation. With proper use special technologies, such as caching, CDN, composite, etc. and the correct configuration of the 1C-Bitrix system can work faster than its competitors. Today, CMS from 1C-Bitrix is ​​more demanding on resources, unlike competitors, but this difference is not great, especially in our days when server capacities are increasing every day, and the cost of hosting services is decreasing. Yes, Bitrix is ​​unlikely to make friends with hosting for 500 rubles a year, but it’s worth considering if you don’t have a few thousand for hosting, is it worth starting a business on the Internet?

A striking example of the fact that "1C-Bitrix" can be used on large projects are the sites of such famous brands, like Eldorado, SportMaster, Euroset, Svyaznoy.

7. Promotion and further development of the site on "1C-Bitrix" is more difficult and more expensive than on other CMS

This is a complete fallacy. "1C-Bitrix" does not limit the site for search engine optimization. Moreover, the SEO optimization module included in all editions of the product helps to make the work of promotion specialists more comfortable and efficient, facilitating many routine operations. Also, the system does not limit the possibilities for further refinement and improvement of the project.

8. Is the 1C-Bitrix license purchased for only 1 year? And then buy again? Why do I need to update if my site is already working?

"1C-Bitrix: Site Management" is purchased for an unlimited amount of time. In the first year of using "1C-Bitrix: Site Management", customers are entitled to receive all product updates and technical support with a commercial SLA. Subsequently, technical support and updates can be renewed for 22% of the cost of your edition.

It is not necessary to renew the license, the site will work without an active license. But we recommend that all our customers renew to get system updates, partner support and some other nice system benefits that only work with an active license.

9. I need a website with an admin panel and functionality customized for my tasks - it's easier for me to pay a programmer and he will write a CMS from scratch for me.

To date, only a tiny percentage of the sites created have unique functionality that cannot be implemented in 1C-Bitrix. Basically, sites solve similar tasks that are typified and the corresponding modules are already part of the CMS system. Developing this functionality from scratch today does not make any sense, and will most likely lead to huge time and financial costs and, in the end, to the collapse of the project. In addition, you will always be tied to the system developer, but even so, it is not always possible to achieve high-quality technical support after launch. You can also be sure that your project is safe - 1C-Bitrix products are tested and certified by leading companies in the field of IT security.

10. Will we be able to edit the information on the site ourselves?

One of the important features of the 1C-Bitrix CMS is that, with the proper implementation of the project, the system allows a person without basic knowledge of layout and programming to independently edit most of the information (adding news, updating prices, changing the number of products on the catalog page, etc.) .

11. "1C-Bitrix: Site Management" - a finished product, why do you need a developer?

"1C-Bitrix: Site Management" is not a ready-made site, it is a platform for building and managing a site. It happens that customers take a demo version, make a minimum of changes in the site header, fill it with their information and launch the project.

In general, the creation of the site is technical task which usually require specialists. Even if the solution of a problem seems simple at first glance, a specialist can avoid difficulties and pitfalls by experience, suggest The best decision and will do the task faster than an unprepared person after reading the technical documentation.

12. We do not need a link between 1C-Enterprise and the site, and in general we do not use 1C, so it makes no sense for us to buy "1C-Bitrix: Site Management".

These are two completely different products, and the presence or absence of one of them does not affect the operation of the other. A site based on "1C-Bitrix: Site Management" is a tool for working with clients via the Internet, whether it is informing and collecting information, or selling services and goods via the Internet.

And what else?

This list can be increased several times, I tried to collect the main questions and misconceptions about the product.

Instead of continuing this list, I will write a couple of lines about what I value more than anything in 1C-Bitrix. We, as a company specializing in website development, like it more that 1C-Bitrix always listens to its partners, customers and developers, because together you can make the product even better, many functionality in new versions is implemented, just at the request of customers and developers, this does not always happen quickly, but if the functionality is really interesting, then it will be implemented as soon as possible. Also, 1C-Bitrix always shares its plans and CMS development course, which rarely happens with its competitors, who roll out their updates slowly and silently.

From all of the above it follows that you should not be afraid of the 1C-Bitrix platform, tell us your tasks and we will tell you if this platform is suitable for you and in almost 100% of cases we will say with confidence that it will. I tried to make an overview of popular misconceptions about this wonderful platform, which originate from clichés from the past and simply human laziness, which does not allow a person to fully understand the system and appreciate all its excellent features.