Open Source PIM comparison: Pimcore best value for money

Managing large amounts of complex product information is a very time consuming and complex task. Because product information needs to be accurate and consistent across multiple channels. Furthermore, rich media assets and compatibility and cross-sell relations between products need to be maintained. Thus, proper management of product data has obvious gains. Therefore, a management system to handle product information is really necessary for any brand owner and retailer. A Product Information Management (PIM) system helps to organize and standardize large amounts of data. Such PIM systems can also ensure the creation and distribution of quality data across different channels. Commercial, free, or open source PIM systems are already available in the market. Here, I only deep-dive into the open source PIMs, as open source solutions typically dominate the long-tail of a business-to-business market.

What are the most known open source PIMs? The three most-used open source PIM systems that offer an open source version in the market today are Pimcore, Akeneo, and AtroPim (TreoPim). Below, I give a brief analysis after testing the demo versions of the three systems.

How open source are they actually?

Firstly, all three systems provide relatively similar features.

Among the compared PIM systems, Akeneo is the most popular given that it is used by many brands and retailers. However, the open source version has limitations in features. While the Enterprise edition allows adding different extensions, the cost depending on the number of channels, users, and storage the Enterprise edition could be around 35k to 40k euros yearly.

Compared to the others, Pimcore offers many more free features in its open source version. At the same time, the enterprise version costs around 20K euros yearly. Thus less than Akeneo’s. Furthermore, its Enterprise subscription provides SLAs, long term support, and certain extensions. Trainings are also provided in the paid version.

Lastly, AtroPim is a completely open source model. However, commercial extensions are available for additional features like completeness dashboard, adding PDFs, etc., which are a one-time payment. But, TreoPim is now going through a reorganization process and AtroPim is developing the PIM from now on. Consequently, their system is not very stable and the demo links and API documentation links give 404s.

Comparison between the open source PIMs

Below, a feature by feature comparison of the three selected open source PIMs. All three are roughly based on the same LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) tech stack, with some variations. Pimcore seems to be the truest open source solution, in the sense that the free community version is complete. And, through free or paid add-ons missing functionalities can be acquired. Similar to the setup of the amazingly successful WordPress ecosystem.

Conclusion

In conclusion, after the tests and my quick research about the three systems, all three are offering comparable features. Almost all the main features are covered by the open source version in Pimcore and therefore it is one of the best open source PIM options available in the market. The possibility of personalizing content without any need for third-party connectors is also a huge positive for Pimcore.

Although Akeneo is the most used PIM system it is very costly even if you only need a limited set of features. For example, Akeneo needs a connector to integrate when a new company wants to import data.

Finally, AtroPim is too unstable at the moment to consider as a serious competitor for the other two.

Of the three, only for Akeneo an Icecat connector is available. In case of an Icecat/PIM integration, please contact Iceshop.

Sowjanya Putrevu