What are the key architectural differences between Magento 1.14 and Magento 2.1.x?

Question

We have been running our Magento stores on the version 1.12 for the past four years. We are now looking to upgrade our store to either version 1.14 or 2.1.x. I understand the upgrade to the Magento 2.1.x is far more challenging and costly.

I am reaching out to the StackExchange community and someone who has a deep understanding of Magento architecture to find out as to why I shouldn't upgrade to the version 1.14 instead 2.1.x other than the fact that Magento will end the support for the version 1.14 in the next few years.

p.s. This is wa great post that I found in the community too but my question is a bit different.

Answer 1

I think the question you linked to provides most of the answer for you. In terms of deciding between 1.14 and 2.1 it comes down to "Is there budget to do another upgrade prior to November 2018?" If the answer to that is no, then I would say go to 2.1 now. If the answer is yes, it complicates things a bit. M2 is still maturing. There are a lot of pain points in developing on it (basically, they need a LOT more documentation written. Magento is aware of this and working on it. See http://bhmarks.com/blog/ui-components-doc-sprint-hello-kyiv/). However, there will be NO NEW FUNCTIONALITY added to Magento 1.x core. Any new functionality you might need will have to come from you (or a 3rd party). Ecommerce is an ever changing world. You don't want to stay on a deprecated platform for too long.