Choosing and Installing 1C-Bitrix Start Edition
The "Start" edition is the entry-level tier of the 1C-Bitrix lineup. It exists to allow you to launch a small website with minimal cost. But it has specific technical limitations you need to understand before purchasing—otherwise in a year you'll need to upgrade to a higher edition with partial feature rework.
What's Included and What's Not
The "Start" edition includes: a website with unlimited pages, content management via CMS, basic infoblocks for news and articles, visual editor, SEO tools, contact form. The "Online Store" module (sale) is not included in "Start"—you cannot add a shopping cart, orders, or payments. No multi-site capability, no built-in search with morphology, no web messenger.
Suitable for: corporate brochure website, landing page with form, company blog, small information portal.
Not suitable for: any-scale online store, catalog with prices and orders, B2B portal.
Installing the Edition
Edition selection happens at the license key entry stage during installation or in the admin panel. If "Start" is purchased, the installation wizard's edition menu will show only the corresponding module set.
Technical requirements are identical to other editions: PHP 7.4-8.2, MySQL 5.7+ / PostgreSQL 13+, Nginx or Apache. The distribution is the same for all editions—the difference is in activated modules via license key.
Upgrading to a Higher Edition
Upgrading from "Start" to "Small Business" or "Standard" is a license key swap and module installation. Website data, content, template—are unaffected. Procedure: purchase new license → in admin panel "System Updates" → enter new key → install newly available modules.
Installing "Start" edition on a prepared server: several hours. With server setup from scratch—1-2 days.