Magento

i’m kind of new to magento and i noticed that v1.1 has custom options for simple products that the user can choose to configure what he wants, and there is a configurable product that need to use simple products to be configurable but at the frontend it gives the same result to me, is there something that i’m missing ?

As far as I can tell the main reason for the two methods is to handle two different kinds of products: physical products and virtual products.

Physical products should be created as configurable products as each option will have a unique SKU. This maps to the real world as your stock of Product X in red will be different to your stock of Product X in blue. In other words, each is really a distinct product that needs to be tracked separately but it’s more convenient for the customer if they view it as a just Product X and have options for red or blue.

Virtual products should be created as simple products with custom options as each option doesn’t need a SKU. Obviously you have no “stock” of virtual products (unless you handle licenses or something) so it doesn’t really matter if someone chooses a red or blue version of Product Y as there’s essentially an infinite number available of both.

Of course, I’m sure there are plenty of exceptions to this “rule of thumb” but I think it should give you a better idea of why both options are available.

nice, so if i need product to have options with same SKU i use simple product , and if i have options with different SKUs i use configurable..
thanks Chris ..

So If I were to sell customizable bats that have around 55,000 possibilities for configuration, I would use custom options? It would take forever to creat 55,000 simple products to create a configurable product.