Shopify vs Magento: architecture, costs and choosing a platform

Shopify and Magento Open Source offer different ways to operate an ecommerce business. Shopify manages the platform as a service; Magento Open Source allows you to maintain your own installation and adapt its code. Adobe Commerce is a separate commercial offering and should not be confused with the Open Source edition. Before comparing prices or features, identify exactly which product and architecture you are evaluating.

The choice is not determined by catalogue size or revenue alone. Business rules, integrations and the team's ability to maintain them matter more. A complex store may benefit from a managed platform if it fits its processes; another may justify an architecture with greater technical control.

Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce are not the same

Older comparisons often use “Magento” as though it referred to one free product. That mixes licences, hosting and capabilities belonging to different offerings. Adobe maintains several architectures and services: its Commerce architecture documentation helps put the current options in context.

When requesting proposals, specify the edition, deployment, storefront, included services and maintenance. Otherwise, you may compare a Shopify subscription with an Adobe Commerce project covering different requirements and services.

Operational responsibilities

Code access can be an advantage when a requirement justifies it and a team can support it. It can also become a difficult dependency if modifications accumulate without documentation or tests.

Catalogue, pricing rules and B2B

Prepare a sample covering the hardest catalogue cases: options, bundles, units, customer-specific prices and orders with special terms. Check the complete journey through to the ERP, rather than only the product page's appearance.

For Shopify, review the current B2B feature matrix and the proposed plan. It is incorrect to assume that all B2B requires Plus or that every plan offers the same conditions. For Magento or Adobe Commerce, establish what the edition, an extension or custom development provides.

Checkout customisation

If your checkout has particular rules, list them individually: fields, validation, payments, delivery and documents. Verify what can be implemented in the chosen solution and plan. Do not promise an exact replica before demonstrating the functions that affect the order.

Sometimes a rule exists because the previous platform forced a process to work in a particular way. Migration is a chance to check whether it is still necessary. Other rules are essential and should become project acceptance criteria.

Total cost: compare the same scope

Include licensing or subscriptions, hosting where applicable, design, integration, apps or extensions, payments, maintenance and support. Add the cost of upgrades and planned changes. Do not present an assumed budget for a fictional store as a universal benchmark.

For an existing store, request the actual costs from recent months and classify what they paid for. Separating improvements from corrective maintenance helps distinguish expenditure that would continue on any platform from costs specific to one architecture.

Performance and SEO

Architecture matters, but the labels “SaaS” and “Open Source” do not predict speed by themselves. Compare product pages, categories, searches and checkout using representative data and assets. The theme, scripts and external connections can substantially change the experience.

For a migration, inventory URLs with traffic and links, preserve their purpose and define redirects where paths change. Content, markets and structured data should also be tested. No particular platform guarantees an SEO improvement.

When to keep the installation and when to consider Shopify

I would keep an installation that meets important custom requirements, has a reliable team and can evolve at a reasonable cost. I would consider Shopify when too much effort goes into infrastructure or compatibility and the critical processes can be demonstrated on the destination platform.

If the main problem is an integration, changing platforms without redesigning that connection may simply move the incident elsewhere. The project must identify which system owns each piece of data and how failed events are recovered.

The test to request before deciding

1. Select the business's most complex product and order.
2. Reproduce pricing, terms and payments in the alternative.
3. Send the order to the ERP and process a change or return.
4. Validate catalogue and content editing by the team.
5. Compare total cost, responsibilities and the launch plan.

We can help you review whether Shopify fits your current architecture. If it does, the migration scope should document the data, functions and tests needed to make the change viable.

Further reading for your store

• How to assess a Magento to Shopify Plus migration
• Comparing the cost of maintaining Magento and Shopify
• A technical Shopify Plus migration plan

Sources and review

• Adobe Commerce: current architecture options
• Migrating to Shopify: Shopify documentation
• Shopify B2B: features by plan
• Google Search Central: site moves and URL changes

Editorial review: the Migraciones.io team · 30 October 2026. Features, plans and availability are checked against the linked sources.