Magento vs
Shopify
Shopify
Which is better, Magento or Shopify? Adobe Commerce against Shopify Plus on catalog depth, B2B pricing, hosting, and cost.
The short answer
Pick one.
Here's when.
Pick one.
Here's when.
Pick Adobe Commerce when
Per-account pricing resolved from the ERP, six figures of SKUs with real attribute sets, punchout and procurement buyers, or multi-store rules that genuinely differ. You have, or will pay for, a team that owns the platform.
- Plus
Pick Shopify Plus when
Pricing fits in price lists and tiers, the catalog is in the thousands or tens of thousands, and you would rather never patch again. Most merchants who bought Magento in 2016 now fit here.
The tiebreaker
Where the price lives. If the storefront has to ask the ERP for the price on every request, stay on or move to Adobe Commerce. If a price list can hold it, Shopify Plus will carry you for less.
Row by row
Same criteria.
Both columns.
Same criteria.
Both columns.
Every comparison on this site uses the same eleven criteria, and each platform is described in the same words wherever it appears. The last column is the only opinion on the page.
Pricing model
How do you pay for the platform, and what grows with you?
Adobe Commerce
License on revenue, or free Open Source
A license priced on revenue for Adobe Commerce, or free as Magento Open Source. Hosting, patching, and upgrades are yours either way, and they are the larger cost.
Shopify Plus
Enterprise contract, variable at volume
An enterprise subscription on contract, with a variable component at high volume, plus processing. The fee for an outside gateway is far lower than on standard plans.
Our read
Adobe Commerce is a license plus everything underneath it; Open Source is free plus everything underneath it. Shopify Plus is a subscription and the platform’s problem.
Catalog and variants
How deep can the catalog go before something has to be split?
Adobe Commerce
No practical ceilings
Configurable and bundle products, attribute sets, layered navigation, and six-figure catalogs are what it was built for.
Shopify Plus
Same ceilings, higher API limits
The same product model and ceilings as Shopify, with higher API limits for keeping a large catalog in sync.
Our read
Magento has no practical ceilings. Shopify Plus has option and variant ceilings that get handled, not removed.
B2B and pricing logic
Company accounts, price lists, quotes, and where the price lives.
Adobe Commerce
The deepest B2B module
Company hierarchies, shared catalogs, contract pricing resolved at request time, quotes, requisition lists, purchase orders, punchout.
Shopify Plus
Native B2B on Shopify
Company accounts, catalogs and price lists, quantity rules, payment terms, draft orders. Punchout and pricing resolved live from an ERP still strain it.
Our read
Magento’s B2B module is deeper: hierarchies, punchout, live contract pricing. B2B on Shopify covers most wholesale below that line.
Checkout control
How much of checkout can you change, and who tests it?
Adobe Commerce
Fully yours, including the testing
Fully customizable, and fully yours to test on every release. Extensions and years of checkout edits are the usual upgrade cost.
Shopify Plus
Checkout Extensibility
UI extensions, Functions for discount, shipping, and payment logic, and branding APIs. Upgrade-safe, and the reason most brands step up.
Our read
Magento’s is fully yours, including the testing. Plus’s is extensible through Functions and upgrade-safe.
Hosting and patching
Who owns the servers, the patches, and the upgrades?
Adobe Commerce
Self-managed, versions have dates
Self-managed, on your hosting or Adobe’s cloud infrastructure. Versions carry support dates; patches, upgrades, and monitoring are your job or your agency’s.
Shopify Plus
Hosted, with merchant success
Hosted and patched by Shopify, with a merchant success program, priority support, and higher staff and store allowances.
Our read
The whole difference in running cost. Magento versions carry support dates; Shopify has none you need to track.
ERP and integrations
What the APIs give you, and where the middleware starts.
Adobe Commerce
Full APIs, queues, cron
REST and GraphQL APIs, message queues, cron, and a mature ERP connector market. Middleware for ERP pricing and inventory is normal work here.
Shopify Plus
Higher limits, plus Flow
Higher API rate limits, Shopify Flow for automation, and the same connector market. ERP pricing and inventory still land as middleware.
Our read
Both need middleware for ERP pricing and inventory. Magento gives you the queue and cron; Shopify gives you rate limits to design around.
Apps and talent
How big the app and agency pool is, and where.
Adobe Commerce
Large, uneven, a shrinking pool
A large extension marketplace of uneven quality and a deep but shrinking pool of specialists. Fewer extensions is the best predictor of a cheap upgrade.
Shopify Plus
Same apps, Plus-only features
The same app store and agency pool as Shopify, plus Plus-only features and Plus-certified partners.
Our read
Shopify’s is far larger. Magento’s extension market is large and uneven, and the specialist pool is shrinking.
Frontend and speed
What the storefront is built with, and how fast it is by default.
Adobe Commerce
Slow on Luma, fast on Hyvä
Slow on the default Luma theme, fast on Hyvä or a headless storefront. The speed is decided by the build, not the platform.
Shopify Plus
Same themes, same speed
The same themes and Hydrogen path as Shopify. The performance ceiling is set by the theme and the app discipline, not the tier.
Our read
Magento is slow on Luma and fast on Hyvä or headless. Shopify is fast by default and slowed by app scripts.
SEO and URLs
How much of the URL structure you control, and the platform habits to manage.
Adobe Commerce
URL keys, crawl budget to manage
URL keys you control, optional .html suffixes, and canonical and layered-navigation indexing to configure. Crawl budget is the scale problem.
Shopify Plus
Same fixed paths
The same fixed URLs and canonical work as Shopify. Each expansion store carries its own domain and sitemap.
Our read
Magento gives you URL keys and a crawl-budget problem. Shopify gives you fixed paths and duplicate collection URLs to canonicalize.
Multi-store and international
Several brands, regions, or currencies under one admin.
Adobe Commerce
Websites, stores, store views
Different catalogs, pricing, and payment rules per storefront under one admin. The strongest multi-store model here.
Shopify Plus
Expansion stores and Markets
Expansion stores under one organization for different catalogs or pricing, and Markets for regions that differ only by currency and language.
Our read
Websites, stores, and store views beat expansion stores when catalogs and pricing genuinely differ.
Who it fits
The merchant this platform is genuinely the right answer for.
Adobe Commerce
Deep catalog, ERP pricing, procurement
Deep catalogs, per-account pricing from an ERP, procurement buyers, and multi-store rules that genuinely differ.
Shopify Plus
Checkout logic, wholesale, several stores
DTC and wholesale brands past the point where checkout logic, native B2B, or several storefronts justify the contract.
Our read
Deep B2B to Adobe Commerce. DTC and straightforward wholesale to Shopify Plus.
Results
Show you the money.
B2B · Magento
+100%
new B2B registrations
A complex B2B catalog with dealer pricing tiers, replatformed without breaking a single integration. New account registrations doubled.
DTC · Shopify Plus
2.4x
faster page loads · zero SEO loss
Replatformed an aging custom site to Shopify Plus without losing a single SKU or SEO ranking.
The big numbers
+30%
Avg. conversion rate lift within 12 months
+50%
Avg. order value lift
<1s
Page load speeds on the storefronts we build
+15%
Avg. revenue lift within 6 months
THE QUESTIONS YOU HAVE -
Get them out
of the way.
of the way.
Where to next
The pages behind
the verdict.
the verdict.
Each platform compared here has its own page, and the move between them is written up as a plan, in the direction merchants actually make it.
- View Adobe Commerce
Adobe Commerce
Where catalog depth and pricing complexity still decide it.
Learn more - View Shopify
Shopify
The default for brands that would rather ship than patch.
Learn more
Migration plans
- View the Magento to Shopify migration planLearn more
Magento to Shopify
Off a version with a date attached, onto a platform that patches itself. Every URL redirected, the ERP reconnected first.
- View the Moving to Adobe Commerce migration planLearn more
Moving to Adobe Commerce
For the catalog, the pricing, or the buyers a hosted platform cannot carry, and for Magento 1 stores out of road.
Other comparisons
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Two hosted platforms that convert well. One app, one fee, and the multi-storefront model usually decide it.
- Read the Shopify Plus vs Shopify comparisonPlusLearn more
Shopify Plus vs Shopify
Same storefront, different contract. Checkout, wholesale, and multiple stores are the reasons to step up.
- Read the BigCommerce vs Magento comparisonLearn more
BigCommerce vs Magento
Open SaaS against open source. B2B Edition carries a straightforward wholesale operation; the B2B module carries the rest.
- Read the Magento vs WooCommerce comparisonLearn more
Magento vs WooCommerce
Both open source, both yours to host. One is a commerce platform, the other is a blog with a store attached.
- Read the Salesforce Commerce Cloud vs Shopify comparisonPlusLearn more
Salesforce Commerce Cloud vs Shopify
Revenue share against a subscription. The one-estate case decides it, and it holds less often than it used to.
- Read the Shopware vs Shopify comparisonLearn more
Shopware vs Shopify
Open source against hosted. Geography and who owns the upgrades decide it.
- Read the Shopware vs Magento comparisonLearn more
Shopware vs Magento
Two open source PHP platforms. Depth against weight, and which continent your buyers are on.
- Read the Best ecommerce platform for B2B comparisonPlusLearn more
Best ecommerce platform for B2B
Ranked by where the price lives, how deep the catalog is, and who maintains it. The answer changes with each.
Free platform audit
Deciding?
Start here.
Start here.
Five business days, a senior engineer and a strategist, and a document you keep: what your store runs on, where the price lives, how deep the catalog is, which customizations would survive a move, and a straight recommendation.
The cost of staying is set against the cost of moving, on your numbers rather than a vendor’s. If the answer is stay put, that is what it says.