Shopify vs Adobe Commerce (Magento) in 2026: Hosting, Cost, Upgrades and B2B

Shopify and Adobe Commerce (the platform formerly known as Magento) are both used by large brands, but they're built on opposite philosophies. Shopify is a fully hosted SaaS platform: Shopify runs the servers, the checkout and the core code, and you extend it through apps, themes and APIs. Adobe Commerce is a PHP application you can run yourself, on Adobe's managed cloud, or (since its newest offering) as a SaaS service, with deep access to the core code in the self-managed versions.

As of October 2026, the decision usually comes down to how much control you need versus how much operating burden you want. Shopify and Shopify Plus suit brands that want predictable costs and no upgrade projects. Adobe Commerce suits businesses with complex catalogs, heavily customized B2B workflows or deep Adobe Experience Cloud use, and the in-house or agency team to run it. Magento Open Source, the free codebase, suits teams that want full control and are prepared to host, secure and patch everything themselves.

This guide compares hosting, cost structure, customization, upgrades and B2B using Adobe's and Shopify's own documentation. For the wider platform picture, see our Shopify hub.

The products being compared

Shopify side

• Shopify (Basic, Grow, Advanced): $39, $105 and $399 a month billed monthly, or $29, $79 and $299 a month billed yearly.
• Shopify Plus: from $2,300 a month on a 3-year term or $2,500 on a 1-year term. "More complex, higher volume businesses switch to a variable platform fee based on their revenue and business model," according to the Plus pricing page.
• Shopify for enterprise (formerly Commerce Components): contact-for-pricing.

Adobe side

• Adobe Commerce on-premises: you host it. Adobe's installation guide says you're responsible for servers, PHP, databases, search, caching, CDN, capacity planning, backups, monitoring, "code deployment, version upgrades, and patch application."
• Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure: a PaaS on AWS or Azure with pre-provisioned PHP, MariaDB, Redis or Valkey, message queues and search, plus a Git-based build and deploy workflow. Adobe notes it isn't available in China or Russia.
• Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service: Adobe's SaaS version, described in its documentation as "a fully managed, versionless platform." Its Commerce Storefront is "fully headless" and powered by Edge Delivery Services, and it "does not support Luma storefronts."
• Magento Open Source: the open-source codebase on GitHub (magento/magento2, OSL-3.0 license). The latest release is 2.4.9, published 12 May 2026.

Hosting and operations

On Shopify, hosting, security patches, PCI compliance for checkout and scaling are Shopify's job on every plan. The Plus Help Center page says Plus "is Level 1 PCI DSS ... and SOC2 certified" and lists bot protection for flash sales. Your team's operational work is theme code, apps, integrations and content.

On Adobe Commerce, the split depends on the model:

Adobe's lifecycle policy is explicit about the PaaS responsibilities: "You are responsible for maintaining all third-party dependencies and platform services on versions that are actively supported," and running unsupported dependencies can lead Adobe to suspend traffic, which means "your ecommerce storefront will go offline."

Cost structure

Comparing total cost is difficult because Adobe doesn't publish a public price list for Adobe Commerce; pricing comes from Adobe as a quote. Shopify publishes its plan prices and payment rates, and only the Plus variable platform fee is negotiated.

Instead of guessing Adobe figures, budget by cost category:

• Platform license or subscription: Shopify's is published; Adobe's is quoted. Magento Open Source has no license fee.
• Hosting and infrastructure: included on Shopify and on Adobe's cloud offerings; a separate line for on-premises and Open Source, including CDN, search and monitoring.
• Upgrades and patching: no merchant cost on Shopify beyond keeping apps current; a recurring project on self-managed Adobe Commerce and Open Source.
• Payment fees: Shopify charges nothing extra with Shopify Payments, or 2% / 1% / 0.6% / 0.2% (Basic to Plus) with another gateway. Adobe offers its own Payment Services and other processors; compare the processor rates you're quoted.
• Extensions and apps: monthly app subscriptions on Shopify versus one-off or annual extension licenses plus integration work on Adobe Commerce.
• Development and support team: usually the largest line on any self-managed Adobe Commerce build.

For a typical mid-market brand, the subscription is rarely the deciding number. The internal team or agency retainer required to operate the platform usually is. Our Shopify website cost guide covers the build side.

Customization and extensibility

Adobe Commerce on-premises and on cloud infrastructure give you the full application code. Developers can override core behavior, add modules and build custom checkout steps. That's the main reason complex businesses choose it, and also the main reason upgrades get expensive: every customization has to be retested on each new release. Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service moves extension work out of the core to keep the platform versionless; Adobe says its extension tools let apps "be scaled separately from the core software."

Shopify doesn't expose core code. You customize through:

• Themes (Liquid, Online Store 2.0 and the Horizon theme family) or a headless storefront with Hydrogen.
• Shopify Functions for discount, shipping, payment and validation logic. Custom apps with Functions require Plus.
• Checkout UI extensions. Extensions on the information, shipping and payment steps are Plus-only, and checkout.liquid is no longer supported. See Shopify checkout extensibility.
• The GraphQL Admin API and webhooks for integrations. Plus gets 1,000 points per second on the GraphQL Admin API versus 100 on standard plans.

If a requirement truly needs core changes (an unusual pricing engine or a nonstandard checkout flow), Adobe Commerce can do it, at the cost of owning that code. On Shopify the same requirement has to fit an extension point, or it moves into middleware.

Upgrades and platform change

Adobe's lifecycle policy (updated 18 Sep 2026) gives each Adobe Commerce release line "a three-year standard support window from the General Availability (GA) date." Current published end dates for regular support are 31 May 2027 for 2.4.7 (extended to 31 May 2028), 31 May 2028 for 2.4.8 and 31 May 2029 for 2.4.9. Starting 1 Jun 2027, Adobe "will no longer maintain Cloud environments running unsupported Commerce versions," including "suspending traffic to the affected infrastructure." Adobe recommends moving to Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service as the long-term path.

Adobe also flags PHP end of life as a PCI risk for older lines, for example 2.4.6 stores on PHP 8.2 should "plan upgrade or migration before the end of 2026."

Shopify merchants never run a version upgrade, but change still arrives on Shopify's schedule. Recent examples: Shopify Scripts stopped executing on 30 Jun 2026, non-Plus Thank you and Order status pages were auto-upgraded after 26 Aug 2026, and storefront script tags stop running on 1 Mar 2027. Shopify releases a new API version every quarter, each supported for at least 12 months, so custom apps need regular maintenance. It's less work than a Magento upgrade, but it isn't zero.

B2B capabilities

Adobe's B2B documentation describes an extension for Adobe Commerce with company accounts and hierarchies, roles and permissions, shared catalogs with company-specific pricing, Pay on Account with company credit, negotiable quotes, purchase orders with approval rules, requisition lists and quick order by SKU.

Shopify B2B, available on every paid plan since 2 Apr 2026, includes company profiles, payment terms, volume pricing, vaulted cards, ACH in the US and up to 3 catalogs. Plus adds unlimited catalogs, direct catalog assignment to companies and locations, deposits, partial payments and payment requests per fulfillment. Quotes, approval workflows and requisition lists are typically added with apps or custom work on Shopify. Our Shopify B2B guide details each feature.

When each platform makes sense

Shopify or Shopify Plus fits when

• You want published pricing and no infrastructure or upgrade projects.
• Your differentiation is brand, content and marketing rather than unusual checkout logic.
• Your B2B needs are covered by catalogs, terms and volume pricing, with apps for quotes.
• You want a large app ecosystem and a deep pool of agencies and developers.

Adobe Commerce fits when

• You need core-level customization or complex B2B workflows natively.
• You're invested in Adobe Experience Cloud products such as Adobe Experience Manager.
• You have the team and budget to run upgrades and maintain integrations.

Magento Open Source fits when

• You want full code ownership with no license fee and accept full responsibility for hosting, security and patching.

Many Magento merchants facing the 2027 enforcement dates are deciding between moving to Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service and replatforming. Our Magento to Shopify migration guide covers data, URL redirects and SEO for that move.

Conclusion

Adobe Commerce gives more control and richer native B2B, and charges for it in operating effort, upgrade cycles and quote-based pricing. Shopify and Shopify Plus trade core-code access for a platform that runs itself, with published pricing and steadily expanding B2B and checkout tools. Map your truly non-negotiable requirements before choosing: if each one fits a Shopify extension point, Shopify usually costs less to run. eSEOspace builds and migrates stores on Shopify through our Shopify development services.

Frequently asked questions