Shopify vs Magento (Adobe Commerce): which should you pick?

For most UK retailers selling a standard catalogue to consumers, Shopify is the better choice: it costs less to run, changes faster and does not need a development team to keep it secure. Magento, now owned by Adobe and sold as free Magento Open Source or licensed Adobe Commerce, is the better choice when your business has rules that Shopify cannot hold: complex products, complex pricing, deep links into back-office systems, or a need to own and control the code.

The honest dividing line is not size. A large brand with a simple catalogue can run happily on Shopify, and a small trade business with complicated pricing can need Magento. The line is how unusual your requirements are, and whether you are willing to pay for a team to look after software.

We build and support both, so we have no reason to push you either way. This guide sets out the differences that matter to the person paying the bills.

The short version

• Shopify is a hosted service: you pay a subscription and fees, and Shopify handles hosting, security and upgrades.
• Magento Open Source is free software that you host, secure, patch and upgrade yourself, usually through an agency.
• Adobe Commerce is the licensed edition, with B2B tools and Adobe support added, priced by quote.
• Shopify wins on cost of ownership and speed of change for standard retail. Magento wins on flexibility where the business model is unusual.
• Moving from Magento to Shopify is a mistake if your complexity is real and you try to rebuild it from apps.

What you are actually comparing

The names have changed several times, which makes old articles unreliable. Today there are four products worth knowing.

• Shopify (Basic, Grow and Advanced plans): the hosted platform most small and mid-sized retailers use.
• Shopify Plus: the same platform with checkout customisation, multiple stores and lower fees. See Shopify vs Shopify Plus for when it pays.
• Magento Open Source: the free edition, once called Community Edition. No licence fee. You arrange everything else.
• Adobe Commerce: the paid edition, once called Magento Enterprise. Available to host yourself, on Adobe's cloud, or as Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service, a newer version that Adobe runs and updates for you, where customisations are built as separate apps against its APIs.

Shopify prices are UK list prices at the time of writing (October 2026), billed monthly.

Which costs more to own?

Magento, in almost every case, even though the Open Source licence is free.

On Shopify the main costs are the subscription, payment fees and apps. They are predictable and they scale with sales. On Magento the software may cost nothing, but you pay for hosting, a developer or agency retainer, security patches, paid extensions and a version upgrade every couple of years. Those costs arrive whether sales are up or down.

The upgrade cycle is the one that catches people out. Adobe gives each Magento release three years of standard support. Standard support for version 2.4.6 ended in August 2026, and the current release, 2.4.9, is supported until May 2029. Running an unsupported version means no security fixes, which for a site taking card payments is not a risk you can carry. So budget for a planned upgrade at least every three years, plus security patches in between.

Where Shopify can cost more is in fees at high volume and in app subscriptions. A store with thirty apps is paying thirty monthly bills, and transaction-linked fees grow with revenue. A large Magento merchant with negotiated payment rates and a stable site can come out ahead. Our guide to what an e-commerce platform really costs works through a three-year comparison.

Simply Sound and Lighting came to us with exactly this problem: rising Magento costs and a platform that could not keep up with what the business needed. We moved them to Shopify, and their case study reports 180% revenue growth, 50% faster load times and a 40% conversion uplift afterwards.

Which is more flexible?

Magento. You have the whole codebase, so anything can be changed: how prices are calculated, how the catalogue is structured, how checkout works, how orders flow to other systems.

That matters in specific situations:

• Configurable and bundled products with many options and dependent rules, where the price is calculated, not looked up.
• Trade pricing at scale: thousands of customer-specific prices, contract pricing, quotes and approval steps.
• Several brands or countries run from one installation with shared catalogue and separate storefronts.
• Tight coupling to an ERP, loyalty scheme or stock system where the website has to follow the back office's rules exactly.

When we rebuilt the Notcutts garden centre site, Magento was chosen for that reason. The Notcutts project needed real-time stock, a bespoke loyalty system and links into their existing ERP and CRM, all inside the platform.

Shopify has closed much of the gap. Plus allows custom logic in checkout, discounts and delivery, and every plan gained basic trade features in 2026. But Shopify sets the boundaries, and you work inside them. If you find yourself listing five apps and a custom middleware to reproduce one Magento feature, take that as a warning.

Which is faster to change?

Shopify, by a distance, for everyday work. A marketer can restructure a landing page, launch a promotion or add a payment method without a developer. New features from Shopify appear without an upgrade project. A new store can be live in weeks.

On Magento, most changes go through a developer, a test environment and a release. That is slower and costs more per change, but it is also the discipline that keeps a complex site stable. Teams with a good agency and a steady release rhythm do move quickly on Magento. Teams without one tend to stop changing the site at all, which is the worst outcome.

What team do you need?

On Shopify, an e-commerce manager and a marketer can run the store day to day, with an agency or freelancer for design and development projects.

On Magento you need ongoing development capacity: an agency retainer or in-house developers who know the platform, plus someone responsible for hosting and security. If nobody owns patching, it does not happen. Be realistic about whether your business wants to manage that relationship.

Who should pick which?

• Pick Shopify if you sell a standard catalogue to consumers, your team is marketing-led, and you would rather spend on growth than on upkeep.
• Pick Shopify Plus if the same is true at higher volume, or you need to change the checkout, run several stores or sell to trade alongside retail.
• Pick Magento Open Source if your requirements are specific, you have or will fund a development team, and you do not need Adobe's paid features.
• Pick Adobe Commerce if you need its B2B tools, want Adobe's support behind a large operation, or already use other Adobe products.

When each one is the wrong choice

Shopify is the wrong choice when the features that make your business different would all be custom apps. You end up with a fragile set of workarounds and a monthly bill that rivals a Magento retainer.

Magento is the wrong choice when the business is simple and the budget is tight. An under-funded Magento site falls behind on patches, slows down and becomes a liability. If you cannot commit to a maintenance budget, do not start.

Adobe Commerce is the wrong choice when you are paying the licence for features you do not use. Booths were in that position on Magento Enterprise. We moved them to the free edition, which their case study records as a substantial annual saving with no loss of service.

Replatforming is the wrong choice when the real problem is a slow theme, poor hosting or a neglected upgrade. Fixing those costs a fraction of a move. If you do decide to move, read our replatforming guide before you brief anyone.

How we'd approach it

We start by writing down what your store has to do that is not standard: pricing rules, product configuration, stock sources, trade terms, integrations. Then we test each one against Shopify honestly. If everything fits with built-in features and a few well-supported apps, we recommend Shopify or Shopify Plus. If three or four items need heavy custom work, we look seriously at Magento or Adobe Commerce.

If you are already on Magento and unhappy, we check the basics first: which version you are on, when support ends, how the hosting is set up and how fast the front end is. Sometimes the answer is an upgrade and a faster theme, not a new platform. Either way we map your integrations early, because they decide the cost and the risk of any move more than the storefront does.

Questions we get asked

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