Shopify vs Magento in 2026: Costs, Features and Which to Choose

In the Shopify vs Magento decision, Shopify is the better fit for most brands that want to launch fast, keep running costs predictable and avoid managing servers. Magento, now sold by Adobe as Adobe Commerce with a free Magento Open Source edition, suits companies with complex catalogues, heavy B2B requirements or integration needs that justify a development team. The rest of this guide shows where each platform wins and what each one really costs to run.

Shopify vs Magento at a glance

The two platforms are built on different ideas. Shopify is a hosted service: you pay a monthly subscription, and Shopify runs the servers, security and updates. Magento is software. You either download the open source edition and host it yourself, or license Adobe Commerce and run it on Adobe's cloud or your own infrastructure.

That single difference drives almost everything else: cost, speed to launch, how far you can customise, and who you need on payroll to keep the store healthy.

What "Magento" means in 2026

Many comparisons still treat Magento as one product. It is now a family, and the version you pick changes the comparison with Shopify completely.

Magento Open Source

The free edition, published on GitHub under the Open Software License 3.0. There is no licence fee, but you pay for hosting, security patching, extensions and developer time. It lacks the commercial features Adobe reserves for paying customers, such as the B2B module.

Adobe Commerce (on cloud or on-premises)

The licensed edition, built on the same 2.4 codebase. Adobe lists 2.4.9 as the latest release, shipped on 12 May 2026 with regular support until 31 May 2029. You still plan and run upgrades yourself, usually with a partner agency.

Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service

Adobe's newer SaaS option. According to Adobe's documentation, it runs on Adobe managed infrastructure, delivers updates continuously instead of through manual upgrades, uses a headless storefront powered by Edge Delivery Services, and moves custom code out of the core into App Builder. The older Luma storefront is not supported. This narrows the maintenance gap with Shopify, but it also removes some of the "edit anything" freedom that made Magento popular.

Pricing: Shopify vs Magento costs

Shopify plans

Shopify publishes its prices. These are the US dollar figures on the Shopify pricing page at the time of writing:

Basic

$19

Grow

$49

Advanced

$299

Plus (from)

$2,300

Source: Shopify pricing page

The subscription is only part of the bill. Card processing fees vary by plan and country, and Shopify notes that extra transaction fees may apply when you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments. Paid apps and premium themes add to the monthly total, so budget for them from day one.

Magento and Adobe Commerce costs

Magento Open Source has no licence fee, which is why it looks cheap on paper. In practice the money goes elsewhere: a hosting environment sized for your traffic, a developer or agency for setup and every security patch, paid extensions, and performance work. Adobe Commerce adds a licence that Adobe prices by quote rather than publishing a list price.

The honest summary: for a small or mid-sized store, Shopify is almost always cheaper to own. Magento starts to make financial sense when the custom functionality you need would require many paid Shopify apps, Shopify Plus, or workarounds that cost more than owning the code.

Ease of use and maintenance

Shopify's admin is built for merchants, not developers. A store owner can add products, edit the theme, set up discounts and process orders without touching code, and Shopify handles hosting, SSL and platform updates.

Magento's admin is capable but dense. Configuration settings, store views, attribute sets and indexing all take time to learn. On Open Source and on-premises Adobe Commerce, someone also has to own upgrades and security patches. If nobody on your team will do that, factor in an ongoing support retainer.

Verdict: Shopify wins clearly for teams without in-house developers.

Customisation and flexibility

This is where Magento has always earned its reputation. With full access to the source code, a developer can change checkout logic, pricing rules, catalogue structure and data models in ways that hosted platforms do not allow.

Shopify customisation happens through themes (written in Liquid), apps and APIs. That covers the needs of most retailers, and headless builds let you pair Shopify's back end with a custom front end in frameworks like Next.js. What you cannot do is rewrite the core platform.

Verdict: Magento wins on raw flexibility. Shopify wins on how much you can achieve before you need a developer at all.

B2B and complex catalogues

Adobe Commerce ships a full B2B extension. Adobe's B2B documentation covers company accounts with buyer roles, shared catalogues with company-specific pricing, negotiable quotes, purchase orders with approval rules, and requisition lists. For wholesalers and manufacturers with layered pricing, this is a strong reason to choose it.

Shopify has added native B2B features too, including company profiles and wholesale catalogues, with some advanced options such as customer-specific catalogues reserved for Plus. It suits brands selling both direct to consumers and to trade buyers. Very complex B2B setups with deep ERP logic still tend to land on Adobe Commerce.

Apps, extensions and integrations

The Shopify App Store lists over 16,000 apps for marketing, reviews, subscriptions, shipping, accounting and more. Most install in minutes and are maintained by their developers.

Magento has the Adobe Commerce Marketplace for extensions, plus the option to build any integration you need directly in code. That makes it a good fit when your store must talk to an ERP, PIM or warehouse system in a very specific way. The trade-off is that every extension is code running inside your store, so conflicts and upgrade testing become part of the job.

Payments, sales channels and SEO

Payments

Shopify Payments is built in, and choosing it avoids the extra third-party transaction fee. You can still connect other gateways if your market needs them. Magento has no native processor of its own; you integrate gateways such as PayPal, Stripe or regional providers through extensions or custom work, and you pay only that processor's fees.

Selling in more places

Shopify bundles point of sale, multi-currency selling through Shopify Markets, and connections to channels like Google, Facebook and Instagram. Magento supports multiple stores, languages and currencies from one installation, which is valuable for groups running several brands, but channel connections usually need extensions.

SEO

Both platforms let you edit titles, meta descriptions, URLs and sitemaps. Shopify enforces some URL patterns (for example, product URLs sit under /products/), while Magento gives full control over URL structure. In practice, rankings depend far more on content, site speed and technical hygiene than on the platform choice.

Shopify vs Magento: which should you choose?

Choose Shopify if

• You want to launch in weeks, not months.
• Your team is commercial, not technical, and you do not want to manage servers.
• Your catalogue and checkout are fairly standard, even at high order volumes.
• You value a predictable monthly cost.

Choose Magento or Adobe Commerce if

• You run complex B2B pricing, quotes and approval workflows.
• You need deep custom logic or tight integration with an ERP or legacy systems.
• You operate many stores, brands or regions from one back end.
• You have, or will pay for, ongoing developer support.

If you are already on Magento and the maintenance load outweighs the flexibility you actually use, moving to Shopify is a common path. The reverse also happens when a growing business outgrows a stack of Shopify apps.

How Codeeo helps with Shopify and Magento decisions

Codeeo builds and maintains e-commerce stores for businesses that range from single brand shops to multi-region retailers, and is trusted by 200+ companies. Our Shopify development services cover theme builds, custom apps and Shopify Plus setups. For brands that want a custom front end, we deliver headless commerce builds on Next.js. If you are moving off Magento, our site migration team handles products, customers, orders and URL redirects so you keep your search rankings. If you are unsure which platform fits, talk to our team and we will map your requirements against both.