Shopify and Magento are built on fundamentally different philosophies. Shopify is a managed SaaS platform: it handles hosting, security, and infrastructure so you focus on selling. Magento is open-source software: you own the full stack, which means unlimited customization and no platform transaction fees, but also full responsibility for every server, patch, and upgrade. Neither is universally correct. The right answer depends on your business model, your technical resources, and what your growth requirements actually demand.
| TL;DR — Key Takeaways |
| Shopify plans run from $39/month (Basic) to $2,500/month (Plus on a 1-year term) or $2,300/month (Plus on a 3-year term), per shopify.com/pricing. Magento Open Source carries no license fee. Adobe Commerce starts at approximately $22,000/year, per mgt-commerce.com. |
| On April 2, 2026, Shopify extended native B2B features — company profiles, up to three custom catalogs, payment terms, volume pricing — to all paid plans at no extra cost, per the official Shopify changelog. Unlimited catalogs, partial payments, and deposits remain Shopify Plus-exclusive. |
| Adobe Commerce’s B2B module is the more mature option for complex wholesale operations: negotiable quotes, shared catalogs, purchase order workflows, and multi-level company hierarchies are all native, not extensions. |
| Magento 2.4.9 reached general availability in May 2026 with PHP 8.4/8.5 support, per the Adobe Commerce release schedule. Magento 2.4.6 reaches end of regular support on August 11, 2026. |
| Bemeir is an Adobe Solution Partner and the first and only Hyvä Gold Partner in the USA. Bemeir builds on both platforms — Magento since 2010 and Shopify at bemeir.com/shopify/. The right platform is not the “best” one in the abstract. It is the one that fits your business model, your team’s capacity, and your cost structure. |
1. Platform Architecture: The Foundational Difference
Every meaningful difference between Shopify and Magento — in cost, customization depth, operational burden, and feature availability — flows from one underlying architectural decision. Understanding that decision makes every other comparison in this article easier to read.
Shopify: managed SaaS
Shopify is a multi-tenant SaaS platform. Every store runs on Shopify’s shared infrastructure. Shopify handles server provisioning, PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, SSL certificates, DDoS protection, CDN delivery, and software updates. You subscribe; the platform runs. Merchants cannot access the underlying server, modify the database schema, or rebuild the checkout architecture beyond what Shopify’s APIs expose. That constraint is the business model: operational complexity becomes Shopify’s problem, not yours. For headless builds, Shopify provides the Hydrogen framework and Oxygen hosting at no additional cost on Plus. The App Store, which contained over 13,000 apps as of 2026 per shopify.com/apps, covers most eCommerce functionality through one-click installs.
Magento: open-source, self-operated
Magento Open Source is PHP software you download, install, and host yourself. You own the source code, the database, and the server. Magento 2.4.9 — current as of May 2026, per the Adobe Commerce release schedule — requires PHP 8.4 or 8.5 and OpenSearch 3.x for search. Adobe Commerce is the paid enterprise layer built on the identical codebase, adding B2B functionality, content staging, Adobe Sensei AI, and dedicated support. The license fee starts at approximately $22,000/year, per mgt-commerce.com’s 2026 pricing analysis.
Unlimited customization comes with full operational responsibility: security patches (monthly from Adobe since January 2026, per mgt-commerce.com), hosting, version upgrades, and PCI compliance all belong to the merchant.
Most new Magento builds in 2026 ship with Hyvä as the frontend. Hyvä replaces Magento’s legacy Luma stack — Knockout.js, RequireJS, jQuery, LESS — with Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS. A Hyvä page ships approximately 0.15MB per product page versus Luma’s 0.9MB, per mgt-commerce.com’s Hyvä guide. Bemeir is an Adobe Solution Partner, the first and only Hyvä Gold Partner in the USA, and builds on both platforms. Bemeir built Hyvä Widgets, now used by 250+ Magento stores — and works with merchants on Shopify too. See bemeir.com/hyva/ for Hyvä and Magento services, or bemeir.com/shopify/ for Shopify.
| Factor | Shopify | Magento / Adobe Commerce |
| Hosting | Fully managed by Shopify. No server access. | Self-hosted or managed provider. Full server control. |
| Deployment model | SaaS. No installs or patches to manage. | Composer-based. Merchant manages upgrades and patches. |
| Source code access | No. Closed platform. | Yes. Full source code on all editions. |
| Checkout ownership | Shopify controls checkout. Extensible on Plus via Checkout UI Extensions. | Full checkout control. Rebuild or extend any step. |
| Security and PCI compliance | Shopify handles. PCI DSS Level 1 by default. | Merchant responsibility. Monthly security patches from Adobe since Jan 2026. |
| Current stable version | Continuous SaaS updates. No versioning. | 2.4.9 GA (May 2026), per Adobe Experience League |
Sources: shopify.com/pricing; experienceleague.adobe.com release versions; mgt-commerce.com/blog/magento-license-cost/.
2. Pricing and Total Cost of Ownership
Sticker price and total cost of ownership diverge sharply between Shopify and Magento. The ‘free’ framing of Magento Open Source and the transparent subscription model of Shopify both obscure the full picture. Neither is as simple as it appears.
Pricing Tiers for Shopify (2026)
Shopify publishes four plans on shopify.com/pricing: Basic at $39/month, Grow at $105/month, Advanced at $399/month, and Plus at $2,300/month on a 3-year term or $2,500/month on a 1-year term. Shopify raised the Plus price from $2,000 to $2,500 in 2024, per zenventory.com’s 2026 pricing analysis. High-volume Plus merchants who exceed the monthly GMV threshold transition to a variable 0.25% of monthly GMV fee, per shopify.com/plus/pricing. The cap on this variable fee is $40,000/month, per the same source.
Transaction fees apply when using a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments: 0.20% on Plus, up to 2.0% on Basic, per shopify.com/pricing. Using Shopify Payments eliminates the surcharge. On Plus with Shopify Payments, the US online card rate is approximately 2.15% + $0.30 per transaction, per shopify.com/plus/pricing. App subscriptions add meaningfully to total cost — a mature Shopify Plus app stack commonly runs $500–$3,000+/month, per shopify.com/plus/pricing.
Magento / Adobe Commerce pricing (2026)
Magento Open Source carries no license fee. Hosting a production Magento store on a managed provider adds to total cost. Adobe Commerce’s license is quote-based and tied to annual GMV. Industry estimates from mgt-commerce.com place the on-premise license at approximately $22,000/year for $1–$5M GMV stores, $50,000/year for $10–$25M GMV stores, and $125,000+/year for $25M+ GMV stores. Adobe does not publish official pricing; every contract requires direct negotiation with Adobe. Adobe Commerce on Cloud (PaaS), which bundles managed hosting on AWS with Fastly CDN, starts at approximately $40,000/year, per mgt-commerce.com’s license cost guide.
Total all-in annual costs for Adobe Commerce — including hosting, development, and extension licensing — commonly run two to three times the license fee, per mgt-commerce.com’s license cost guide. The license fee represents only a portion of real operating cost. Development team or agency retainer costs are the largest budget line for most Magento operations.
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (ACCS), launched in June 2025, offers a fully managed multi-tenant SaaS option with fixed-tier pricing packages, per mgt-commerce.com’s Adobe Commerce features guide. ACCS reduces the operational overhead of self-hosted Adobe Commerce but trades some customization flexibility for the managed model.
| Cost component | Shopify Plus (2026) | Adobe Commerce on-premise (2026) |
| Platform license | $2,300–$2,500/month flat; variable 0.25% GMV above the monthly GMV threshold, per shopify.com/plus/pricing | ~$22,000–$125,000+/year, GMV-tiered, quote-based; no public list price, per mgt-commerce.com |
| Hosting | Included. Shopify manages infrastructure. | Self-managed or via a Magento hosting provider; bundled in Adobe Commerce Cloud, per mgt-commerce.com |
| Transaction fees | 0% with Shopify Payments; 0.20% with third-party gateway on Plus, per shopify.com/pricing | No platform transaction fee. Payment gateway fees only. |
| App or extension spend | Typically $500–$3,000+/month for a mature app stack | $5,000–$20,000+/year in extension licenses plus developer time to install and maintain |
| Development and maintenance | Lower ongoing; structural changes require developer | Ongoing developer or agency retainer typically required for patches, upgrades, and customization |
| Security and compliance | Handled by Shopify. Included in subscription. | Merchant responsibility. Monthly patch cycle from Adobe since January 2026. |
Sources: shopify.com/pricing; shopify.com/plus/pricing; mgt-commerce.com/blog/magento-license-cost/; zenventory.com.
3. B2B Capabilities: Where the Gap Is Closing and Where It Isn’t
B2B eCommerce has historically been Adobe Commerce’s clearest advantage over Shopify. That advantage narrowed significantly in 2026 — but it has not disappeared at the high end of B2B complexity.
Shopify B2B expansion: April 2, 2026
On April 2, 2026, Shopify extended native B2B features to all paid plans at no extra cost, per the official Shopify changelog and Shopify’s announcement. Features now available on Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans include: company profiles with buyer roles and locations; up to three active B2B catalogs with custom pricing; payment terms (Net 7 through Net 90); volume pricing and quantity rules; vaulted credit cards; and ACH payments in the US.
Shopify Plus retains exclusive access to unlimited catalogs, direct catalog assignment to specific company locations, partial payments, and deposits, per the official Shopify changelog. The three-catalog limit on non-Plus plans is the practical ceiling that most growing wholesale businesses hit first. Merchants operating more than three buyer segments — for example, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Distributor — require Plus for unlimited catalogs, per wholesalehelper.io’s April 2026 B2B guide. Shopify B2B also has no native purchase order workflow, no sales agent portal, and no CSV bulk order entry on any plan. These require third-party apps.
Adobe Commerce B2B: the mature enterprise stack
Adobe Commerce’s native B2B module — included in the Adobe Commerce license, not available in Magento Open Source — covers negotiable quotes (buyers request quotes from the storefront; sales reps respond from the admin panel), shared catalogs with account-specific pricing, company account hierarchies with role-based buyer permissions, purchase order workflows with multi-level approval rules, requisition lists, and Quick Order by SKU or CSV. These are native platform features, not extensions, per the Adobe Commerce B2B documentation.
Shopify B2B on Plus is a strong and growing suite. Adobe Commerce B2B has been in production at enterprise scale for longer, with established patterns for complex scenarios: multi-entity company structures, multi-level approval chains, ERP-integrated purchase order workflows, and catalog management for hundreds of buyer segments. For simple-to-moderate B2B requirements, Shopify Plus covers the need. For deep B2B complexity, Adobe Commerce remains the more complete native option.
| B2B feature | Shopify (2026) | Adobe Commerce (2026) |
| Company accounts | All paid plans: company profiles, buyer roles, locations | Native: multi-level company hierarchies, role-based buyer permissions |
| Custom pricing catalogs | Up to three on all paid plans; unlimited on Plus | Unlimited shared catalogs with account-specific pricing |
| Negotiable quotes | Not native. Requires third-party app. | Native quote request and management UI, per Adobe B2B docs |
| Purchase order workflows | Not native. Requires third-party app. | Native PO workflows with multi-level approval rules |
| Payment terms | Net 7–90 native on all paid plans from April 2, 2026 | Net terms, Pay on Account, company credit limits native |
| Quick Order / requisition lists | Not native. Requires third-party app. | Native Quick Order by SKU or CSV; native requisition lists |
| Partial payments and deposits | Plus-only | Native on all Adobe Commerce B2B installations |
| ERP integration | Via apps or custom Shopify APIs. Ecosystem is growing. | Deep customization at PHP layer. Established ERP integration patterns. |
Sources: changelog.shopify.com/posts/key-b2b-features-now-available-on-non-plus-plans (April 2, 2026); shopify.com/news/b2b-for-all; wholesalehelper.io; Adobe Commerce B2B documentation.
4. Customization and Extensibility
Customization is where the SaaS versus open-source architectural difference produces its sharpest practical consequences for growing brands.
Shopify: defined boundaries, large ecosystem
Shopify’s customization model operates through three layers: themes (built in Liquid templates), apps from the App Store (over 13,000 as of 2026, per shopify.com/apps), and Shopify Functions for server-side custom logic on Plus. Checkout customization on Plus happens through Checkout UI Extensions — adding custom fields, blocks, and conditional logic without modifying Shopify’s checkout.liquid. Shopify Editions Winter ’26 introduced further checkout extensibility including the ability to inject custom payment logic via Shopify Functions.
The constraint is genuine: Shopify controls the checkout architecture, the server, and core platform behavior. Merchants cannot modify database schemas, change how Shopify processes orders at the infrastructure level, or deploy server-side code outside Shopify’s API surface. For brands whose requirements fit within these boundaries — which covers the large majority of DTC and standard B2B operations — this is not a meaningful limitation. For brands that need to completely rebuild the checkout from scratch, implement custom pricing logic at the database layer, or integrate proprietary fulfillment systems at the server level, these boundaries become a real ceiling. Shopify itself documents what Checkout Extensibility can and cannot do at shopify.com/plus/checkout.
Magento: open-source with no architectural ceiling
Magento’s open-source architecture places no ceiling on customization. Any part of the platform — checkout flow, pricing logic, database schema, search algorithm, or API layer — can be modified through custom PHP modules. The Adobe Commerce Marketplace offered approximately 5,600+ extensions as of 2026, per marketplace.magento.com. Magento extensions require a developer for installation, configuration, and maintenance across upgrades — unlike Shopify apps, which install in one click.
The trade-off is development cost. Customizations Shopify handles through an app in minutes require scoped development work on Magento. That investment pays off when the requirement is a genuine competitive differentiator — a proprietary product configurator, a custom B2B quoting interface, a complex pricing engine. It does not pay off for standard eCommerce functionality that Shopify apps handle adequately.
For Magento stores requiring a high-performance frontend alongside that customization depth, Hyvä is the current standard. Bemeir has published a detailed guide on Hyvä extension compatibility at bemeir.com/articles/hyva-module-compatibility-how-to-know-extensions-work/ — which covers how to audit existing extensions before any Hyvä migration begins.
5. SEO and Core Web Vitals Performance
Both platforms can achieve strong SEO outcomes. The difference is in where technical control lives, how much developer work is required to reach the ceiling, and what the default performance baseline looks like on each.
Shopify SEO: solid defaults, limited technical depth
Shopify handles automatic XML sitemap generation, 301 redirects on URL changes, page-level meta title and description fields, SEO-friendly URL structures, and Schema.org structured data via themes. These defaults produce good baseline SEO for most stores with no configuration. Shopify’s built-in CDN and managed infrastructure deliver consistent Core Web Vitals performance out of the box. For technical SEO depth beyond the defaults — robots.txt customization, canonical tag control at the page level, bulk structured data editing, custom XML sitemap configuration — Shopify relies on third-party apps. Shopify’s URL structure has a known constraint: collection URLs include /collections/ in the path, and this cannot be changed at the platform level.
Shopify’s Winter 2026 Editions introduced Agentic Storefronts, which make a store’s catalog and pricing machine-readable for AI agents directly from the admin, per shopify.com/magic, positioning Shopify well for AI-driven search in 2026.
Magento SEO: deep technical control
Magento provides deeper technical SEO control than Shopify: full robots.txt management, customizable canonical tags, custom XML sitemap configuration, and complete URL structure control across the catalog, per mgt-commerce.com. Extensions like Amasty SEO Toolkit and Mirasvit SEO Suite add bulk structured data editing and hreflang management. For multi-store, multi-language implementations, Magento’s native hreflang handling is more mature than Shopify Markets at the enterprise level.
Performance: Hyvä changes the Magento picture
Magento on the default Luma theme typically produces Lighthouse mobile scores below 70, driven by heavy JavaScript payload: Knockout.js, RequireJS, and jQuery load sequentially on every page. Magento on Hyvä delivers a product page in approximately 0.15MB versus Luma’s 0.9MB, per mgt-commerce.com’s Hyvä guide. Lighthouse mobile scores above 90 are typical for well-built Hyvä stores on a correctly configured server stack: PHP 8.4/8.5 FPM, Varnish full-page cache, Valkey, and OpenSearch 3.x. A Magento store on Hyvä with a properly tuned stack competes directly with Shopify’s managed performance. A Magento store on Luma does not.
Shopify’s managed infrastructure delivers consistent Core Web Vitals performance without server configuration. The practical implication: Shopify gives good performance by default; Magento gives potentially superior performance but only after deliberate frontend and infrastructure investment. For Magento, that investment starts with Hyvä. For Hyvä performance services, see bemeir.com/hyva/.
Source: mgt-commerce.com/blog/installing-hyva-theme-magento-2/; shopify.com/magic.
6. Ease of Use and Operational Requirements
The daily experience of operating Shopify versus Magento is one of the starkest differences between the two platforms, and it rarely surfaces in feature comparison tables.
Shopify: non-technical teams operate independently
Shopify’s admin is built for merchants, not developers. Adding products, configuring discounts, creating landing pages, managing orders, and setting up automations happen through the admin without touching code. A marketing team can launch a campaign, update pricing, or configure a new sales channel the same day. This operational independence matters: the teams that run eCommerce stores day-to-day are rarely developers, and Shopify’s design reflects that. Platform maintenance happens in the background without creating work for your team.
When a Shopify store needs custom development, that work happens at the app or Shopify Functions layer, which constrains the ceiling of what can be built. The freedom from servers comes with boundaries on code.
Magento: technical ownership required throughout
Magento requires a developer or agency for most meaningful configuration changes: installing and updating extensions, applying security patches (now monthly from January 2026, per mgt-commerce.com’s release schedule), managing version upgrades, configuring the server stack, and deploying code changes to production. The admin handles day-to-day tasks — product management, order processing, CMS pages — without developer involvement, but anything structural requires a technical hand. Stores on Magento 2.4.6 must upgrade before August 11, 2026, when regular support ends, per the Adobe Commerce release schedule.
| The developer dependency is a cost, not a design flaw |
| Magento requires a developer. That is not a flaw — it is the price of the unlimited customization the platform provides. The right question is whether that customization depth justifies the cost relative to Shopify’s managed simplicity. For DTC brands without complex B2B requirements, it usually does not. For merchants with deep ERP integration, custom pricing logic, or multi-store architecture, it often does. |
7. Security, Hosting, and Infrastructure
Security and infrastructure are areas where the SaaS versus open-source divide produces the most operationally significant consequences.
Shopify: platform handles security
Shopify is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant. Every store inherits that compliance by default, per shopify.com/pricing. SSL, DDoS protection, fraud analysis, CDN, and software updates are all included and managed by Shopify. Merchants do not manage server security.
Shopify Plus handles traffic scaling automatically and is load-tested for 10,000+ checkouts per minute, per shopify.com/plus/pricing, making flash sales and peak events manageable without server configuration.
Magento: merchant handles security
Magento Open Source merchants are responsible for their own PCI compliance, server security, SSL certificates, patch management, and hosting configuration. Adobe moved to a monthly isolated security patch cadence from January 2026, per mgt-commerce.com’s release schedule. This accelerated cadence means merchants need faster patch response cycles. Adobe Commerce on Cloud bundles managed AWS infrastructure with the license: Fastly CDN, automated patching, and a 99.9% uptime SLA, at approximately $40,000+/year for the base tier, per mgt-commerce.com’s license cost guide.
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (ACCS), launched June 2025, is Adobe’s fully managed multi-tenant SaaS option with versionless architecture and automatic updates, per mgt-commerce.com’s Adobe Commerce features guide. ACCS reduces the operational overhead of traditional Adobe Commerce but trades some customization depth for the managed model. For Magento services, see bemeir.com/magento/.
8. AI Features in 2026
Both platforms made significant AI announcements in 2026. The practical availability of those capabilities differs considerably between them.
Shopify: agentic commerce and Shopify Magic
Shopify’s Winter 2026 Editions centered on agentic commerce: Shopify Agentic Storefronts make a store’s catalog and pricing accessible to AI agents (ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot) directly from the admin, per shopify.com/magic. Shopify Magic, available on all plans, generates product descriptions, edits images, and drafts copy. Shopify Sidekick on Plus provides conversational store management. Schema.org structured data is generated automatically by themes, making stores AI-discovery-ready without developer configuration.
Adobe Commerce: Sensei and agentic capabilities
Adobe Commerce’s AI features are delivered through Adobe Sensei: Live Search with AI relevance re-ranking, Product Recommendations, and predictive analytics. Sensei is included with the Adobe Commerce license but requires setup, per mgt-commerce.com. Adobe announced support for the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) in February 2026, enabling AI agent access to catalogs and pricing. Adobe Commerce 2.4.9 adds native llms.txt generation.
Full agentic AI capabilities on Adobe Commerce require a separate Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) license, per mgt-commerce.com. Without AEP, Adobe Commerce offers Sensei-powered Live Search and Product Recommendations but not autonomous agentic commerce. Magento Open Source has no built-in AI features: every AI capability requires a third-party extension or custom integration.
9. Multi-Store, International, and Multi-Currency Operations
Both platforms have mature international selling capabilities, but the approach and the ceiling differ significantly.
Shopify Markets
The Shopify Markets are available on all paid plans, handles international storefronts with localized currency, language, and pricing from a single Shopify installation. Shopify Plus adds Managed Markets for cross-border duty and tax management (a 6.5% transaction fee applies, per shopify.com/plus/pricing), plus 10 expansion stores. For most merchants with standard multi-region requirements, Shopify Markets handles the need without custom development.
Magento multi-site architecture
Magento’s multi-site architecture allows multiple independent storefronts — separate brands, regions, catalogs, checkout flows — from a single admin and codebase. A holding company running several distinct eCommerce brands operates all of them from one Magento installation. Shopify requires a separate Plus contract per brand, making Magento more cost-effective for organizations managing three or more storefronts.
10. When to Choose Shopify and When to Choose Magento
The right platform is not the one that is objectively better — it is the one whose strengths align with your specific requirements, team capacity, and cost model.
Choose Shopify when
- Speed to market is a priority: Shopify implementations typically launch in weeks because most builds start from a theme rather than a custom codebase. Magento builds for complex stores run four to eight months or more, per mgt-commerce.com.
- Your business model is DTC or straightforward B2C: Shopify’s managed infrastructure, app ecosystem, and checkout experience are built for direct-to-consumer selling.
- Your team is non-technical or small: Shopify’s admin lets a marketing team operate independently without developer involvement for day-to-day changes.
- B2B requirements are moderate: Company profiles, three catalog tiers, payment terms, and volume pricing are now native on all Shopify paid plans as of April 2, 2026, per the official Shopify changelog.
- Predictable costs matter: Shopify’s subscription tiers are transparent. Magento’s total cost of ownership is harder to forecast and depends heavily on implementation scope and ongoing development needs.
- You prioritize operational simplicity: no servers to manage, no monthly security patches to apply, no hosting configuration to maintain.
Bemeir works on both platforms. If your requirements fit the Shopify column above, see bemeir.com/shopify/ for Shopify services.
Choose Magento when
- Deep B2B complexity is a core requirement: Negotiable quotes, multi-level purchase order approval, shared catalogs for many buyer segments, and ERP-integrated order workflows are native to Adobe Commerce and more mature than Shopify’s equivalents, per the Adobe Commerce B2B documentation.
- You need full checkout control: building a checkout from scratch, integrating proprietary fulfillment logic at the server level, or implementing custom multi-step purchase workflows requires Magento’s open-source architecture.
- Multi-brand operations from a single installation: Magento’s multi-site architecture handles multiple brands, catalogs, and storefronts from one admin in a way Shopify’s separate-contract model cannot match at scale.
- Zero platform transaction fees at high volume: Magento charges no platform transaction fees. At high GMV, the absence of Shopify’s variable GMV-based Plus fee or the 0.20% surcharge on third-party gateways, per shopify.com/pricing, can represent material savings.
- You have technical resources: Magento’s customization depth pays off when a development team can fully exploit it. For brands with senior in-house developers and genuinely complex operational requirements, Magento’s flexibility is a competitive asset.
- International complexity exceeds Shopify Markets: multiple independent storefronts per region, catalog-level pricing rules across markets, and complex multi-currency ERP integrations are better served by Magento’s multi-site architecture.
| Dimension | Shopify | Magento / Adobe Commerce |
| Time to market | Faster to launch. Typical builds ship in weeks, not months. | Complex builds typically run months. Per mgt-commerce.com: 4–8+ months for full implementations. |
| Ease of operation | Non-technical teams operate independently | Requires ongoing developer or agency involvement |
| B2B (moderate requirements) | Three catalogs, payment terms, volume pricing native from April 2, 2026 | Available but Adobe Commerce license required for full B2B module |
| B2B (complex requirements) | Shopify Plus covers most cases; gaps at highest complexity | Negotiable quotes, PO workflows, shared catalogs native — more mature |
| Customization ceiling | Bounded by Shopify’s APIs and App Store ecosystem | No ceiling. Full source code access. |
| SEO technical control | Solid defaults; limited depth for advanced technical SEO | Deep technical control: robots.txt, canonical tags, URL structure |
| Performance (default) | Consistent Core Web Vitals via managed CDN | Luma: poor without investment. Hyvä: competitive with Shopify. |
| Security | Managed by Shopify. PCI DSS Level 1 by default. | Merchant’s responsibility. Monthly patch cycle from January 2026. |
| Transaction fees | 0.20% with third-party gateways; 0% with Shopify Payments | No platform transaction fee |
| Multi-brand from one install | Requires separate Plus contract per brand | Native multi-site: multiple brands, one codebase |
| AI features (2026) | Shopify Magic, Sidekick, Agentic Storefronts — lower activation friction | Sensei on Adobe Commerce; full agentic AI requires additional AEP license |
| Predictable pricing | Published tiers. Variable above GMV threshold. | Quote-based. TCO harder to forecast. |
Sources: shopify.com/pricing; shopify.com/plus/pricing; mgt-commerce.com/blog/magento-license-cost/; changelog.shopify.com (April 2, 2026); experienceleague.adobe.com.
11. Frequently Asked Questions
Can I migrate from Magento to Shopify without losing SEO rankings?
Migration is possible without permanent ranking loss, but requires deliberate planning. Product data, customer records, and order history transfer. What must be rebuilt: custom checkout flows, custom module functionality, and URL structures that do not map to Shopify’s format. The critical step is a complete 301 redirect map from every existing URL before launch. Google evaluates Core Web Vitals data over 28-day windows, per Google Search Central, so ranking movement settles over 30–90 days post-migration.
Does Shopify support B2B without upgrading to Plus?
Yes, as of April 2, 2026. Shopify extended foundational B2B features — company profiles, up to three custom pricing catalogs, payment terms, volume pricing, vaulted credit cards, and ACH payments in the US — to all paid plans at no extra cost, per the official Shopify changelog. Unlimited catalogs, partial payments, deposits, and direct catalog assignment to specific company locations remain exclusive to Shopify Plus.
What is the current Magento version and what PHP does it require?
Magento 2.4.9 reached general availability in May 2026 and requires PHP 8.4 or 8.5, per the Adobe Commerce release schedule. PHP 8.2 was dropped entirely in 2.4.9; PHP 8.3 is supported only for upgrade compatibility, not new builds. Magento 2.4.6 reaches end of regular support on August 11, 2026 — stores on that version must upgrade before that date.
Is Magento Open Source a viable choice in 2026?
Yes, for merchants with technical resources. Magento Open Source is free, actively maintained, and capable of delivering enterprise-grade stores when paired with Hyvä and a correctly configured server stack. The trade-off is full operational responsibility: hosting, security patches (monthly from January 2026, per mgt-commerce.com), version upgrades, and PCI compliance. For merchants who want Magento’s customization depth without the Adobe Commerce license fee, Open Source with managed hosting is a cost-effective path.
Can Magento on Hyvä compete with Shopify on page speed?
Yes. A Magento store on Hyvä with a correctly configured server stack (PHP 8.4/8.5 FPM, Varnish, Valkey, OpenSearch 3.x) typically achieves Lighthouse mobile scores above 90 and ships product pages at approximately 0.15MB, per mgt-commerce.com’s Hyvä guide. Magento on the default Luma theme does not compete with Shopify on performance without substantial optimization investment. The frontend choice is as consequential as the platform choice. Bemeir is the first and only Hyvä Gold Partner in the USA.
What is Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (ACCS)?
ACCS is Adobe’s fully managed, multi-tenant SaaS offering, launched in June 2025. It provides a versionless platform with automatic updates, removing the patch and upgrade burden of self-hosted Adobe Commerce, per mgt-commerce.com. The trade-off is reduced customization flexibility. ACCS positions Adobe Commerce closer to Shopify’s managed SaaS model while retaining the enterprise B2B feature set.
What happens to Shopify’s pricing at high revenue?
Shopify Plus shifts from a flat monthly fee to a variable 0.25% of monthly GMV above a revenue threshold, per shopify.com/plus/pricing. The variable fee is capped at $40,000/month. High-volume merchants should calculate whether their GMV-based fee exceeds the flat rate and whether switching to Shopify Payments — which eliminates the 0.20% third-party gateway surcharge, per shopify.com/pricing — improves total cost.
| On Shopify, Magento, or Deciding Between Them? Talk to Bemeir. |
| Bemeir is an Adobe Solution Partner and the first and only Hyvä Gold Partner in the USA — with 12+ years of Magento experience since 2010 and Hyvä Widgets used by 250+ Magento stores. |
| Bemeir builds and migrates on both Shopify and Magento. Whether you are optimizing a Magento store, building on Shopify, evaluating a platform migration, or deciding between the two for a new build — Bemeir gives you a direct recommendation based on your specific requirements, not a generic answer. |
| Schedule a 30-minute discovery call — or request a free site speed audit. |
| bemeir.com/shopify/ • bemeir.com/magento/ • bemeir.com/hyva/ • (212) 401-1969 |
