What is Shopify?
Shopify is a fully hosted ecommerce platform serving over four million stores worldwide. It provides the infrastructure, hosting, security, and payment processing as a single subscription — removing the need for separate server management, SSL certificates, or technical operations teams. Shopify offers two tiers: Standard Shopify for small to mid-size businesses, and Shopify Plus for enterprise operations requiring advanced checkout customisation, B2B functionality, expansion stores, and automation through Shopify Flow.
The platform has evolved significantly since its early days. Shopify 2.0 introduced sections everywhere, metafields, and a flexible content architecture that allows developers to build fully custom experiences. The app ecosystem exceeds 8,000 integrations, and the platform now supports headless commerce through the Storefront API.
What is Adobe Commerce (Magento)?
Adobe Commerce is an open-source ecommerce platform acquired by Adobe in 2018 and rebranded from Magento in 2021. It offers three deployment options: Open Source (free, self-hosted), Adobe Commerce Enterprise (licensed, self-hosted), and Adobe Commerce Cloud (licensed, Adobe-hosted). The platform is known for extensive customisation and has historically been the default for large B2B operations and complex catalogue requirements.
Magento 1 reached end of life in June 2020. Businesses still operating on Magento 1 are running unsupported, unpatched software — a significant security and compliance risk.
Pricing & Total Cost of Ownership
This is where the two platforms diverge most significantly, and where many comparison articles are misleading.
Shopify's pricing is transparent. Standard plans range from £25 to £344 per month. Shopify Plus starts from approximately $2,000 per month. Hosting, security, SSL, PCI compliance, and platform updates are included. The total cost of a Shopify build typically ranges from £2,000 to £30,000 depending on complexity.
Adobe Commerce's pricing is opaque. The open-source version is free to download, but the true cost includes hosting (£200–£2,000+ per month), SSL certificates, security patching, server administration, and developer time for every platform update. Enterprise and Cloud licenses add annual fees ranging from £15,000 to £100,000+. A typical Magento build costs £50,000 to £250,000, with ongoing maintenance of £2,000 to £10,000 per month.
The total cost of ownership over three years for a mid-market business is typically three to five times higher on Adobe Commerce than on Shopify.
Customisation
The claim that Shopify is limited in customisation is outdated. Shopify 2.0 introduced sections everywhere, metafields and metaobjects, checkout UI extensions (Plus), embedded apps built with Remix, the Storefront API for headless commerce, and Shopify Functions for custom backend logic.
Adobe Commerce offers deeper server-level customisation — you can modify the database schema, rewrite core modules, and deploy custom server-side logic. This flexibility comes with proportionally higher development costs, longer build timelines, and ongoing maintenance complexity.
For the majority of D2C and mid-market B2B businesses, Shopify's customisation capabilities are more than sufficient.
Performance & Security
Shopify's infrastructure is managed globally across a distributed CDN with 99.99% uptime. Security patches, PCI compliance, and SSL are handled automatically. There is no server to maintain.
Adobe Commerce requires dedicated server administration. Security patches must be applied manually. The platform has historically been a frequent target for security exploits — particularly stores running outdated versions. Maintaining a secure Adobe Commerce installation requires ongoing investment in server operations.
B2B Capabilities
This is Adobe Commerce's genuine strength. The platform offers native B2B functionality including customer-specific pricing, company accounts with buyer roles, requisition lists, quote workflows, and purchase order management.
Shopify Plus has introduced B2B capabilities including company profiles, custom catalogues, payment terms, and volume pricing. These features are improving rapidly but remain less mature than Adobe Commerce's offering. For businesses with complex B2B requirements, Adobe Commerce may still be more appropriate.
When to Choose Shopify
Shopify is right for your business if you want to launch faster and iterate quickly, you want predictable monthly costs with no infrastructure surprises, your team does not include dedicated server administrators, you are selling D2C or operating a mid-market B2B model, and you want to invest your budget in marketing and growth rather than infrastructure maintenance.
When to Choose Adobe Commerce
Adobe Commerce may be right if you have genuinely unique B2B requirements that Shopify Plus cannot address, you operate ten or more distinct storefronts, your catalogue exceeds 500,000 SKUs, you have an in-house development team with Adobe Commerce expertise, and your annual technology budget exceeds £100,000.
Our Recommendation
For the vast majority of growing ecommerce businesses — particularly D2C brands, fashion retailers, and mid-market B2B operations — Shopify delivers superior value. We have migrated businesses from Magento to Shopify and seen immediate improvements in page performance, operational efficiency, and total cost reduction.
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