Comparisons

Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce: Which Should You Choose?

Adobe Commerce charges a licence; Open Source is free. The honest breakdown of what you actually get for the money and when each is right.

The Short Answer

Magento Open Source is free; Adobe Commerce is a paid licence that adds B2B features, Page Builder Premium content tools, business intelligence, and managed cloud hosting. For UK merchants under £5M GMV without complex B2B requirements, Open Source plus Hyva is almost always the right call. For B2B-heavy mid-market merchants who'd otherwise build company accounts, shared catalogues, and quote workflows from scratch, Adobe Commerce can pay for itself. The middle ground is where most of the wasted money sits.

The Magento product line is confusing on purpose. Adobe's pricing isn't public, the open-source version is full-featured for most stores, and the "Adobe Commerce" branding bundles the licensed software with the managed cloud hosting in a way that makes it hard to compare prices to anything.

This guide is the honest version. What you actually get, what it costs, and when each option is the right call for a UK ecommerce business.

What you get with Magento Open Source

Magento Open Source is the free version. It's not a stripped-down trial. It includes:

Full Magento 2 catalogue, customer, order, payment, shipping, tax, and CMS functionality
Native multi-store, multi-site, multi-currency, multi-language support
The REST and GraphQL APIs
PageBuilder (the visual content editor, the standard version)
Native account management, cart price rules, catalogue price rules, search
Theme system (which is what Hyva plugs into)
All the extension hooks the third-party module ecosystem builds on

What's missing compared to Adobe Commerce:

B2B feature set. Company accounts, shared catalogues (public + custom), negotiable quotes, requisition lists, purchase orders
Page Builder Premium content types
Business intelligence / Adobe Commerce Reporting
Adobe Sensei AI features (product recommendations, live search)
Managed cloud hosting (Adobe Commerce on Cloud), and the deployment pipeline that comes with it
Adobe support contract
Some advanced B2B-adjacent admin tools like staging and preview, content staging, advanced workflows

What Adobe Commerce actually costs

Adobe doesn't publish a price list. The licence is sold via Adobe sales, contracts are negotiated, and the price is banded by Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and Average Order Value (AOV).

Indicative UK 2026 figures from agency reporting:

Under £1M GMV: roughly $22,000 to $40,000 per year
£1M to £5M GMV: roughly $40,000 to $75,000 per year
£5M to £25M GMV: roughly $75,000 to $150,000 per year
£25M+ GMV: $150,000+ per year, contracts vary widely

These are licence figures only. They don't include the build, hosting (if you're not on Adobe Commerce Cloud), agency support, extensions, or transaction costs. Add 25 to 40% for Adobe Commerce Cloud which includes the managed hosting.

For the full picture next to a Shopify Plus equivalent, see Magento 2 vs Shopify Plus.

When Adobe Commerce is worth it

Three scenarios where Adobe Commerce earns its licence fee:

Genuine B2B trading at scale. If you need per-customer pricing tied to corporate account hierarchies, multi-tier approval workflows, quote-to-order conversion, requisition lists, and payment-on-account terms, the Adobe Commerce B2B feature set is the most complete in mainstream ecommerce. Building any of that on Open Source is a six-figure custom development project, and you're still maintaining it forever. The break-even on Adobe Commerce B2B is usually clear within a year for genuine B2B merchants.

Adobe Commerce Cloud as managed hosting. If your in-house team can't run Magento ops and you'd otherwise hire a dedicated DevOps partner, Adobe Commerce Cloud's bundled hosting, deployment pipeline, monitoring, and support contract take a real chunk of operational risk off your plate. The price premium versus self-hosted Open Source on a competent UK Magento host is real, but for many merchants it's worth paying.

You're in the Adobe stack already. If you're already using Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, or Marketo, the Adobe Commerce integration story is meaningful. The Sensei product recommendations and Live Search are genuinely useful for stores doing the scale to need them.

When Open Source is the right call

Most UK Magento merchants. Specifically:

You're under £5M GMV and the Adobe Commerce licence would land in the £20-40k/yr range without obvious feature payback.
Your B2B needs are simple or non-existent. Standard customer accounts plus cart price rules plus a quote-request form via a plugin covers it.
You have a Magento agency partner who handles your hosting and ops. Open Source plus a competent UK Magento host is more flexible and cheaper than Adobe Commerce Cloud.
You want to own your stack. Open Source means no vendor licence renewal, no GMV-based price increase next year, no contract negotiations.

What about Mage-OS?

Mage-OS is a community fork of Magento Open Source that emerged in 2022 as a hedge against Adobe deprioritising the open-source line. It's actively maintained, broadly compatible with Magento Open Source modules and Hyva, and has growing agency support in Europe.

If you're already on Magento Open Source, the practical case for Mage-OS today is "we want a backup if Adobe stops investing." It's not a different platform you'd migrate to from a cold start. For most UK merchants, staying on Magento Open Source is fine for now, but Mage-OS is worth knowing about as the community option.

The decision framework

Three questions get you to the answer in under five minutes:

Do you have real B2B requirements? Per-customer pricing tied to company hierarchies, quote workflows, requisition lists, payment-on-account? If yes, Adobe Commerce B2B is a strong default. If "we have a few wholesale accounts," Open Source plus a B2B module from Amasty or similar covers it.
Do you want managed hosting? If yes and you'd otherwise hire DevOps, Adobe Commerce Cloud is worth pricing. If no or you have a Magento host you trust, Open Source.
Is your business inside the Adobe stack? If yes, the integration story tips the maths. If no, the integration is a non-issue.

If you answered "no" to all three, you're on Open Source. The licence saving alone pays for a Hyva build inside 12 months.

What about Adobe's commitment to Magento?

This is the question CTOs ask in quiet rooms. The honest answer is: nobody has a definitive read. Adobe has invested in Magento since acquiring it in 2018, but there have been periods of slow release cadence and uncertain product direction. The 2.4.8 release in April 2025 and 2.4.9 in May 2026 are evidence that the platform is still maintained. The Mage-OS fork exists precisely because some of the community wants insurance.

Practical conclusion: it's fine to commit to Magento for the next three to five years. After that, plan to revisit. If you're committing for 10 years, factor in the platform risk seriously.

Frequently asked questions

Can I downgrade from Adobe Commerce to Open Source if my contract ends?

In principle yes — the data model is the same and most modules work on both. In practice you'll need to migrate off Adobe Commerce Cloud (if that's where your hosting was) and re-implement anything that depended on Adobe Commerce-only features like B2B company accounts or Sensei recommendations. Plan it as a small replatform project, not a no-op switch.

Does Adobe Commerce include hosting?

Adobe Commerce on Cloud does — the licence and the managed hosting are bundled. Adobe Commerce on-premise is licence-only, you arrange hosting separately. Most new Adobe Commerce customers go on Cloud, but some larger merchants stick with on-premise for control and flexibility.

Can I use Hyva with Adobe Commerce?

Yes. Hyva works on both Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce, including Adobe Commerce Cloud. For B2B installs there's a specific Hyva Enterprise tier (€2,500/year) that adds B2B-specific theme components on top of the free Theme.

What's the difference between Magento Commerce and Adobe Commerce?

Same product, renamed. 'Magento Commerce' was the licensed version's name before Adobe consolidated branding around 'Adobe Commerce' in 2021. You'll still see 'Magento Commerce' in older documentation and contracts.

Will my Open Source modules work on Adobe Commerce?

Yes, almost always. Adobe Commerce is built on the same codebase as Open Source, with the additional features layered on top. Modules that target Magento 2 generally work on both, though some commercial modules sell Adobe-Commerce-specific extended versions with extra features for B2B or enterprise use cases.

Does Adobe Commerce get faster security patches than Open Source?

Both versions get the same security patches on the same release schedule. Adobe Commerce customers do get access to additional managed services around patch deployment via Cloud, and the contractual support contract provides faster escalation paths. The patches themselves land at the same time.

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