Magento or Shopify?
Comprehensive comparison

Magento (now Adobe Commerce) and Shopify represent two different approaches to e-commerce. Magento is an open-source platform requiring its own infrastructure and developer team. Shopify is SaaS — managed hosting, automatic updates and an app ecosystem.

Neither platform is objectively better — the choice depends on specific needs, resources and strategy. Below we present an objective comparison of key parameters.

Magento is available as open-source software (Magento Open Source) or in the paid Adobe Commerce version. However, the total cost of ownership of Magento is significantly higher than the licence price suggests:

• Hosting: dedicated server, minimum $200–2,000/month depending on scale
• Maintenance: regular developer team for security updates and bug fixes
• Extensions: paid modules often cost $100–1,000 each
• Implementation: a Magento project typically costs 50,000–500,000+ PLN

Shopify Plus starts at around $2,300/month. The price includes hosting, security, updates and technical support. Shopify reports −33% lower TCO and −23% lower platform costs compared to competitors.

Magento requires planning and infrastructure management as traffic grows. Peak periods such as Black Friday may require temporary server scaling, generating additional costs and operational risk.

Shopify Plus automatically scales infrastructure, handling 10,000+ transactions per minute without issues. Shopify guarantees 99.99% SLA uptime and infrastructure management is completely transparent for the store owner.

Historically Magento had an SEO advantage due to full control over URL structure and technical configuration. Shopify Plus has significantly narrowed this gap:

• Shopify: automatic sitemap generation, canonical URLs, hreflang support
• Shopify: fast page loading thanks to the global CDN
• Magento: full control over technical SEO, but requires knowledge and manual configuration
• Magento: greater flexibility in product and category URL structure

Shopify App Store offers 13,000+ apps — ready solutions for every aspect of e-commerce. Installation takes minutes, most apps have a trial period. This allows stores to quickly test new features without implementation costs.

Magento has a rich module ecosystem (Magento Marketplace), but installation and configuration of each module requires development work. Adapting a module to an existing installation can be time-consuming.

Magento is worth considering when:

• You have custom business requirements not met by Shopify apps
• You have an in-house PHP/Magento developer team
• You want full control over the platform source code
• You need very complex pricing logic or catalogue management

Shopify Plus is worth choosing when:

• You want to focus on business, not IT infrastructure
• You need fast launch with low technical risk
• You are planning scaling or international expansion
• You want to optimise the total cost of platform ownership

For most growing e-commerce companies, Shopify Plus offers a better capability-to-cost ratio than Magento. Lower TCO, automatic scalability and a rich app ecosystem allow you to focus on growth, not infrastructure management.

Magento remains a valuable choice for projects requiring maximum technical flexibility with mature developer teams.

Not sure which platform is right for your project? Contact us — we will advise based on your specific requirements, not just trends.