Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce: Which Edition Should You Migrate To?

According to BuiltWith, approximately 139,435 live Magento stores are active, and the vast majority of them run on Magento 2. If you're planning a migration, you'll face a decision that most guides treat as an afterthought: which Magento 2 edition do you actually migrate to?

The two options are Magento Open Source, which is free, self-hosted, and community-supported, and Adobe Commerce, the paid enterprise platform that starts at $22,000 per year and scales with your revenue. Both share the same Magento 2 core. But the gap between them, in cost, features, and long-term overhead, is significant enough that picking the wrong one during migration creates real problems down the road.

This guide is specifically for store owners planning a migration, not for people starting from scratch. The decision looks different when you're moving an existing operation. Your current data volume, B2B setup, and team's technical capacity all factor in, and the cost comparison is more complex than the license fee alone.

First, Understand What Changed in 2025

Adobe restructured its product lineup in mid-2025. The biggest change: Adobe launched Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (ACCS) in June 2025, a new fully managed SaaS deployment model that sits alongside the existing PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) option on cloud infrastructure.

So when people say 'Adobe Commerce' in 2025 and beyond, they might mean one of three things:

1. Adobe Commerce on-premise: licensed software you host yourself
2. Adobe Commerce on Cloud (PaaS): Adobe-managed cloud infrastructure, single-tenant
3. Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (ACCS): multi-tenant SaaS, launched June 2025

Most migration discussions still treat Adobe Commerce as a single product. It isn't anymore. ACCS, in particular, offers a different trade-off: less customisation flexibility, but automatic updates and simpler infrastructure management. Pricing for ACCS is quote-based and not yet publicly disclosed by Adobe.

Magento Open Source hasn't changed its fundamental structure. It remains free to download, self-hosted, and community-supported. What has changed is the third-party ecosystem around it, notably the Hyva theme, which is now the dominant frontend choice for Open Source stores looking for serious performance without the cost of Adobe Commerce.

What is Magento Open Source?

Magento Open Source is the free, downloadable edition of the Magento 2 platform. You install it on your own server infrastructure, manage hosting, security patches, and updates yourself, and extend it using extensions from the Adobe Commerce Marketplace or third-party vendors. The platform's source code is available on GitHub and can be customised extensively.

What You Get Out of the Box

The core feature set is substantial for a free platform. Out of the box, Magento Open Source covers:

• Catalog management: product types, variants, attributes, categories
• Cart and checkout, including multi-step checkout and guest checkout
• Customer accounts and order management
• Multi-currency and multi-language support
• Basic promotions and discount rules
• SEO-friendly URL structures and sitemaps
• A robust REST and GraphQL API for integrations

For a mid-size B2C store with a competent development team, this gets you surprisingly far. The API layer in particular makes it viable for headless commerce setups without paying for Adobe Commerce.

What You'll Need to Add Yourself

The gaps become obvious quickly when you start comparing to what Adobe Commerce includes by default:

• B2B functionality (company accounts, quotes, credit limits): requires extensions
• Advanced search (Live Search with AI): not available; alternatives cost extra
• Content staging and scheduling: not included
• Customer segmentation for personalisation: not included
• Business intelligence dashboards: not included
• Direct Adobe support: not available; you rely on community forums

This doesn't mean Open Source is underpowered. It means the total cost of ownership depends heavily on what you need. If you're migrating a B2C store under $5M in annual revenue and have an in-house or agency dev team, Open Source often covers 80–90% of your needs through extensions at a fraction of Adobe Commerce's cost.

What is Adobe Commerce?

Adobe Commerce, formerly known as Magento Enterprise and Magento Commerce, is the paid, licensed edition of the Magento platform. It includes everything in Magento Open Source plus a significant layer of enterprise features, direct Adobe support, and (depending on the edition) managed cloud infrastructure.

Adobe Commerce On-Premise and Cloud (PaaS)

The on-premise edition gives you the full Adobe Commerce software, hosted on your own infrastructure. You pay Adobe a license fee based on your annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), then handle your own hosting and server management.

According to pricing data consistently cited across multiple implementation partners (and consistent with Adobe's contract structure, which ties fees to GMV tiers), license fees run from approximately $22,000/year for stores under $1M in GMV up to $125,000+/year for higher-revenue operations. Adobe Cloud (PaaS) bundles in managed infrastructure, pushing the total to $40,000–$190,000+/year depending on GMV and configuration.

Adobe does not publish these figures publicly. Every contract is quote-based. The numbers above reflect consistent ranges from implementation partners and verified user reviews , so treat them as benchmarks, not guarantees.

Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (ACCS): The New SaaS Option

Launched in June 2025, ACCS represents Adobe's shift toward a multi-tenant SaaS model. Unlike the PaaS version, ACCS handles updates automatically and removes the need for merchants to manage patching. Customisation is API-based rather than code-level, which limits what you can do but simplifies ongoing maintenance.

If you're migrating from a non-Magento platform and plan to keep customisation relatively light, ACCS is worth exploring in your Adobe sales conversation. If you have substantial custom extensions or deeply modified store logic, the PaaS option or Open Source will give you more flexibility.

Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce: Head-to-Head Comparison

The table below covers the features most relevant to a migration decision. All data is sourced from Adobe's official feature comparison page.

Source: Adobe Commerce official feature comparison

Pricing: The Real Numbers

The single most misleading thing in most comparison articles: they present Open Source as 'free' and Adobe Commerce as expensive, then stop there. The honest picture is more complicated.

Magento Open Source has no license fee, but it isn't free to run. A typical Open Source implementation for a mid-size store includes:

• Managed hosting: $500–$3,000/month depending on traffic and infrastructure
• Developer costs for setup, customisation, and ongoing maintenance
• Extensions: individual modules average $100–$500 each; B2B functionality can run $2,000–$10,000 in extensions
• Security monitoring and patching (your team's responsibility)

Add it up for a moderately complex store and you're often looking at $50,000–$150,000 per year in total cost of ownership. That's still less than Adobe Commerce for most stores The gap, however, is narrower than the headline pricing suggests.

Adobe Commerce's license starts at $22,000/year (on-premise) for stores under $1M GMV, climbing with revenue. On Cloud, you get managed infrastructure but the bill grows accordingly. The advantage is that many costs Open Source merchants pay separately (hosting, security, and search) are bundled into Adobe Commerce. For high-revenue stores, particularly B2B operations where the built-in features replace significant extension spend, the ROI calculation can tip in Adobe Commerce's favor.

The crossover point varies by store, but a rough rule of thumb: if your annual GMV is under $5M and you have a reliable dev team, Open Source almost always wins on total cost. Above $10M GMV, especially with B2B requirements, Adobe Commerce starts to look more rational.

B2B Features: Where the Gap Is Widest

If your store serves business buyers (company accounts, custom pricing, quote requests, purchase order workflows), this section matters more than any other. Adobe Commerce includes a native B2B module with:

• Company account management with user roles and permissions
• Shared catalogs with customer-specific pricing
• Quote management: buyers can request quotes, negotiate, and convert to orders
• Credit limits and purchase order payment methods
• Requisition lists for repeat ordering

Magento Open Source has none of this natively. You can replicate parts of it with third-party extensions, but a full B2B setup on Open Source typically involves multiple extensions from different vendors, each with its own update cycle and compatibility risk. The integration overhead is real.

If B2B is your primary sales channel, migrating to Open Source and trying to rebuild Adobe Commerce's B2B functionality through extensions is a path worth thinking through carefully. In many cases, the extension cost plus integration work erodes the license savings.

Scalability and Performance

Both editions share the same Magento 2 core, so the base performance characteristics are identical. What differs is the infrastructure layer and the built-in tooling.

Magento Open Source runs on a single database by default. At high traffic volumes or large catalog sizes, this becomes a constraint. You can work around it through proper caching, Elasticsearch, and a well-configured server stack, but it requires expertise and ongoing attention.

Adobe Commerce on Cloud uses a split-database architecture and comes with Fastly CDN, Elasticsearch (OpenSearch), and auto-scaling as part of the package. For stores that routinely handle traffic spikes (sales events, seasonal peaks, rapid growth), the managed infrastructure removes a significant operational burden.

For most stores migrating from another platform, this distinction won't be the deciding factor immediately. Where it matters is in the 18–36 months post-migration as your store grows. If you anticipate rapid GMV growth, the architectural ceiling of Open Source is worth factoring into your migration plan.

Security and Support

Adobe releases security patches for both editions. The difference is who applies them and how fast.

On Open Source, patching is your responsibility. Adobe publishes the patches; your team installs them. If you're running a managed hosting environment with a good agency, this works fine. If you're self-managing a server and updates fall behind, you accumulate risk. Adobe stopped releasing Magento 1 security patches in June 2020. Stores that did not migrate paid that price in vulnerability exposure.

Adobe Commerce on Cloud automatically applies security patches to the infrastructure layer and provides direct access to Adobe's support team with defined SLAs. For enterprise stores where downtime has direct revenue impact, that support channel has real value.

Magento Open Source doesn't come with any direct support from Adobe. The community is large and active (forums, Stack Overflow, Magento developer communities), but when something breaks at 2am before a major sale, the community doesn't have a phone number.

The Edition Decision During Migration: Why It's Different

Starting a new Magento 2 store and migrating an existing operation are different problems. When you migrate, you're moving:

• Existing customer data (accounts, order history, addresses)
• Product catalog (potentially thousands of SKUs with custom attributes)
• Custom extensions or store logic built on your current platform
• SEO equity: URL structures, redirects, metadata

The edition you migrate to determines what happens to that existing functionality. If you're running a WooCommerce store with custom B2B pricing logic and you migrate to Open Source, you'll need extensions that replicate that logic. If you migrate to Adobe Commerce, the B2B module may cover much of it natively, though the migration itself is more complex and expensive.

Migration complexity also affects timeline. A straightforward Magento 2 migration to Open Source can be completed in a few weeks. Migrating to Adobe Commerce, particularly if you are implementing B2B features or moving from a highly customised platform, typically runs longer and requires more specialist expertise.

One thing most guides skip: you can migrate to Open Source now and upgrade to Adobe Commerce later. The codebase is compatible. Stores that start on Open Source and eventually hit its ceiling (typically when B2B requirements grow or GMV clears $5–10M) do upgrade. It is not a one-way door, but the upgrade is not trivial either. Expect a development cycle similar to a migration.

Which Edition Should You Migrate To? A Scenario-Based Framework

Here's the honest answer by situation:

Migrate to Magento Open Source if...

• Your annual GMV is under $5M and you don't anticipate exceeding that in the next 2 to 3 years
• Your store is primarily B2C with standard discount/promotion needs
• You have an in-house developer or a reliable Magento agency managing your store
• You want maximum control over your infrastructure and costs
• You're migrating from WooCommerce, Shopify, or a basic custom store

Open Source paired with good managed hosting and a curated set of extensions handles the vast majority of B2C ecommerce requirements at a fraction of the cost. Don't pay for Adobe Commerce features you won't use.

Migrate to Adobe Commerce if...

• Your annual GMV is $5M+ or growing rapidly toward it
• B2B sales are a core channel, and company accounts, quotes, and custom pricing are non-negotiable
• You need content staging, advanced personalisation, or deep Adobe Experience Cloud integration
• Your team doesn't have the bandwidth to manage server infrastructure and patching
• You're migrating from a legacy enterprise platform (SAP Hybris, Salesforce Commerce Cloud) and need enterprise-grade feature parity

Adobe Commerce's built-in B2B module, native AI search, content staging, and managed infrastructure make the license cost justifiable once your store hits enterprise scale. Below that threshold, you're paying for features you don't need.

How MageDelight Can Help You Make the Right Call?

Choosing the edition is one decision. Actually executing the migration (moving your data, preserving your SEO, rebuilding your extensions on the new platform) is another. That's where having the right migration partner matters.

MageDelight's Magento 2 Migration Service covers migrations from Magento 1, WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, and other platforms to both Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce. Their team has 20+ years of Magento experience and 82+ certified Magento developers, and they handle the full migration scope: database migration, design integration, extension rebuilding, and post-launch optimisation.

If you're still weighing which edition fits your operation, MageDelight's team can walk through the specifics of your store, including current platform, data volume, B2B requirements, and budget, and give you a clear recommendation before you commit to a direction. That conversation happens before the migration starts, not after you've already moved.

You can also explore their wider set of Magento 2 extensions, including AI-powered catalog tools and Hyva theme development services, both relevant if you are migrating to Open Source and want to optimise performance and catalog presentation post-launch.

The Bottom Line

Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce are not really competing products. They serve different store types at different stages. Open Source is the right call for most migrating stores: lower cost, full customisation, and a mature extension ecosystem that covers most B2C needs. Adobe Commerce is the right call when B2B is core to your business, when GMV is at enterprise scale, or when you need the managed infrastructure and direct support that comes with the license.

The edition you pick now doesn't lock you in permanently, but changing course later costs time and money. Getting the decision right before migration is cheaper than fixing it after the fact.

If you want help thinking through which edition fits your store , and what a migration would actually involve, MageDelight's migration team is a good starting point.