How Much Does Magento 2 Cost? Exploring Pricing and Considerations

The dramatic development of digital technologies has transformed global commerce entirely. The demand for online shopping has been continuously increasing. Regardless of your industry, as long as you want to obtain more customers and generate more revenue, you definitely should have a strong online presence.

When planning to start an online store, you may probably want to know more about Magento. Magento is well known as a robust eCommerce platform. The platform is functional, stable, scalable, and customizable. Therefore, it can serve all types and sizes of businesses.

Discover the power of Magento for your online store. Explore its features, benefits, and cost-effective solutions to build your eCommerce website. How Much Does Magento 2 Cost? Get started today.

What is Magento?

Magento, first introduced by Varien, Inc in 2007, and recently acquired by Adobe, is a powerful platform that allows merchants to create eCommerce websites efficiently. Technically, Magento is open-source, written in PHP scripting language, and leveraging Zend Framework’s components.

Magento fulfills almost all online business requirements, such as managing catalogs, inventories, customers, and orders, supporting marketing and SEO, allowing multiple shipping and payment methods, etc. Moreover, Magento allows users to freely edit source code and add third-party modules to customize or extend default functions.

Magento is now ranked in the top 3 popular eCommerce platforms used by the first one million websites. Magento powers each 8 out of 100 well-known online shops. Many big firms like Nike, Samsung, Coca Cola, and more are now operating on Magento.

Many website developers prefer Magento because of its customizability, extensibility, and scalability.

Magento 1 vs. Magento 2

Magento Community Edition 1.0 was officially released in March 2008, marking the beginning of an era in eCommerce. As the platform evolved, subsequent versions of Magento 1 improved in terms of optimization, stability, and security. However, while these updates brought incremental enhancements, they didn’t introduce many advanced features that merchants were eagerly seeking.

But then, in a game-changing move, Magento 2 development was announced just two years later. This new iteration of the platform sparked excitement and anticipation within the eCommerce community. The beta version was made available on GitHub, allowing developers and enthusiasts to actively contribute to the source code and shape the future of Magento.

Finally, in 2015, the long-awaited Magento 2 merchant version was launched, propelling the platform to a whole new level of innovation and performance. With an array of cutting-edge features and enhanced scalability, Magento 2 provided merchants with a powerful and flexible solution to build their online stores. If you care about the differences between Magento 1 and Magento 2.

Read more: Magento 1 vs Magento 2 Comparisons

Technology

Magento 2 supports the most recent innovations, such as voice search, UI/UX, AI, speed and performance optimization, etc. Backed by an active community, Magento 2 continues to introduce more advanced features.

Architecture

By supporting newer versions of PHP (programming language), MySQL (database), Apache, and Nginx (web server), the platform’s performance is significantly improved.

Performance

Magento 2 loading speed is about 30 to 50% faster than Magento 1. Magento 2 sites can handle 10 million page views per hour, while predecessor would only support two hundred thousand. The number of orders processed within one hour also increases by up to 39%.

Dashboard

Compared to the messy design of Magento 1, the Magento 2 admin panel is simplified and modernized. The more responsive, interactive, and user-friendly backend allows users to manage their stores efficiently.

Security

Magento 2 has robust security and stability. By strengthening the hashing algorithms for passwords, it prevents most types of attacks.

In general, Magento 2 is much more functional, flexible, and reliable. Furthermore, the updates and security patches for Magento 1 were completely terminated from July 2020. Therefore, there is no reason to develop a website on Magento 1 or put off the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

Magento Open Source vs. Magento Commerce

When talking about Magento, it is crucial to consider its different offers. While Magento is often thought of as an open-source and on-premise solution, it has commercial and cloud-hosted options.

Each edition comes with a specific set of features. Understanding their capabilities help you choose the most appropriate option for your project.

In its early years, Magento provided two different solutions, which are Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE). In 2017, these plans were rebranded into Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce, respectively. The cloud-hosted solution was introduced as Magento Commerce Cloud.

Magento Open Source

This is a free package available for everyone to download and install. The merchants using Magento Open Source are responsible for other website development costs like domain or hosting.

The default functions already support basic online business needs. However, store owners can even access more advanced features by integrating third-party modules.

Magento Open Source is perfect for small and medium-sized businesses because it does not require a vast initial investment. When their businesses scale up, merchants are also supported to upgrade to higher plans.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce offers a versatile and scalable commerce platform that empowers you to create highly personalized experiences for both B2B and B2C audiences, regardless of the number of brands you manage.

With Adobe Commerce, you can effortlessly build immersive commerce experiences across multiple channels, catering to both B2B and B2C customers, all from a single platform. Witness the platform’s capabilities in action during this concise, two-minute tour of Adobe Commerce. Gain insights into our visual merchandising tools, learn about segmentation and personalization techniques, and delve into advanced experience management features. Additionally, discover how we simplify support, enhance security, and offer managed cloud services.

Adobe Commerce Cloud

Adobe Commerce Cloud (ACC) is an innovative package deal that offers businesses a versatile and expandable all-in-one solution to effectively oversee, customize, and enhance the overall commerce experience at every interaction and throughout the entire customer process.

As the name implies, Adobe Commerce Cloud is hosted in the cloud. This implies that Adobe provides hosting services as part of the software licensing cost. However, unlike Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the responsibility for making updates and managing maintenance still rests with the merchant.

How much does it cost? Is Magento free?

We believe that many people wonder whether Magento is free. We all know that Magento Open Source is free of charge.

You can download the package from Magento official website, install it on your server, make configuration adjustments, or even customize the source code to fulfill your business requirements.

You can also use various free extensions and themes provided by Magento extension builders to enhance your site.

However, launching an online business goes beyond downloading and installing the platform. You have to pay for domain and hosting services.

Moreover, in return to Magento’s flexibility is its complexity. If you don’t have good technical skills, working with Magento can be challenging.

To set up the system properly, implement customization or maintenance, you will have to hire a developer or an agency. To make your site’s visual more attractive and obtain more advanced features, you need to purchase paid themes and third-party plugins. These things are not cheap.

We can make a statement that Magento Open Source is free, but building a Magento eCommerce website is not free.

How much does it cost to build a Magento eCommerce website?

Because Magento 1 is no longer supported and the price of Magento 2 Commerce and Commerce Cloud is well-informed, we will focus on the costs for Magento 2 Open Source store development in this blog.

It is hard to estimate the exact amount of money you have to spend. There are too many things to take into consideration. Some components are even not perceived. To help merchants become more active in planning their project cost, we would like to jot down the most basic and essential expenses incurring when running a Magento-based website.

Cost for website domain

For an online business, the domain is like a store’s name. Your website domain should be impressive, easy to read, and remember. Seeking and purchasing a great domain is not a simple task.

You can acquire a domain for your e-store by either buying a brand-new one or shopping around for an aged one.

The price of a brand-new domain is from $10 to $15 per year, depending on the domain name extension you choose.

The cost for an aged domain, also known as expired domain, varies from hundreds to thousands of dollars, up to the domain values. However, acquiring an aged domain, you can inherit valuable site data, like domain authority or page authority, which is typically good for SEO.

Cost for hosting service

Hosting is one of the most critical price factors when running a Magento store. There are many different types and plans of hosting for you to select. The price also varies from provider to provider.

For example, a self-managed hosting service often charges from $10 to $250 per month. Meanwhile, you will have to pay at least $190 per month for managed hosting.

The hosting expense will mainly depend on your business size and your predicted site traffic.

Read more: How to Choose The Best Magento Hosting?

Cost for Magento 2 themes

Magento 2 theme is the most vital component of your store’s visual. The default theme, LUMA, or other simple free themes may not satisfy your needs for a unique and sophisticated store frontend.

The most cost-effective method is to pick a paid template from Magento Marketplace. The price of available themes ranges from $30 to $499.

However, to make the ready-made theme perfectly fit your branding, you may want to hire a frontend developer for precise customization. If there are not many complicated tasks, you may have work done at an affordable price of $1000 to $2500. The average salary of a junior frontend developer is about $50,000 - $60,000 per year.

Besides, you can even get a web agency to build your theme. The price for a custom design is possibly more than $10,000.

Cost for Magento 2 extensions

Despite rich out-of-box built-in features, Magento 2 extensions still play a significant role in stores’ success. Magento extensions support to extend the default functionality and equip new functions to handle unique business problems.

Like Magento 2 theme, you can decide to build your extensions from scratch. However, to implement this, you will have to hire experienced Magento developers at a relatively high cost.

A more effective approach is integrating third-party modules. There are 3000+ free and paid extensions on Magento Marketplace.

The price for one Magento 2 plugin can be around $50 to $500, depending on the set of features and the vendor you choose. Some modules for connecting Magento 2 and other platforms can cost more than $10,000. There is no accurate range for the budget you have to spend on Magento extensions.

Website development cost

The expense of website development is the most expensive one when launching a Magento eCommerce store. As a sophisticated platform, Magento requires a certain level of technical skills and a thorough understanding of its mechanism. Thus, store owners should consider: hiring a Magento developer (freelancer) or a web development agency or forming an in-house IT team.

Hire a web developer

It costs you about $10 to $200 per hour to hire a Magento developer. The exact fee is calculated based on the developer’s experience and portfolio. The costs vary significantly from the east to the west marketplace.

South-East Asia: $10 – $20/ hour Eastern Europe: $20 – $60/ hour US, UK, and Western Europe: $150 – $200/ hour

When deciding to hire a freelancer for your project, you should put effort into evaluating freelancer’s profile like his reputation, certificates, skillset, etc. to avoid any unexpected poor performance.

Leverage development agency

Hiring a web development agency is the most expensive approach. However, you will get high quality and professional support provided by certified and experienced Magento developers in return.

Magento agencies often charge based on the expertise of their developer teams. The average rate of Magento experts is around $125. The development of a Magento Open Source website may start at $50,000 (for both design and development).

Set up an in-house developer team

An in-house IT department’s expenses can be in the range of $60,000 to $120,000 per year.

Medium-sized and large enterprises prefer this method to keep up with rapid changes in business needs continually. Building your technical team, you can fully control the development process.

Site maintenance cost

Frequent Magento maintenance ensures store stability and smooth performance, preventing any potential disruption due to technical issues. Maintenance activities may include updating the Magento version and security patches. The expense for these activities are determined by store scope, frequency, and level of expertise required.

The estimated cost starts from $80 to $125 per hour, and the annual fee may end up from $500 to $1,000, depending on each service provider.

If you desire to get superior support, you may have to spend up to $30,000 to $40,000 per year. Key takeaway: There is no fixed cost for developing Magento-based websites. There is a wide range of solutions that merchants can take advantage of when building their eCommerce stores. Therefore, the total expenses reflect each store owner’s goals and decisions.

Commonly, building a functional website using Magento 2 Open Source cost you from $1,000 to $150,000.

Magento Store Setup Price

In this post, I can provide you with a general idea of the cost to set up a Magento store. However, please note that the actual price can vary depending on several factors such as the complexity of the project, design requirements, customization needs, number of products, and additional functionalities desired.

The cost to set up a Magento store typically includes the following components:

1. Development and Design: This involves creating and customizing the website design, layout, and user interface. It also includes implementing branding elements and ensuring a responsive design for mobile devices. The cost for development and design can range from $3,000 to $15,000 or more, depending on the complexity and extent of customization.
2. Extensions and Modules: Magento offers a wide range of extensions and modules to enhance the functionality of your store. The cost of extensions can vary greatly, ranging from free to several hundred dollars or more, depending on the specific features and functionality required.
3. Hosting and Infrastructure: You’ll need to choose a hosting provider for your Magento store. The cost of hosting can vary depending on factors such as server resources, scalability, performance, and support. Hosting prices typically range from $10 to $500 per month or more, depending on the hosting provider and plan chosen.
4. Payment Gateway Integration: If you plan to accept online payments, you may need to integrate a payment gateway with your Magento store. The cost of payment gateway integration can vary depending on the specific gateway provider and any additional setup or transaction fees involved.
5. SSL Certificate: An SSL certificate ensures secure communication between your website and visitors. SSL certificates can be purchased annually, and the cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars per year, depending on the type and level of SSL certificate you choose.

It’s important to note that the above estimates are rough figures, and the actual cost of setting up a Magento store can vary significantly based on your unique requirements and the pricing structure of the service providers you choose. It’s advisable to consult with Magento development agencies or professionals to get a more accurate quote based on your specific needs.

Edition-based Cost

1. Magento Open Source The cost to use the Magento Open Source platform is free. Magento Open Source (formerly known as Magento Community Edition) is an open-source version of Magento, provided free of charge to the user community. You can download and use Magento Open Source without any cost.

However, deploying and managing an online store on Magento Open Source still entails other expenses such as domain registration, hosting services, purchasing additional themes or extensions, as well as the cost of website development and maintenance. These costs depend on the specific scale and requirements of your project.

1. Adobe Commerce Magento Commerce Cloud, also known as Adobe Commerce, shares similarities with Magento Commerce but offers two additional superior features. Although it depends on your store’s volume and how many services it needs, your store can start at around $2,000 per month. Monthly cost breakdowns should be assessed once you have your annual plan in place.

Firstly, Magento Commerce Cloud provides a built-in cloud infrastructure to securely back up all your data, ensuring protection against hard drive failures or unexpected events.

Secondly, this version includes a hosting plan, eliminating the need for separate server expenses. Consequently, the pricing for Magento Commerce Cloud is higher compared to Magento Commerce. In general, it costs around $22,000/year.

1. Adobe Commerce Cloud While specific pricing details for Adobe Commerce Cloud have not been disclosed, it follows a similar model to Magento Commerce Cloud. As a result, we can provide some general information to offer a rough estimate of pricing.

Developing, launching, and maintaining an Adobe Commerce Cloud store typically involves the expertise of developers, an in-house IT team, and an agency to handle the construction and ongoing maintenance. The setup process for Adobe Commerce is extensive, leading to higher costs for completing the builds. The expenses associated with building an enterprise-level store can exceed six figures, and the costs can escalate quickly depending on the complexity of the build, design, required extensions, and additional integrations.

In addition to development costs, there are licensing fees associated with using Adobe software. These fees vary depending on the size and complexity of your online business.

Magento SEO and SEM Pricing

Magento SEO Pricing: The cost of Magento SEO services can vary depending on several factors, including the scope of work, the size of your website, the competitiveness of your industry, and the SEO agency or specialist you choose. Typically, SEO services are offered on a monthly retainer basis, ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars per month. Some agencies may also offer one-time SEO audits or consulting services at a fixed cost.

Magento SEM Pricing: Search engine marketing (SEM) involves running paid advertising campaigns on search engines like Google Ads. The cost of Magento SEM campaigns can vary widely based on factors such as the competitiveness of your keywords, your target audience, the size and complexity of your campaign, and your advertising goals. SEM campaigns are generally based on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, where you pay for each click on your ads. The cost per click (CPC) can range from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the industry and competition. You can set a daily or monthly budget for your SEM campaigns to control your spending.

SSL Costing

Do you wonder how much SSL certificates cost? The cost of SSL certificates can vary depending on several factors such as the type of certificate, certificate authority (CA), level of security, and additional features. Here is a general overview of SSL certificate pricing:

1. Domain Validated (DV) SSL Certificates: These certificates offer basic encryption and only verify domain ownership. DV certificates are the most affordable option and typically range from $10 to $100 per year.
2. Organization Validated (OV) SSL Certificates: OV certificates provide higher assurance by verifying domain ownership and basic company information. The cost of OV certificates usually ranges from $50 to $200 per year.
3. Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates: EV certificates provide the highest level of assurance and display the company name in the address bar of web browsers. EV certificates require more extensive verification and can cost between $100 and $500 per year.
4. Wildcard SSL Certificates: Wildcard certificates secure the main domain and all its subdomains. The cost of wildcard certificates is higher compared to regular SSL certificates and typically ranges from $100 to $500 per year.

It’s important to note that these are approximate price ranges, and actual SSL certificate costs can vary depending on the certificate provider, the duration of the certificate (1 year, 2 years, etc.), and any additional features or services bundled with the certificate. Some certificate providers may also offer discounts for multi-year purchases or package deals.

When considering SSL certificate costs, it’s also essential to factor in any potential installation or renewal fees, as well as any additional features or warranty options you may require. It’s recommended to compare prices and features from different SSL certificate providers to find the best fit for your specific needs and budget.

In summary, the pricing for Adobe Commerce Cloud will depend on various factors such as the size and complexity of the eCommerce store, the level of support and features required, and the licensing fees for Adobe software usage. It is recommended that businesses consult with an Adobe Commerce Cloud specialist to determine the most suitable pricing plan for their unique needs. If you have any further doubts or inquiries, please feel free to contact us for more detailed pricing and planning information.

Conclusion

Since its first introduction in 2007, Magento has always been one of the most robust eCommerce platforms. Magento is updated instantly with new and modern technology, which allows the platform to keep up with rapid changes in eCommerce business requirements.

Magento Open Source is an excellent option to start an online business. Although running a Magento-based e-store is not 100% free, the initial investment is affordable. With the help of Magento, now you know a lot about How Much Does Magento 2 Cost.