Compare Magento Open Source and Commerce features

If you are wondering whether to choose Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce to enter the e-commerce field, this article will give you an answer. We will discuss the benefits of each platform and compare them to help you decide which one is more beneficial. Consider carefully, as your decision can significantly affect the whole business. Making the wrong decision can drive the brand to the edge.

Introduction of Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce

What is Magento Open Source?

Magento Open Source is a self-hosted platform that enables you to create an online shop from the bottom up with all of the fundamental eCommerce functionalities. It provides essential features right out of the box, including

• Site Search
• Catalog Management
• Checkout, Payment, and Delivery Integration
• Instant Purchase
• Mobile Shopping Optimization
• Global Selling
• WYSIWYG Page Builder
• Marketing and SEO Tools
• Access to Extensions via Adobe Commerce (Magento) Marketplace

Magento Open Source brings small businesses the chance to compete with big e-commerce brands without overspending. You can easily add third-party apps to enhance your store performance, but remember to pick a reputable one. It is recommended to check out some Magento 2 Extensions.

Related Post: Popular Magento Alternatives & Competitors in 2024

What is Adobe Commerce?

Adobe Commerce is an advanced version of Magento, charging users a certain fee to operate but providing more innovative functionalities. Some of the Magento Commerce advantages include:

Business Intelligence Dashboard

It provides a comprehensive view of consumer behavior and key business metrics. By analyzing data and metrics, it enables businesses to gain valuable insights into customer preferences, trends, and performance indicators, empowering informed decision-making and strategic planning.

Content Staging and Preview

This feature allows businesses to plan, create, and preview content changes before they are published. Businesses can ensure a seamless and controlled content deployment process, allowing for efficient content management and the ability to preview how changes will appear to users before making them live.

Advanced Marketing Tools

Modern tools that provide online stores with a range of powerful features to create targeted promotions and enhance customer engagement. With these tools, store owners can segment their customer base, personalize marketing campaigns, and track the effectiveness of their promotional efforts, enabling them to optimize their marketing strategies and drive better results.

Page Builder

A powerful tool that empowers users to create and customize store pages with ease. With its drag-and-drop functionality, users can effortlessly design and arrange page elements, such as text, images, and videos, to create visually stunning and engaging stores without the need for coding knowledge or technical skills.

Visual Merchandising

The advanced feature offers a user-friendly and intuitive way to rearrange products within categories using a simple drag-and-drop interface. This feature allows businesses to easily optimize their product displays, ensuring that their online store showcases the most relevant and appealing products to customers, ultimately enhancing the overall shopping experience and boosting sales.

Customer Loyalty Tools

The tools analyze consumer shopping habits and behaviors, helping businesses enhance customer loyalty through personalized offers and targeted marketing campaigns. These tools enable data-driven decisions that foster long-term relationships and maximize revenue.

Technical Support

Offer users direct support from experienced advisors who are available to assist with any technical issues or inquiries. The support team works enthusiastically to ensure users’ smooth operations and optimal performance.

Preview and Scheduling

Anyone can easily view, set up, and modify schedules for various tasks or events. Thanks to this feature, users don’t have to stick to the timetable and follow each event to every second anymore.

There is no need to install third-party extensions for Adobe Commerce as it already has effective features to build an online business. However, the cost of maintenance can be quite high, depending on your store’s revenue.

Pros and cons of Magento open source

Pros of Magento open source

• Free and open source: Magento Open Source is available for free. Users can download and install Magento Open Source without any cost.

• Customization: Admin users have the flexibility to meet Magento Open Source to their specific needs.

• Essential features: Magento Open Source consists of all of Magento’s essential features, such as payment processing, checkout, catalog management, shipping portals, reporting, and analytics.

• Extensions and models: If users want to have additional functionality beyond the basic features, they need to purchase extensions and models from the Magento Marketplace.

• Code modification: Being a cloud-based, open-source platform as a service (PaaS), Magento’s code can be modified to match design requirements. It mean allows for greater flexibility in creating a unique online store.

• Complete control: Users have complete control over every aspect of their website, from design to functionality.

• Extensive reporting tools: Magento Open Source provides reporting tools that benefit business planning. These reporting tools include insights into sales, customer behavior, and other key metrics.

• E-commerce administration: Whether managing an online shopping cart or an entire e-commerce enterprise, Magento Open Source provides the necessary tools for efficient administration.

Cons of Magento open-source

• Complexity for developers: While Magento Open Source is adaptable and free, developers may find it challenging to grasp and apply. The platform’s complexity can be difficult for those unfamiliar with its intricacies.

• Need for qualified developers: To work effectively with Magento, it’s essential to hire a qualified developer, preferably one who is Magento certified. However, finding and hiring such developers can be time-consuming and costly.

• SEO options: Magento Open Source offers more built-in SEO options, which can be advantageous for optimizing your online store. However, some users may find the additional features overwhelming.

• Loading time: Compared to platforms like WordPress or Shopify, Magento open source websites take longer to load. This can impact user experience and affect conversion rates.

• Initial setup work: Setting up a Magento store requires substantial effort. If you’re looking for a quick development solution, Magento may not be the best choice due to the time investment needed for the initial setup.
• Technical faults: Magento has been criticized for having a number of technical faults. While it offers strong features, solving these issues can be a concern for some users.

Pros and cons of Adobe Commerce

Pros of Adobe Commerce

• Versatility: Adobe Commerce offers both on-premises and cloud-hosted versions, which share almost similar codebases.

• Third-party integration: It is easy to connect third-party extensions to Magento Commerce.

• API benefits: Magento APIs provide efficient solutions for integrating and improving the performance of apps in accounting, PIN, CRM, ERP, and marketing automation.

• Content staging tool: The Content Staging tool in the Admin dashboard allows the marketing team to review, produce, and schedule content modifications.

• Strong toolset: Adobe Commerce provides an entire set of tools for creating an eCommerce store.

• Ease of installation: It can be installed easily and comes with pre-built connections.

• User-Friendly Interface: Adobe Commerce provides a basic user interface for a simple front-end user experience.

Cons of Adobe Commerce

• Costly license requirements: Magento Commerce’s licensing requirements lead to an increase costly in both financial and time investments.

• Pre-configured setup: While the eCommerce version comes with everything pre-configured from the start, cutting down development time, this can also limit flexibility.

• Distinct scenarios for features: With the commerce version, owners can easily create, deploy, and evaluate features in three targeted scenarios. Although this is useful for organizing feature development, it may also cause additional complexities.

• Customization challenges: Customizing Magento to a company’s specific needs can require tremendous effort and progress.

• Upgrading hassles: Keeping up with changes as the underlying program develops can be a hassle.

Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce: Key differences

The key distinction between Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce lies in their pricing models. While Magento Open Source is available at no cost, Adobe Commerce is an advanced option that requires payment. This paid-for premium platform offers a comprehensive set of features and functionalities, which would otherwise need to be built from scratch if using the Open Source edition.

Let’s evaluate the two options based on the following criteria:

• Cost
• Scalability
• Security
• Features

Cost

As mentioned earlier, while Magento Open Source is free, Adobe Commerce requires store owners a license fee based on annual revenue. It’s important to consider the value proposition when considering expenses. It’s worth noting that the pricing model of Adobe Commerce is more favorable for stores with a certain level of turnover. Even with a low profit, you will still be required to pay the minimum licensing cost, which could be a burden for your company. If rapid growth isn’t expected and investing in the premium version doesn’t seem necessary, the free platform may be a better choice.

Scalability

Having a growth-oriented mindset and considering scalability from the outset is crucial when entering an e-commerce market. If you expect rapid expansion, it’s wise to choose Adobe Commerce as your starting point. With its extensive features, Adobe Commerce provides the necessary flexibility for a growing business. Opting for the free version puts you at risk of being hindered and delayed, as you’ll need to create every new element required for your growth journey. In contrast, if you’re focusing on building a start-up business on a small scale, it’s a good idea to go with Magento. It won’t cost much time as you only need to work on a few essential features.

Security

Security is always one of the most important aspects to examine. In this case, Adobe Commerce offers a significantly stronger framework than Magento Open Source. The Open Source platform lacks essential features like credit card tokenization and advanced payment security, which are crucial for secure transactions. Additionally, the free version does not comply with PCI DSS security standards. On the other hand, Adobe provides advanced security solutions. The paid version is PCI compliant and includes the Magento Secure Payment Bridge for secure card processing. It also offers bug bounty programs, regular scanning processes, and secure payment gateways such as PayPal, WorldPay, CyberSource, and Authorize.net.

Support

Magento Open Source does not have its own dedicated support team. However, this platform has a large and active community. The community includes developers, enthusiasts, and experts who contribute to forums, guide libraries, and discussions. If you encounter technical issues, your technical staff can seek assistance from this community.

Adobe Commerce offers premium support services. The edition includes support services, such as a dedicated account manager who handles all Magento-related issues. It also offers 24/7 technical assistance. Therefore, the technical support team can assist customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you can access Magento partners’ Rapid Deployment Packages, simplifying the launch and setup of your solution.

Features

Complete B2B suite

• Magento Open Source: Offer basic B2B features.

• Adobe Commerce: Provides an extensive B2B suite, including features like B2B quotes, company accounts, purchase orders, requisition lists, company credit, shared catalog, and company email configuration.

Advanced search functionality

• Magento Open Source: Provide basic search functionality.

• Adobe Commerce: Include quick autocomplete, smart corrections for misspelled queries, and search for product attributes.

Cloud services

Magento Open Source: No specific cloud services

Adobe Commerce:

• PCI compliance: Ensure secure payment processing.

• Site-wide analysis tool: Help monitor website performance.

• Fastly web application firewall: Enhance security.

• New relic APM: Provide application performance monitoring.

• Magento BI (on-demand): Business intelligence for data analysis.

• CDN and DDoS protection: Improve site speed and security.

Cloud Pro (Additional features for Adobe Commerce)

• Multiple environments: Isolated development, staging, and production environments.

• Isolated and dedicated hardware setup: Enhanced performance.

• New relic infrastructure and logs: Detailed monitoring.

• B2B module: Comprehensive B2B functionality.

• Dedicated technical advisor on staff: Personalized support.

Catalog and system management

Both versions offer features like action logs, order archive, order management system, full catalog export, and scheduled data import/export.

Marketing features

Both versions include Google Tag Manager, private sales, related product rules, email reminders, visual merchandizer, and product recommendations.

Advanced targeting and segmentation

Adobe Commerce provides dynamic and personalized product display, customer attributes, and real-time segmentation.

Advanced content management

Adobe Commerce offers drag-and-drop content management with staging and preview features, page hierarchy, and dynamic blocks.

Gifting options

Adobe Commerce allows customizable gift cards, gift registries, reward and loyalty systems, and vouchers.

Add to cart by SKU

Both versions support adding multiple items to the cart by entering SKUs.

Sales features

Both versions handle returns, address search, cart thumbnail photos, and shopping cart management.

Support

Adobe Commerce provides 24/7 support, while Magento Open Source relies on community support.

Generally, while both versions share core features, Adobe Commerce offers advanced functionality, making it a right choice for businesses seeking robust ecommerce capabilities.

The need for speed-to-market to business

The most noteworthy advantage of Adobe Commerce is its ability to speed-to-market. Adobe Commerce offers an open-source spirit and community complemented by advanced. Besides, it provides out-of-the-box features that surpass even the capabilities of a seasoned open-source build. Accessing this robust functionality from the start brings unmatched agility and speed to the market.

When you enter new markets, expanding sales channels, launching new products, or restructuring your business, the need for speed is critical. In online sales, staying ahead of the competition hinges on prompt action. Building too much from scratch can slow you down and leave you behind.

With the Adobe Commerce platform, your team can redirect their focus from troubleshooting and maintenance to strategy and innovation. By streamlining the process, your digital staff can concentrate on cutting-edge work rather than time-consuming setup tasks. The flexible backend of Adobe Commerce enables quick adjustments, allowing you to configure and customize your site according to your customer experience.

Making the Right Decision for Businesses

The pros and cons of these two e-commerce platforms should now be clear. It’s time to determine which one is suitable for your business. While Adobe Commerce offers more features, Open Source is customized with extensions. You can just utilize the modules you need with the Open Source edition. Though choosing seems complicated, analyzing these factors might be efficient in making the final decision:

• Price-performance
• Size of the business
• Number of transactions
• Budgets
• Revenue projections
• Technical assistance

Factor	Open Source	Adobe Commerce
Price performance	Unattractive	Attractive
Business size	Small	Large
Transaction amount	Low	High
Budgets	Low	High
Revenue projections	Low	High
Technical assistance	Basic	Advanced

Who is suitable for Magento 2 Open Source?

Magento 2 Open Source is the finest option for all types of business since it only requires a low entry cost. Thanks to that, small-budget companies don’t need to face financial issues related to platform maintenance. Besides, all the necessary functions are provided by Open Source. For shops and small enterprises, you may create an effective online store.

Who is suitable for Adobe Commerce?

Adobe Commerce is more suitable for larger companies with stable finance. This version is for transactions above 10 million and requires direct interaction with the seller. The Commerce edition also includes B2B solutions for businesses that cooperate with other companies, which small shops don’t pay much attention to.

In addition, the platform offers various advanced functionalities to help big businesses’ workflow run smoothly rather than Open Source basic features.

Conclusion

Users can benefit from the flexible capabilities of both Open Source and Commerce since they use the same technology stack. In the battle of Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce, remember to review the pros and cons of each platform to find out which would be the best match for your business. If you want to play safe first, we highly recommend Magento 2 Open Source, which is perfect for all businesses with different budgets and traffic. However, some extra extensions would be helpful to enhance the power of Open Source. If you’re interested, check out some innovative Magento 2 extensions.