Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce - Make the Right Business Choice

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.

Table of Contents

• Introduction of Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce
  • What is Magento Open Source?
  • What is Adobe Commerce?
• Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce: Key differences
  • Cost
  • Scalability
  • Security
  • Features
• Making the Right Decision for Businesses
  • Who is suitable for Magento 2 Open Source?
  • Who is suitable for Adobe Commerce?
• Conclusion

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.

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.

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.

Features

Adobe offers a broader range of advanced features that may be worth the investment for your store. With built-in capabilities, you won’t require additional extensions for tasks like bulk product uploading or cross-selling.

However, Magento Open Source is not completely inferior when speaking of features. The platform brings a comprehensive set of tools to create an e-commerce store and benefits from a strong developer community. Any desired features can be added through extensions, providing flexibility and customization options.

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.