Why is Adobe Commerce expensive? Honest breakdown
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest Adobe Commerce licence?
Reference pricing starts around $22,000/year for stores under $1M GMV. That is the lowest published tier; smaller merchants are not the intended customer.
Is Adobe Commerce the same as Magento Enterprise?
Yes. Magento Enterprise was rebranded to Magento Commerce in 2018, then to Adobe Commerce in 2021 after Adobe's acquisition. The underlying product is the same.
Does Adobe Commerce include hosting?
Only the Cloud variant. "Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure" bundles managed hosting plus Fastly CDN and New Relic. The on-premises variant excludes hosting, you bring your own infrastructure.
Can I run Adobe Commerce on my own servers?
Yes, the on-premises ("on-prem") variant ships as a composer package that runs anywhere PHP 8.1-8.4 runs. You forego managed hosting and the bundled Fastly CDN, but retain Sensei, B2B, and staging.
How does Adobe Commerce pricing compare to Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month (~$27,600/year) plus transaction fees. Adobe Commerce reference pricing starts at ~$22,000/year with no transaction fees. For higher GMV, Adobe Commerce typically becomes cheaper than Shopify Plus once revenue-share kicks in.
Does Magento Open Source get the same security patches?
Yes. Adobe releases security patches simultaneously to both editions. The 2026 patches (APSB26 series) shipped to both on the same day. Both editions are on Magento 2.4.4-2.4.9.
Is Adobe Commerce being discontinued?
No. Adobe continues to ship feature releases and security patches. The product roadmap through 2027 has been published, including expanded Sensei AI and the Adobe MCP server for agentic commerce.
Can I downgrade from Adobe Commerce to Open Source mid-contract?
You can run Open Source whenever you choose, but the Adobe Commerce contract is annual and typically non-refundable. Most migrations time the cutover to the contract renewal date.
What about Mage-OS?
Mage-OS is the community-led fork of Magento Open Source that ships independent releases. It is functionally compatible with Adobe Commerce extensions for most use cases. Mage-OS 3.0 shipped in May 2026.
Does Hyvä work with Adobe Commerce?
Yes. Hyvä works identically on both editions. Most Hyvä migrations happen on Adobe Commerce stores because the merchant has the budget for the frontend refresh.
What does an Adobe Commerce migration cost?
An Adobe Commerce to Magento Open Source migration runs roughly ~120-200h @ $25/hr, depending on B2B and staging usage. Fixed-fee sprint from $2,499.
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