Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce share the same core code. The difference is what Adobe adds on top — and the licence fee that comes with it. Choosing correctly can save a growing merchant a lot of money, or avoid rebuilding features that Adobe Commerce already includes.
Feature Comparison
| Capability | Magento Open Source | Adobe Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Catalogue, cart, checkout, customer accounts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-store, multi-currency, multi-language | ✓ | ✓ |
| Page Builder | ✓ | ✓ with content staging and scheduling |
| B2B: company accounts, shared catalogs, quotes, requisition lists, purchase orders | Via extensions or custom code | ✓ built in |
| Customer segments and targeted content | Via extensions | ✓ |
| Content staging and preview | — | ✓ |
| Reward points, gift cards, store credit | Via extensions | ✓ |
| Live Search and Product Recommendations | — | ✓ SaaS services |
| Cloud hosting (Adobe Commerce Cloud) | — | ✓ option |
| Adobe support | Community | ✓ |
| Licence | Free | Annual licence, typically revenue-based |
When Magento Open Source Is Enough
- You sell mainly B2C with standard promotions and customer groups.
- Your B2B needs are simple, such as customer-group pricing and trade accounts.
- You have a capable development partner and prefer to choose your own hosting.
- Total cost of ownership is a priority.
When Adobe Commerce Makes Sense
- Complex B2B: company hierarchies, approvals, negotiable quotes and many contract price lists.
- Marketing teams that need content staging, segments and personalisation without extra extensions.
- You want managed cloud infrastructure with Fastly and New Relic included.
- You value vendor support and Adobe ecosystem integration.
Total Cost of Ownership
Compare the Adobe Commerce licence against the extensions, custom development and hosting you would need on Open Source to reach the same capability. For many mid-market B2C stores Open Source wins; for complex B2B, Adobe Commerce's built-in features often reduce custom development enough to justify the licence.
Where Hyvä Fits
Hyvä works with both editions. On Open Source, the free Hyvä Theme gives you a fast storefront without licence costs. On Adobe Commerce, Hyvä Enterprise adds support for B2B features in the Hyvä frontend.
Can You Switch Later?
Yes. Because the core is shared, moving from Open Source to Adobe Commerce is an upgrade path rather than a replatform, although extensions that duplicate Adobe Commerce features may need to be replaced. Moving the other way is harder if you rely on Adobe-only features.
Questions to Ask Before Deciding
- Which Adobe Commerce features would we use in the first year? List them. If the list is short, Open Source plus a few extensions may be cheaper.
- How complex is our B2B model? Company hierarchies, approvals and negotiated quotes favour Adobe Commerce.
- Who will host and operate the platform? Adobe Commerce Cloud includes infrastructure; with Open Source you choose and manage hosting.
- How fast is our marketing team moving? Content staging, segments and scheduled campaigns save time for busy teams.
- What will we spend on extensions and custom work otherwise? Compare like for like over three years, including upgrades.
Our Typical Recommendation
For most B2C merchants up to the mid-market, Magento Open Source with a Hyvä storefront, a carefully chosen set of extensions and good hosting gives an excellent result at a much lower total cost. For B2B distributors, manufacturers with complex customer pricing, and businesses that want managed cloud hosting and Adobe support, Adobe Commerce is usually worth evaluating seriously. In both cases, a short discovery phase that maps requirements to features is the best protection against choosing the wrong edition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Magento Open Source the same as Magento 2?
Magento 2 is the platform generation. Magento Open Source is its free edition; Adobe Commerce is the licensed edition.
How much does Adobe Commerce cost?
Adobe sets licence pricing by quote, generally based on gross merchandise value and deployment. Contact Adobe or a partner for current figures.
Do both editions get security patches?
Yes. Adobe publishes security releases for both editions under the same lifecycle policy.
Not sure which edition you need?
We help merchants choose based on features they will actually use and total cost.
Written by the Magento Services engineering team — Magento 2, Adobe Commerce and Hyvä specialists since 2014. We write about problems we solve on real client stores.