Shopify Plus vs Magento (Adobe Commerce) for B2B eCommerce
Shopify Plus vs Magento (Adobe Commerce) for B2B is a choice between a managed SaaS with native company accounts, catalogs, and net terms, and a self-hosted PHP platform whose B2B module ships only in the licensed Adobe Commerce edition. For most manufacturers and distributors, Shopify Plus wins on total cost: merchants we scope model a 40–60% lower three-year cost.
Verdict
For most mid-market B2B manufacturers and distributors, Shopify Plus is the better platform in 2026: native company accounts, catalogs, price lists, and payment terms on infrastructure Shopify hosts, secures, and upgrades, at a published US$2,300–2,500 per month. Adobe Commerce remains the stronger choice when you need negotiable quotes and purchase-order approvals out of the box, several websites from one instance, or unrestricted PHP customisation, and you have the team to run it. Magento Open Source without a dedicated technical team is the option we advise against.
Magento built the B2B web for a decade, and Human After All built on it: B2B storefronts on Magento, Magento audits, and migrations off it. What follows is that experience, with the vendor claims checked against Adobe's Experience League documentation, Shopify's help centre, and Store Leads.
Last updated: · pricing and feature claims verified against vendor sources
Definitions
Which Magento are we talking about?
Magento is three products in 2026, and the B2B answer changes with each one. Magento Open Source is the free, self-hosted codebase (2.4.9, released May 2026, requiring PHP 8.5) with no native B2B module. Adobe Commerce is the licensed edition, on-premises or on Adobe's managed Cloud (PaaS), and it includes the B2B module: company accounts, shared catalogs, negotiable quotes, requisition lists, and purchase orders with approval rules. Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (ACCS) is Adobe's multi-tenant SaaS, generally available since 2025, which removes core PHP customisation in favour of App Builder, API Mesh, and webhooks. When a merchant tells Human After All "we are on Magento", the first question we ask is which of the three, because the licence, the upgrade burden, and the B2B feature set differ on each. The three cards below carry the details and the Adobe sources.
Magento Open Source
The free, self-hosted codebase. Current release is 2.4.9 (May 2026), which requires PHP 8.5. Adobe ships one minor release a year plus security patches, and each 2.4.x line gets roughly two years of standard support. There is no native B2B module: company accounts, shared catalogs, and quotes come from extensions or custom code. The community-run Mage-OS fork tracks the same codebase.
Adobe Commerce (on-premises or on Cloud)
The licensed edition, priced by quote on your revenue tier. It includes the B2B module — companies, shared catalogs, negotiable quotes, requisition lists, purchase orders with approval rules — and full access to the PHP codebase. On the Cloud (PaaS) edition Adobe manages the infrastructure at a 99.9% minimum uptime under its Unified SLA; you still manage the application and its upgrades. Adobe says it has no end-of-life plan for this edition.
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (ACCS)
Adobe's multi-tenant SaaS, generally available since 2025. Adobe runs versions and upgrades, which removes the upgrade burden — and also removes core-code customisation. Extensions move to App Builder, API Mesh, and webhooks; PaaS marketplace modules do not install. Adobe's 2026 roadmap adds B2B drop-in components, a Commerce MCP server, and a Developer Agent to help port PaaS code. If you are comparing SaaS to SaaS, this is the Adobe product to put beside Shopify Plus.
Sources: Adobe Commerce lifecycle policy and system requirements (experienceleague.adobe.com, updated August 2026); Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service overview; Adobe Unified SLA (October 2024).
Short answer
Is Magento better than Shopify for B2B?
Magento is better than Shopify for the 10–15% of B2B operations whose requirements exceed what a SaaS platform allows, and Shopify Plus is the better business decision for the rest. Adobe Commerce still does more out of the box for complex B2B: negotiable quotes, requisition lists, purchase-order approval chains, and multi-website from one catalog. Shopify Plus matches the fundamentals natively (companies, locations, buyer permissions, catalogs, price lists, volume pricing, net terms, PO numbers, draft orders) and covers quotes and approvals through apps and Shopify Functions. On operations the gap reverses: Shopify has no version to upgrade, no PHP runtime to keep current, and no patch cycle, while a Magento 2.4.x upgrade costs an estimated US$8K–35K a year before custom modules (agency estimates) and live Magento stores fell 14% year-over-year in Q2 2026 (Store Leads). Adobe's own answer to that burden is ACCS, a SaaS with the customisation ceiling that implies. The rest of this page is about figuring out which group you are in.
Head to head
How do Shopify Plus and Adobe Commerce compare for B2B?
Shopify Plus and Adobe Commerce compare on eleven dimensions in the table below, verified September 2026 against Shopify's help centre and pricing page, Adobe's Experience League documentation, and Store Leads. Shopify Plus leads on where B2B lives (native on every paid plan since April 2, 2026), hosting and uptime (99.99% cited by Shopify), upgrades (continuous), security (PCI DSS Level 1 held by Shopify), time to launch (12–24 weeks in our scoping), and talent. Adobe Commerce leads on quotes and approvals (negotiable quotes, requisition lists, and purchase-order rules in the B2B module), customisation depth (full PHP on Open Source and PaaS), and multi-website from one instance. Platform pricing is published on one side (US$2,300–2,500 per month) and quoted on the other (third-party estimates from US$22K per year on-premises and US$40K on Cloud). ERP and PIM integration is mature on both, with Patchworks iPaaS and the Akeneo connector on Shopify.
| Dimension | Shopify Plus | Magento Open Source / Adobe Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Where B2B lives | Native in the core admin on every paid plan since April 2, 2026 (per Shopify changelog); unlimited catalogs, direct catalog-to-company assignment, deposits and partial payments are Plus-only | Adobe Commerce includes the B2B module (companies, shared catalogs, negotiable quotes, requisition lists, purchase-order approvals) — per Adobe docs, no separate licence; Magento Open Source has no native B2B |
| Quotes and approvals | Draft orders with locked prices and reserved inventory; checkout-to-draft for order review; no native RFQ — quote apps fill the gap | Negotiable quotes, requisition lists, and purchase orders with approval rules ship in the Adobe Commerce B2B module — a real advantage |
| Platform pricing | US$2,300/mo on a 3-year term, US$2,500/mo on 1-year (CA$3,400 / CA$3,650) — published list price as of September 2026; variable fee for higher-volume merchants, threshold not published | Open Source: no licence. Adobe Commerce: quote-based annual licence tiered on revenue; Adobe publishes no prices — third-party estimates from ~US$22K/yr on-prem and ~US$40K/yr on Cloud to US$100K–190K+ above US$25M GMV |
| Hosting and uptime | Included; Shopify cites 99.99% uptime on average and lists a 99.99% uptime SLA as a Plus inclusion | Adobe Commerce on Cloud: included, 99.9% minimum uptime per Adobe’s Unified SLA. Open Source / on-prem: managed hosting est. US$400–2,500/mo per agency guides, plus DevOps |
| Upgrades and patches | Continuous; no merchant-side version work | One minor release a year (2.4.9, May 2026, PHP 8.5) plus security patches; each 2.4.x line gets about two years of standard support; agencies estimate US$8K–35K per 2.4.x upgrade before custom modules |
| Customisation depth | Shopify Functions (WebAssembly, sandboxed) and Checkout UI extensions on Plus, plus apps — deep, not full code access | Full PHP codebase on Open Source and Adobe Commerce PaaS — the deepest customisation of any platform here. ACCS (SaaS) removes core-code changes in favour of App Builder, API Mesh, and webhooks |
| Multi-store / multi-site | Shopify Markets for regions, languages, and currencies; separate expansion stores for distinct brands | Multi-website, multi-store, and store views from one instance and one catalog — Magento’s strongest structural advantage |
| ERP and PIM integration | Patchworks iPaaS, native ERP syncs (NetSuite, Sage, Acumatica and others per Winter ’26 Edition), Akeneo connector | Mature connector market and iPaaS options, including an Akeneo connector for Adobe Commerce; on Open Source you own and maintain the middleware |
| Security and compliance | PCI DSS Level 1; platform security is Shopify’s responsibility | Adobe Commerce on Cloud: Adobe manages infrastructure, you patch the application. Open Source / on-prem: patches, PCI scope, and pen testing are yours |
| Talent and ecosystem | Largest commerce app ecosystem; Liquid and JavaScript developers widely available | Shrinking specialist pool: live Magento stores down 14% year-over-year in Q2 2026 (Store Leads); Mage-OS community fork keeps Open Source moving |
| Time to launch | 12–24 weeks for a mid-market B2B migration in our scoping | Longer for custom builds; 6–12 months is common for multi-website B2B implementations in our experience |
Verified September 2026. Shopify figures are Shopify's published list prices and help-centre statements. Adobe publishes no licence prices; Magento cost figures are third-party agency estimates and will not match your quote. Store counts from Store Leads, Q2–Q3 2026.
Pricing
What do Shopify Plus and Magento actually cost?
Shopify Plus costs US$2,300 per month on a three-year term or US$2,500 on a one-year term, which Shopify's Canadian pricing page shows as CA$3,400 and CA$3,650 (September 2026). Higher-volume merchants may pay a variable platform fee; Shopify does not publish the threshold. Hosting, CDN, security, PCI DSS Level 1 scope, and continuous upgrades are inside that number, funded by Shopify's US$1.54 billion FY2025 R&D spend (SEC filing, February 2026). Native B2B is included on Plus, with unlimited catalogs and direct company assignment. Your real budget is the platform fee plus apps, plus the build, plus the ERP integration to NetSuite, SAP, or Cin7 — and the last item is where mid-market budgets slip on any platform, which is why Human After All scopes it as its own workstream.
Magento Open Source has no licence fee, and that is the last free line. Agency pricing guides put managed hosting at roughly US$400–2,500 per month depending on traffic and redundancy. Add a developer or agency retainer for patches and the annual minor-version upgrade, which agencies estimate at US$8K–35K for a typical 2.4.x store before you touch custom modules. Skip an upgrade and you fall out of support inside two years.
Adobe Commerce adds a quote-based licence tiered on gross merchandise value. Adobe publishes no figures. Third-party estimates (Swell, April 2026, aggregating Meetanshi, MGT Commerce, and LitExtension) start around US$22K per year on-premises and US$40K on Cloud, rising to US$100K–190K+ above US$25M in GMV. Treat those as orientation, not a quote.
In our migration scoping, mid-market B2B merchants moving from Magento to Shopify Plus typically model a 40–60% lower three-year cost, most of it from retired hosting, upgrade cycles, and extensions that native features replace. Your number depends on how much custom PHP you carry — which is why we scope before we quote.
Scenarios · Open platform
When is Magento or Adobe Commerce the right choice?
Magento or Adobe Commerce is the right choice when the sales workflow runs on quotes and approvals, when several websites share one catalog, when pricing logic lives in PHP, when a contract or an Adobe Experience Cloud stack ties you to Adobe, or when regulation mandates self-hosting. Human After All built a full B2B storefront on Magento for DTD 2009, an Anjou, Quebec distributor of alloy and steel wheels: a bilingual year/make/model/sub-model fitment search, dealer-specific pricing, and account-based ordering, delivered while the client migrated from Acomba to Cin7 ERP so both systems went live synchronized. The open codebase let us build fitment search exactly the way tire shops and dealers use it, which is why we still respect what the platform does well. Choose it when:
- Your B2B workflow runs on quotes and approvals — Adobe Commerce ships negotiable quotes, requisition lists, and purchase orders with approval rules natively. On Shopify Plus those are draft orders plus apps or Functions. If quote-to-order is your main sales motion, that gap is real.
- You run several websites from one catalog — Multi-website, multi-store, and store views from one instance is Magento's strongest structural feature. Shopify Markets handles regions and languages well; distinct brands mean separate stores.
- Your pricing or checkout logic lives in PHP and cannot move — Rare, but it happens in regulated or engineered-product businesses. Shopify Functions are sandboxed by design; if your logic will not fit inside them, Magento's open codebase is the honest answer.
- You are contractually or architecturally committed to Adobe — A recent Adobe Commerce licence, or a stack built on Adobe Experience Manager, Target, and Analytics, changes the math. Adobe has said it has no end-of-life plan for the PaaS edition.
- Regulations require self-hosted infrastructure — Some government, defence, and healthcare contracts mandate it. Only Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce on-premises satisfy that here.
Each of these is a reason to stay only if you also have the team — in-house or on retainer — to keep a PHP platform patched and upgraded every year. Without that, the flexibility becomes the liability we saw on Bicycles Quilicot's audit: sluggish performance, expensive changes, and a bug list that grew with every agency handoff.
Scenarios · Managed platform
When is Shopify Plus the right choice?
Shopify Plus is the right choice when your B2B needs are the standard set done well and you want to stop paying for infrastructure. For most manufacturers and distributors doing US$10M–500M, company accounts with locations and buyer permissions, catalogs with price lists and volume pricing, Net 30/60/90 terms, PO numbers, vaulted cards, and draft orders describe the whole requirement, and all of it is native in one admin. The platform fee (US$2,300–2,500 per month) buys hosting, CDN, PCI scope, and continuous upgrades funded by Shopify's US$1.54 billion FY2025 R&D budget (SEC filing, February 2026). A mid-market B2B migration runs 12–24 weeks in our scoping, Liquid and JavaScript developers are available in every city, and Patchworks iPaaS, native NetSuite, Sage, and Acumatica syncs, and the Akeneo connector cover most ERP and PIM stacks. That is why our default recommendation is Shopify Plus, and why we still scope before we say it.
- Your B2B needs are the standard set, done well — Company accounts with locations and buyer permissions, catalogs with price lists and volume pricing, Net 30/60/90 terms, PO numbers, vaulted cards, draft orders. Native, in one admin, on every paid plan since April 2026 — with unlimited catalogs and direct company assignment on Plus.
- You want to stop paying for infrastructure — No hosting contract, no PHP upgrade budget, no patch cycle. Shopify's FY2025 R&D spend was US$1.54 billion (SEC filing, February 2026); every merchant runs the same current version.
- You sell B2B and DTC from one operation — One storefront, one inventory, one admin, with B2B pricing and terms applied by company. This is where native B2B beats a bolted-on module every day.
- You need to launch in a quarter, not a year — A mid-market B2B migration runs 12–24 weeks in our scoping. The time goes into data, ERP, and redirects, not into building platform capability.
- You want a hiring market — Liquid, JavaScript, and Shopify app developers are available in every city. Magento specialists are a shrinking pool: live stores fell 14% year-over-year in Q2 2026 per Store Leads, and Shopify is the second most common destination after custom builds.
- You want the ERP and PIM connected without owning middleware — Patchworks iPaaS, native syncs for NetSuite, Sage, and Acumatica, and Akeneo's connector cover most mid-market stacks. We are an Akeneo Partner and implement it alongside Shopify Plus.
Not sure which list you are on?
Send us your Magento version, extension count, and ERP. We will tell you within a week whether to migrate, upgrade, or leave it alone — and what each path costs.
Replatforming
What does a Magento → Shopify Plus migration involve?
A Magento to Shopify Plus migration is a 12–24 week project for a mid-market B2B merchant: discovery and extension audit, build and integration, data migration and QA, a soft launch with selected accounts, then full cutover and Magento decommission. Magento stores commonly run 30–80 extensions, and in our migrations 40–60% of that stack retires because Shopify handles the job natively. The ERP integration is re-established rather than copied and is scoped as its own workstream with its own budget. Shopify's Store Migration app does not support Magento, so product, customer, and order data move through Matrixify, LitExtension, Cart2Cart, or a custom API import, and every Magento URL rewrite, layered-navigation URL, and CMS page needs a 301 before cutover; done properly, organic traffic recovers within 60–90 days. Three things decide the timeline:
- The extension audit — Magento stores commonly run 30–80 extensions. Each one is replaced by a native Shopify feature, by an app, or by custom work; in our migrations 40–60% of the stack retires because Shopify handles the job natively.
- The ERP integration — It is re-established, not copied. Scope it as its own workstream with its own budget; it is where migrations overrun.
- The redirect map — Shopify's Store Migration app does not support Magento, so data moves through Matrixify, LitExtension, Cart2Cart, or a custom import. URL rewrites, layered-navigation URLs, and CMS pages all need 301s before cutover, and bilingual stores need hreflang. Done properly, organic traffic recovers within 60–90 days.
Who runs the migration
Human After All plans and delivers the move to Shopify Plus: platform and scope assessment, data mapping and rehearsals, URL and redirect planning, integration re-establishment, acceptance testing and a coordinated cutover. Shopify migration services →
Read the full migration guide
Readiness assessment, week-by-week timeline, pitfalls, and FAQ — the complete playbook for leaving Magento without losing operational continuity. Magento to Shopify Plus migration guide →
De-risk the decision first
The Migration Roadmap is a fixed-price, four-week engagement that delivers the extension inventory, data and integration map, SEO plan, budget, and timeline — before you commit to any build. Explore the Migration Roadmap →
Product data coming with you?
A migration is the moment to fix the catalog. We implement Akeneo PIM as the source of truth feeding Shopify Plus, so attributes, variants, and bilingual content stop living in spreadsheets. See our Akeneo services →
Track record
Where this comparison comes from
Our founder, Rudy Abitbol, delivered 60 Magento implementations before Human After All moved its practice to Shopify Plus, and three client projects shape what is written above. The Bicycles Quilicot audit is the one we cite most: Montreal's oldest bike shop (founded 1915, seven locations from Rosemont to Mont-Tremblant, 350+ brands, 10,000+ products) had a Magento store that had become a liability, with sluggish performance, design changes that required expensive custom development, and a bug list that grew with every agency handoff. We audited the platform, catalog architecture, product data, SEO health, and seven-location inventory workflows against the team's actual daily operations, and recommended a phased Magento to Shopify Plus migration with the total-cost rationale, data mapping, and integration priorities, before the client spent six figures on the wrong implementation.
- DTD 2009 — a bilingual Magento B2B storefront for an Anjou, Quebec automotive wheel distributor, with year/make/model fitment search and dealer pricing, built while the client migrated from Acomba to Cin7 ERP. We know what Magento does well because we shipped it.
- Bicycles Quilicot — an eCommerce, PIM, and SEO audit of a seven-location retailer's Magento store, ending in a Magento-to-Shopify Plus migration roadmap with the TCO rationale, data mapping, and integration priorities.
- Atelier du Chef — a Quebec commercial kitchen equipment distributor, supplying restaurants and institutions since 1998, migrated off Magento 1.9 (unsupported by Adobe since June 2020) to a managed SaaS platform with a deep SAP ERP integration: customer-specific pricing, multi-location inventory, and orders flowing as one system.
See the full case studies, or start with the Shopify Plus B2B services page.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Magento better than Shopify for B2B?
Is Shopify Plus cheaper than Magento or Adobe Commerce for B2B?
Do I need Shopify Plus for B2B, or does a lower plan work?
What is the difference between Magento Open Source, Adobe Commerce, and Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service?
Can I migrate from Magento to Shopify Plus without losing SEO?
When should I stay on Magento or Adobe Commerce?
Other B2B platform comparisons: Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce · Shopify Plus vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud · Shopify Plus vs OroCommerce
Related comparisons
Three more platform comparisons from the same team, written to the same standard: what each platform actually does for B2B, and when it wins. All of them live in our Insights hub.
Next step
Plan the migration, or the decision to stay
We have built on Magento, audited it, and migrated merchants off it. Tell us where your store stands and we will map the honest path — including the one where you stay.
Talk to us about your migration →