Shopify or Magento, which fits your shop

When Shopify is the better choice

Shopify is built for shops that want to go live fast without a technical team. Hosting, updates, CDN, checkout: all handled. You focus on products and marketing, Shopify handles the infrastructure. That is the core of the proposition.

• ▸Small catalog, fast start: fewer than 500 products with standard attributes? Shopify has that live in a few hours.
• ▸No in-house developer: theme modifications in Liquid are more approachable than PHP. The app store replaces custom code for common features.
• ▸Standard payment providers: iDEAL via Shopify Payments, Mollie, Stripe. For B2C checkouts this works well out of the box.
• ▸B2C with standard checkout: you want a solid checkout without customizations. Shopify's checkout converts well and is PCI-compliant without you having to think about it.
• ▸SaaS comfort: no server maintenance, no PHP version upgrades, no Composer conflicts.

Shopify Standard costs $29 per month plus transaction fees if you don't use Shopify Payments. For a small shop that is a fair price for what you get. Shopify Plus starts at $2000 per month and is aimed at high-volume shops or more complex B2B needs.

When Magento is the better choice

Magento Open Source is free software. That means you manage hosting, updates and security. In return you have complete freedom. No checkout logic restrictions, no app store dependencies, no transaction fees to the platform.

• ▸Complex catalog: thousands of products, configurable variants, bundles, custom attributes per product type. Magento's catalog engine is built for this.
• ▸B2B functionality: company accounts, quote flows, customer-specific pricing, order options per account. Adobe Commerce has this built in; Magento Open Source needs extensions.
• ▸Multi-locale and multi-currency: multiple languages, currencies and tax regimes in a single install. Magento handles this via stores and store views.
• ▸Custom checkout: you want to modify payment steps, add extra fields or completely rewrite the checkout. On Magento that is code. On Shopify it is limited.
• ▸Your own hosting choice: Hypernode, a dedicated VPS, your own Kubernetes cluster. You choose the infrastructure that fits your SLA and budget.
• ▸Vendor flexibility: you pay no platform fee per transaction. You choose your payment provider without platform restrictions.

Magento Open Source is free in license, but not free in total cost. Hosting, a developer for maintenance and upgrades, and extensions all add up. Adobe Commerce adds B2B modules, AI functionality and support, but requires an enterprise license.

Cost comparison: what you actually pay

The license price is the easy part. Shopify Standard is $29 per month, Shopify Plus starts at $2000. Magento Open Source has no license fees. Adobe Commerce charges an annual enterprise fee based on your GMV.

Where it gets more complex: Shopify charges transaction fees if you do not use Shopify Payments. Outside the US, available payment providers for Shopify Payments are more limited. Many shops pay an additional 0.5 to 2 percent per transaction for an external provider. At high volume that adds up quickly. Additionally, good Shopify apps for B2B, loyalty programs or advanced search can cost between $50 and $500 per month each.

Magento does not have those ongoing platform costs, but requires more upfront. A well-configured Hypernode server costs roughly 200 to 400 euros per month for a mid-sized shop. A developer for maintenance and upgrades comes on top of that. The question is not which platform is cheaper, but which cost model fits your situation. At low volume Shopify wins. At high volume or with complex functionality the balance shifts toward Magento.

Customization: what can you actually change

Shopify uses Liquid for templates and Shopify Functions for backend logic like discounts and delivery rules. With Hydrogen, a React-based headless framework, you can build a fully custom frontend on the Storefront API. That gives a lot of frontend freedom, but the backend remains Shopify's infrastructure.

Magento is built on PHP with a module system. You can override almost anything: checkout steps, order processing, product models. Headless is also possible via Magento's GraphQL API with a Next.js or React frontend. The degree of freedom is greater, but so is the complexity.

For most SME shops the difference in customization options is less relevant than it sounds. Only when you really need specific checkout logic, customer group-specific pricing or non-standard payment flows will you hit Shopify's limits. At that point Magento is the better option, or a fully custom Next.js shop.

Performance: good by default versus configurable and better

Shopify's CDN is strong out of the box. Static assets are served via Cloudflare, images are automatically optimized. A standard Shopify shop almost always scores green in PageSpeed Insights on desktop. That is the advantage of a managed platform: the infrastructure is already optimized.

Magento performs worse by default on performance metrics, but can be configured better than Shopify allows. With Full Page Cache via Varnish, a correctly configured CDN, WebP images and solid JavaScript bundling, a Magento shop can achieve comparable or better Core Web Vitals. CarCare24 went from a lab LCP of 14 to 16 seconds to a CrUX LCP of 2.14 seconds after targeted optimizations.

The difference: Shopify is good by default, Magento is configurable to better but requires expertise. If performance is a critical factor for your shop and you have no developer who knows Magento internals, Shopify is safer. If you are willing to invest in optimization, Magento extracts more from specific hardware.

Vendor lock-in: who owns your data and code

With Shopify, the code belongs to Shopify. You manage your product data, customer records and orders, and you can export them. But the checkout logic, the payment infrastructure and the hosting belong to Shopify. If Shopify stops, raises prices or removes a feature, you have little negotiating room.

With Magento Open Source the code is yours. You install it on your own server, you make backups as you see fit, you can modify it without Adobe's permission. That gives control, but also responsibility. Security patches and PHP version upgrades are your job.

The practical impact of lock-in depends on how large your shop is and how critical the infrastructure is. For a small shop, Shopify's managed approach is an advantage, not a drawback. For a shop that has built six years of custom work on Shopify, switching to another platform is costly. That is the lock-in that counts.

B2B and B2C: platform maturity

Shopify is strong for B2C. The standard checkout, payment providers and marketing integrations are built for consumer sales. Shopify B2B is available via Shopify Plus, but is younger than Adobe Commerce's B2B modules. Company accounts, quotes, payment terms and customer-specific pricing are available, but require more configuration and sometimes additional apps.

Adobe Commerce has mature B2B functionality built in: requisition lists, company hierarchy, quote flows, credit lines and customer-specific catalogs. Magento Open Source does not have this by default, but extensions fill part of the gap. If B2B is a core part of your business, Adobe Commerce is stronger than Shopify Plus, especially for complex scenarios.

For shops that do both B2C and B2B from the same catalog, Magento can have an advantage: you manage everything in one installation with separate store views per customer group. On Shopify you sometimes need two separate shops, which means double the management overhead.

My recommendation per shop profile

Based on my experience with both platforms I give a practical recommendation per shop type here. No platform loyalty, no affiliate interest.

• ▸New shop, small team, B2C: choose Shopify Standard. You need no developer for day-to-day operations, the checkout works, and you can always switch later.
• ▸Existing Magento shop, well-performing catalog, no budget for a rebuild: stay on Magento. Invest in performance optimization and keep the code up to date.
• ▸Large B2B shop with company accounts, quotes and customer-specific pricing: Adobe Commerce or Magento Open Source with B2B extensions. Shopify B2B is not yet at the same level.
• ▸Multi-locale and multi-currency, complex catalog: Magento. The store view structure is better suited than Shopify's multi-market approach.
• ▸High-volume shop with high performance requirements and budget for a custom frontend: consider headless. Both Shopify Hydrogen and Magento with a Next.js frontend work. Or a fully custom Next.js shop without platform overhead.
• ▸Shopify shop that wants Magento functionality but doesn't want to migrate: sometimes a Shopify Plus plan with the right apps is enough. Sometimes migration is cheaper than years of patching with apps.

If you are unsure, book an advisory call. I ask the right questions about your catalog, your team, your growth plans and your technical debt, and give you an honest answer. No sales pitch for either platform.

Comparison table per criterion

* Prices and licenses are indicative and may change. Always check the current pricing page of the provider.

Further reading