Adobe Commerce/Magento – enterprise solution with open source genes
In July 2018, Adobe acquired Magento and integrated it into the Adobe Experience Cloud as Adobe Commerce. The free open source version of the store system is still available under the name Magento Open Source. The assessments we make in this comparison relate primarily to Adobe Commerce, which is once again listed as a market-leading technology provider ('Leader') in the 'Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce 2025.' The analysts see the platform's strengths in synergy effects through linking with other Adobe products, in the area of content and store management, and in the cloud migration strategy. Gartner points out that the Adobe Commerce roadmap includes Agentic AI Experiences and an agent orchestration platform.
Adobe Commerce is based on Magento 2 and has been continuously developed and enhanced with new features since its acquisition by Adobe. For example, Adobe Commerce users have had access to PWA Studio for some time now, which offers store operators an easy way to use progressive web apps as a front-end solution. A page builder, which can be used to create store pages using drag & drop, is also on board.
The Adobe Commerce function for product recommendations based on the AI Adobe Sensei supports retailers by automatically recommending relevant products to store visitors based on their purchasing behavior as well as specific product features, search queries, trends, and other data. Adobe Sensei also uses the Live Search feature to increase sales success through more relevant search results. Adobe Commerce has been integrated into the Adobe Experience Cloud, with the release of the Adobe Commerce Cloud edition being one of the most important innovations. The cloud solution is a central pillar of the Adobe Commerce offering. In principle, Adobe Commerce is ideal for medium-sized and larger companies and online stores with extensive product ranges, particularly due to its strong performance and excellent scalability. Companies operating in the B2B sector also benefit from Adobe Commerce's extensive B2B functionalities. Due to its native multi-language capability, the e-commerce system is very well suited for internationally oriented projects. Different stores can be mapped in one instance.
Another plus point for Adobe Commerce is the broad service provider base and the large developer community, which ensure independence and flexibility. Connecting external systems (ERP, CRM, PIM, etc.) is also not a major problem. The large, active community also ensures that a huge and constantly growing range of extensions is available for Adobe Commerce, so that the system can be flexibly supplemented with additional functions.
In addition to the scope of Adobe Commerce, Adobe Commerce Cloud offers an almost infinitely scalable, highly available, and high-performance system. Adobe Commerce Cloud is a platform-as-a-service offering that gives store operators the opportunity to concentrate fully on their business.
With Magento Open Source, Adobe continues to provide a license-free version of its e-commerce platform. Magento Open Source is supported by Adobe with regular security updates and bug fixes. Since 2023, another open source version of Magento 2 has been developed independently of Adobe Commerce by the non-profit organization Mage-OS Association. Mage-OS is based on Magento Open Source but is an independent fork of the system. This version is being further developed by the community. The Mage-OS Association, which itself emerged from the community, is in charge of this. Mage-OS sees itself as an “alternative version of Magento Open Source that remains compatible, but at the same time offers the freedom to further develop and advance the platform, as Adobe is now focusing solely on improving its Adobe Commerce (Cloud/B2B) offering.” Another very exciting development from the Magento community is the performance frontend Hyvä Themes, which was released in 2022 and replaces the classic Magento frontend Luma. Hyvä is an innovative and high-performance frontend solution for the Magento and Adobe Commerce store systems, which should be seen as a counter-design to the PWAs and headless frontends promoted by Adobe. Hyvä is a very lean frontend that enables extremely fast loading times and thus offers an excellent optimization option for Adobe and Magento stores.
The bottom line is that Adobe Commerce is still a powerful and solid warhorse. Store operators can benefit in particular from the numerous extensions and a reliable, tried-and-tested store system that allows a high degree of customization. Adobe Commerce can be the right choice for companies looking for a classic but high-performance store system. With the cloud version and the additional range of services that Adobe makes available to its users, Adobe Commerce is particularly attractive for medium-sized and large online retailers. For some time now, Adobe Commerce, like other e-commerce solutions, has been increasingly focusing on the API-first approach in order to offer greater flexibility in the front end. Additional services and functionalities are also connected via APIs. Thanks to the Mage-OS community project and innovative developments such as the Hyvä frontend, operators of existing Magento stores still have the opportunity to further develop and effectively optimize their store independently of Adobe Commerce. The Hyvä frontend solution in particular is a good option for increasing the performance of Magento and Adobe systems.