Magento has long been the platform of choice for complex, large-scale stores. Shopify started as the simple option for smaller brands, but has grown into a platform that also runs very large businesses. Today the question isn't which one can handle a big store. Both can. It is how much technical work you want to own.
The two platforms in brief
- Magento comes as Magento Open Source (free) and Adobe Commerce (paid, enterprise). You or your agency host, develop and maintain it. It is extremely flexible, and correspondingly demanding.
- Shopify is a hosted platform. Shopify runs the infrastructure, security, checkout and updates; you extend the store with themes, apps and APIs. Shopify Plus adds enterprise features.
Comparison
| Shopify / Shopify Plus | Magento / Adobe Commerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Included and managed | Self-managed or via Adobe's cloud offering |
| Upgrades and security patches | Automatic | Planned projects, done by developers |
| Development | Liquid themes, apps, APIs; large developer ecosystem | PHP; needs specialised Magento developers |
| Checkout | Shopify checkout; customisable on Plus | Fully customisable |
| B2B | Built-in B2B on Plus | Strong B2B features in Adobe Commerce |
| Multi-store / multi-region | Shopify Markets; expansion stores on Plus | Multi-website architecture |
| Running costs | Predictable: plan, apps, fees | Hosting, licence (Adobe Commerce), development, maintenance |
Total cost of ownership
With Magento, the biggest costs are often not the licence but everything around it: hosting that can handle peak traffic, regular upgrades, security patches, extension compatibility, and the specialist developers needed for all of it. With Shopify, most of that is part of the monthly plan, and development work goes into features rather than upkeep. For many businesses this is the main reason to move.
Flexibility and customisation
Magento lets you change almost anything, including the checkout and core business logic. That is valuable for highly unusual requirements. Shopify covers most needs through metafields, metaobjects, Shopify Functions, apps and custom integrations, while keeping the core platform stable. The question to ask is whether your requirements genuinely need core-level changes, or whether that flexibility is mostly a source of maintenance work.
Performance
A well-tuned Magento store can be fast, but it takes caching, hosting and ongoing optimisation. Shopify handles the infrastructure side and copes with traffic spikes such as Black Friday without extra work from you; your performance work focuses on the theme and apps.
SEO
Magento gives full control over URL structure; Shopify uses fixed prefixes such as /products/ and /collections/. That makes the redirect map central to any migration: each Magento URL needs to point to its new Shopify equivalent. Done properly, stores keep their rankings and often gain from better speed.
Signs it's time to move to Shopify
- A large share of development budget goes on upgrades, patches and fixes
- Small changes take weeks because they need specialist developers
- Hosting costs and performance worries rise every peak season
- The business wants to launch new markets or channels faster
We plan Magento migrations around data, integrations and the URL map, so nothing is lost. See our Magento to Shopify migration service, or estimate your scope with the migration planner.
Frequently asked questions
Is Magento the same as Adobe Commerce?
Adobe Commerce is the paid, enterprise edition of Magento, sold by Adobe. Magento Open Source is the free edition. Both share the same core and need hosting, development and maintenance.
Can Shopify handle a large catalogue?
Yes. Shopify runs stores with very large catalogues and high order volumes. Limits mostly concern things like the number of variants per product and options, which a good data model works around.
Will I lose SEO if I move from Magento to Shopify?
Not if the migration is planned properly: every old URL redirected to its new equivalent, titles and content carried across, and indexing checked after launch.
Author
Uğur KeskinFounder @ShopiuzmanFounder of Shopiuzman. He builds, migrates and grows Shopify stores for brands in Türkiye, Europe and the US, and leads the development of our apps on the Shopify App Store.
