Magento vs Shopify: which is better for your online store?

Magento and Shopify are two of the best-known e-commerce platforms, and they sit at opposite ends of one trade-off. Magento (sold today as Adobe Commerce, with a free edition called Magento Open Source) gives you control over almost everything, and makes you responsible for running it. Shopify runs the platform for you, and asks you to sell its way.

This guide compares them for store owners in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia, and explains when moving from Magento to Shopify makes sense and when it doesn't.

What is the main difference between Magento and Shopify?

Magento is self-hosted software. Magento Open Source is free to download; Adobe Commerce adds features and support under a licence from Adobe, either on your own hosting or on Adobe's cloud. Either way, your team or agency installs updates, applies security patches and keeps extensions compatible.

Shopify is a hosted platform. You pay a monthly plan, and Shopify looks after hosting, security, PCI DSS compliance for its checkout and platform updates. You customise it through themes, apps and Shopify's APIs.

In one line: Magento is a platform you operate; Shopify is a platform you use.

Which one costs more to run?

Licence or plan fees are only part of the bill. Compare the total cost over three years:

• Hosting and infrastructure. Magento needs capable hosting, caching and monitoring. Shopify includes them in the plan.
• Upgrades and patches. Adobe publishes regular security and feature releases for Magento 2.4.x, and each release line has an end-of-support date. Every upgrade means testing your theme and extensions. On Shopify there is no upgrade project.
• Extensions and apps. Magento extensions are usually one-off purchases plus upgrade work. Shopify apps are usually monthly subscriptions.
• Payment costs. Shopify charges an extra transaction fee when you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments (where it's available). Check the current rate for your plan.
• Developer time. Magento developers are specialised and the work is heavier. Shopify theme and app work is generally quicker.

Shopify publishes its plan prices on its pricing page, and Adobe Commerce is priced by quote. Get current figures for your market before you compare.

Which is better for B2B and complex catalogues?

Magento has long been strong at B2B: customer-specific catalogues and prices, quotes, company accounts and complex product types (configurable, bundle, grouped). It also handles several storefronts with different catalogues on one installation.

Shopify has caught up for many businesses. Shopify Plus includes B2B features such as company profiles, price lists and payment terms, and Shopify Markets covers multiple currencies, languages and domains from one store. Very large configurators, unusual pricing logic or deep ERP-driven processes can still be easier on Magento.

Rule of thumb: list every "unusual" thing your store does. If each has a native Shopify feature or a well-supported app, Shopify will be simpler. If several need custom builds, price them on both platforms before deciding.

Which is better for SEO?

Both can rank well. The differences are practical:

• URLs. Magento lets you shape URLs freely. Shopify uses fixed prefixes (/products/, /collections/, /pages/, /blogs/). That's fine for SEO, but it means every URL changes if you migrate.
• Speed. Shopify's hosting and CDN are fast by default; theme and app choices decide the rest. Magento can be very fast, but only with good hosting and caching set up by someone who knows it.
• Control. Magento gives more control over technical SEO such as layered navigation, canonical rules and robots settings. Shopify covers the basics (titles, descriptions, sitemaps, canonical tags) and leaves less room for mistakes.

How hard is it to move from Magento to Shopify?

The theme gets rebuilt, so most of the work is data and SEO:

1. Catalogue. Configurable products become Shopify products with variants; custom attributes become metafields. Shopify limits options and variants per product, so check the current limits for large configurators.
2. Customers. Names, addresses and order history can move. Passwords can't, so customers activate their new account or reset their password.
3. Orders. Historical orders can be imported as read-only records.
4. Redirects. Every old URL needs a one-to-one 301 redirect to its new Shopify URL. This protects your rankings.
5. Extensions. Each one becomes a Shopify feature, an app, a custom app, or is dropped.
6. Taxes and shipping. Re-check US sales tax, UK VAT, Canadian GST/HST and Australian GST settings for each market.

When should you stay on Magento?

• Your team already runs Magento well, upgrades are on time, and costs are under control.
• You depend on custom functionality that would be expensive to rebuild on Shopify.
• You run many storefronts with very different catalogues from one back end.

When does moving to Shopify make sense?

• Upgrades keep slipping and security patches feel risky.
• Hosting and developer costs are rising faster than sales.
• Your selling model is mostly standard: products with options, collections, discounts, several markets.
• You want your team selling and marketing, not maintaining a platform.

Quick comparison

• Hosting: Magento / Adobe Commerce: You or Adobe cloud; Shopify / Shopify Plus: Included
• Upgrades and patches: Magento / Adobe Commerce: Your project; Shopify / Shopify Plus: Shopify's job
• Customisation: Magento / Adobe Commerce: Almost unlimited; Shopify / Shopify Plus: Themes, apps, APIs, Functions
• B2B: Magento / Adobe Commerce: Strong, native; Shopify / Shopify Plus: Shopify Plus B2B features
• Multi-store: Magento / Adobe Commerce: Several sites on one install; Shopify / Shopify Plus: Markets, or separate stores
• URL control: Magento / Adobe Commerce: Full; Shopify / Shopify Plus: Fixed prefixes
• Typical team: Magento / Adobe Commerce: Specialist developers; Shopify / Shopify Plus: Smaller in-house team

Sources

• Adobe: Magento 1 end of support (30 June 2020) and Adobe Commerce release and lifecycle policy (experienceleague.adobe.com)
• Shopify Help Center: product variants and options, metafields, URL redirects, importing customers, Shopify Payments and third-party transaction fees (help.shopify.com)
• Shopify: Shopify Plus B2B features and Shopify Markets (shopify.com)
• Shopify: PCI DSS compliance (shopify.com/security)

Planning a move? See how Dzimark handles Magento, WooCommerce and BigCommerce to Shopify migrations.