Shopify Plus vs. Adobe Commerce: Big Dogs of 2025 E-commerce
Paul Grieselhuber
Shopify Plus vs. Adobe Commerce in 2025
Enterprise e-commerce is a tough fight in 2025, and two platforms dominate the ring: Shopify Plus and Adobe Commerce (Magento). Shopify Plus starts at 2 000 dollars per month and focuses on speed and ease of use. Adobe Commerce is a highly customisable heavyweight—project costs range from 7 000 to 140 000 dollars, according to Onilab. Both target large merchants, but scale, cost and customisation set them apart.
Shopify Plus: The Slick Contender
Shopify Plus is the popular enterprise choice. A 2 000-dollar monthly fee unlocks a managed, full-stack solution. Set-up is quick, with omnichannel sales across social, marketplaces and in-store POS. APIs and more than 8 000 apps allow deep, though not limitless, tailoring inside Shopify’s own ecosystem. Flash-sale brands such as Gymshark and SKIMS report more than ten thousand checkouts per minute without downtime.
Adobe Commerce: The Custom Tank
Adobe Commerce—Magento’s enterprise edition—prioritises control. Builds run from 7 000 to 140 000 dollars before hosting or maintenance. It offers headless readiness, extensive APIs and one code-base for B2B and B2C. Large retailers such as Coca-Cola and Ford use it for multi-brand, multi-region catalogues, but day-to-day operation requires an in-house or agency development team.
Scale: Speed or Muscle
Shopify Plus provides automatic scaling, unlimited bandwidth and a 99.99 percent uptime guarantee. Adobe Commerce can match high order volumes—marketing material cites 200 000 orders an hour—but performance depends on how well the merchant and hosting partner tune the stack.
Cost: Lean Bill or Fat Build
Shopify Plus charges a base fee plus a revenue share, with hosting and security included. Development budgets usually fall between 100 000 and 500 000 dollars. Adobe Commerce has no licence fee for the open-source core, yet implementation, hosting and ongoing support quickly raise total cost of ownership; annual software subscription fees apply for the paid edition.
Customisation: Guardrails or Free-for-All
Shopify Plus supports robust APIs, Shopify Functions and Hydrogen headless tooling, but the platform’s guardrails remain in place. Adobe Commerce is virtually unlimited—any language stack, any checkout flow—at the price of greater developer workload.
Verdict
Shopify Plus is the faster route to market at a predictable monthly cost. Adobe Commerce delivers deeper custom features and multi-site flexibility, but demands heavier budgets and technical involvement. Choose speed and simplicity with Shopify Plus, or raw custom power with Adobe Commerce.
