Magento Open Source vs. Adobe Commerce
What are the functional differences between these two versions?
Once the choice is made for a Magento webshop, the next question soon follows: will it be the Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce) version? An important decision. Two powerful platforms that XSARUS implements at all kinds of organizations. Although the codebase of Open Source and Commerce is fundamentally the same, it is often unclear what the functional differences are between the two versions. That's where this article provides insight.
Magento Open Source - good foundation
Magento Open Source is a free version that meets the basic needs of online brands and retailers. Although many functionalities of Magento Open Source are similar to Adobe Commerce, it is often necessary to install additional extensions or apply customization. It is therefore important to understand which functionalities are necessary prior to the selection process, especially with an eye on the long term and online growth ambitions.
Adobe Commerce - more possible
Adobe Commerce is Adobe's licensing product that includes more and fully integrated and advanced functionalities to drive retailers' growth. Some of the additional functionalities include:
Dynamic marketing & merchandising
Thanks to the Page Builder, content pages can be easily created without HTML or CSS knowledge. The user-friendly drag-and-drop editor allows for easy construction of content and e-commerce blocks. With content staging and scheduling functionality, it is possible to schedule and review campaigns in advance.
Using customer segmentation tools and targeting, targeted promotions and merchandising can be deployed. The platform also includes an advanced search function that improves conversion rates, and automated product up-sell and cross-sell rules increase average order value.
Giving customers reward points when they make a purchase increases customer loyalty. Within the platform, self-defined redemption rules can be created.
Customers also have the ability to create gift and multiple wish lists, redeem digital and physical gift cards and participate in exclusive private sales.
B2B functionality
Within Adobe Commerce, B2B customers' business accounts can be managed. Take advantage of a streamlined online workflow for quote requests, set custom catalogs and pricing at the customer level. The Quick Ordering option provides the functionality where a SKU or CSV file can be uploaded and placed in the shopping cart.
Data possibilities
Numerous data capabilities in the form of statistics and reports provide insight into how customers behave, what products they buy, how frequently they return and where they drop out in the ordering process. In addition, the Adobe Commerce platform is far advanced in terms of Business Intelligence and external data sources can be integrated for a complete 360-degree view of business results.
Adobe Commerce Cloud
Adobe offers optional Cloud hosting for the Commerce version. The price of a license depends on the volumes that come with the online retailer's platform. Functionally, there are no differences between Commerce and Commerce Cloud.
Scalability & performance
Thanks to the Adobe Commerce elastic scalability in the cloud, a large amount of traffic can be well managed during peak times. In addition, separate checkout, order management and product databases as well as multiple databases are supported and there is compatibility with MySQL Cluster.
Overview of differences between Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce
The overview below shows all the differences between Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce. In certain areas such as marketing & merchandising, data capabilities, B2B functionality, scalability & performance and Cloud hosting, Adobe Commerce has additional features.
Promotions and prizes | Open Source | Commerce |
---|---|---|
Promotions and promotions for specific stores, categories, customers, segments or products. | ||
Create coupons for specific stores, segments, time periods, products and categories. | ||
Export coupon codes for offline distribution, email, newsletters and more. | ||
Tracking and reporting on coupon usage. | ||
Offer free shipping and discount rates, fixed amounts, buy x get y free. | ||
Graduated discounts. | ||
Minimum advertised price (MAP) support. | ||
Automated abandoned cart messages. | - | |
Add customer attributes for specified segmentation. | - | |
Personalize shopping experience with advanced segmentation and targeting. | - | |
Search engine optimization (SEO) | Open Source | Commerce |
Automatically generate a Google sitemap. | ||
Creating search engine friendly URLs. | ||
Full control over URLs with URL rewrites. | ||
Site management | Open Source | Commerce |
Manage multiple websites and stores from one admin. | ||
Customize and save different views in the admin panel to efficiently manage daily tasks. | ||
Define multiple roles and permissions to access administrative functions. | ||
Set tax rates based on location, product type or customer group (for example: wholesaler vs. retailer). | ||
Generate comprehensive system reports for quick scan and technical troubleshooting. | - | |
Log and monitor all user management activities. | - | |
Content management | Open Source | Commerce |
Adding content blocks, widgets and elements. | ||
Create customer experiences thanks to the Page Builder and quickly modify content without writing a single line of code. | ||
Use drag-and-drop editor for easy composition or modification of pages and content blocks. | ||
Combine text, images, videos, sliders and more in flexible layouts. | ||
Combine content and commerce by adding products to content pages and adding content to product detail pages. | ||
Create reusable dynamic blocks targeting customer segments. | - | |
Easily stage and preview content for seamless updates. | - | |
Manage upcoming site changes in the timeline dashboard. | - | |
Manage content pages and add pagination, navigation and menus with a page hierarchy tool. | - | |
View and restore previous versions of content pages. | - | |
Trigger customers through beautiful images from Adobe Stock, directly from Adobe Commerce. | - | |
Save content and layouts as templates. Apply them to other places on the website and storeviews. | ||
Giving creatives, designers and agencies direct, controlled access to the Media Gallery. | ||
PWA Studio | Open Source | Commerce |
Creating next-generation web shops with Progressive Web Applications. | ||
Provide mobile experiences that are fast, integrated, reliable and engaging. | ||
Integrate PWA experiences using GraphQL API. | ||
Extend and customize PWA capabilities with the PWA Studio extensibility framework. | ||
Accelerate time-to-market using Venia's multilingual storefront. | ||
Giving marketers control of the Page Builder to manage content and layouts in PWA Studio-powered storefronts. | ||
Create personalized, headless customer experiences from the Adobe Experience Manager with Venia storefront setup. | ||
Catalog management | Open Source | Commerce |
Easily create configurable (for example: choose size, color, etc.), bundled and called products. | ||
Offer virtual products such as memberships, services and guarantees. | ||
Add downloadable products with samples. | ||
Manage inventory across multiple locations. | ||
Creating new products through a guided online process. | ||
Define unlimited product characteristics. | ||
Create predefined product templates to quickly create new products with a specific set of attributes. | ||
Define minimum or maximum product quantities that can be added to the cart. | ||
Mass assign a value to multiple products for batch updates. | ||
Easy inventory management with support for back orders. | ||
Reviews en product tags beheren. | ||
Receive notification when stock needs to be replenished. | ||
Set out-of-stock messages. | ||
Allow customer personalized products (example: image upload). | - | |
Automatically assign products to a specific category based on attributes. | - | |
Automatically resize images and add watermarks. | - | |
Efficient batch import and export of catalog information at scheduled times. | - | |
Catalog sorting | Open Source | Commerce |
Filter products and categories by price, range, brand, color and other attributes with layered navigation. | ||
Present product categories in grid or list format. | ||
Customize look-and-feel of categories and product pages. | ||
Show similar products side by side (two or more). | ||
Recently viewed and display similar products. | ||
Increase search relevance and scalability with Elastic Search technology. | ||
Define attribute levels and keyword synonyms for higher conversions. | ||
Rewrite and redirect results if the search function does not return a result. | ||
Rank products on category pages with a drag-and-drop editor and automated sorting rules. | - | |
Determine which products and categories are visible to each customer group. | - | |
Product recommendations - Powered by Adobe Sensei | Open Source | Commerce |
Auto-deployed store tagging in the storefront makes it possible to analyze customer behavior. | - | |
Auto-catalog sync ensures accuracy in displaying product name, prices, images, etc. | - | |
Adobe Sensei continuously analyzes customer behavior and processes it with machine learning (ML) algorithms. | - | |
ML algorithms drive nine recommendation types that can be placed in the storefront, such as ''now trending'', ''customers also viewed'', ''customers also bought'' etc. | - | |
Manage experiences with a dedicated UI in the Adobe Commerce admin for creating, managing and deploying recommendations. | - | |
Track performance and impact through reports of key metrics such as views, clicks and attributed revenue. | - | |
Dedicated SaaS service handles all complex, computational processing of the website. | - | |
Product view | Open Source | Commerce |
Display multiple images per product. | ||
Zooming in on product images. | ||
Display product videos from YouTube or Vimeo. | ||
Add swatches to display colors, fabrics, etc. | ||
Display multiple products in a grouped view. | ||
Display available stock. | ||
Showing product ratings and reviews. | ||
Ability to add products to a wish list. | ||
Automatically set related products for up-sell and cross-sell recommendations, to increase average order value. | - | |
Add Facebook, Twitter and email links to share products. | - | |
Check-out | Open Source | Commerce |
Show order summary with product images at checkout. | ||
Guest - and customer check-out use. Registered customers are automatically recognized when the email address is entered. | ||
Allowing customers to create a customer account on the thank you page after check-out with the click of a button. | ||
Persistent Shopping Cart feature saves the shopping cart to complete the purchase later. | ||
Manage complex VAT calculations and set up signature-ready returns with Vertex. | ||
Improve check-out performance with stock reservations. | ||
Improve order processing capacity with the option to disable stock updates in checkout during peak periods. | ||
Display VAT and shipping information in the shopping cart. | ||
Offer gift packaging options and messages per order and per item. | - | |
Configure prices and taxes for packaging options. | - | |
Standard UPS shipping solutions are available. | ||
Set store pickup as a possible shipping method. | ||
Payment | Open Source | Commerce |
Securely pass credit card information from the browser to the payment gateway. | ||
Qualify for PCI compliance (SAQ-A or SAQ A-EP), depending on the payment methods used. | ||
Braintree Vendor Bundled Extension use for PCI compliance and alternative payment methods such as Venmo, Apple Pay and Google Pay. | ||
Offering PayPal Express as a payment method. | ||
Accept payments via bank transfer and cash on delivery. | ||
Increase number of conversions by relevant payment methods through PayPal Smart Payment Buttons. | ||
Set credit card authorization and debit at shipping or at checkout. | ||
Increase sales by allowing customers to pay now, later or in installments through Klarna. | - | |
Order management and customer service | Open Source | Commerce |
From the admin panel view, edit, create and fulfill orders and/or invoices. | ||
Create multiple invoices, shipments and credit notes per order to allow partial deliveries. | ||
Print invoices, packing slips and shipping labels. | ||
Create order status labels to track progress. | ||
Enable customer service representatives to create orders and customer accounts. | ||
Customize and send order status, account updates, password resets and other emails towards customers. | ||
Build customer relationships by creating and sending newsletters. | ||
Getting in touch with customers through the contact form. | ||
View products recently viewed, purchased or on the wish list by customers to provide better service to customers. | ||
Use Return Management Authorization (RMA) to efficiently process returns. | - | |
Convert returns to store credit. | - | |
Customer Loyalty | Open Source | Commerce |
Accelerate growth by collecting and displaying reviews and displaying specific content through Yotpo. | ||
Offer reward points for purchases, registration, product reviews or other actions. | - | |
Configure rules for redeeming reward points, maximum numbers and expiration dates of points. | - | |
Enable customers to store products on multiple wish lists that can be made public. | - | |
Allow customers to create multiple wish lists to store from. | - | |
Provide exclusive shopping experiences through private or flash sale sites. | - | |
Customer accounts | Open Source | Commerce |
Select standard shipping and billing information. | ||
Store unlimited number of addresses in address book. | ||
View order status and history. | ||
Re-order from customer account. | ||
View recently ordered items. | ||
View submitted product reviews. | ||
Downloading digital products. | ||
Managing newsletter subscriptions. | ||
View available store credits, gift cards and reward points. | - | |
Internationalization | Open Source | Commerce |
Manage web shops in multiple countries from the same environment. | ||
Support for other currencies and local tax rates. | ||
Set up lists of allowed countries with respect to registration, shipping and billing. | ||
Support established product taxes, such as WEEE/DEEE in the EU. | ||
Automatic tax calculation for EU transactions with VAT ID validation. | ||
Use EU cookie notification to comply with EU Privacy Law and Electronic Communications Directive. | ||
Integration with global carriers. | ||
Live Search | Open Source | Commerce |
Create fast, intelligent and personalized search results. | - | |
Easily manage everything needed for dynamic search and recommendations within the user-friendly interface and reduce manual tasks. | - | |
Use reports to monitor performance, identify trends and optimize search experiences. | - | |
Upgrade compatibility tool | Open Source | Commerce |
Problems are proactively identified before an Adobe Commerce upgrade occurs, making the process more predictable and reducing the cost of performing regular upgrades. | - | |
Integrated B2B functionality | Open Source | Commerce |
Self-service tools allow business customers to easily manage the business account, purchases, quotes and credits. | - | |
Set roles and permissions for business buyers. | - | |
Ability to sign up new accounts through an approval process. | - | |
Assign representatives to customer accounts. | - | |
Allow business customers to pay by invoice and view credit information. | - | |
Streamline procurement with customer-defined approval processes. | - | |
Assign customized product catalogs or prices to corporate customers to meet contract requirements. | - | |
Personalize purchases with company-specific shipping and payment options. | - | |
Manage quote requests efficiently and negotiate price terms thanks to streamlined online workflows. | - | |
Quick Order capability by entering multiple SKUs or uploading a CSV file. | - | |
Accelerate restocking based on frequently purchased products by corporate customers. | - | |
Process large orders up to 300 order lines. | - | |
Provide high quality service by enabling representatives to log in as customers and solve problems or place orders. | - | |
Orders accepteren op basis van business rules. | - | |
Powerful data capabilities | Open Source | Commerce |
Export products, customer data, addresses, inventory and prices from the platform. | ||
Access data anywhere and the ability to analyze it. | - | |
Handle more than 75 data reports across 5 dashboards and predefined metrics. | - | |
Stay informed through automated and updated reports. | - | |
Easily create and edit reports with one intuitive interface. | - | |
Perform advanced analysis with the Report Builder. | - | |
Summaries of reports to email to team members. | - | |
Secure account through appropriate permission levels. | - | |
Application architecture and security | Open Source | Commerce |
Modern technology that uses popular frameworks and supports industry standards. | ||
Easily add or remove functionality through a modular code structure. | ||
Stable service interface to easily implement sustainable upgrades and releases. | ||
Integrate third-party applications thanks to web APIs, SOAP and REST support. | ||
Smoothly manage links between extensions. | ||
Accelerate time-to-market and improve code quality through a fully automated testing framework. | ||
Use strong data encryption based on AES-256 and hashing based on SHA-256. | ||
Create custom headless front-end experiences using GraphQL API. | ||
Clear database schema facilitates upgrades and the installation process. | ||
Limit password guessing through strong password requirements and a secure admin login process. | ||
Promote platform security by conducting scans, external testing and bug bounty programs. | ||
Stay informed about security issues through the Security Center. | ||
Secure web shop and prevent fake logins with Google ReCAPTCHA and two-step verification. | ||
Hide IP addresses of servers from Fastly to prevent DDoS attacks. | - | |
Layout and themes | Open Source | Commerce |
Customize responsive storefront themes (Blank, Lumia or Venia PWA) to speed time to market. | ||
Easily customize a theme to create site variations based on countries, brands and campaigns. | ||
Use CSS preprocessing for easy website maintenance. | ||
Quickly develop consistent themes with the Adobe Commerce UI and pattern library. | - | |
Reduce code complexity on the frontend by separating the presentation layer and business logic. | - | |
Performance and scalability | Open Source | Commerce |
Speed up site performance with integrated Varnish page caching. Available in on-premises version only. | ||
Scale high-traffic sites with multi-tier, multi-node Varnish configurations. Available in on-premises version only. | ||
Benefit from faster indexing and increasing index updates for more recent site content and better performance. | ||
Reduce JavaScript, CSS and HTML and compress images to reduce file size and load pages faster. | ||
Cache all JavaScript and CSS on the first page viewed to minimize content that needs to be downloaded for subsequent pages. | ||
Faster access to product, customer and order management views with faster admin rendering. | ||
Archive orders after an adjustable period of time to increase store performance. | ||
Asynchronous task processing for improved performance using a Rabbit MQ framework for the task queue. | ||
Efficiently manage configuration across environments and minimize production downtime for updates with pipeline deployment tooling. | ||
Store media files on a separate database server or Content Delivery Network (CDN) for faster page load times. | - | |
Use the included Performance Toolkit to optimize site speed. | - | |
Enable large teams of admin users to perform order and product updates simultaneously. | - | |
Managed Cloud | Open Source | Commerce |
Enterprise-level reliability and availability: 99.99% uptime with high availability architecture. | - | |
Process transactions with a PCI-certified cloud infrastructure you can trust. | - | |
Take advantage of Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) based production, staging and development environments optimized for Adobe Commerce. | - | |
Accelerate time to market with expert application and infrastructure support. | - | |
Four different enhanced integration environments for different stages: Product, Staging and Integration, and a local Cloud Docker environment. | - | |
Continuous access to cloud integration tools with support for an unlimited number of users. | - | |
Manage performance with unlimited versions of New Relic APM Pro (performance monitoring) and New Relic Infrastructure monitoring. | - | |
Speed up your website's performance with Fastly's Varnish-based Content Delivery Network with image optimization. | - | |
Dedicated hardware for a high level of reliability and availability. | - | |
Automatically back up your code and databases for easy recovery in case of an incident. | - | |
Easily enable and configure services such as Redis, RabbitMQ and Elasticsearch to improve capabilities and performance. | - | |
24/7 monitoring of your production environment. | - | |
The Site-Wide Analysis Tool (SWAT) provides 24/7 real-time performance monitoring, reports and recommendations to ensure security and operability for installations of Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure. | - | |
Support | Open Source | Commerce |
Technical Support is available 24/7 by phone or online to help diagnose and resolve core issues with the product. | - | |
Dedicated Technical Account Managers and Customer Success Managers. | - |