Magento is a popular and powerful ecommerce platform. Magento is used for 12% of all online retail stores. 31.4% of the top 100,000 websites run on Magento. The large enterprises prefer Magento to create ecommerce sites.
There are two versions of Magento present in the market:
- Open-Source Edition (formerly Community): It is a free version of Magento that anyone can download and install on their server. With lots of features and open source themes, modules, and extensions to use, the OS version has a large community and following.
- Adobe Commerce Edition (formerly split into Enterprise & Magento Cloud Edition): It provides cloud service as well as Magento license. Adobe Commerce is a paid version of Magento. It is good for large enterprises that need technical support and scalability.
Difference between Magento Commerce and Open-Source Magento
The difference between Magento Commerce and Open-Source Magento is that Magento Commerce is a paid platform with premium features, including technical support, installation, configuration, and security. In comparison, the open-source Magento is freely available software that you have to install on a server and manage yourself.
You will be bearing the cost of server and maintenance with the open-source version, while Magento commerce cover all those aspects under one cost price. But with Magento commerce, you are tied in with Adobe’s policies, and open source gives you the ability to pick your theme, extensions, and direction.
What is Magento Commerce Edition?
Magento Commerce, now Adobe Commerce, is a paid Magento solution offered by Adobe. You pay someone else to make the Magento secure, reliable and scalable for you.
That is what Adobe Commerce is. That is what managed Magento hosting companies do.
In a way, Adobe Commerce provides managed Magento service, but they own the rights to sell Magento licenses. They add extra features and customize the platform for the enterprises and large businesses.
The price of Magento Commerce is $22,000 per year. It comes a variety of business intelligence tools, customer segmentation, hosting services, configuration management, maintenance, security, and support.
Your store will be supported by the developers that support the Magento platform itself.
Who needs Magento Commerce?
Magento Commerce is for enterprises that can afford to pay $22000 per year for an ecommerce platform.
For small businesses, there is not much difference between Magento commerce and Open-Source Magento. But enterprise stores making sales in billions of dollars and having millions of products can take the risk of any kind.
Enterprise Edition of any software got to be the safest version. Premium service also allows quick scalability. That’s why many large brands, including Burger King, Canon Australia, and Easy Spirit, choose the Magento Commerce version.
There is too much at stake — too much promotion and traffic to maintain. They have to be sure that the website loads smoothly and quickly.
What is Magento’s Open Source edition?
Magento Open Source is the community edition. You do not have to pay anyone to use the platform, though there will be hosting charges. Many SMBs used the open-source Magento for its ecommerce capabilities and low-cost hosting charges.
There is an entirely open-source Magento community building themes and extensions, providing custom services, designing, and development. With open-source, you are in control of your store and use it as you like.
The features can be added to the store through Magento extensions. There are free Magento extensions as well as a paid one.
There are many ways to install Magento open source edition:
Who needs Magento Open Source?
Magento’s open-source version is for a growing business, a startup, or someone experimenting with the Magento platform. However, with the help of a hosting company, Magento open source could be as safe and powerful as Magento commerce.
The reliability, performance, and security boil down to how your hosting maintains Magento’s infrastructure.
If you are looking for a powerful ecommerce platform that you can use for thousands of products and orders – but do not want to get locked in with Adobe – Magento open source is for you.
Take a Magento hosting and install it. There is a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, you will find it amazing.
Best Option: Magento SaaS – Breeze
Imagine getting the performance, security, and reliability of Magento Commerce with the freedom and rate of Magento open source.
That is Breeze. A bridge between Adobe and OS.
Folks at Magento are not the ‘only’ experts at maintaining Magento security and reliability. Many Magento experts are working with Magento for decades.
Breeze is a SaaS from which you can easily manage your Magento store. While Breeze runs the Magento platform at its full potential. With the intuitive interphase, you can access the features not available in any of the Magento versions and have to be downloaded from outside.
Take the Demo to see how easy and powerful we made the Magento.
Key difference between Magento Opensource and Commerce Magento
| Feature | Open Source | Magento Commerce |
| License Costs | Yes | Yes |
| Responsive ecomm website | Yes | Yes |
| Promotions Engine / Product & Catalog | Yes | Yes |
| Checkout, Payment, Shipping & Order | Yes | Yes |
| Site management (admin) | Yes | Yes |
| ElasticSearch | No | Yes |
| Magento Order Management | No | Yes |
| Content Staging & Preview | No | Yes |
| Magento Shipping | No | Yes |
| OOTB B2B Functionality (in v2.2) | No | Yes |
Wrap Up
As you learned the difference between Magento Commerce and Open Source, you can now pick which is better for your project.
Both versions have their advantages and disadvantages. They cater to different customer segments with some common ground. Every customer has their demands from the platform – some want security, while others prioritize freedom.
If you want to take the good parts of both versions, you can use Breeze. Book Demo.
