Why Choose Adobe Commerce (Magento)?

Adobe Commerce, formerly Magento, offers businesses the ability to build a multi-channel commerce experience for both D2C and B2B customers—all on one platform.

Adobe Commerce is both scalable and flexible. Many leading brands use Adobe Commerce, taking advantage of its modern tools, easy-to-use interface, inventory management, extensions, partner community, 'Platform as a Service' (PaaS) infrastructure, and more. But Adobe Commerce is more than a piece of software, it gives you the ability to take control of your commerce business and build it around your custom needs. 

What's the difference between Adobe's ecommerce products?

After launching in 2008, and growing into a market-leading commerce platform, Adobe bought Magento, a market-leading ecommerce platform, in 2018 and has built on the platform's early success with its very deep pockets. 

Adobe now offers two ecommerce products: An annual license-based product called Adobe Commerce and a free product called Magento Open Source (originally named Magento Community Edition). 

We are mainly recommending customers to the fully-licensed, fully-hosted, full-featured Adobe Commerce product. If your site is big enough to warrant using any edition of Adobe Commerce the license will be a minor expense. Read more in Adobe Commerce vs Magento Open Source.  

Reasons to Consider Adobe Commerce

Cost: For mid-sized merchants, Adobe's license will be easy to justify. What you get with Adobe Commerce includes advanced hosting services, support, and a robust administrative suite. In addition, it’s secure and up to date while still retaining the flexibility for developers of an open source platform. Learn more in our Adobe Commerce (Magento) website costs blog post. 

Features: Adobe Commerce is innovative and offers the full suite of ecommerce features. It’s where active development and most new features are released first, and many features (such as B2B, multi-origin shipping, buy online pick up in store, and others) are only released for Adobe Commerce. Keep reading for a detailed features list.

Managed services & speed: Large, custom websites built on cloud platforms (like Adobe Commerce) are a popular option for many enterprise businesses and are known as 'Platform as a Service' (PaaS). This option combines the flexibility (think code and database access) of an enterprise-level ecommerce platform with a multi-environment, auto-scaling, uptime-focused hosting infrastructure. So you get the best of SaaS and custom worlds. 

Adobe keeps its platforms up to date by releasing patches for security and functionality improvements. They support and provide managed services for the full hosting stack. All Amazon Web Services (AWS), high-availability hosting, traffic management, auto-scaling, Fastly CDN, and other services are all managed by Adobe's in-house web operations team.

As new releases of Adobe Commerce come out, typically quarterly, your development team will be able to pull those and upgrade your core system.

Cloud-based hosting: Adobe Commerce is hosted on AWS or Azure and managed by Adobe’s Web Operations Team. Not only does this solve the question of finding a reliable hosting provider, but it also means that your website will be hosted by a dedicated team of people who can make sure your website is running at peak performance.

Multiple Adobe Commerce stores: You’re not limited to a single store with Adobe Commerce, you can actually manage multiple stores with the same platform. This is useful for many business scenarios:

The benefit is all stores can share the same backend integrations and infrastructure. Even if the customer happens to be purchasing from entirely different URLs.

  • A wholesale store and retail store
  • Different language variations for international stores (with different catalogs for each country)
  • A private factory or outlet store along with a consumer store
  • Products sold under different brand names or company divisions
  • Branded storefronts for key large customers
Administrative Suite

Adobe Commerce offers features that are incredibly valuable to sophisticated ecommerce strategies. A high-level list of features includes:

  • Multi-Origin Shipping: You can configure complex shipping and delivery details within your Adobe Commerce website, including multi-origin shipping.
  • B2B Suite: Adobe Commerce allows you to create customer accounts, create unique pricing catalogs, and implement data insights for B2B sales.
  • Page Builder: It is built to support content and commerce strategies that allow administrators to build out unique pages around their products.
  • ElasticSearch: The Adobe Commerce team has switched to a new external search service. Current versions support Elasticsearch and the new version of 2.4.4 also adds support for Open Search. Customers in the cloud version will need to make that switch.
  • Segmentation: For anonymous users and authenticated users, you can segment users based on browsing history and cart contents to offer unique pricing, sales, cross-sells and up-sells.
  • Instant Purchase: Adobe Commerce can remember your customer’s shipping and payment information in order to speed up the checkout process.
  • Custom Pricing: Adobe Commerce is especially useful for B2B, and can be used to offer quotes and custom catalogs to customers. Additionally, customers can create accounts in order to speed up their ordering process.

When we recommend Adobe Commerce

When you do the math and consider the cost of robust hosting, key features, and support, and compare that to the cost of trying to do those three with your own internal WebOps team, at the same level of performance, Adobe Commerce is an incredible bargain. In fact, for many of our enterprise clients, the license and hosting have been less expensive than their current hosting costs alone.

With Adobe Commerce, you have all the benefits in addition to full-time support from the Adobe team. You have a team managing your hosting, ensuring your uptime and security. Pair that with Bear Group’s development team and Run State support team and you’ve got a turnkey solution for ecommerce growth.

Frequently Asked Questions
Is Adobe Commerce a PaaS?

Platform as a Service (PaaS), like Adobe Commerce, is an ecommerce platform that has a complete development and deployment environment in the cloud, with resources that enable you to deliver everything from simple cloud-based apps to sophisticated, cloud-enabled enterprise applications. Since your development team has access to the entire codebase of the application, you have as much control of your website as you would over an open-source website.

What are the differences between Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source?

Adobe Commerce is a licensed PaaS product that comes with a managed server environment. It allows your developer’s full access to the core code and git repository to extend and build upon the foundational code. It is a great choice for businesses doing B2B-type features or B2C needing extensive customization. Magento Open Source is the non-licensed, free version of the platform. It uses the same API and core code base, but some of the key features that are useful for enterprise clients are missing. We cover these and more in our Adobe Commerce vs Magento Open Source blog post.

Are Magento and Adobe Commerce the same thing?

Yes. As of April 2021, Magento Commerce Cloud has changed its name to Adobe Commerce. Here's a quick overview of the platform name changes over the years:

  • Magento Enterprise → Magento Commerce Cloud → Adobe Commerce
  • Magento Community Edition (CE) → Magento Open Source
How does Adobe Commerce (Magento) compare to Shopify?

Adobe and Shopify ecommerce platforms have similarities from a feature and functionality perspective but there are important differences that are often the deciding factor for businesses considering which platform to choose. Learn more in our detailed article comparing Shopify and Adobe Commerce or contact us to schedule an intro call.

How much does it cost to build an Adobe Commerce website?

Adobe Commerce costs include licensing the platform, add-on extensions, development of the theme and customizations, as well as ongoing upgrades and improvements. The total cost of ownership (TCO) will depend on your website and your business's unique needs. Learn more about Adobe Commerce website costs and contact us to set up an intro call and receive pricing information specific to your Adobe Commerce project.

Which types of businesses should use Adobe Commerce?

Whether your business is B2B or B2C, Adobe Commerce can fit your unique online selling situation. Currently, just under 200,000 web stores are running on Adobe Commerce. It is a strong option for merchants who want a custom-branded store and have unique operations and business practices that require some customization.

Many traditional ecommerce businesses run on Adobe Commerce, however, we’ve also helped clients use it for ticketing, digital subscriptions, and headless commerce. Learn more about how B2B manufacturers are using Adobe Commerce in our latest guide, What Works: The Guide to B2B Ecommerce for Manufacturers.

Which companies use Adobe Commerce (Magento)?

From ecommerce websites to large nonprofits, there are a number of brands and companies that use Adobe Commerce. Learn more about some of the brands using Adobe Commerce. If you think that Adobe Commerce may be the right platform for you, request an intro call with Bear Group to learn more about the platform.

How easy is it to use Adobe Commerce?

Adobe Commerce offers a flexible and straightforward administrative interface that businesses can manage in-house. If you’re considering the platform, contact us for a free intro call and you can walk through it in a demo.

Bear Group's technical project managers are available to provide training on an ongoing basis throughout development. Adobe Commerce comes with extensive written and video documentation, so we focus on group or one-to-one training around the specifics of your website. Our goal is to get everyone comfortable using the new system in their day-to-day work.