Shopify vs Magento: Which ecommerce platform is right for you in 2025?

Picking an ecommerce platform feels like a huge deal, because it is. It’s the digital home for your business, and the wrong choice can lead to some serious headaches and costs down the line. Two of the biggest names you’ll hear thrown around are Shopify and Magento.

At a glance, they might seem similar, but they’re built for completely different kinds of businesses. Think of it like this: Shopify is like leasing a fully furnished, move-in-ready retail space in a popular mall. Magento is like buying a plot of land and hiring architects and builders to create a custom flagship store from the ground up.

This guide will give you a straight-up, head-to-head comparison to help you figure out which one is the right fit for your store.

What is Shopify?

So, what exactly is Shopify? Think of it as the all-in-one, plug-and-play solution for selling online. It's what's known as a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. In plain English, that just means you pay a monthly fee, and Shopify takes care of all the technical heavy lifting for you, the servers, the security, the software updates, all of it. You get to focus on making your products and selling them.

It was designed for people who want to get an online store up and running quickly, without needing to hire a team of developers. This makes it a favorite for startups, small-to-medium businesses, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands that just want to get moving. With its dead-simple interface and a massive app store, you can have a great-looking shop live in a couple of days. It’s no accident that brands like Gymshark and SKIMS built their empires on Shopify.

What is Magento (now Adobe Commerce)?

On the other side of the ring, you have Magento, which is now officially part of Adobe Commerce. It’s an open-source, self-hosted platform. That "self-hosted" part is the most important thing to understand because it’s the complete opposite of Shopify.

With Magento, you’re in the driver's seat for everything. You have to find and pay for your own web hosting, manage all the security yourself, and perform every single update and bit of maintenance.

That level of complexity isn't for the faint of heart. Magento is built for big players: large-scale retailers, enterprise businesses, and B2B companies with complicated product catalogs and very specific needs. Its power lies in its almost endless customization and massive scalability. That control is exactly why global brands like Coca-Cola and Canon use Magento to run their complex online stores.

Ease of use and customization

The main difference between Shopify and Magento really boils down to a classic trade-off: simplicity vs. control. What you get in one, you usually give up in the other.

Shopify for simplicity and speed

Shopify’s whole reason for being is to make ecommerce easy. Its dashboard is clean and straightforward, and with its drag-and-drop editor, pretty much anyone can build a professional-looking store without knowing a lick of code. You can add products, hook up payments, and go live incredibly fast.

But that simplicity does come with some strings attached.

You’re working within the boundaries of Shopify's system and your chosen theme. You can change colors, fonts, and layouts, but you can't just rebuild core parts of the platform. If you want a totally unique checkout experience that breaks the mold, you're mostly out of luck.

Also, since Shopify hosts and owns the underlying technology, moving your store somewhere else can be a real pain. You don’t own the code, so you can't just pack up your files and set up shop on a new server.

Magento for total control

Magento is absolutely not a plug-and-play tool. Just getting a store launched requires serious technical skills. Most businesses end up hiring developers or an agency to handle the initial setup, customization, and all the maintenance that comes after.

But if you have the resources to manage that complexity, the payoff is huge.

Because it’s open-source, your developers can get their hands on the entire codebase. That means you can change, tweak, and rebuild any part of the platform to match your exact business needs. Whether it's integrating with a custom inventory system or creating a one-of-a-kind shopping experience, you can do it with Magento.

You own everything: your store’s code, your data, all of it. You get to pick your hosting, modify the platform as you grow, and you’re never locked into one company’s way of doing things. This lets you build features and create a brand experience that just isn’t possible on a more rigid platform.

Here's something to keep in mind, though: no matter how simple or complex your backend is, your customers just want answers. Your support team is on the front lines, dealing with questions about orders, products, and shipping. This is where you can bring some sanity to the process. A tool like eesel AI works with your helpdesk (like Zendesk or Intercom), not the ecommerce platform itself. So whether you’re on a straightforward Shopify site or a custom-built Magento beast, you can give customers the same fast, consistent support.

Comparing core features and ecosystems

Beyond how easy they are to use, the tools and features you have access to will shape how you run your business day-to-day. Let’s see how they compare.

Shopify's ecosystem and app world

Shopify’s ace in the hole is its App Store. It has over 8,000 apps that can add just about any feature you can dream up. Need to add customer reviews, set up a loyalty program, or offer product subscriptions? You can bet there’s an app for that. This makes it super easy to add new capabilities to your store as you grow, without needing a developer on standby.

The catch is that many of these key features depend on these third-party apps, which usually have their own monthly subscription fees. Those costs can sneak up on you and add up fast. Still, right out of the box, Shopify gives you a solid foundation, including Shopify Payments for taking transactions, tools for selling on social media, and Shopify POS to sync your online and physical stores.

Magento's powerful built-in toolkit

Magento goes a different route. It comes loaded with a ton of advanced features right from the start, many of which you’d have to pay for an app to get on Shopify. This makes it a beast of a platform from day one, especially for businesses with more complicated operations.

A few of its standout built-in features include:

• Multi-store management: You can run multiple storefronts for different countries, with different languages, currencies, and even product catalogs, all from a single admin dashboard. This is huge for international brands.

• Advanced inventory management: You can natively manage your stock across multiple warehouses or retail stores without needing another piece of software.

• B2B functionality: Magento comes ready with features for B2B sales, like custom pricing for different wholesale groups, quote request tools, and company accounts.

Magento has its own extension marketplace too, the Adobe Commerce Marketplace. But unlike Shopify apps that you can install with a click, these extensions usually require a developer to install and maintain them properly.

All those Shopify apps and complex Magento features create a ton of information. That can make life tough for your support agents who have to hunt for answers across different systems. This is where having a single source of truth really helps. The eesel AI Chatbot can learn from all your knowledge, whether it’s in your Shopify product catalog, help articles, or internal Google Docs. It gives both customers and agents one reliable place to find what they need, no more digging required.

Understanding the true cost

Let's talk money. It's easy to get fixated on the monthly price tag, but that’s rarely the whole story. You need to think about the "total cost of ownership," which is just a way of saying what you'll actually spend to run your store over time.

Shopify pricing plans

Shopify’s pricing is refreshingly simple and predictable. You pay a flat monthly fee for your plan, plus a small percentage on each transaction. That fee includes your hosting, security, and support, which makes budgeting way easier.

Here’s a quick look at their main plans (when you pay annually):

Feature	Basic	Grow (Shopify)	Advanced
Monthly Price	$29/month	$79/month	$299/month
Staff Accounts	2	5	15
Online Card Rates	2.9% + 30¢	2.7% + 30¢	2.5% + 30¢
3rd-Party Fees	2.0%	1.0%	0.6%
Key Features	Unlimited products, 24/7 support, Basic reports	Standard reports, 5 staff accounts, up to 88% shipping discount	Custom reports, 15 staff accounts, duties and import taxes

For bigger businesses, there's also Shopify Plus, which offers enterprise-level tools and support, with prices starting around $2,300 a month.

Just remember to factor in other potential costs, like a premium theme (usually a one-time cost of $180-$400) and any monthly app subscriptions you might need.

Magento pricing and total cost of ownership (TCO)

Magento’s pricing is a whole different ball game. There are two main flavors to know about:

1. Magento Open Source: This is the version you can download for free. But "free" is a bit misleading here. You’re on the hook for all the other costs, and they add up fast.

2. Adobe Commerce: This is the paid, enterprise version. The price is based on a quote and usually starts at $22,000 per year, going up to $125,000+ depending on how much you sell.

For most businesses weighing their options, the cost of the Open Source version is the most useful comparison. Here’s what you’ll be paying for:

• Hosting: Magento needs a lot of server power. You can expect to pay anywhere from $25 to over $500 a month for hosting that can handle it.

• Developer Costs: This is the big one. The initial setup, customization, and ongoing maintenance for a Magento store can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars every year.

• Themes & Extensions: While some are free, premium themes can cost a few hundred dollars, and powerful extensions can cost thousands.

• Security: You have to buy your own SSL certificate and make sure your developer keeps the platform updated with security patches.

Cost Factor	Shopify (Basic Plan)	Magento (Open Source)
Platform Fee	~$348	$0
Hosting	Included	$600 - $5,000+
Developer Costs	$0 - $2,000 (for tweaks)	$10,000 - $50,000+
Themes/Apps	$500 - $3,000+	$1,000 - $10,000+
Transaction Fees	Varies with sales volume	Varies by payment provider
Estimated Total	$1,000 - $5,000+	$12,000 - $65,000+

Which one should you choose?

After all that, the choice starts to become a lot clearer. It really comes down to the size of your business, your budget, and your long-term goals.

Choose Shopify if: you’re a startup, a small-to-medium business, or a DTC brand that just wants to get selling. If speed, ease of use, and predictable costs are more important to you than deep customization, Shopify is almost certainly the way to go. It's perfect if you don't have a big budget or an in-house team of developers.

Choose Magento if: you’re a large, established business with complex needs. If you require full control over every aspect of your platform, have unique operational demands, and have the budget for a dedicated development team to build and manage it all, then Magento has the power you're looking for.

Supercharge your ecommerce support, no matter the platform

While Shopify and Magento are great at running the backend of your store, they don't manage your customer conversations. No matter which platform you choose, you still need to provide great support. That's where an intelligent support layer like eesel AI comes in.

It enhances your customer support without forcing you to change how you work, regardless of which ecommerce platform you're on. It connects to your help desk and all your scattered knowledge sources to help you sidestep the usual support headaches. Here's how:

• Go live in minutes: You can connect your helpdesk, product catalogs, and knowledge bases with simple one-click integrations. There’s no long, complicated setup process.

• Reduce ticket volume: The AI Chatbot gives customers instant, 24/7 answers to common questions about shipping, returns, and order status. This frees up your human agents to focus on the trickier issues.

• Increase agent efficiency: The AI Copilot learns from your past tickets and brand voice to draft accurate, on-brand replies in seconds, helping your team get through their queue much faster.

Ready to deliver top-notch support on your Shopify or Magento store? Get started with eesel AI for free.