Trying to determine if Adobe Commerce is the right eCommerce platform for your business? We have all the information you need. In this guide, we’ll detail all the key features and pricing information you need to know in order to make a decision. Our Adobe Commerce guide includes the following:
- Explanation of what Adobe Commerce is
- If it and Magento are the same
- How much Adobe Commerce costs
- Omnichannel shopping feature breakdown
- Customer experience solution feature breakdown
- Reporting & analytics feature breakdown
- Technical solutions & support feature breakdown
- Adobe Commerce B2B features
- Adobe Commerce AI features
What Is Adobe Commerce?
Adobe Commerce, released in 2016 as Magento Enterprise, is a customizable eCommerce platform from Adobe designed to help businesses of all sizes create and manage their online stores. After purchasing Magento, Adobe renamed Magento Enterprise in 2021 — and since then, Adobe Commerce has evolved into a premiere solution for mid- to enterprise-size businesses in both the B2B and B2C markets.
Are Adobe Commerce and Magento the Same?
The short answer is, “technically, yes.” But, the clarification is worth explaining a bit more fully.
Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source share the same codebase. While Magento lives on as a catch-all phrase for all associated platforms, we prefer to use the following terminology:
- Magento: We use the single word to refer to the Magento codebase which lies at the root of Magento Open Source, Adobe Commerce, and Adobe Commerce Cloud.
- Magento Open Source: This is the distribution of the Magento codebase that is available for free via the Open Software Licence (OSL 3.0). Platform development for Magento Open Source is managed by Adobe with ongoing contribution from the Magento development community.
- Adobe Commerce: Adobe’s commerce platform available via paid license according to annual contracts with their clients. This platform is still based on the Magento codebase, but Adobe develops this platform independently from Magento Open Source. Adobe Commerce offers more robust functionality out of the box than Magento Open Source. Adobe Commerce, like Magento Open Source, requires self-hosting.
- Adobe Commerce Cloud: The same as Adobe Commerce but includes Adobe’s managed hosting. The monthly fees are typically higher than the license fee alone for Adobe Commerce due to the hosting.
How Much Does Adobe Commerce Cost?
Understanding the cost of Adobe Commerce is crucial for businesses planning to adopt this platform — the solution needs to fit your budget, after all. Adobe Commerce has pricing that is customized based on the business and is determined by two factors: annual recurring revenue (ARR). To find out exactly how much it will cost for your business, you’ll need to contact and get a quote from Adobe directly.
For Adobe Commerce Cloud, use these numbers are a rough guide:
|
Annual Recurring Revenue |
Annual Adobe Commerce License & Cloud Hosting Fees |
|
Up to $5M |
$50,000 |
|
$5M - $10M |
$80,000 |
|
$10M - $25M |
$125,000 |
|
$25M |
$200,000 |
Adobe Commerce vs. Magento Open Source Cost Comparison
The fact that Adobe Commerce is a premium, paid solution may make its free counterpart, Magento Open Source, more appealing. While that platform is very flexible and lacks a price tag to get started, it lacks many of the advanced features that Adobe Commerce provides. Here's a brief cost comparison:
- Adobe Commerce: Pricing for Adobe Commerce varies based on your ARR, as mentioned earlier and each contract with Adobe is open to negotiation based on your specific business needs and how motivated Adobe is to win your business. Adobe Commerce will typically have a lower annual cost than Adobe Commerce Cloud, but the lack of Adobe managed hosting will require your business to pay for your own selected hosting provider.
- Magento Open Source: Magento Open Source has no license fees. However, similar to Adobe Commerce, you'll need to budget for your own hosting.
We provide more pricing detail in our article eCommerce Platform Pricing: Adobe Commerce Cloud & Magento Open Source.
Adobe Commerce Features: Omnichannel Shopping
Adobe Commerce offers a range of native features that give you the tools to provide a seamless omnichannel shopping experience for your customers.
Quick Checkout
Quick checkout streamlines the purchase process, reducing cart abandonment rates by allowing customers to checkout without using a password. With an efficient, one-page checkout, users can complete their orders fast, leading to higher conversion rates and improved customer satisfaction.
Amazon Sales Channel
Integrate your Adobe Commerce store with the Amazon marketplace to reach a broader audience. This feature allows you to manage products, inventory, and orders across both your website and Amazon, simplifying multi-channel sales.
Headless Commerce
Headless commerce architecture decouples the frontend and backend of your eCommerce site. This flexibility allows you to provide a consistent shopping experience across various touchpoints — such as your website(s) and mobile apps.
Mobile Optimization
Adobe Commerce prioritizes mobile optimization via progressive web app (PWA) solutions, ensuring that your eCommerce site performs seamlessly on smartphones and tablets. This responsive design approach is critical as mobile shopping continues to grow in popularity.
Channel Manager
The Channel Manager feature allows you to efficiently manage multiple sales channels, including online stores, marketplaces, and social media platforms, from a centralized dashboard. This simplifies inventory management and order fulfillment.
Adobe Commerce Features: Customer Experience Solutions
Creating an exceptional customer experience is paramount in eCommerce. Adobe Commerce provides several native and Adobe-supported features that will help you enhance customer satisfaction and drive loyalty.
Page Builder
With Adobe Commerce's Page Builder, you can easily create and customize web pages using a drag-and-drop interface. This means you can design attractive landing pages, product pages, and content-rich experiences without extensive coding or needing developer support.
Product Recommendations
You can also leverage AI-driven product recommendations to suggest relevant items to customers based on their browsing and purchase history. This personalized approach increases cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Live Search
Live Search provides real-time search results as users type their queries using AI, helping them find products faster and improving user engagement.
Inventory & Order Management
With Adobe Commerce's integrated tools, you can monitor stock levels, automate order processing, and track shipments to ensure a smooth order fulfillment process. You can also utilize multi-source inventory (MSI), which allows you to track your inventory levels across multiple warehouses, stores, and pickup locations.
PWA Studio
PWAs offer fast, reliable, and engaging experiences for customers, and Adobe Commerce's PWA Studio enables you to develop them for your business. This gives your customers a new way to experience your products and services.
Customer Account Management
Adobe Commerce offers features like order history, address book management, and account information updates. These customer account management tools centralize order details from all sales and fulfillment channels so that your information is never out-of-date.
Adobe Commerce Features: Reporting & Analytics
Informed decision-making is crucial for eCommerce success. Adobe Commerce equips you with powerful reporting and analytics tools to gain insights into your business performance — here are a few of them.
Business Intelligence
With Adobe Commerce, you can access comprehensive business intelligence tools that provide deep insights into sales, customer behavior, and product performance. You can then use data-driven insights to optimize your strategies and increase revenue.
Reporting & Visualizations
Customizable reporting and visualization options allow you to track KPIs and key metrics. Adobe Commerce allows you to generate reports on sales trends, customer demographics, and more, which you can then save to custom dashboards for quick viewing.
Adobe Commerce Features: Technical Solutions & Support
Adobe Commerce prioritizes technical excellence and support to ensure your eCommerce site runs smoothly, securely, and efficiently.
Cloud Delivery
Users can leverage Adobe Commerce's cloud delivery capabilities for scalable hosting and content delivery, including continuous releases, monitoring, development tools and deployment efficiencies. This ensures your website remains responsive and available, even during traffic spikes.
Data Warehousing & Management
Adobe Commerce's data warehousing solutions enable you to access and analyze data quickly, facilitating better decision-making. The solution’s cloud-based data warehouse provides you with multiple ways to pipe in your data, as well as selective sync options.
Security
Adobe Commerce includes built-in security features, enhancements, updates, and compliance with industry standards to keep your business secure.
Extensibility
Adobe Commerce is a highly customizable platform — and it provides the tools you need to make it meet your specific requirements. The platform supports a wide range of extensions and integrations, allowing you to add new features and functionalities as necessary.
PCI Compliance
Adobe Commerce is PCI DSS (payment card industry data security standard) compliant, ensuring the secure handling of payment data. This certified Level 1 Solution Provider status is essential for online businesses handling credit card transactions.
ERP Integration
You can also integrate your Adobe Commerce store with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to streamline business processes. With this integration, you can sync data related to inventory, orders, and customer information between your business systems for improved efficiency.
Adobe Commerce B2B Features
For businesses focused on B2B eCommerce, Adobe Commerce offers tailored features to address specific needs and challenges. These include advanced pricing options, bulk ordering, and personalized catalog views, among others.
Advanced Pricing Options
Tailored Pricing Structures: Adobe Commerce helps businesses establish customized pricing structures for their B2B clients. This flexibility allows you to negotiate contract-based pricing, tiered pricing, or customer-specific discounts.
Dynamic Pricing: The platform also supports dynamic pricing strategies, allowing you to adjust prices based on factors such as order volume, customer loyalty, or seasonal promotions. This dynamic approach helps you remain competitive in the B2B market.
Bulk Ordering
Quick Order Forms: As mentioned above, quick order forms are a valuable feature for B2B clients who prefer to input SKUs or product IDs directly. This speeds up the ordering process for bulk orders — especially for businesses with extensive product catalogs.
Personalized Catalog Views
Customer-Specific Catalogs: Adobe Commerce empowers you to create personalized catalogs for different B2B customers or customer groups. This feature ensures that clients see only the products that are relevant to their business needs, simplifying their shopping experience.
Restrictive Access: You can also restrict access to certain products or categories based on customer attributes, meaning sensitive or exclusive items are only visible to authorized buyers.
Account Management
Self-Service Account Tools: B2B clients often require self-service capabilities to manage their accounts effectively. Adobe Commerce provides tools for account management, enabling customers to update their information, view order history, and manage their billing and shipping addresses.
Approval Workflows: For businesses that require multi-tiered approval processes, Adobe Commerce supports custom approval workflows. This ensures that all orders meet internal authorization requirements before they are processed.
Adobe Commerce AI Features
Adobe Commerce incorporates AI capabilities via native Adobe Sensei features to enhance customer experiences. These include AI-driven product recommendations, personalized content delivery, and predictive analytics. For a more in-depth look at these features, read our dedicated blog on Adobe Commerce's AI capabilities.
How To Choose the Right eCommerce Platform
It’s clear that Adobe Commerce is a robust eCommerce platform that offers a wide array of features designed to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes and the markets they serve. Its flexibility, scalability, and support for omnichannel commerce make it a compelling choice for those seeking to elevate their online commerce presence, whether they’re in the B2B, B2C, or both markets.
To help determine if it’s the right platform for your business, get in touch with a team of Adobe Commerce experts who can walk through your unique needs and how they can be solved with this eCommerce solution — get in touch with IronPlane.
