ChatGPT What Is Magento? Adobe Commerce Guide 2026
Summary
Key takeaways
- Magento is an open-source ecommerce platform now developed commercially as Adobe Commerce, while Magento Open Source remains the free community edition.
- Magento Open Source provides the core commerce framework without license fees, but merchants remain responsible for hosting, security, maintenance, development, extensions, and upgrades.
- Adobe Commerce adds enterprise capabilities such as advanced B2B functionality, stronger merchandising tools, scalability features, support, and integration with the wider Adobe ecosystem.
- Magento is strongest when a business needs extensive control over catalog logic, checkout, pricing, integrations, storefront behavior, and backend customization.
- The platform is particularly well suited to complex B2B, B2C, and hybrid businesses with large catalogs, multiple websites, customer-specific pricing, or ERP-driven operations.
- Adobe Commerce includes native B2B capabilities for company accounts, shared catalogs, negotiated pricing, requisition lists, quotes, purchase orders, and account hierarchies.
- Magento’s API-driven architecture makes it suitable for integration with ERP, PIM, CRM, OMS, payment, tax, marketing, and other enterprise systems.
- Merchants can use traditional Magento themes, performance-focused alternatives such as Hyvä, or headless storefront architectures depending on frontend requirements.
- Magento provides greater flexibility than most SaaS platforms, but that flexibility comes with higher engineering, hosting, security, maintenance, and upgrade responsibility.
- The right decision is not whether Magento is powerful enough, but whether the business has enough complexity and technical capacity to justify its higher total cost of ownership.
When this applies
This applies when a mid-market or enterprise merchant needs substantial control over ecommerce functionality, business rules, integrations, and storefront architecture. It is particularly relevant for manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, multi-brand retailers, and international businesses with complex catalogs, customer-specific pricing, multiple websites, B2B workflows, or significant ERP and PIM dependencies. Magento or Adobe Commerce is also a strong option when standard SaaS platform constraints would require too many workarounds or prevent the business from implementing important operational requirements.
When this does not apply
This does not apply when a business primarily needs a simple storefront, rapid launch, minimal technical ownership, and standard ecommerce functionality. Small merchants may find Magento unnecessarily expensive and operationally demanding compared with hosted SaaS platforms such as Shopify or BigCommerce. It is also a poor fit when the organization lacks the budget or engineering capability required for hosting, security, upgrades, extension management, testing, and ongoing development. Flexibility only creates value when the business actually needs and can maintain that flexibility.
Checklist
- Define whether Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce better matches the business requirements.
- Document B2C, B2B, wholesale, and hybrid commerce workflows.
- Map catalog size, product attributes, configurable products, and merchandising requirements.
- Define customer-specific pricing, catalogs, quotes, and account structures.
- Identify ERP, PIM, CRM, OMS, WMS, payment, and tax integrations.
- Determine which systems will own products, prices, inventory, customers, and orders.
- Decide whether a traditional Magento frontend, Hyvä, or headless architecture is appropriate.
- Estimate expected traffic, transaction volume, and infrastructure requirements.
- Plan hosting, caching, CDN, search, monitoring, backup, and disaster-recovery architecture.
- Audit required extensions before committing to third-party modules.
- Define security patching, upgrade, and vulnerability-management responsibilities.
- Calculate license, hosting, development, extension, integration, maintenance, and support costs together.
- Confirm access to experienced Magento or Adobe Commerce developers.
- Compare Magento against Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and composable alternatives using the same requirements.
- Choose Magento only when its customization and integration flexibility justify the additional engineering and operating complexity.
Common pitfalls
- Assuming Magento Open Source is inexpensive simply because the license is free.
- Choosing Adobe Commerce before proving that enterprise features are actually required.
- Installing too many third-party extensions instead of maintaining a controlled architecture.
- Customizing core functionality in ways that make future upgrades unnecessarily difficult.
- Underestimating hosting, monitoring, security, and performance responsibilities.
- Building complex integrations without establishing clear systems of record.
- Choosing headless architecture when a simpler frontend would satisfy the actual requirements.
- Delaying security patches because extensive customizations make upgrades difficult.
- Comparing Magento with SaaS platforms based only on license fees rather than total cost of ownership.
- Selecting Magento for its flexibility when the organization does not have the technical team or business complexity needed to benefit from it.
Definition
Magento is an open-source ecommerce platform written in PHP. Merchants use it to build and run online stores with large catalogs, complex pricing and multiple storefronts. Adobe bought Magento in 2018. The paid edition is now named Adobe Commerce. The free edition is Magento Open Source.
Magento in 100 words
Magento is the software that runs an online store: catalog, pricing, cart, checkout, customer accounts, orders and admin. It started in 2008 and Adobe acquired it in 2018. Two editions share one codebase. Magento Open Source is free and self-hosted. Adobe Commerce is paid and adds B2B, Page Builder, Live Search, cloud hosting options and Adobe support. The current version is 2.4.9, released May 12, 2026, supported until May 2029. About 95,000 to 103,000 stores run it in 2026. It fits B2B sellers, multi-brand retailers and catalog-heavy B2C brands that want to own their code and can fund a technical team.
Key facts, verified September 2026
- Owner: Adobe. Acquisition completed in June 2018 for 1.68 billion US dollars.
- Editions: Magento Open Source (free) and Adobe Commerce (paid). One shared codebase.
- Current version: 2.4.9, released May 12, 2026, supported until May 31, 2029.
- Live stores: 95,295 (BuiltWith, September 2026) and 103,381 (StoreLeads, Q2 2026).
- Market share: about 7 to 8 percent of ecommerce platforms, third after WooCommerce and Shopify (MGT Commerce, 2026).
- Best fit: B2B, B2B2C and mid-market to enterprise B2C stores with complex catalogs and ERP integration.
- Latest critical security event: StyleSmuggler, CVE-2026-75650, CVSS 10.0, Adobe hotfix on September 7, 2026.
What is Magento?
Magento is the software that runs an online store. It holds the product catalog, the prices, the shopping cart, the checkout, the customer accounts and the orders. It gives the merchant an admin panel to manage all of these. Merchants install it on their own servers, or they run it on cloud infrastructure that Adobe manages.
Magento started in 2007 as an open-source project by Varien, a software company in Los Angeles. Version 1.0 shipped on March 31, 2008. Adobe acquired the company in 2018. In April 2021, Adobe renamed the paid edition from Magento Commerce to Adobe Commerce. The free edition kept the name Magento Open Source. Both editions share one codebase, one admin and one extension ecosystem.
Most people still say “Magento” for the platform. Adobe says “Adobe Commerce” in its documentation. Hosting companies, agencies and developers use both names. This guide uses “Magento” for the shared platform and “Adobe Commerce” for the paid edition.
Magento is a self-managed platform, not a SaaS product. The merchant, or the merchant’s agency, owns the code, the data and the upgrade schedule. That is the main reason merchants choose it. It is also the main reason it costs more to run than Shopify or BigCommerce.
Who uses Magento?
Magento serves three types of merchants well:
- B2B sellers. Manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers that need company accounts, negotiated prices, quotes and approval workflows. Adobe Commerce includes these features. Magento leads the B2B segment by adoption (MGT Commerce, 2026). Elogic Commerce delivers this feature set through Adobe Commerce B2B development, including PunchOut for procurement systems.
- Multi-brand and multi-country retailers. One installation runs many websites, stores and store views with different catalogs, languages and currencies.
- Catalog-heavy B2C brands. Stores with tens of thousands of SKUs, configurable products and deep ERP or PIM integration.
Elogic Commerce, an Adobe Commerce Silver Solution Partner, has built and maintained Magento stores since 2009. Its Adobe Commerce development work covers manufacturers such as Armacell and consumer brands such as HanesBrands. Results from those programs are in the section “What Elogic Commerce sees in Magento projects” below.
Author note. CEOs and CFOs ask me one question more than any other: “Is Magento still a safe bet?” In 2026 my answer is yes for the merchant profile above. It is no for a small B2C catalog. The rest of this page gives the evidence for both halves of that answer.
Magento, Adobe Commerce and ten other names explained
The platform has changed name and shape many times. The table decodes every name you will meet in 2026. Use it to read vendor pages, job posts and Adobe documentation without confusion.
| Name | What it is | Status in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Magento 1 | First-generation platform, 2008 to 2020. Also called Magento 1.x. | End of life on June 30, 2020. No patches. Migrate. |
| Magento 2 | Second-generation codebase, released November 2015. Every current edition is Magento 2. | Current. Release line 2.4.x. Latest 2.4.9. |
| Magento Open Source | Free, self-hosted edition under the OSL 3.0 license. Formerly Magento Community Edition (CE). | Current. Version 2.4.9. No Adobe support contract. No extended support. |
| Magento Commerce | Former name of the paid edition (2017 to 2021). Before that, Magento Enterprise Edition (EE). | Retired name. Now Adobe Commerce. |
| Adobe Commerce | Paid edition. Adds B2B, customer segmentation, staging, gift cards, RMA, Live Search, Product Recommendations and Adobe support. | Current. Runs on-premise or on Adobe cloud infrastructure. |
| Adobe Commerce on Cloud (PaaS) | Adobe Commerce hosted on infrastructure that Adobe manages. The merchant keeps the code and runs upgrades. | Current. Adobe enforces version upgrades from June 1, 2027. |
| Adobe Commerce on Managed Services | A higher-touch hosting tier with dedicated Adobe engineers. | Removed from public packaging. Legacy contracts continue. |
| Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (SaaS) | Multi-tenant, versionless SaaS. Adobe owns the application. Customization goes through APIs, App Builder and UI SDKs. | Current. Adobe names it the recommended long-term destination for Cloud customers. |
| Adobe Commerce Optimizer | A storefront, catalog, search and recommendations layer on Edge Delivery Services. Connects to an existing commerce backend. | Current. Sold as an add-on or a migration step. |
| Adobe Commerce B2B | The B2B feature set for Adobe Commerce: company accounts, shared catalogs, quotes, requisition lists, purchase approvals. | Current. Included with Adobe Commerce licenses that cover B2B. |
| Mage-OS | A community distribution of Magento Open Source with faster releases and extra fixes. | Current. Mage-OS 3.5.0 (September 8, 2026) tracks Magento Open Source 2.4.9. |
| Hyvä | A commercial frontend theme that replaces the default Luma theme. Loads two assets instead of about 200. | Current. The most common new-build frontend for Magento. |
Moving between these editions is a project, not a switch. A move from Adobe Commerce on Cloud to Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service rebuilds the storefront, the customization layer and the integrations. Elogic Commerce scopes that work through its ecommerce migration services. For a feature-level view of the cloud edition, read Magento Commerce Cloud features and benefits.
Who owns Magento? A dated history
Adobe owns Magento. Adobe completed the acquisition in June 2018 for 1.68 billion US dollars. Adobe holds the trademark and leads development of both editions. So yes, Magento is now Adobe, with one caveat: the free edition is still named Magento Open Source. The timeline shows how the platform reached this point.
- 2007. Varien starts the Magento project. Roy Rubin and Yoav Kutner lead it.
- March 31, 2008. Magento 1.0 is released as open source.
- 2011. eBay acquires 100 percent of Magento.
- November 2015. Permira takes Magento private and independent from eBay. Magento 2.0 is released on November 17, 2015.
- June 2018. Adobe completes the 1.68 billion US dollar acquisition.
- June 30, 2020. Magento 1 reaches end of life.
- April 2021. Magento Commerce becomes Adobe Commerce. Magento Open Source keeps its name.
- 2022. The Mage-OS association forms to publish a community distribution of Magento Open Source.
- 2025. Adobe introduces Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (SaaS) and Adobe Commerce Optimizer.
- May 12, 2026. Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source 2.4.9 are released with a three-year support window.
- September 7, 2026. Adobe publishes an out-of-band hotfix for StyleSmuggler, an actively exploited zero-day.
Compiled by Elogic Commerce from Adobe announcements, Wikipedia and Mage-OS records, September 2026.
Magento 2 release history
Every current store runs the Magento 2 codebase. The table lists the feature releases and the platform change each one brought. Patch releases (for example 2.4.7-p10) carry security and quality fixes only.
| Version | Release date | Main platform change |
|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | November 17, 2015 | New codebase. Service contracts, Composer, full-page cache, new admin. |
| 2.1 | June 2016 | Content staging and Elasticsearch (Commerce edition). PayPal in-context checkout. |
| 2.2 | September 2017 | B2B module set for the Commerce edition. Advanced reporting. |
| 2.3 | November 2018 | PWA Studio, GraphQL API, Page Builder (Commerce), multi-source inventory, declarative schema. |
| 2.4.0 | July 2020 | Elasticsearch required for catalog search. Two-factor authentication for admin. PHP 7.4. |
| 2.4.3 | August 2021 | Page Builder included in Magento Open Source. |
| 2.4.4 | April 12, 2022 | PHP 8.1. Start of the three-year support policy. |
| 2.4.5 | August 9, 2022 | Quality and performance release. Composer 2.2. |
| 2.4.6 | March 14, 2023 | PHP 8.2. OpenSearch as the default search engine. |
| 2.4.7 | April 9, 2024 | PHP 8.3. Payment Services and Live Search improvements. |
| 2.4.8 | April 8, 2025 | PHP 8.4. OpenSearch 2.19, RabbitMQ 4. |
| 2.4.9 | May 12, 2026 | PHP 8.5. MariaDB 11.8 and 12.x, Valkey cache, Symfony cache layer replacing Zend_Cache. |
What does Magento do?
Magento manages every step of an online sale: it shows products, prices them, takes the order, takes the payment and passes the order to fulfilment. The list below groups the functions that ship with the platform. Adobe Commerce-only functions are marked.
Catalog
- Six product types: simple, configurable, grouped, bundle, virtual and downloadable.
- Custom attributes and attribute sets. Layered navigation and faceted search.
- Categories with rules, related products, up-sells and cross-sells.
- Import and export of products, prices and stock by CSV or API.
Pricing and promotions
- Tier prices, customer group prices and special prices.
- Catalog price rules and cart price rules with conditions and coupons.
- Multi-currency with automatic rate updates.
- Customer segmentation and scheduled content changes (Adobe Commerce).
Checkout, payments and shipping
- Guest and registered checkout. Address book. Order comments.
- Payment methods through built-in and marketplace extensions: PayPal, Adyen, Stripe, Braintree and others.
- Table-rate, flat-rate and carrier-calculated shipping. Multi-source inventory with source selection.
- Tax rules by country, region, postcode and customer group.
B2B (Adobe Commerce)
- Company accounts with roles and permissions.
- Shared catalogs with per-company prices.
- Quotes, requisition lists, quick order and purchase order approval workflows.
Content and experience
- Page Builder with drag-and-drop layouts (both editions from 2.4.3).
- CMS pages, blocks and widgets.
- Live Search and Product Recommendations powered by Adobe Sensei (Adobe Commerce).
Operations and integration
- Multi-website and multi-store from one admin.
- REST and GraphQL APIs. App Builder for serverless extensions. Webhooks and events (Adobe Commerce).
- ERP, PIM, CRM and OMS connectors from the marketplace or custom code. Common pairings: SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite, Visma, Odoo, Akeneo, Pimcore. Elogic Commerce builds and maintains these connections as ecommerce systems integration work.
- Reports, role-based admin access, two-factor authentication and action logs.
One capability is new in 2026: readiness for AI shopping agents. Magento exposes catalog and checkout through APIs, so a store can serve agent protocols with the right modules. Elogic Commerce measures this across platforms in its Agentic Commerce Readiness Index.
How Magento works: the technology stack
Magento is a modular PHP application. It runs on a web server and stores data in a relational database. It uses a search engine for the catalog, and cache and queue services for speed. The table shows the stack that Adobe supports for version 2.4.9. Check the Adobe system requirements page for your exact patch level.
| Layer | Technology | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Language | PHP 8.4 or 8.5 | Application code. Composer 2.x manages packages. |
| Database | MySQL 8.4, MariaDB 11.8 or 12.x, AWS Aurora MySQL | Products, customers, orders, configuration. |
| Search | OpenSearch 3.x | Catalog search and layered navigation. Elasticsearch is no longer the default. |
| Cache and sessions | Redis or Valkey 8.x and 9.x | Page and block cache, sessions. Valkey support arrived in 2.4.9. |
| Full-page cache | Varnish 7.x or 8.x | Serves cached storefront pages. Fastly on Adobe Commerce on Cloud. |
| Message queue | RabbitMQ 4.x | Asynchronous jobs: bulk API, inventory, B2B operations. |
| Web server | Nginx or Apache | HTTP layer, TLS termination. |
| Frontend | Luma (default), Hyvä, PWA Studio, Edge Delivery Services | Storefront theme or headless storefront. |
| Extensibility | Modules, plugins, observers, REST and GraphQL APIs, App Builder | Custom logic without editing core files. |
Three practical points follow from this stack. First, Magento needs a developer who knows PHP and Composer; custom logic goes into modules, which is the work of Magento custom extension development. Second, speed depends on cache and search configuration, not only on server size, which is why Magento performance optimization is a separate discipline. Third, every upgrade touches PHP, database and search versions, so upgrades are projects, not clicks.
Frontend choice matters as much as the backend. The default Luma theme loads about 200 JavaScript and CSS files. Hyvä loads two and passes Core Web Vitals on a standard install. Elogic Commerce is a Hyvä Bronze Partner with certified engineers and uses Hyvä on most new Magento builds through its Hyvä theme development practice. Merchants that need a separate frontend for apps or several channels use headless ecommerce development on PWA Studio or Edge Delivery Services. A PWA ecommerce development build is the other option.
Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce
Magento Open Source is the free, self-hosted edition. Adobe Commerce is the paid edition with B2B, more marketing tools, cloud hosting options and Adobe support. The two editions share the same core. The table shows the differences that change a purchase decision.
| Item | Magento Open Source | Adobe Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| License | Free (OSL 3.0) | Paid. Quoted by Adobe on gross merchandise value and average order value. |
| Hosting | Self-hosted on any provider | On-premise, Adobe Commerce on Cloud (PaaS) or Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (SaaS) |
| B2B functions | Not included. Extensions available. | Included: company accounts, shared catalogs, quotes, approvals. |
| Page Builder | Included from 2.4.3 | Included |
| Live Search and Product Recommendations | No | Yes, as Adobe SaaS services |
| Customer segmentation, gift cards, RMA, content staging | No | Yes |
| Support | Community only | Adobe support with service levels |
| Security patches | Same schedule. The merchant applies them. | Same schedule, plus hotfixes and one year of extended support on 2.4.6 and 2.4.7. |
| Typical merchant | Small to mid-market with an in-house or agency team | Mid-market and enterprise, B2B, multi-brand |
A full feature-by-feature comparison is in Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce comparison. When the table does not settle the decision, a short Magento consulting engagement maps requirements to edition, hosting and license tier. That happens before any contract is signed.
How many stores use Magento in 2026?
Between 95,000 and 103,000 stores run Magento in 2026, depending on the tracker. The count has fallen every year since 2021. Enterprise and B2B adoption has stayed. The table lists the main sources with their dates so you can cite the one that fits your method.
| Source | Live stores | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| BuiltWith | 95,295 | September 2026 | Plus 43,697 redirecting domains. 31,771 live sites in the United States. |
| StoreLeads | 103,381 | Q2 2026 | Down 7.1 percent quarter over quarter and 14 percent year over year. |
| StoreLeads via MGT Commerce | 111,495 | Q1 2026 | Peak was 161,970 in Q4 2021. |
| MGT Commerce | 7 to 8 percent share | 2026 | Third by store count after WooCommerce (about 33 percent) and Shopify (about 26 percent). About 20 percent of the top 1,000 US retailers run Magento. |
Two reasons explain the decline. Small merchants move to Shopify and BigCommerce to reduce maintenance. Magento 1 stores closed or migrated after June 2020. The stores that remain are larger, and they process higher average order values than stores on SaaS platforms (MGT Commerce, 2026). Europe holds the largest share of installations, with the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands in the lead.
What does Magento cost?
Magento Open Source has no license fee. Adobe Commerce has a license that Adobe quotes per merchant. Both editions carry three cost blocks: license, infrastructure, and people to build and run the store.
- License. Magento Open Source: zero. Adobe Commerce: quoted on gross merchandise value and average order value. Public estimates for Adobe Commerce on Cloud start near 40,000 US dollars per year for smaller merchants (LitExtension, 2026). Large merchants pay 200,000 US dollars or more.
- Infrastructure. Hosting, CDN, search, cache and queue services, monitoring. Included in the Adobe cloud editions. Separate on Magento Open Source and on-premise Adobe Commerce.
- People. Build, extensions, integrations, upgrades, security patching and support. This block is the largest for most merchants. The team model controls it: in-house, Magento outsourcing of the whole program, or ecommerce staff augmentation that adds certified engineers to an internal team.
Total yearly spend for an Adobe Commerce store is usually two to three times the license fee. Cost bands by store size, hosting option and team model are in Magento pricing explained. Elogic Commerce’s published hourly band is 50 to 99 US dollars (Clutch, 2026).
Magento versions and support dates
Adobe supports each Adobe Commerce version for three years from release. Adobe Commerce customers on 2.4.6 and 2.4.7 get one extra year of extended support at no cost. A one-time security-only period covers 2.4.4, 2.4.5 and 2.4.6. Magento Open Source gets standard support only. Elogic Commerce compiled the table from the Adobe lifecycle policy updated on August 19, 2026.
| Version | General availability | End of standard support | End of extended support | End of security-only period | Cloud upgrade enforcement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.4.9 | May 12, 2026 | May 31, 2029 | To be announced | Not applicable | To be announced |
| 2.4.8 | April 8, 2025 | May 31, 2028 | To be announced | Not applicable | To be announced |
| 2.4.7 | April 9, 2024 | May 31, 2027 | May 31, 2028 | Not applicable | June 1, 2028 |
| 2.4.6 | March 14, 2023 | August 11, 2026 | August 31, 2027 | May 31, 2028 | June 1, 2028 |
| 2.4.5 | August 9, 2022 | August 12, 2025 | August 11, 2026 | May 31, 2027 | June 1, 2027 |
| 2.4.4 | April 12, 2022 | April 12, 2025 | April 14, 2026 | May 31, 2027 | June 1, 2027 |
Three rules from the policy matter in 2026:
- Cloud enforcement. From June 1, 2027, Adobe suspends traffic to Adobe Commerce on Cloud environments that run an unsupported version. The storefront goes offline. Merchants on Cloud must upgrade or move to Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service before their end-of-extended-support date.
- PHP end of life. PHP 8.1 reached end of life on December 31, 2025. PHP 8.2 reaches end of life on December 31, 2026. Adobe does not patch PHP. Stores on 2.4.6 with PHP 8.2 put PCI compliance at risk from 2027.
- Open Source has no extended support. For Magento Open Source, the end of standard support is the end of patches. Mage-OS backports some fixes, but it is a community project.
Release cadence: Adobe ships one feature release per year, usually in April or May, and security patches on a published schedule. In 2026, isolated security patches shipped on July 14, August 11 and September 8. A version upgrade from 2.4.6 to 2.4.9 typically takes six to twelve weeks for a customized store. Elogic Commerce runs these as fixed-scope Magento 2 migration and upgrade services with a regression test suite.
Magento security in 2026
Is Adobe Commerce safe? It is safe when it is patched. Magento is a frequent target because it stores payment and customer data and because many stores run old versions. Adobe publishes security bulletins on a fixed schedule and ships hotfixes for zero-days. Three critical incidents since 2024 show why patch discipline is the first requirement for running Magento.
| Name | CVE and CVSS | Disclosed | What it allowed | Affected versions | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CosmicSting | CVE-2024-34102 CVSS 9.8 | June 2024 | Unauthenticated XXE. Read files, steal encryption keys, chain to remote code execution. Thousands of stores compromised (Sansec). | 2.4.4 to 2.4.7 before the June 2024 patches | APSB24-40, June 11, 2024, plus encryption key rotation |
| SessionReaper | CVE-2025-54236 CVSS 9.1 | September 2025 | Unauthenticated session takeover through the Commerce Web API, with remote code execution on some configurations. | 2.4.4 to 2.4.9-alpha before the September 2025 patches | APSB25-88, September 9, 2025 |
| StyleSmuggler | CVE-2026-75650 CVSS 10.0 | September 5, 2026 (Sansec) | Unauthenticated remote code execution. PHP injected through the email template engine and triggered by the “Payment Transaction Failed Reminder” email. Rust backdoor installed. Exploited since September 4, 2026. | 2.4.4 to 2.4.9, both editions | APSB26-146 hotfix, September 7, 2026. Mage-OS 3.5.0, September 8, 2026. |
What a Magento store must do
- Apply Adobe security patches within five working days of release. Apply zero-day hotfixes within 24 hours.
- Stay on a supported version. See Table 6.
- Run a web application firewall in front of the store.
- Monitor for unknown admin users, new cron entries, unexpected processes and unusual outbound email volume.
- Rotate the encryption key, admin passwords, API tokens and integration secrets after any confirmed exposure.
- Keep PHP, the database, OpenSearch and cache services on supported versions. Adobe does not patch them.
The Elogic Commerce patch SLA is 48 hours for critical and 7 days for high-severity issues. It applies to stores under its Magento support and maintenance contracts and runs under ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II controls. A store with an unknown patch state should start with a Magento store audit that lists version, patch level, PHP version and known-vulnerable extensions.
Author note. StyleSmuggler was exploitable for three days before a patch existed. In those three days the question was not “are we patched” but “do we have monitoring and a rollback plan”. Budget for both.
Magento vs Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, commercetools and Shopware
Magento is not the same as Shopify, and it is not the same as WordPress. Shopify is a hosted SaaS platform. WordPress is a content management system that runs ecommerce through the WooCommerce plugin. Magento is a dedicated, self-managed commerce platform. The table places Magento against the platforms merchants compare it with most often.
| Platform | Model | Best fit | Main difference from Magento |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify and Shopify Plus | Hosted SaaS | B2C from small to enterprise, fast launch | No access to core code. Lower running cost. Less control over checkout and data model. |
| WooCommerce | Open-source WordPress plugin | Small catalogs, content-led stores | Built on a CMS. Weak at large catalogs, B2B and multi-store. |
| BigCommerce | Open SaaS with APIs | Mid-market B2C and B2B | No self-hosting. Fewer deep customizations. Lower maintenance. |
| commercetools | Headless, API-first, MACH | Enterprise composable builds | No storefront or admin out of the box. Everything is built. Magento ships complete. |
| Shopware | Open-source PHP (Symfony) | European mid-market B2C and B2B | Closest peer. Smaller extension market and partner base outside Europe. |
Elogic Commerce runs Shopify Plus development, BigCommerce development and commercetools development practices next to its Magento practice. A platform assessment can therefore end on any of them. Merchants that outgrow SaaS move through Shopify to Adobe Commerce migration or WooCommerce to Adobe Commerce migration programs.
For an enterprise B2B decision between the two most common finalists, read Adobe Commerce vs commercetools. For a balanced list of strengths and weaknesses, read the pros and cons of Magento.
When Magento is the right choice: the Elogic Commerce Magento fit test
Magento pays off when the store is complex enough to use its control. The Elogic Commerce Magento fit test is the six-question checklist used in Elogic Commerce platform assessments. Three or more “yes” answers point to Magento or Adobe Commerce. Fewer than three point to a SaaS platform.
The Elogic Commerce Magento fit test
- Does the catalog have more than 10,000 SKUs, or does it depend on configurable and bundle products?
- Do you sell B2B with company accounts, negotiated price lists, quotes, credit limits or approval chains?
- Do you run three or more brands, countries or currencies and want one admin for all of them?
- Do you need deep integration with an ERP, PIM or OMS, such as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite, Visma or Odoo?
- Must you own the code and the data for compliance, contract or strategy reasons?
- Do you have, or will you fund, a technical team or an agency for at least the next three years?
Do not choose Magento when
- The catalog is small and the products are simple.
- You need to launch in weeks and have no development budget.
- Nobody in the company can own upgrades, patches and hosting.
- The business model is B2C only and standard SaaS checkout meets the requirements.
In that second case, Shopify Plus or BigCommerce usually costs less and launches faster. Elogic Commerce builds on both and runs Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus migration projects for merchants whose requirements shrank. The fit test is the first step of an ecommerce discovery and planning engagement. That engagement ends with a platform recommendation, a cost model and a delivery plan.
What a Magento project needs
A Magento build or migration needs six roles. Small stores combine roles. Enterprise programs staff each role separately.
- Solution architect. Owns the data model, integrations and hosting design. Elogic Commerce delivers this as ecommerce solution architecture before development starts.
- Backend developers. PHP and Magento module development. Adobe Certified Professional or Expert credentials are the standard.
- Frontend developers. Hyvä, PWA Studio or Edge Delivery Services.
- DevOps engineer. CI/CD, environments, cache, search, monitoring and patching.
- QA engineer. Functional, regression and performance tests before each release.
- Project manager. Scope, schedule and vendor coordination.
The certification paths are described in Magento certifications. A step-by-step build plan is in how to build a Magento website.
Elogic Commerce has worked on Magento since 2009 and employs more than 200 specialists. The company received the Magento Community Engineering Award at Adobe Imagine 2019 for contributions to the core code. It ranks first for Adobe Commerce development on the Clutch Leaders Matrix (February 2026) with 63 reviews at 5.0. Merchants that need an Adobe Commerce team inside seven days can hire Magento developers on a staff augmentation or team extension model.
What Elogic Commerce sees in Magento projects
Three outcomes from Elogic Commerce programs show what the platform does when it is pointed at the right problem. Each figure is from the published case study.
- Armacell (Adobe Commerce with SAP S/4HANA). Manual orders down 40 percent. Order approvals five times faster. A global manufacturer with distributor pricing and approval chains.
- Benum (Adobe Commerce with Visma). Checkout conversion up 31 percent. Page load time down 65 percent after a Hyvä frontend and cache rebuild.
- PetHQ (Shopify Plus). 1.1 million US dollars of new B2B revenue in year one, 1,400 wholesale users, live in 2.5 months. Included here because it failed the Magento fit test and was better served by SaaS.
Author note. The pattern across these three is the same. Magento wins when the ERP, the pricing rules and the approval chain are the product. SaaS wins when checkout speed and launch speed are the product. The fit test exists to tell those two cases apart before money is spent.
Frequently asked questions
What is Magento used for?
Magento is used to build and run online stores. It manages the product catalog, pricing, cart, checkout, customer accounts, orders and promotions. Merchants use it for B2C and B2B stores with large catalogs, multiple brands or countries, and deep ERP integration.
Is Magento the same as Adobe Commerce?
They share one codebase. Adobe Commerce is the paid edition that Adobe sells and supports. Magento Open Source is the free edition. Adobe renamed Magento Commerce to Adobe Commerce in April 2021.
Is Magento now Adobe?
Yes. Adobe completed its acquisition of Magento in June 2018 for 1.68 billion US dollars. The paid edition is now Adobe Commerce. The free edition is still named Magento Open Source.
Does Adobe own Magento?
Yes. Adobe owns the Magento trademark and leads development of both editions since June 2018.
What did Adobe Commerce used to be called?
Magento Commerce, from 2017 to April 2021. Before 2017 it was Magento Enterprise Edition. The free edition was Magento Community Edition and is now Magento Open Source.
Is Magento free?
Magento Open Source is free to download and use under the OSL 3.0 license. Hosting, development, extensions and maintenance are not free. Adobe Commerce has a paid license that Adobe quotes on gross merchandise value.
How much does Adobe Commerce cost?
Adobe quotes the license per merchant on gross merchandise value and average order value. Public estimates start near 40,000 US dollars per year on Adobe Commerce on Cloud and reach 200,000 US dollars or more for large merchants. Total yearly spend is usually two to three times the license.
What is Magento 2?
Magento 2 is the second generation of the platform, released in November 2015. All current editions, including Adobe Commerce 2.4.9, are Magento 2. Magento 1 reached end of life on June 30, 2020.
Is Magento the same as Shopify?
No. Shopify is a hosted SaaS platform. Magento is open-source software that a merchant installs and controls, or runs on Adobe’s cloud. Magento gives more control over code and data and needs more technical work.
Is Magento the same as WordPress?
No. WordPress is a content management system. Its ecommerce plugin is WooCommerce. Magento is a dedicated ecommerce platform with its own admin, catalog, checkout and order system.
Is Adobe Commerce safe?
Adobe Commerce is safe when it is patched. Adobe publishes security patches on a fixed schedule and hotfixes for zero-days. The three critical incidents since 2024, CosmicSting, SessionReaper and StyleSmuggler, hit stores that had not applied the fix. Elogic Commerce applies critical patches within 48 hours on the stores it maintains.
What is a Magento website?
A Magento website is an online store that runs on the Magento or Adobe Commerce platform. The storefront, cart, checkout and admin come from one installation. Many Magento websites use a separate frontend such as Hyvä or a headless storefront.
Is Magento still used in 2026?
Yes. BuiltWith counts about 95,000 live Magento stores and StoreLeads counts about 103,000 as of Q2 and Q3 2026. The count is falling as small stores move to SaaS, while B2B and enterprise merchants stay.
Is Magento dying?
No. Store count is down about 14 percent year over year. Adobe still released version 2.4.9 in May 2026 with support to 2029, and it continues to invest in Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service. The platform is contracting at the small end and holding in B2B and enterprise.
What is the latest Magento version?
Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source 2.4.9, released on May 12, 2026. Adobe supports it until May 31, 2029.
Why does everyone mention Hyvä?
Speed. The default Luma theme loads about 200 JavaScript and CSS files. Hyvä loads two, passes Core Web Vitals on a standard install, and is the default frontend for new Magento builds. Elogic Commerce is a Hyvä Bronze Partner.
What language is Magento written in?
PHP. Magento 2.4.9 runs on PHP 8.4 or 8.5 with MySQL or MariaDB, OpenSearch, Redis or Valkey, and RabbitMQ.
How this page is maintained
Elogic Commerce updates this Magento guide after every Adobe Commerce release, every critical security bulletin, and every quarter for store counts. The “Last verified” date under the title shows the most recent review. Link to this page for the names decoder, the release history, the lifecycle table and the security record. Send corrections to office@elogic.co.
Sources
- Adobe. Adobe Commerce lifecycle policy. Updated August 19, 2026. https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/commerce-operations/release/planning/lifecycle-policy
- Adobe. Migrate to Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service, PaaS and SaaS comparison. 2026. https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/commerce/cloud-service/migration/overview
- Adobe. Security update available for Adobe Commerce, APSB26-138. September 8, 2026. https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-cloud-kcs/kbarticles/ka-44020
- Adobe. Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source release notes, 2.0 to 2.4.9. https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/commerce-operations/release/notes/overview
- Adobe. Backward-incompatible changes, Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source 2.4.9. May 2026. https://developer.adobe.com/commerce/php/development/backward-incompatible-changes/
- Mage-OS. Mage-OS 3.5.0 emergency security release notes. September 8, 2026. https://github.com/mage-os/mageos-magento2/releases/tag/3.5.0
- BleepingComputer. Magento StyleSmuggler zero-day exploited to deploy Linux backdoor. September 7, 2026. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/magento-stylesmuggler-zero-day-exploited-to-deploy-linux-backdoor/
- NetSPI. StyleSmuggler, Adobe Commerce, Adobe Commerce B2B and Magento RCE, CVE-2026-75650. September 2026. https://www.netspi.com/blog/executive-blog/critical-vulnerability/stylesmuggler-adobe-commerce-adobe-commerce-b2b-and-magento-rce-cve-2026-75650/
- BuiltWith. Magento usage statistics. Accessed September 13, 2026. https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/Magento
- StoreLeads. The state of Magento in 2026. Accessed September 13, 2026. https://storeleads.app/reports/magento
- MGT Commerce. Magento market share in 2026. Updated March 30, 2026. https://www.mgt-commerce.com/blog/magento-market-share/
- magento.watch. Adobe Commerce 2.4.9 release date, end of life and system requirements. 2026. https://magento.watch/versions/magento-commerce/2.4.9
- LitExtension. Adobe Commerce pricing 2026. 2026. https://litextension.com/blog/adobe-commerce-pricing/
- Wikipedia. Magento. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magento
Related Elogic Commerce services
- Adobe Commerce development and custom Adobe Commerce (Magento) development
- Adobe Commerce B2B development
- Magento 2 migration and upgrade services
- Magento support and maintenance and Magento store audit
- Hyvä theme development and Magento performance optimization
- Hire Magento developers and ecommerce staff augmentation
- Magento consulting and ecommerce discovery and planning
Need an Adobe Commerce assessment or a Magento team?
Elogic Commerce, Adobe Commerce Silver Solution Partner, delivers Magento builds, migrations, upgrades and staff augmentation from Tallinn, Prague, Dresden, Stockholm, London and New York. Pre-vetted squads start in under seven days. Talk to the Adobe Commerce team.
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