Adobe Commerce vs Shopify Plus: which enterprise platform fits in 2026?

Adobe Commerce and Shopify Plus are the two platforms most UK brands end up comparing once they outgrow a standard store. Both run large catalogues, B2B and several storefronts. They differ in how they are hosted, how they are priced, who keeps them up to date and how much development they need to keep running. Adobe has also changed the comparison since 2025, by launching a SaaS version of Adobe Commerce alongside the hosted platform most merchants know. This guide sets out where each platform wins, using Adobe’s and Shopify’s own documentation for the facts. We are a Shopify Partner and build on Shopify Plus, so weigh our view with that in mind. There is a section below on when Adobe Commerce is the better choice, and we mean it.

Adobe Commerce vs Shopify Plus at a glance

The row that decides most of these choices is the second from last. Both platforms can run a serious business. The difference is how much technical effort it takes every month once the build is finished.

Adobe Commerce in 2026: three products, not one

Many comparisons still treat Adobe Commerce as a single product. Adobe now sells it three ways, and which one you are looking at changes the answer.

• Adobe Commerce on Cloud (PaaS). The hosted version most existing Adobe Commerce merchants know. Adobe describes it as delivered on single tenant, dedicated cloud infrastructure, and says it has no end of support or end of life plans for it. You get almost unlimited customisation, and you are responsible for keeping the application on a supported release.
• Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (SaaS). Launched in June 2025. Adobe describes it as multi tenant, with feature and security updates deployed automatically, a storefront that runs at the edge, and extension points and apps in place of changes to the core code. Adobe offers tooling to move data across from PaaS and a catalogue of apps to replace existing extensions.
• Adobe Commerce Optimizer. Also launched in June 2025. A storefront, catalogue and merchandising layer that Adobe says can be paired with any eCommerce transaction engine. It is not a full commerce platform on its own.

There is also Magento Open Source, the free version of the same code. It does not include Adobe’s B2B module or Adobe’s support, so it is a different decision. Our Magento vs Shopify guide covers it.

The SaaS version matters for this comparison because it removes Adobe Commerce’s biggest operational drawback, the upgrade cycle, and so moves it closer to Shopify Plus. It also removes some of what made Adobe Commerce different: on SaaS you customise through extension points and apps, as you do on Shopify, rather than by changing the core code. If you are on PaaS today, moving to SaaS is itself a migration, with extensions to replace and a storefront to rebuild.

Cost: what you actually pay for

Shopify publishes its Plus pricing. In the UK it is £1,800 a month on a three year term or £1,950 on a one year term, plus a variable platform fee for more complex business structures. Adobe does not publish Adobe Commerce pricing, and every deal is quoted. Any figure you see quoted for an Adobe licence is a third party estimate, so ask Adobe or your partner for a real number before you build a business case on it.

The licence is rarely the biggest number anyway. Compare total cost over three years, line by line:

If you want to model the Shopify side on your own revenue, our Shopify fee calculator works out the platform and payment costs.

Customisation and development

On Adobe Commerce PaaS you own the codebase, so there is very little you cannot change: pricing rules, catalogue structure, checkout behaviour, how stock moves between warehouses. That is the platform’s main strength, and the reason it costs more to run. Every customisation has to be maintained, tested against each new release and understood by whoever works on the site next.

Shopify Plus sets limits and gives you supported ways to work within them. Themes control the storefront. Apps add features. Shopify Functions let you write your own discount, shipping and payment logic, and checkout extensions let you change what customers see at checkout. Shopify Scripts, the older way of doing this, stopped running on 30 June 2026, so any Plus store relying on them has to move to Functions or an app.

The useful test is not which platform can do more. It is whether your requirements actually need code level control, or whether they are habits carried over from an old build. A lot of the custom work on older Adobe Commerce and Magento sites solves problems that the platforms now handle natively.

B2B and wholesale

This is where Adobe Commerce has the strongest case, and the gap is smaller than it was.

Adobe Commerce’s B2B module covers company accounts and company hierarchies, shared catalogues with custom pricing per company, quick order, purchase orders with approval rules, quote workflows and requisition lists for repeat orders. It has been doing this for years and it is deep, particularly where buyers negotiate quotes or need approval chains before an order goes through.

Shopify B2B is now available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. Every plan gets companies and locations, buyer permissions, quantity rules and price breaks, net payment terms, vaulted cards, draft orders, PO numbers and a quick order list. Plus adds unlimited B2B catalogues (other plans are limited to three), catalogues assigned directly to a company or location, and advanced payments such as deposits and partial payments. On Shopify, quote negotiation usually runs through draft orders, and multi step approval workflows usually need Shopify Flow or an app.

The test is specific. Write down your pricing, quoting and approval rules. If Shopify Plus can express them, it will usually run them at lower cost. If two or three of them depend on negotiated quotes or approval chains that Adobe handles natively and Shopify does not, that is a real reason to choose Adobe Commerce. Our guide to B2B eCommerce covers what a trade platform needs to do.

Multiple stores and international

Both platforms run several storefronts. Adobe Commerce runs multiple websites and store views from one installation, which suits brands with many regional sites sharing one catalogue and one admin. Shopify Plus includes your main store plus nine expansion stores, with further stores at £250 a month each, and Shopify Markets lets a single store sell into several countries with local currencies, pricing and domains. Most brands selling into a handful of markets are well served by either. Very large regional estates with shared catalogue logic lean towards Adobe.

Upgrades and support dates

On Shopify Plus there are no versions. Updates arrive continuously and nobody plans an upgrade project.

On Adobe Commerce PaaS, each 2.4.x release has a set support window. Adobe gives every release three years of standard support from general availability, and has added a further year for 2.4.6 and 2.4.7. These are the dates Adobe publishes:

If your store is on 2.4.6, standard support has already ended and extended support runs only to 31 August 2027. If it is on 2.4.7, standard support ends in May 2027. Either way you are facing a decision: upgrade to a current release, move to Adobe’s SaaS version, or move platform. Each is a project with a cost, so compare all three before you commit to any of them. An upgrade that has been put off for years can cost a meaningful share of a replatform.

Storefront and headless

Both platforms support headless builds, where the storefront is built separately from the commerce engine. Shopify has its own headless framework, Hydrogen, with Oxygen hosting. Adobe’s newer storefront runs on its Edge Delivery Services. For most brands a well built theme is faster to launch and cheaper to run than going headless on either platform. Headless earns its cost when content and commerce are run by different teams or systems, or when the front end needs to do something a theme cannot.

When Adobe Commerce is the better choice

• Your B2B depends on negotiated quotes and approval chains that you have tested against Shopify and found it cannot handle without workarounds.
• Your catalogue or pricing logic is exceptional, not just large: configured products, complex attribute rules or pricing that depends on several variables at once.
• You are invested in Adobe Experience Cloud, such as Adobe Experience Manager or Adobe Analytics, and one vendor relationship is worth more to you than the platform cost.
• You have an in house or retained development team for whom owning the code is an advantage, not an overhead.
• You have a recent Adobe Commerce build that works. Replatforming then spends money to arrive roughly where you already are.

When Shopify Plus is the better choice

• Growth depends on marketing and speed: launching campaigns, landing pages and new products without raising a developer ticket.
• You want predictable costs, with hosting, security and upgrades included in a published fee.
• Your B2B needs are company accounts, agreed price lists and payment terms, run alongside your retail store in one admin.
• Your Adobe Commerce release is out of standard support, or close to it, and the upgrade quote is a large share of what a move would cost.
• Your team is small and nobody wants to manage a platform as well as a business.

If you are on Adobe Commerce now

Start with an audit, not a platform decision. List what the site does, which customisations still matter, which pages earn organic traffic, and what your next upgrade would cost. Then compare three options on the same basis: upgrading on PaaS, moving to Adobe’s SaaS version, and moving to Shopify Plus. If Shopify Plus comes out ahead, our Shopify Plus migration guide covers the steps, and what moves from Adobe Commerce, from store views to customer group pricing.

If you would like an independent view first, our Shopify consultants can model the decision on your own numbers. When you are ready to move, see how our Shopify migration agency runs replatforming projects, or what our Shopify Plus agency work covers from build to growth.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: Shopify Plus migration, Magento vs Shopify, What is Shopify Plus? and Best eCommerce platform in the UK.