Simple definitions to frame the discussion
What is Adobe Commerce?
Adobe Commerce, formerly Magento, is an enterprise eCommerce platform designed for complex and highly customized environments. It offers great technical flexibility, but relies on large projects, specialized development teams, and ongoing maintenance.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is an eCommerce platform focused on performance, stability, and speed of execution. It aims to reduce technical complexity to allow marketing and operations teams to act more quickly, without constantly relying on IT teams.
What is an Adobe Commerce to Shopify migration?
Migrating from Adobe Commerce to Shopify involves transferring products, customers, order history, SEO structure, and marketing and operational integrations to a more standardized platform. It often entails a major simplification of the technology stack.
What switching from Adobe Commerce to Shopify actually entails
Moving from Adobe Commerce to Shopify involves reviewing existing customizations, keeping only those that generate real business value, and replacing the rest with native features or lighter apps. This transition primarily aims to reduce technical debt and accelerate execution.
Introduction
Adobe Commerce is often chosen for its power and ability to meet complex needs. In practice, this power comes with operational complexity that becomes difficult to manage when speed of execution becomes a strategic imperative.
At Bofu, we observe that migrations from Adobe Commerce to Shopify are rarely motivated by a lack of features, but rather by a need for simplification and predictability.
Adobe Commerce vs Shopify: Two Visions of Enterprise
Adobe Commerce is based on a logic of maximum personalization, where every need can be developed to measure. Shopify adopts the opposite logic: limiting technical complexity to maximize execution speed and reliability.
The problem arises when enterprise architecture becomes a hindrance to marketing and commercial innovation.
A clear trend in Adobe Commerce migrations
eCommerce migration data shows a marked imbalance in favor of Shopify. Over the period analyzed, there was a ratio of approximately eleven migrations from Adobe Commerce to Shopify for every one migration in the opposite direction.
When an enterprise platform is abandoned at this scale, it is usually not a capacity issue, but a cost, slowness, and rigidity issue.
Why companies are leaving Adobe Commerce during their growth phase
Technical debt is accumulating rapidly
Adobe Commerce encourages deep customization. Over time, these developments become difficult to maintain, document, and evolve, especially when internal teams change or external partners multiply.
This technical debt slows down every marketing initiative and increases operational risks.
Dependence on development teams is becoming critical
In Adobe Commerce, many changes require the intervention of specialized developers. This lengthens development times, increases costs, and limits the ability of marketing teams to test and iterate quickly.
Shopify is intentionally reducing this dependency in order to give more autonomy to non-technical teams.
The speed of innovation is no longer keeping pace with the market.
In a context where channels, customer expectations and formats are evolving rapidly, long development cycles become a competitive disadvantage.
Companies are migrating to Shopify to regain the ability to continuously experiment.
What is TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)?
The true cost of an enterprise platform
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) represents all the costs associated with operating a platform over several years. For Adobe Commerce, this includes development, maintenance, infrastructure, updates, security, and the time of internal teams.
Why Adobe Commerce's TCO is often underestimated
While powerful, Adobe Commerce generates high indirect costs related to complexity and technical dependency. Shopify generally has a more predictable TCO, as much of the infrastructure and functionality is built-in.
Pros and cons depending on the organizational level
CEO/General Management Perspective
Adobe Commerce – for: ability to meet very complex needs, perception of enterprise robustness.
Adobe Commerce – against: high costs, low predictability, organizational burden.
Shopify – for: budget predictability, risk reduction, ability to scale quickly.
Shopify – against: some limitations for ultra-customized templates.
VP Marketing/eCommerce Perspective
Adobe Commerce – for: total control when technical resources are available.
Adobe Commerce – against: slow execution, complexity of tests, dependence on developers.
Shopify – for: rapid deployment, marketing autonomy, powerful ecosystem of tools.
Shopify – against: certain constraints imposed by the platform.
From the perspective of an operational coordinator or manager
Adobe Commerce – for: very advanced configuration possibilities.
Adobe Commerce – against: cumbersome operations, complex maintenance, risk of failure.
Shopify – for: simple interface, stability, smooth daily operations.
Shopify – against: adaptation required to the platform's standards.
When Adobe Commerce remains a relevant choice
Adobe Commerce remains relevant for highly technologically mature organizations with extreme customization needs and IT teams capable of absorbing complexity over the long term.
Bofu's point of view
Adobe Commerce is not a bad platform. It becomes problematic when it prevents teams from acting quickly and adapting to the market.
In an environment where speed of execution and continuous optimization are drivers of performance, simplification often becomes a competitive advantage.
Conclusion
The question isn't whether Adobe Commerce is powerful. The real question is whether that power still serves business objectives or if it's slowing growth.
For many companies, Shopify now represents a more modern, agile, and market-aligned enterprise approach.
Adobe Commerce vs. Shopify FAQ
Is Adobe Commerce too complex for growing businesses?
Adobe Commerce is often oversized for rapidly growing businesses, especially when speed of execution becomes a priority.
Is Shopify really suitable for enterprise?
Shopify Plus is designed to meet enterprise needs while limiting technical complexity and long-term debt.
Is migrating from Adobe Commerce to Shopify risky?
As with any migration, there are SEO and operational risks, but these can be managed with rigorous planning and structured execution.
When Adobe Commerce remains the best choice
Adobe Commerce remains relevant for highly customized business models requiring total technical control.
