Magento vs. Shopware: When is it worth switching for Magento retailers?

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Switching from Magento to Shopware 6 is worthwhile if predictable licence costs, German hosting, data sovereignty and native B2B functionality are more important to you than very large, international multi-store catalogues. For complex product ranges and deep integration with the Adobe Experience Cloud, Magento remains the right choice. It is the overall picture that matters, not a single feature.

There are no plans for a “Magento 3”. Adobe has shifted further development towards cloud-native services such as App Builder and Edge Delivery Services, and support for the current release lines is being phased out in stages: For Magento Open Source 2.4.6, support ends on 11 August 2026; for 2.4.7, in April 2027. Magento itself is not coming to an end. The current version, 2.4.9, was released in May 2026, and security patches are still being issued. However, the strategic direction has been set, and it differs from the traditional monolithic architecture on which most existing shops run.

Against this backdrop, many retailers in the DACH region are assessing whether Shopware 6 offers a more sustainable foundation. This article compares both systems against the criteria that really matter when it comes to replatforming: licensing and cost models, architecture and maintenance, B2B functions, migration path and data sovereignty. It is aimed at retailers currently running on Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce who are considering a switch. Start-ups with no existing system and comparisons with SaaS platforms such as Shopify are excluded.

The short version: Magento vs. Shopware at a glance

Both systems are PHP-based, and both can support sophisticated B2B and B2C e-commerce. The difference lies less in any single feature than in the overall picture comprising the cost model, data sovereignty and strategic direction. The rule of thumb:

Magento and Adobe Commerce really come into their own with very large, complex catalogues, international multi-store set-ups and deep integration with the Adobe Experience Cloud. Shopware is a strong choice for SMEs in the DACH region when predictable licence costs, German hosting, data sovereignty and a native B2B feature set are the deciding factors.

The following sections organise these points, beginning with a clarification of which ‘Magento’ we are actually talking about.

Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce: what we’re talking about

Before the comparison can be made, it is worth distinguishing between the two Magento variants, as they result in very different starting points.

Magento Open Source (formerly Community Edition) is available under a free licence and is self-hosted. You pay no licence fee, but are responsible for hosting, development, extensions and maintenance yourself. It lacks native B2B functionality; B2B scenarios are implemented via third-party extensions.

Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce / Enterprise) is the commercial version with licence fees. It offers features not available in the Open Source version: native B2B, Page Builder, advanced promotions, Adobe Sensei features and integration with the Adobe Experience Cloud. Adobe Commerce is available as a self-hosted solution or as the hosted Adobe Commerce Cloud version.

This distinction determines what you need to consider when making the switch. With Magento Open Source, the main concerns are maintenance overhead and the lack of native features. With Adobe Commerce, a recurring licence model and deep Adobe integration come into play, which are key factors in the decision to switch. Both lines share the same technical core and the same strategic direction from Adobe: no Magento 3, further development via cloud-native building blocks. This is not a standstill. It is a strategic decision that not every medium-sized business is willing to follow.

Comparison of licensing and cost models

The systems differ significantly in terms of their cost models, although the points of difference vary depending on the Magento variant.

Magento Open Source is licence-free. Costs arise from hosting, development, extensions and maintenance. ‘No licence’ therefore does not mean ‘cheap’, but rather shifts the costs to operation and maintenance. Adobe Commerce, on the other hand, charges on a revenue-based model: Adobe does not publish an official price list; industry estimates put entry-level prices at around 22,000 US dollars per year (on-premises), which rise in line with the GMV (Gross Merchandise Value, the volume of trade processed via the shop). The cloud version is more expensive.

Shopware combines both approaches. The Community Edition is open source and can be used free of charge up to €1 million GMV per year; above that, a paid plan is required. The plans start at around €600 per month (Rise, B2C); Evolve, with native B2B functionality, costs around €2,400 per month; and Beyond costs around €6,500 per month. In all cases, the licence typically accounts for only 15 to 25 per cent of the total costs, with the remainder going towards agency fees, hosting and operations.

A sample calculation for guidance – expressly not a quotation: A B2C retailer with an annual turnover of around €3 million pays a mid-five-figure sum per year for an Adobe Commerce licence, depending on the contract, which increases further with GMV. The same retailer, using Shopware, would be above the €1 million threshold on a Rise plan starting at around €600 per month – roughly €7,200 per year. The difference in licence costs is real, but it does not determine the overall cost on its own, as hosting, operation and further development remain the larger expenses in both cases. For a Magento Open Source retailer, the question shifts anyway: they do not save on the licence fee, but instead compare the ongoing maintenance costs – and that is precisely the subject of the next section.

Architecture, maintenance and development

Technically, both systems are PHP applications, but their architecture and maintenance requirements differ.

Magento is regarded as powerful and mature, yet also as resource-intensive and complex. The platform supports very large catalogues, multiple stores and multi-layered pricing logic. The price to pay for this is a steep learning curve and high hosting requirements. Anyone who has ever carried out a major Magento update involving two dozen extensions will be familiar with the effort involved: compatibility checks, patch conflicts, and regression testing across half the storefront. The extension ecosystem is vast, but parts of it are becoming outdated, and qualified Magento developers are not easy to find in every region of the DACH area.

Shopware 6 is built on PHP using the Symfony framework, has been API-first since the 2019 codebase and uses Twig as its template language. For the frontend, the Shopware Frontends offer a headlessstack based on Vue/Nuxt, with the option of a traditional approach via the Storefront or composable. Overall, the stack is more modern and better aligned with common developer skills, which makes it easier to find development partners in the DACH market. Customisations are implemented as Shopware development based on Symfony, using tools already familiar to many PHP teams.

Viewed objectively, Adobe Commerce’s commercial package offers more enterprise features out-of-the-box than Shopware does in its lower-tier plans. Shopware scores points for its more modern underlying architecture and the availability of expertise. Anyone realistically calculating the costs of e-commerce platform development and operation should be aware of both sides of this equation.

A comparison of B2B features

In the B2B context, the outcome depends heavily on which Magento variant is being used.

Adobe Commerce comes with a fully-fledged native B2B module: corporate accounts, shared catalogues, quoting functionality, order lists and approval workflows. Anyone using this in production today has a solid B2B foundation, which would need to be rebuilt from scratch if they were to switch. Magento Open Source, on the other hand, has no native B2B functionality. There, B2B is implemented via extensions, with the familiar ongoing costs associated with compatibility, updates and maintenance.

Shopware provides B2B functionality natively from the Evolve plan onwards, via the B2B Components: role-based access, purchasing hierarchies, approval processes and quotation management. The guided sales room featuring the Digital Sales Rooms, where sales teams and buyers view the same products, prices and stock levels in real time, is included in the Beyond plan.

When deciding whether to switch, it is therefore important to clearly distinguish between two scenarios. If you’re migrating from Adobe Commerce with a functioning B2B setup, you won’t gain any additional functionality by switching; you’re simply moving it to a different stack, with the corresponding project effort. If, on the other hand, your B2B is based on Magento Open Source made up of pieced-together extensions, Shopware’s native architecture offers one key advantage: fewer components that could break with every update.

The migration path: Magento → Shopware 6

A switch stands or falls on a robust migration path, and this is precisely where Shopware excels.

With the Migration Assistant, Shopware provides a free plugin that supports Magento 1 and 2 as source systems via the Magento migration profile (from the Shopware Community Store). Technically, the new Shopware 6 installation connects to the Magento database in read-only mode; no changes are made to the source data. Items that can be migrated include products, categories, manufacturers, customers, orders and media, with the option to resync the data records at a later date.

The data transfer itself is rarely the actual risk. The most common stumbling block is a Magento extension with no direct Shopware equivalent: a product configurator, specialised tax or pricing logic, or an ERP integration, which ran via a plugin in the old shop and needs to be rebuilt in the new system. Such functional gaps have a greater impact on the effort involved and the timetable than the question of whether 50,000 products can be migrated cleanly.

Project planning must therefore include the following from the outset: rebuilding the theme and front-end, evaluating each individual extension, reviewing custom code business logic, and ensuring a clean redirect mapping from the old to the new URLs so that the relaunch does not cost you any search rankings. As a rough timeframe, depending on the complexity, you can allow three to six months – comparable to a migration from Shopware 5 to 6. Because the front-end, interfaces (ERP, PIM, CRM) and process handover are the deciding factors, a structured Shopware migration with expert support is well worth the investment.

The article Migrating from Magento to Shopware: Step by step.

Data sovereignty, GDPR and hosting

When it comes to data protection, precision is key, as the ‘Shopware advantage’ – often cited in general terms – varies in significance depending on the Magento variant.

When self-hosted, both Shopware and Magento Open Source retain full control over the storage location and processing of customer and transaction data. You are free to choose your hosting provider and location – including German data centres – and the platform provider does not access operational shop data. In this scenario, both open-source systems are easily manageable in terms of GDPR compliance.

The difference arises with the Adobe Commerce Cloud: Here, the data is stored within the infrastructure of a US provider, with data processing carried out by sub-processors and without the freedom to choose the hosting location. For companies subject to strict data protection requirements – for example, in regulated sectors or in the context of group-wide tenders – this is a key consideration. Compared to the Adobe Commerce Cloud, Shopware’s self-hosted operation has a clear advantage; by contrast, when compared to a self-hosted Magento Open Source, the difference in terms of pure data sovereignty is minimal.

Added to this is accessibility: Shopware 6.7 (May 2025) has specifically tailored its templates to the requirements of the European Accessibility Act, using semantic HTML and adapted standard themes. With a relaunch due to take place anyway, accessibility in accordance with the BFSG can be incorporated straight away, rather than having to be retrofitted later.

When Magento remains the right choice

To ensure a fair comparison: There are scenarios in which a switch offers no benefit and Magento or Adobe Commerce remains the rational choice.

Those operating very large, international catalogues with numerous stores, languages and currencies can take full advantage of Adobe Commerce’s maturity. Those deeply embedded in the Adobe Experience Cloud (for example, with Adobe Experience Manager, Analytics or Target) pay a high price for this integration if they switch. And anyone running a functioning, well-maintained Adobe Commerce installation with an established B2B operation should not replace it on principle, but only if a specific bottleneck justifies it.

The team matters too. Experienced Magento developers or a reliable Magento service provider represent an asset that a switch would initially destroy and which would have to be rebuilt elsewhere. Re-platforming is a project involving risk and costs; it is not a sure-fire success.

Conclusion: Magento vs. Shopware, clearly categorised

For most medium-sized DACH companies using Magento, the decision boils down to two scenarios. Magento Open Source imposes a burden primarily through maintenance costs and the lack of native B2B functionality; here, Shopware 6 is generally the more robust and better-supported platform. Adobe Commerce imposes a burden through GMV-dependent licence costs and, in the cloud version, through the US data issue; here, Shopware can improve both costs and data sovereignty. Conversely, Magento remains the right choice for very large, globally organised catalogues and for shops that are firmly anchored in the Adobe ecosystem.

There is therefore no one-size-fits-all answer; it depends on the catalogue, B2B requirements, data strategy and the team. Anyone who is generally torn between self-hosted and SaaS will find further guidance in the Shopware vs. Shopify comparison. The sensible next step is not to switch platforms on a whim, but to take stock of your current system, bottlenecks, and B2B and data requirements.

Ultimately, there is only one calculation to be made, and it is not “Shopware is better”. It is: what will it cost us to stay versus switching, calculated over three to five years? Anyone who knows this figure will make their decision based on their business, not on platform trends.